Minutes of the Open General Meeting of the BCTCS

The meeting opened at 17:15.

Quorum: The meeting was recognised as quorate, there being present the President, and Treasurer of the BCTCS, the Local Organiser for BCTCS 18, and at least eleven other members of the BCTCS.

Previous minutes: The minutes of the Open General Meeting held at BCTCS 18 were approved. The following matters arising were discussed:

• Liverpool had not invoiced BCTCS for expenses incurred, and any claim was therefore now void.
• BCTCS domain name: Julian Bradfield had been progressing this, though very slowly owing to large scale re-organization of Edinburgh systems and would continue to do so. ACTION: Julian Bradfield.
• Charity: there had been no progress with the idea of registering as a charity. ACTION: Chris Tofts.

President's statement: Chris Tofts thanked everyone for attending. Numbers were holding up, and the scheme of funded student places was successful, despite difficulties: EPSRC had changed their funding model, resulting in MathFIT funding being denied, but fortunately the LMS had stepped in with a £4k grant - thanks to them. Chris was looking for longer term sources of funding.

Treasurer's report: The Colloquium had a balance of £4785, which was a healthy figure.

Elections to Organising Committee Posts: Overseen by the President.

• Postgraduate Student Representative. Corinna Elsenbroich (KCL) was nominated by Faron Moller and seconded by Stephan Reiff-Marganiec, and elected unopposed.

Report on arrangements for BCTCS 20, Stirling 2004: Stephan Reiff-Marganiec reported on the state of BCTCS 20. The meeting will not be held in Stirling, but in a hotel in Pitlochry, on 5-8 April 2004. Prices were not yet known.

Choice of host for BCTCS 21: Graham Hutton (Nottingham) volunteered to host BCTCS 21, and the meeting gratefully accepted his proposal.

Any other business: Chris Tofts proposed a constitutional amendment to change the officer's title "President" to "Chair". An amendment was made from the floor, by a person who shall remain nameless, to change it to "El Presidente" instead. The meeting decided to vote on three options: the results were "El Presidente" 12; "President" 1; "Chair" 10. There being no two-thirds majority in favour of any option, the constitutional amendment fell.

Closure:The meeting closed at 18:00.

Julian Bradfield.