1999 General Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the seventh WoTUG AGM held at Keele University, Keele, UK on Wednesday, 14th April 1999.

1. Apologies

Alastair Allen, Alan Chalmers and Hugh Webber sent their apologies.

2. Membership

Since WoTUG had converted entirely to electronic forms of communication, there was now no need to maintain a membership database. It was confirmed that all delegates at the WoTUG technical meeting were members of WoTUG, and were thus allowed to vote at the AGM. Since membership was previously free, and open to anyone interested in WoTUG activities, there was effectively no change to voting arrangements.

Due to the success of these electronic communications, it was agreed that the post of Membership Secretary was redundant, and that we should thank Judith Broom for her services over the years. We would not attempt to recover our elderly personal computer from her if she would like to keep it.

It had been decided not to merge the occam-com and java-threads email lists, as discussed previously, although most people are registered on both.

3. Finances

The unaudited accounts for 1998-99 were presented. They showed a current balance of #12520, including the bank account interest for the last quarter.

The WoTUG TM21 meeting eventually generated a profit of some #2300, which was very satisfactory. It was hoped that the financial outcome of the WoTUG TM22 meeting would be close to break-even, despite the low number of delegates attending.

4. Elections of Committee Members

Michael Poole had moved away from the University of Kent since the last AGM when he had taken over the role of Treasurer. Thus, he wished to pass on his responsibilities, although he was still able to fulfil his duties as a committee member. Ruth Ivimey-Cook offered to perform the role of Treasurer.

The rest of the existing committee expressed its willingness to stand for re-election.

Michael Poole thus proposed that the existing committee should be re- elected, with Ruth Ivimey-Cook becoming Treasurer and himself returning to the ranks. The co-opted members would stay the same, too. The post of Membership Secretary would be deleted. Jon Kerridge seconded this motion. It was unanimously carried.

The full committee therefore comprises :

• Peter Welch (University of Kent) (Chairman)
• Roger Peel (University of Surrey) (Secretary)
• Ruth Ivimey-Cook (ARM Ltd.) (Treasurer)

• Alastair Allen (University of Aberdeen)
• Andre Bakkers (University of Twente, Netherlands)
• Richard Beton (Roke Manor Research Ltd.)
• Alan Chalmers (Bristol University)
• Barry Cook (Keele University)
• Jon Kerridge (University of Sheffield)
• Brian O'Neill (Nottingham Trent University)
• Michael Poole (Independent Consultant)
• Oyvind Teig (Autronica, Norway)
• Paul Walker (4-Links)

The following members were co-opted again to the committee:

• Janet Edwards (Loughborough University)
• Christopher Jones (British Aerospace, plc)
• Neil Miller (W.A. Consultants)
• Stephen Maudsley (ESGEM Ltd.)
• Paddy Nixon (Dublin University)
• Stephen Turner (University of Exeter)
• Hugh Webber (DRA, Malvern)

In addition, it was proposed by Peter Welch and seconded by Roger Peel, and agreed unanimously, that David Morse (Open University) and Johan Sunter (Philips TASS) should continue to act as the Group's auditors.

5. Future Meetings

It was announced that the next major meeting of WoTUG would be Technical Meeting no.23, which would be held in April 2000, probably at Napier University, in Edinburgh. It was hoped that this meeting could be planned to coincide with the Edinburgh Science Festival, and that WoTUG could attempt to promote parallelism to the delegates and sponsoring companies at the Festival.

The possibility of running a formal course or a workshop on the JCSP and/or CTJ developments was also being considered. Dates around September 1999 looked most likely.

The possibility of providing seminar speakers for University and professional meetings was also discussed.

6. Any Other Business

There was no other business.