The meeting was called to order by Khalid Saeed, President of the System Dynamics Society at 10:00 am on August 4, 1995. The meeting was held in the general lecture hall reserved for all of the plenary presentations of the 1995 conference. Khalid began by introducing the officers of the Society and the members of the Policy Council who were present at the meeting.
The second item on the agenda was the financial report from Jack Pugh, the Treasurer of the System Dynamics Society. Jack was not present, so Khalid used an overhead projector to display a one page summary of the financial status of the Society. The participants read the summary, and there were no questions or comments.
The third agenda item was a report from Graham Winch, the Executive Editor of the System Dynamics Review. Graham thanked George Richardson, the previous Executive Editor, for turning over a journal in good shape. He introduced various associate editors who were present, and he encouraged members of the society to submit quality papers to the journal.
The fourth item was the selection of sites for future conferences. Cambridge, Massachusetts had been selected for the next conference which is scheduled for July 22-25, 1996. The conference will be located at the Cambridge Center Marriott Hotel which is less than a block from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Kendall Square subway station. The conference chair is Jack Pugh and the program cochairs are John Sterman and George Richardson. Khalid then announced that Istanbul had been selected for the 1997 International System Dynamics Conference with a tentative date of July, 1997. The conference will be hosted by Bogazici University and the University's Department of Industrial Engineering. The conference organizer is Yaman Barlas.
Society dues were the fifth item. Khalid announced an increase in the annual dues for full members from $70 to $80 and for student members from $35 to $40. The increase in dues was attributed, in part, to higher publication costs faced by John Wiley for the System Dynamics Review.
The sixth item was a progress report by David Lane, the Vice President for Publications, on the System Dynamics Bibliography. David explained that the bibliography is being updated and will become available via the Internet. He mentioned that over 3,500 references are involved, and that work is in progress. David alerted members that they would hear more about this project in the future.
Reports from existing Chapters of the System Dynamics Society were the seventh item on the agenda. Qifan Wang, President of the Chinese Chapter, reported on the activities in China. Toshiro Shimada, President of the Japanese Chapter, reported on the activities in Japan. In addition to reports from existing chapters, Habib Sedehi reported on plans for the formation of an Italian Chapter of the System Dynamics Society. Khalid Saeed then invited members to bring up any items of new business.
The one item of new business was the role of the Vice President for Publications. David Lane, the current Vice President for Publications, explained his view of this position. He emphasized that the substantive decisions pertinent to the content of the System Dynamics Review remain in the hands of the Executive Editor. He then provided two examples of activities that the V.P. for Publications might pursue. The first was the current effort to update the Membership Directory of the Society. The second was to serve as collection point for members' views on the format for the Conference Proceedings. In this vein, David invited members to communicate with him on their views of previous conference proceedings as well as their views of the new, four page format to be used for the first time in the 1996 conference proceedings.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 am.
Respectfully submitted.
Andrew FordActing for
Michael J. Radzicki