(Hungarian translation is available.)
Minutes of the meeting of the General Assembly of The International Symmetry Society held 5:00 pm 15/11/07, in the “Sala Teleconferencias” room, Faculty of Architecture, University of Buenos Aires.
24 members of the International Symmetry Society present (of the total of 34).
Plus 4 guests.
The General Assembly has a quorum.
1. Opening of meeting
Chair of the last meeting of the General Assembly of Symmetry-US, Ted Goranson, opens meeting and lists agenda items:
i)Election of Chair of this meeting
ii)Election of minute-takers for this meeting
iii)President’s Report
iv)Treasurer’s Report
v)Secretary’s Report (including report on the e-journal “Visual Mathematics”)
vi)Election of site of next congress
Peter Klein requests to add agenda item, to discuss the difference in membership fees represented by the discrepancy between dollars and Euros.
2. Election of Chair of this meeting
Denes Nagy nominates Ted Goranson to Chair the meeting.
William Huff seconds the nomination.
Motion passes unanimously.
Resolution: Ted Goranson to chair meeting.
3. Election of minute-takers for this meeting
Ted Goranson nominates George Lugosi. Denes Nagy seconds the motion. Motion passes unanimously. Denes Nagy nominates Beth Cardier. William Huff seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
Resolution: Beth Cardier and George Lugosi to take minutes.
4. President’s report by Dénes Nagy, President of the Society
Report about legal proceedings in relation to the International Symmetry Society and International Symmetry Association in Hungary.
Attorney General’s Office (Budapest) has sent a letter requesting changes to the structure and organisation of the Society. Many are requests for extra details or changes, other ones are very basic. The approval by the General Assembly is needed.
The Attorney General’s Office required is that the officers of the Executive Board be Hungarian citizens (or Hungarian residents), be Hungarian.
Motion by Veronika Marakova to elect three Hungarians to be executive officers and serve as the “Executive Board” and to establish and International Advisory Board. Motion seconded by William Huff.
Motion by Peter Klein to table Veronika Makarova’s motion until Denes Nagy has finished his president’s report. Peter Klein’s motion seconded by William Huff.
Motion by Peter Klein does not pass (9 to 12).
Resolution: Veronika Makorova’s motion will not be tabled until the end of the President’s report.
Discussion of Veronika Makarova’s motion.
Vote on Veronika Makorava’s motion.
Veronika Makarova’s motion passes 22 to 2.
Resolution: to elect three Hungarians to be executive officers and serve as the “Executive Board” and to establish and International Advisory Board.
Report from the President in relation to proposals from interested parties to host the next congress in 2010. Suggestions have been Copenhagen and Pécs. There have also been offers to hold intermediate conferences before the next general assembly.
5. Treasurer’s Report by the Treasurer, George Lugosi
The account for the Symmetry Society was closed by György Darvas and therefore no activities on that account are known.
Peter Klein requests formal accounting of these moneys when they are available.
Veronika Makarova asks whether a new Hungarian bank account be established when the legal proceedings are over?
George Lugosi answers yes.
Veronika Makarova proposes to approve treasurer’s report.
Michael Burt requests a more formal procedure for the accounting when the accounts are available.
Veronika Makarova proposes to approve the treasurer’s report and amend the first motion to request treasurer to provide a detailed report.
Michael Burt proposes to make the prescription more formal. He proposes to amend the charter of the society to institute financial procedures that are ratified by an external accountant who will audit and certify the accounts. This will then be presented to the members.
William huff seconds the motion.
Motion passes 14 to 10.
Resolution to amend the charter of the society to institute financial procedures that are ratified by an external accountant who will audit and certify the accounts. This will then be presented to the members.
Dirk Huylebrouck.requests this report be made available to members by the New Year.
6. Secretary’s report by Secretary Slavik Jablan.
“VisMath” publishes a website and 3 books. In Tihany, 2500 Euro was approved to cover expenses. Slavik says that 1500 Euros is needed to cover subsequent expenses of “VisMath”. A further 1000 Euro is needed for the next 3 years. With this amount he will publish 3 e-books at approximately 50 papers. They can be found at: www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath. Slavik Jablan requests approval from the Society for these funds.
