Committee Meeting Minutes for 1983

Minutes of a Committee Meeting of the British Mathematical Colloquium held in the SCR of Johnstone Hall, University of Aberdeen on Wednesday, April 6th 1983 at 8.30 p.m.

Members Present:
R J Archbold, R A Bailey, R Brown, A R Camina, A W Chatters, P M Cohn, T A Gillespie, M D Gladstone, J R Hubbuck, T W Körner, C J Mulvey, M M Peterson, H E Rose, J C Shepherdson, J P Sproston and D R Woodall.
  1. Professor J C Shepherdson was elected Chairman, Dr H E Rose was elected Secretary and Dr M D Gladstone was elected Treasure, all without dissent.
  2. The minutes of the meeting on the 1st April 1982 in Bangor were read and agreed, there were no matters arising.
  3. There was a general discussion about the finances of the BMC. The committee thanked Mr Barker for the informative balance sheet from the Bangor colloquium. There was a general consensus that the overall balance of about £7,000 should be maintained and possibly increased slightly with inflation, and so an increase in the colloquium fee from £10 to £12 would not be unreasonable. It was hoped that the Bristol accommodation costs could also be kept down to about £50 total, again with an amount for inflation added.
  4. Future meetings. The Secretary had begun negotiations with Dr Odoni of the University of Exeter with a view to holding the colloquium there in 1988. The universities of Bath and Nottingham were suggested for 1989.
  5. There was a discussion concerning the recording and/or publishing of the proceedings of the Colloquium. This was not considered to be a good idea as it would alter the informal nature of the meetings and would have a bad effect on the quality of the lectures and possibly on membership. It was noted that speakers provided abstracts of their talks in advance and these could be sent out to those interested.
  6. There was a long discussion of the 1984 programme in Bristol. It was felt that a balance ought to be struck between reaching for the frontiers of research and intelligibility to a general mathematical aidience.
  7. The committee unanimously passed a vote of thanks to the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of the Aberdeen Colloquium for all their hard work in providing the Aberdeen meeting.
  8. The committee meeting closed at 10.55 p.m.
Minutes unsigned.