Minutes of the General Assembly 13 Sep 2013 in Crete
(Hungarian translation is available.)
Members in attendance were:
Seyed Alireza Behnejad; Carol Bier; Oleh Bodnar; Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya; Michael Burt; Jim Cogswell; Liu Dun; Ted Goranson; Claudio Guerri; Éva Gyarmathy; William Huff; Valéria Inkler; Shozo Ishihara; Borut Juvanec; Keimei Kaino; Eugene Katz; Peter Klein; Krzysztof Lenartowicz; George Lugosi; Patricia Muñoz; Dénes Nagy; Javier Party; Janusz Rębielak; Caspar Schwabe; Masaharu Tanemura; Ryiji Takaki; Yoshinori Teshima; Ioannas Vandoulakis; Horatio Wainhaus; Dmitry Weise. Each of these signed an attendance log. (From time to time, one or two temporarily left the room.)
The meeting was held at the second scheduled possibility, a quorum not being available for the first appointed time (12 September, 2013). The Agenda was published one month before the congress at the official site of the Society. There was no suggestion to make any change. Thus the meeting followed the Agenda in its published form on 13 September 2013.
Item 1) The meeting was opened by Dénes Nagy at 9:20pm. (It lasted until 12:10.)
Item 2) Alireza Behnejad was elected chair of the meeting.
Item 3) Ted Goranson was elected to take minutes.
Item 4) The President (Dénes Nagy) made a brief report:
— Alex Grossman organized an interdisciplinary symposium in Israel last year. It was not officially sponsored by the Society but some members participated and the interests overlap. A next symposium is planned in Haifa and members are encouraged to participate.
— Three successful meetings on vernicular architecture were sponsored by the Society. The printed proceedings were completely exhausted.
— Organizational difficulties of the current Congress were described, related to international turmoil and economic crises. The members thanked the organizer, Ioannas Vandoulakis for his excellent work.
Item 5) The Treasurer (George Lugosi) made a brief report. (That report had been posted on the Society website for the previous month.)
— There was no income. There were four licensing expenses. The amount going into the Congress is $4,661.37 (in Australian dollars).
Peter Klein offered a question about who controls the money. The answer: the treasurer controls the money subject to the approval of the Oversight Committee.
— George Lugosi tendered his resignation for personal reasons, and it was reluctantly accepted. The membership acknowledged his significant service to the Society.
Item 6) New Officers were elected.
After some discussion, a proposal was entered by Ted Goranson to vote on Executive Board and Oversight Committee Officers individually. The motion passed 29 for, 0 against, 1 abstain. (Votes for each issue were recorded on a chart at the front of the room.)
— Karolina Amon was nominated to fill the position vacated by George Lugosi. This is a dual position as Officer of the Australian sister Society and Treasurer of the Society. A requirement for the Australian position is to be an Australian resident.
Some substantial discussion followed to clarify the relationship between the two organizations. Peter Klein inquired whether the current membership was enfranchised to vote for officers of the Australian sister organization. The answer: by charter the membership is shared.
(In a related remark, the President noted that Australian member Lynn Arnold has offered assistance if needed.)
Claudio Guerri remarked that the requirement for Australian residence, and a similar requirement for the Executive Board (that officers be EU residents) are unduly restrictive. He suggested exploring a law (numbered 1901) which would allow for re-registration of the Society in Paris with fewer such restrictions. The Officers agreed to follow up if needed.
The vote on Karolina Amon was 29 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Dénes Nagy was nominated for President by Ted Goranson. There was no discussion. The vote was 28 for, 0 against, 2 abstain.
— Ioannas Vandoulakis was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be on the Executive Board, serving as Secretary and replacing Attila Kovacs. There was no discussion. The vote was 29 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Éva Gyarmathy was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be on the Executive Board. There was no discussion. The vote was 30 for, 0 against, 0 abstain.
— Ted Goranson was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be Chair of the Oversight Committee. There was no discussion. The vote was 28 for, 0 against, 2 abstain.