Veronika Makarova proposes that we should encourage more members to join.
Michael Longuet-Higgins says that more young people should be encouraged to join.
Beth Cardier says she tried to get young people to join and in order to convince them the Society is legitimate and relevant we would need a clearer website, a regular journal, and better organisation.
Slavik Jablan says the Society could attract young people by running research projects.
Veronika Makarovaproposes a motion to approve the Secretary’s report.
Denes Nagy seconds the motion.
Motion passes 23 to 1.
Huff moves to elect a president, secretary and treasurer.
Lugosi nominates Attila Kovacs as secretary of the Society.
Huff asks if we need to elect 3 Hungarian officers or do we need a Hungarian board?
Veronika Makarova moves to repeal first amendment to the constitution until we have more information.
William Huff seconds Veronika Makarova’s motion.
Resolution: To wait on election of board until proper translation of letter is given.
Burt proposes a motion to examine the documents carefully and re-convene with a clear explanation for the assembly.
William Huff seconds the motion.
Motion passes unanimously.
-Resolution to adjourn the meeting and re-convene tomorrow.
Minutes of the meeting of the General Assembly of the International Symmetry Society, held 2:00pm 16/11/07, in the room “Aula Magna”, Faculty of Architecture, University of Buenos Aires.
22 members of the Society present (of the total of 34).
The General Assembly has a quorum.
1. Opening of meeting
Chair of last meeting of the General Assembly of the Society, Ted Goranson, opens meeting and lists agenda items.
i) Summary of last meeting.
ii) Ted Goranson announces that he will create a Society website, funded by his organisation if possible.
iii) Ted Goranson announces that he will co-ordinate official financial reports from George Lugosi.
iv) Ted Goranson proposes that an Oversight Committee for supervising the Executive Board be established. This Oversight Committee will:
A) Interact and report to members
B) Oversight of three elected Hungarian officials as they adjust the Charter for the purposes of complying with Hungarian law. Incidental changes will be pre-approved, while the Oversight Committee will determine the best course of action for other changes.
2. Discussion
– Discussion of proposed changes to governing body structure.
– Beth Cardier proposes to have a standing “oversight committee” with governing responsibility and enough authority to override the Executive Board. It would be named an “Oversight Committee” (or “Supervisory Committee).”
– Motion seconded by William Huff.
– Motion passes 22 to 0.
Denes Nagy proposes to keep Beth Cardier (Australia), Ted Goranson (USA), Claudio Guerri (Argentina), Slavik Jablan (Serbia), Ami Korren (Israel), Veronika Makarova (Canada/Russia), Janusz Rebielak (Poland), and Julie Tolmie (England/Australia) on the International Advisory Board. He also proposes to elect three new members: Oleh Bodnar (Ukraine), Yoshinori Teshima (Japan), and Dmitry Weise (Russia).
– Second: William Huff.
– Motion passes 22 to 0.
– Huff: Motion to elect all three Hungarian officers of the Executive Board: Denes Nagy, (as President), George Lugosi (as Treasurer), and Attila Kovacs (as Secretary).
– Nagy Denes seconds the motion.
– Motion passes 21 to 1.
– Motion to elect three people to the Oversight (Supervisory) Committee: Ted Goranson (chairperson), Slavik Jablan and Claudio Guerri. This committee has right to supervise the changes in the “Articles” according to the wishes of the Attorney General’s Office
– Motion seconded: Denes Nagy.
– Motion passes 21 to 1.
– Burt: Motion to we should approve a certain amount for operation of journal once it is available.
– Motion: Oversight committee should look into financial situation of conference before the end of the year in order to retrieve any money from the congress and to send out notification to members regarding this.
– Seconded by Denes Nagy
– Passed 19 to 3.
– Denes Nagy:
William Huff and Claudio Guerri nominated Caspar Schwabe for Honorary Membership.
He nominates William Huff for Honorary President:
– Dirk Huylebrouck seconds motions.
– Motions passes 22 to 0.
– Ted Goranson makes motion to adjourn.
– Seconded by William Huff.
– Resolution to adjourn the General Assembly.