GENERAL MEETING MINUTES FOR 2008

A General Meeting of the British Mathematical Colloquium was held in the National Science Learning Centre, University of York at 18.00 on Tuesday 26 March, 2008.

  1. There were apologies for absence from Niels Jacob.

  2. The minutes of the AGM held on 17 April 2007 in Swansea were approved.

  3. There were no matters arising.

  4. A brief, non-financial, report of the 2007 BMC by Niels Jacob was read by Aubrey Truman. (Report attached.)

  5. Peter Giblin was elected unanimously as the Chair of the BMC Scientific Committee, starting from 1 June 2008. There were no other nominees.

  6. Hugh Morton (University of Liverpool) was proposed to serve on the BMC Scientific Committee for 1 year, from the end of the AGM until the end of the AGM at Galway in 2009. This was accepted by acclamation.

  7. Ted Hurley and James Ward reported that the physical resources for BMC 2009 in Galway were in place, including block bookings at two hotels (€55 and €70 per night, bed and breakfast) situated about 2 miles from the university, with a conference bus service. Invitations had been accepted by 4 plenary speakers (David Eisenbud, Ron Graham, Frances Kirwan, Rostislav Grigorchuk), and 6 morning lecturers. Special sessions were being organised in Analysis, and Computational Algebra.

  8. John Hunton invited the BMC to the University of Leicester in 2011. The invitation was accepted by acclamation.

  9. Thanks were expressed to the Department of Mathematics, University of Swansea for the organisation of BMC 2007.

Maurice Dodson, one of the York organisers, offered to prepare a document containing practical advice for the benefit of future BMC organisers. This will be presented at the meeting of the BMC Scientific Committee on 24 September 2008.

The dates of BMC 2010 in Edinburgh were confirmed as 6-9 April 2010.

Minutes unsigned and undated.

A short report on BMC 07 held in Swansea


The Swansea BMC was attended by 280 participants and was preceded by a well- attended Student Conference. The main speakers were H.-D. Cao, A. Connes, H. McKean, and D. Stroock. In addition we had 12 morning speakers, 2 special sessions (in Fourier Analysis and in Topology), and 12 splinter groups. In total there were more than 120 lectures.

Furthermore several other activities took place, a session on the RAE, a public lecture, a public lecture on Euler's Tercentenary, a podium discussion on publishing in the future, and presentations of the BMO- team and MSOR, respectively.

The booksellers' exhibition was a great success thanks to the efforts of the publishers whose financial contribution should neither be ignored nor taken for granted.

Financially, we received support from the LMS, EPSRC and the Edinburgh Mathematical Society as well as BP. We could even make a small surplus. Needless to say that without the unlimited support of our University, starting with the VC, we could never have succeeded.

Professor Niels Jacob,
Read by Professor Aubrey Truman