Minutes of the RTA-2001 Business Meeting

                            Tuesday May 22, 2001, Utrecht

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(as recorded by Femke van Raamsdonk)


RTA 2001 steering chair:   Nachum Dershowitz
RTA 2001 program chair:    Aart Middeldorp
RTA 2001 conference chair: Vincent van Oostrom


steering 1: 2001 (Nachum Dershowitz)

* number of submissions is more or less stable
* number of participants increased
* over 80 PC members so far
* we joined Ifcolog
* see also www.rewriting.org


program 1: 2001 (Aart Middeldorp)

* overview submissions and acceptances:

                submitted  accepted

     France       12 2/3    6 1/2
     Germany      11 2/3    6 1/6
     Japan         8 1/2    3
     Netherlands   6        2 1/3
     Spain         4        2
     USA           3        1 1/2
     UK            2 5/6    1 1/2
     Italy         2        1
     Israel        1 1/3    0 1/3
     Australia     1        0
     Venezuela     1        0
     Argentina     0 2/3    0 2/3
     Slovakia      0 1/3    0

     total        55     25


     category              submitted  accepted

     regular research papers   47        23
     experience papers          2         0
     problem sets               0         0
     system descriptions        6         2

* 4 workshop proposals of which 3 have been accepted
* there has been an electronic PC meeting


conference 1: 2001 (Vincent van Oostrom)

* the initial plan to have RTA 2001 in Israel could unfortunately not
  materialize
* overview of participants per country: quite equally distributed
* total budget: 50.000 HFL (= a bit less than 25.000 euro)
  funding: 12.500 HFL
  participants pay for what they use
* budget of RTA and the workshops have been kept seperate
* problems:
  problematic days (Sunday, Ascension)
  organization of workshops, in particular: budget for invited
  speakers.


steering 2: 2002 (Nachum Dershowitz)

* three members of the steering committee resign:
  Nachum Dershowitz and Tobias Nipkow because they have been on the
  committee for 3 conferences, and Michael Rusinowitch asked to
  resign.

* there were three new candidates nominated:
  Pierre Lescanne, Franz Baader, and Aart Middeldorp.

* all three nominations are accepted by a large majority.


program 2: 2002 (Sophie Tison)

* a preliminary call for papers is available.


conference 2: 2002 (Thomas Arts)

* RTA 2002 is part of FLOC in Aarhus, Denmark
* it will last 3 days
* RTA 2002 can have 2 workshops, to be selected by FLOC
* an informal vote shows a preference for a conference dinner together
  with LICS.  This preference will first be discussed with the LICS
  conference chair.
* the reception will be with FM and LICS the Sunday before the
  conference
* there is some interest for a Monday evening lecture.
* there may be a spouse program
* there may be daycare


steering 3: 2003 (Nachum Dershowitz)

* there is a proposal to colocate TLCA 2003 and RTA 2003, in the same
  place but with a separate program and separate program committees.
* there is a vote in favour of this proposal


program 3: 2003 (Nachum Dershowitz)

* there was one nomination for program chair for RTA 2003: Robert
  Nieuwenhuis.
* the nomination is accepted by a large majority


conference 3: 2003 (Nachum Dershowitz)

* there are two proposals for the location of RTA 2003:
  Valencia (Salvador Lucas) and Aachen (Jurgen Giesl).
* there is a majority in favour of Valencia, but the steering
  committee may negotiate the location with TLCA
* possible dates for Valencia: May/June/September,


There was also a vote not to require a secret vote in the future in
case there are no more candidates than positions.  This vote is not
binding, however, because changes to the bylaws must be proposed one
month in advance.