Minutes of annual meeting of SDL Forum Society
27^th June 2000

Present

Agenda

• Reports
• Election of the board
• Next SDL Forum and SAM
• AOB

Reports

The meeting was convened according to the constitution: notice of the meeting had been sent out by email to members at the appropriate time.

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

The agenda was presented and approved.

Report from the chair (Yair Lahav)

The Montreal Forum had been a success.

A special meeting of the board was held in September 1999 to discuss future strategy, and the 2nd SAM and 10th Forum. It was agreed to hold the 10th Forum in Copenhagen in 2001. Further work was done on the organisation of the 2nd SAM, and after a selection procedure, it was agreed by February 2000 to hold this at Grenoble in June of the same year.

From January 2000, the board has contracted Jeanne Reed of TSE one day per week to act as administrative support and to keep the WWW site up-to-date.

Report from the treasurer (Amardeo Sarma)

The treasurer presented the accounts for 1999, including comparative figures for 1998 and the figures to date for the current year.

Although 1999 expenditure exceeded income by 6000DM, taking a longer term view the assets of the Society have remained approximately constant with about 25000DM.

There was some income from the first SAM. The figures for the 9th Forum had not been made available to the Society. It was agreed that the new Secretary should write to the local organizer of the 9th Forum to confirm whether there is any profit or liability with respect to the Society.

The main outgoing amounts were continued support of the SDL rapporteur (which in 1999 included some costs from 1998), and the WWW site.

The board proposed that the grant of 5000DM awarded by the society to Alexei Ragozin, who unfortunately had died, should be paid to his family. Apart from this figure there were no liabilities and assets were 28622DM.

New fee structure

The board proposed a new fee structure for 2 reasons:

• There are now events every year;
• Change to Euros.

The proposed fees are:

The board also proposed that a participant paying the full fee for a Society event (SAM or Forum) should have the option to become a member at no additional charge. It was pointed out that the member's discount for events would always be more than individual membership: that is, joining as a member then paying for an event would be less than the non-discounted full fee.

The membership benefits would continue to include discount on events, free access to standards, and the opportunity to participate in the ongoing SDL and MSC work including access to documents.

After some discussion, it was agreed that fee structure should be changed, and that the board will produce and publish details of the new fees.

Election of the board

The board announced that the secretary and treasurer were not standing for re-election. The current chair (Yair Lahav) expressed a desire to find a replacement, but was prepared to stand for reasons of continuity.

The board nominated Uwe Glässer (who accepted the nomination) as treasurer.

As secretary, the board nominated Rick Reed (who accepted). This led to some discussion, because Mr. Reed is being partially funded by the society to act as the Q.6 rapporteur. It was agreed Mr Reed should be allowed to stand, because

• as secretary, Mr. Reed would be in a 1:2 minority on the board;
• would not be allowed to vote on his own remuneration;
• there is scrutiny of accounts.

There were no other nominations. Yair Lahav, Uwe Glässer and Rick Reed were therefore elected.

The new board thanked Amardeo Sarma for his contrinution to the Society. It was noted that he had been a key figure in the founding of the Society, and had been on the board as Chair and Treasurer since this time. He was asked (and accepted) to continue as a "co-opted" member of the board ("co-opted" board members have no vote and no obligations or responsibilities, but can provide additional advice and input to board decisions). Although the retiring secretary apologised for lack of activity in the last year, this view was not shared by other members, and also was thanked for his contribution.

There were suggestions that, in future, an improved procedure should be followed for the election of members of the board, and the secretary agreed to make a proposal that would be distributed for discussion amongst the membership.

Next SDL Forum and SAM

It was proposed and agreed that both the SAM and Forum should normally take place during June.

For the 10^th Forum in Copenhagen in 2001, Telelogic has agreed to arrange the local organisation in collaboration with Cinderella and paid local professional conference organisers. However, the overall control of the event remains with the Society.

It is proposed the 10^th Forum should

• be 4-5 days including tutorial;
• focussed as industry event (as compared with SAM — the more academic event);
• have papers from invited experts;
• have properly reviewed and refereed contributed papers;
• fees of about 500 Euro (to cover professional organisers);
• possibly make a profit to fund such things as the WWW site (but SAM should be a non-profit event);
• alternative (less expensive) publication to be considered.

A possible change of name was discussed such as including MSC or the buzzword EXPO.

Organisation of both the Forum and SAM should be done in good time. Preferably, details such as dates and location should decided by the previous September at the latest.

AOB

A change of name of the Society was considered, but the view was also expressed that the established name should be retained.

It was agreed that there should be a attempt to improve interaction with members. The operation of the board should be more open.

It proposed that the AGM should be chaired by someone who is not a member of the board.