INFORMS College on Simulation
Minutes of Business Meeting
Miami INFORMS Conference
November 4, 2001
Russell Barton, Secretary
John Charnes, President, presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 5:50pm by John Charnes, President, who asked each of the attendees to introduce themselves. The 22 attendees along with emails are listed below.
Secretary's Report: The minutes from the College business meeting at WSC 2000 Orlando were distributed and approved.
Vice President's Report: Susan Sanchez reported that the College had three sponsored sessions at the Miami conference, one of which was jointly sponsored with the Quality, Statistics and Reliability Section. She asked for suggestions for sessions at the 2002 INFORMS Fall Conference, which will be held November 17-20 in San Jose, CA.
Treasurer's Report: Russell Barton gave the Treasurer's Report, stating that the College net worth was unchanged from the previous year, except for the cost of acquiring extra copies of the IIE Transactions Special Issue honoring Alan Pritsker. After sales, College expenses exceeded income by $1,500.
Newsletter: Shane Henderson gave the Newsletter Editor's Report: he apologized for some errors in notices of expired College membership that accompanied the Fall Newsletter announcement. It is difficult to get up-to-date records of College membership. Fall records indicated approximately 480 members, 330 of which had valid email addresses. Approximately 170 memberships were to expire on December 31, 100 of which were reachable by email, and notices were sent.
Award Committees: Michael Fu reported that the Outstanding Publication Award Committee had decided on an award, which will be announced at WSC 2001. There was no report from the Distinguished Service Award Committee. Dave Goldsman reported that the Lifetime Professional Achievement Award committee received very good nominations and was in the process of making a selection.
Ad hoc Committees: John Charnes said he had difficulty finding a Chair local to Washington, D.C. for the Committee for Underrepresented Minorities and Women.
Journal Editors: Paul Glasserman's Area Editor's Report for Management Science is in the Fall Newsletter. Michael Fu said that Operations Research has two new Associate Editors, Jack Kleijnen and Sheldon Jacobson. The number of submissions this year has doubled over last year, to 15. His Area Editor's Report is in the Fall Newsletter. Susan Sanchez is the new Area Editor for the INFORMS Journal on Computing. She announced that there were new Associate Editors, including Harriet Black-Nembhard, Marvin Nakayama, Sigrun Andradottir and Peter Haas.
WSC'01 Report: Barry Nelson and Jim Wilson reported on the upcoming Winter Simulation Conference. Barry announced that registrations were down from previous years and asked members to complete their early registration by November 9. Extra security measures will be taken for the conference. The Keynote Speaker is David Stork, Chief Scientist at Ricoh Innovation's California Research Center. The Military Keynote Speaker is Michael Bauman, U.S. Army TRADOC. Upcoming WSC General Chairs, Program Chairs and locations are: 2002 in San Diego, Jane Snowdon/John Charnes, 2003 in New Orleans, David Ferrin and Doug Morrice, 2004 in Washington, D.C., Jeff Smith/Brett Peters, 2005 in Orlando, Brad Armstrong/Jeff Joines.
Jim Wilson distributed the WSC'01 program announcement. There will be 234 papers in 99 sessions. The Proceedings is approximately 1750 pages. The committee has worked to encourage speakers to meet their commitment to attend: only four cancellations have been received.
Web Page: David Goldsman and Jim Wilson reported on the College web page. Dave asked for volunteers to move the web page forward. Jim Wilson reported that the visits counter is working again, and that the site has been averaging 54 hits per day, up from 25 hits per day three years ago.
Pritsker Special Issue of IIE Transactions: Jim Wilson reported that 90 copies of the Special Issue have been distributed, 60 paid copies and 30 as gifts to students and volunteers for College activities. Jim brought some copies with him, and 10 were sold at the meeting.
INFORMS Board Report: Dean Hartley announced that the INFORMS Board is being restructured. Division Directors will be dropped from the Board, and the number of members will decrease from 20 to 15. The 15-member Board will focus on executive decisions. Operations will be managed by Vice Presidents for Sections and Societies, and Chapters and Fora, who will be elected by a new organization consisting of Sections and Societies. Societies with more than 500 members will have their own representative in this group, but Sections (and Colleges) will not. The number of votes for a Section will be the Section membership divided by 6. Dean asked for feedback on the proposed changes.
Jim Wilson commented that the College had been exploring whether to petition to become a Society, and asked about the status of that study. Dean Hartley replied that it hadn't been done. He said that a petition must be prepared explaining why the College needs greater visibility (for example, the College role in the Winter Simulation Conference). Dean said that if the College makes this case then the conversion would happen.
The second item was an "Umbrella Name" that has been proposed for INFORMS: Operations Research. A motion for this branding of the Institute was made and then withdrawn at the last Board meeting. Board members were asked to think about an appropriate name/brand for INFORMS.
Dean Hartley announced that as a member of the Nominating Committee, he was seeking volunteers for INFORMS positions.
Old Business: John Charnes announced that a referendum will be conducted on the proposed bylaw changes, to remove the requirement for a College business meeting at the Spring INFORMS Conference. Barry Nelson reported that the Spring INFORMS Practitioners Conference was very nice, but the current design of the conference will not likely draw significant numbers of College members.
Laurel Travis made a motion to adjourn which was seconded by Sigrun Andradottir. The meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm.
Respectfully submitted, Russell R. Barton, Secretary/Treasurer.
Attendees, INFORMS College on Simulation Business Meeting INFORMS San Antonio:
Sigrun Andradottir (sa@isye.gatech.edu), Nilay Argon (nilay@isye.gatech.edu),Jerry Banks (atljerry@earthlink.com), Russell Barton (rbarton@psu.edu), John Charnes (jmc@ku.edu), Dean Chatfield (deanc@vt.edu), Bahar Deler (bahar@iems.nwu.edu), John Fowler (john.fowler@asu.edu), Michael Fu (mfu@rhsmith.umd.edu), David Goldsman (sman@isye.gatech.edu), Dean Hartley (dhx@y12.doe.gov), Sheldon Jacobson (shj@uiuc.edu), Emily Lada (eklada@eos.ncsu.edu), Pierre L'Ecuyer (lecuyer@iro.umontreal.ca), Barry Nelson (nelsonb@nortthwestern.edu), Michele Pfund (michele.pfund@asu.edu), Doug Popkin (dpopkin@systemsview.com), Matt Rosenshine (mxr2@psu.edu), Susan Sanchez (ssanchez@nps.navy.mil), Jeff Tew (jeffrey.tew@gm.com), Laurel Travis (laurel.travis@metrostate.edu), Cenk Tunasar (ctunasar@transsolutions.com), and James Wilson (jwilson@eos.ncsu.edu).