— Yoshinori Teshima was nominated by Ted Goranson to be a member of the Oversight Committee. There was no discussion. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Paul Mezey was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be a member of the Oversight Committee. There was some discussion, noting his absence and recent lack of communication. Dénes Nagy confirmed his commitment to the Society, explaining the recent lapse as from personal issues. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— The existing slate of Advisory Board Members was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be re-elected. There was a brief discussion about whether each had agreed to again serve. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Eugene Katz was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be added to the Advisory Board, representing Israel. He agreed. There was no discussion. The vote was 27 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Lui Dun was nominated by Dénes Nagy to be added to the Advisory Board, representing China. He had previously agreed. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 2 abstain.
Item 7) Determining the site of the next Congress.
The President presented a preferred option, China. A general feeling among the members was that a second option should be considered. The President described an offer by Veronika Makarova to host the Congress in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Ted Goranson proposed that the Executive Board and Oversight Committee be empowered to organize the Congress in China, using Saskatchewan, Canada as a second option. There was some discussion about possible difficulty of visas. Some members who had experience reported that visas had been no problem in the past. The vote was 27 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
Claudio Guerri suggested that the organizer of the next Congress be placed on the Executive Board to ease decisions. The resulting discussion noted that this had not been needed in the past, and some ‘separation of powers’ is desirable. No proposal was made, nor vote taken.
Item 8) Presentation of EU programs of international collaboration.
Ioannas Vandoulakis described possible EU funding mechanisms for projects between the EU and different countries. He suggested we pursue these. Ted Goranson described meetings with EU funding officers regarding programs along similar lines.
Ted Goranson made a proposal to empower the Officers to pursue such funding if a suitable opportunity appeared, a capable member was available to lead the effort and that it suited the charter and goals of the Society. There was some discussion by Michael Burt about the seriousness of such an effort. The vote was 29 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
Item 9) Issues related to the Society Website.
Ted Goranson made several proposals concerning the Society website:
— George Lugosi and Alireza Behnejad should be designated as backup custodians of website passwords and authorities should something happen to Ted Goranson. There was no discussion. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Ted Goranson described a threat from György Darvas, coming from an apparently bogus lawyer, followed by massive attempts to download copies of the journals. The Oversight Committee decided to stamp each paper with our copyright and password protect each on-line paper. George Lugosi is doing this work. This prevents us from submitting the papers to Google Scholar. The proposal was to keep the papers locked until the next Congress. There was no discussion. The vote was 24 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— He proposed moving some curated Congress photos to the site from the Society’s Flickr account. Javier Party volunteered to do this.
— Ted Goranson described the effort with Slavik Jablan to resolve the issue with VisMath. All has been accomplished except Slavik has not complied with the written agreement to mark the Society’s papers on his site as belonging to the Society. The proposal is to gently ask for compliance, and failing this to approach heads of his university. William Huff recounted the Society’s funding of Jablan’s work and our clear ownership. The vote was 23 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— Ted Goranson proposed that the site be changed to move the announcement page deeper into the site. Alireza Behnejad endorsed the wisdom of this based on similar experience at another society. The vote was 22 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
— A request was made to email authors that their papers are now online and can be cited in bibliographies and curriculum vita. Dénes Nagy Jr. volunteered to do this.
— Ted Goranson proposed that http://isis-symmetry.org be adopted as the prefix for permanent citations. There was no discussion. The vote was 25 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
Item 10) Honorary Chairmanship
Dénes Nagy proposed that George Lugosi be named Honorary Chairman of the Australian Society. There was no discussion. The vote was 27 for, 0 against, 0 abstain.
Item 11) Authorization for Emergency Action
Dénes Nagy proposed that the Officers (Executive Board and Oversight Committee) be authorized to deal with unforeseen emergencies if such should occur before the next Congress. There was no discussion. The vote was 26 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
Item 12) Addition to Editorial Board
Dénes Nagy proposed that Ioannas Vandoulakis be added to the editorial board of the Journal. There was no discussion. The vote was 27 for, 0 against, 0 abstain.
There being no further business, the General Assembly was adjourned.