The meeting was called to order at 4:45 by John Charnes, President, who introduced the new officers, Susan Sanchez, Vice President/President-Elect and Russell Barton, Secretary/Treasurer. The 14 attendees along with emails are listed below. He announced that INFORMS was expecting 3000 attendees for the Fall 2001 conference in Miami.
Vice President's Report: Susan Sanchez requested sessions for the INFORMS International Meeting in Hawaii in June and for the INFORMS Fall National Meeting in Miami next November. She would like to have session proposals for the Hawaii meeting by mid-December.
Secretary's Report: The minutes from the College business meeting at WSC 1999 Phoenix and from the INFORMS 2000 Conference in Salt Lake City were not presented: they will appear shortly in the Fall 2000 Newsletter.
Treasurer's Report: Susan Sanchez also gave a brief outgoing treasurer's report, stating that the College financial picture had improved from 1999; primarily because the College received approximately $2000 extra return from WSC'99 (~$4000 vs. ~$2000 in the recent past).
Newsletter: Shane Henderson gave the Newsletter Editor's Report: The Newsletter will be ready 2-3 weeks before WSC. Shane and Steve Chick wanted suggestions on whether to send a pdf file to each electronic recipient, or rather to instead send a link to the copy of the Newsletter at the College web site. Hard copies will be continued for those who prefer. This is a small number - less than 10.
Web Page: Jim Wilson reported on the College web page. The counter for visitors to the site had security problems, so alternate counter software is being investigated. The web page now includes pdf versions of the 1997-99 Winter Simulation Conferences. Dean Hartley suggested the possibility of scanning old (pre-CD) Proceedings issues to add to the web site. Both Dean and Jim agreed it would be a large effort, but that it might be feasible if it was handled using a student assistant. John Charnes and Susan Sanchez mentioned that INFORMS has offered to put a link to our page from the INFORMS page and to provide disk space for our site. Jim Wilson responded that the Georgia Tech site provides over 3Gb of disk space that is 'free.' Jim suggested that the College revisit the possibility of combining the Newsletter and Web Editor functions. He suggested that this was a good time to get new people involved, and revitalize the web site.
Award Committees: Michael Fu reported that the Outstanding Publication Award deadline was extended to Halloween. Four nominations are under consideration, and a decision was planned for November 14. There was no report from the Distinguished Service Award Committee. Dave Goldsman reported that the Lifetime Professional Achievement Award committee received two nominations.
Ad hoc committees: John Charnes said he would consider appointing ad hoc committees to look at the web site issue and perhaps another to look at membership. Underrepresented Minorities and Women: Martha Centeno is the Chair this year. She did not present a report.
INFORMS-CS Archives Project: John Charnes said that INFORMS has asked for a short history including a list of all presidents of the College. Jim Wilson reported that the Archive has been established at the North Carolina State University Library. The NC State Archivist, Russell Koontz has been very cooperative. The Archives anticipate a substantial collection of materials promised by Bob Sargent.
INFORMS-CS History Project: Jim Wilson reported that some portions of the history have been written. A number of people have been identified who were instrumental in the founding of the College. Thomas Naylor, President in 1968, currently resides in Vermont. The committee hopes to interview him soon.
WSC'00 Report: Jim Wilson reported that the Proceedings would contain approximately 300 papers, and that the second volume was in the final approval process. All titles and abstracts were posted to the www.wintersim.org site. Registrations were running 50% ahead of previous years at the same time. Jim also announced that the paid attendance for WSC'99 was more than 670. The best previous non-Washington D.C. attendance was over 660 in Orlando in 1994.
New Business: Jim Wilson announced that extra issues of the IIE Transactions special issue honoring Alan Pritsker would be available for approximately $4 each, well below cost. Jim asked whether the College should purchase extra copies to send to members. He said that Alan Pritsker had suggested that the issue might be made available to students. Doug Morrice suggested that the College members be polled via email to determine the level of interest. John Charnes asked Jim Wilson to bring a plan to the WSC'00 College business meeting.
John Charnes described two proposed bylaw changes. First, to address the changing structure of the INFORMS national meetings. The bylaws require three business meetings per year, which have been held at the Winter Simulation Conference and the Spring and Fall INFORMS national conferences. Since the Spring INFORMS national conference is by invitation and for practitioner presentations only, John worried about achieving a quorum of 15 for that meeting, and proposed that the bylaws require two business meetings per year rather than three. Second, In order to allow electronic balloting to be an official tally, the word 'mail' should be struck from the bylaws.
Shane Henderson brought another new business item: determining the distribution of the College newsletter. He proposed continuing the sending of hard copies to those without web access, but sending a notification only to those with web access. The newsletter would be posted to the web site, rather than sending a pdf file to every member via email. No decision was made.
Dean Hartley announced that he had been elected as Division B Representative to the INFORMS Board. He said that he would be happy to convey concerns or issues of the College to the Board.
David Goldsman announced that he, Sigrun Andradottir and Christos Alexopoulos were editing a handbook on simulation in honor of George Fishman to be published by Kluwer. He requested permission to use the College e-mail list to ask members for contributed papers for the volume, and to determine the level of interest in purchasing such a volume. His motion was seconded by Dean Hartley and approved unanimously.
The Meeting was adjourned at 6:55pm.
Respectfully submitted, Russell R. Barton, Secretary/Treasurer.
Attendees, INFORMS College on Simulation Business Meeting INFORMS San Antonio: Catherine Adamski (catherine.adamski@usaa.com), Russell Barton (rbarton@psu.edu), John Charnes (jmc@ku.edu), Dean Chatfield (deanc@vt.edu), Michael Fu (mfu@rhsmith.umd.edu), David Goldsman (sman@isye.gatech.edu), Dean Hartley (dhx@y12.doe.gov), Liu Hong (hongl@email.uc.edu), Sheldon Jacobson (shj@uiuc.edu), Douglas Morrice (morrice@mail.utexas.edu), Susan Sanchez (ssanchez@nps.navy.mil), Leyuan Shi (leyuan@engr.wisc.edu), Bruce Shultes (bruce.schultes@uc.edu), and James Wilson (jwilson@eos.ncsu.edu).