Apr1998

MINUTES of Spring 1998 BUSINESS MEETING

Minutes of the Optimization Section (OS) business meeting during the INFORMS conference in Montreal, CANADA, April 28, 1998:

1. The meeting was called to order by Jong-Shi Pang, OS chair, at 6:34 pm. Present were: Nick Sahinidis, Michael Ferris, John Birge, Leon Lasdon, Panos Pardalos, Richard Cottle, Carlton Scott, Julia Pet-Edwards, Bob Armacost, Yupo Chan, Paul Tseng, Tom Jefferson, Steven Wright.
2. Conferences:
Jong-Shi Pang and Jeff Arthur reported that, for the Seattle INFORMS meeting, OS has organized 4 tutorials, and 59 sessions involving 201 papers. This accounts for 1/8-th of the entire conference and 1/6-th of the invited papers.
We are moving towards putting most of our efforts on one meeting annually. Ferris will make the Philadelphia meeting the major INFORMS optimization meeting for 1999.
It was decided to continue having our business meetings on Tuesdays so as to avoid conflict with CSTS.

3. Secretary/tresurer's report:
Our membership has increased from 357 members in Dec. 1996 to 513 in Dec. 1997 and is expected to be around 650 by the end of 1998.
The balance on our account has also increased from $1,558 (1996) to $3,817 (1997) and is expected to reach $5,500 by the end of 1998.

4. Webmaster's report: 
Our web page has been moved to http://archimedes.scs.uiuc.edu/informs_os/os.html. It is also accessible indirectly through the INFORMS main page. A professional web page designer will be asked to suggest improvements. Additional suggestions are welcome (send to nikos@uiuc.edu)

5. Elections: 
Officers whose terms expire: 
N. Sahinidis (secretary/treasurer) 
P. Pardalos (global optimization) 
J. Higle (stochastic programming) 
S. Schaible (nonlinear programming) 
M. Ferris (chair-elect to become chair in 98-99)
We need nominations for the above positions. Send nominations to Jong-Shi Pang (jsp@vicp1.mts.jhu.edu) and Michael Ferris (ferris@cs.wisc.edu) with a copy to Nick Sahinidis (nikos@uiuc.edu).
6. OS prize competition: 
Birge sugggested OS establish a prize for young researchers. Wright noted that few optimization prizes exist in comparison to engineering ones. Ferris pointed out that a prize would enhance visibility of OS. The idea of an OS prize found unanimous support among those present. Pang and Ferris will draft the prize specs which will be circulated to members for discussion.
7. Jefferson suggested we add a Vice Chair for Applications to our current list of officers. This idea will be circulated to members for discussion; its implementation will require changes in the constitution of OS.
8. The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Nick Sahinidis, OS secretary/treasurer.