\title[1997 AGM minutes]{Provisional minutes of the \uktug{} AGM, 26
November 1997} \author{David Carlisle}
\begin{Article}

Present:
19 members, including Robin Fairbairns in Chair.
David Rhead had sent apologies for absence.

\vspace*{.25in}

\section{1. Report of the 1996 AGM}

After an initial welcoming address, Robin Fairbairns, as Chair, asked
the meeting to accept the minutes of the 1996 AGM which had been
distributed to attendees. Peter Abbott made one correction, the date
by which membership fees must be paid to receive a 10\% discount should
be January 31 not December. With this one correction, the minutes were
accepted by the meeting.

\section{2. Chair's Report}

Printed copies of the Chairman's report were distributed at the
meeting. Robin Fairbairns spoke substantially on the points in the
printed text, especially the point urging members to volunteer for
work on the committee. He pointed out that although by the letter of
the constitution (copies of which had been made available to all
attendees, thanks to Jonathan Fine) nominations for committee should
be submitted a week before the AGM, the committee was perilously close
to being inquorate (5) and so it had been agreed by the outgoing
committee to be flexible and accept nominations for committee from
attendees at the meeting. (This point was returned to in item 8.)  One
new item was the decision to support the newly formed TUG India by
sending one committee member (to be decided) to its inaugural meeting
in January 1998.

\section{3. Treasurer's Report}

A financial statement had been sent to all members with the notice of
the meeting. Peter Abbott explained a few more mysterious points.
\begin{enumerate}
\item  The item for expenses itemised as `Chair' were in fact running costs
  for Baskerville (Both items being Robin Fairbairns).

\item  The \LaTeX3 funds, since the close of the UKTUG financial year had
  been split off into a separate account and would not therefore be
  shown on future UKTUG statements.
\item 
  From a question from Malcolm Clark, Peter confirmed the group's
  finances were stable (growing slightly) mainly due to CD sales and
  extra members, and that therefore the group could afford to run
  meetings such as today's at a loss.
\end{enumerate}
  Philip Taylor noted that the Bursaries that the group had made in
  the past had been gratefully received, and he thanked the group on
  behalf of the recipients and the organisers of the conferences
  supported. 

\section{4. Apointment of Auditors}

Peter Abbott reported that a change in the law meant that it was not
necessary for a the group accounts to be `audited' but rather just
`inspected by a competent independent person'. Peter hoped to find such
a person within a few weeks.

\section{5. Setting annual membership fee}
\begin{quote}
  ``The membership fee for 1998 shall be \pounds20.00 for full
    membership, or \pounds5.00 for full-time student membership.''
\end{quote}
Peter Abbott again pointed out that the date for discount should be
January 31 rather than December. (This mistake having been copied over
to the present agenda from last year's minutes.)
After some clarification that these fees were identical to last year,
they were accepted by the meeting without vote.


\section{6. Setting annual institutional membership fee}
\begin{quote}
  ``The membership fee for 1998 shall be \pounds100.00 for
    institutional membership.''
\end{quote}
Similarly the institutional membership fees were accepted without
vote to be the same as last year. Peter announced he had reached
agreement with TUG that institutions should in future be offered joint
TUG/UKTUG membership.

At this point Jonathan Fine proposed a procedural motion to change the
order of the Agenda. (He had circulated an alternative agenda to
attendees.) The motion was not seconded, and so discussion moved to the
next point on the original Agenda.

\section{7. Confirmation of Philip Taylor as Chair of the Group}

Robin Fairbairns explained that Baskerville was late due to his
illness and finally due to technical failures with the printer used to
produce the issue at Cambridge. This resulted in the fact that the
announcement of an election for Chair slipped and so the committee
agreed to announce the nominations should close on 24th October.
Nomination of Jonathan Fine was received (26th September) before the
announcement went out, and shortly afterwards from Philip Taylor.
Shortly before close of Nominations, Jonathan withdrew his nomination,
and so Philip was elected to the Chair, unopposed.

At this point, as is traditional, Robin vacated the Chair, and Philip
Taylor took over the meeting.

\section{8. Election of Committee Members}

Of the current committee:
\begin{itemize}
\item Peter Abbott (Treasurer) continues to stand.
\item Sebastian Rahtz          continues.
\item Robin Fairbairns was standing down as Chair,
   but had been nominated for the new Committee
\item David Carlisle was standing down (3 year rule);
\item Mark Wooding (co-opted shortly after 96 AGM) was standing down (as co-opted)
   but was nominated on the day to stand in the next committee;
\item Malcolm Clark standing down (2/3 rule)
   but was nominated on the day to stand in the next committee;
\item Kaveh Bazargan standing down (2/3 rule)
   but was nominated on the day to stand in the next committee.
\end{itemize}
Nominations had been received from Jonathan Fine and 
Dominik Wujastyk, and
The following members were also nominated on the day (according to the
ruling announced in the Chairman's statement): 
Kim Roberts, David Hardy and Roy Everett.

As fewer than 12 places were filled, all people nominated were elected
without vote.

\section{9. Report on Baskerville}
\section{10. \TeX nical services to members}

A printed report on Baskerville and \TeX nical services to members had
been distributed at the meeting. Sebastian Rahtz spoke briefly
introducing the items. They were accepted with no substantive comment.

\section{11. Motions proposed by members}

Jonathan Fine had proposed four motions to the meeting, they were
taken in turn, and voted on by paper ballot. The papers were in fact
taken in and counted at the end of all the motions, but these
minutes record the results by each motion. There were 19 attendees
at the meeting, and one proxy vote. Dominik Wujastyk volunteered
to count the votes.

\subsection{Motion 11a)}
    \begin{quote}
``This meeting hopes all members of UK TUG will be able to resolve
      or put to one side their personal differences, so that they can
      better cooperate for the common good.''\end{quote}

Jonathan spoke for the motion, and in particular suggested that a
meeting to celebrate Knuth's 64th birthday would help heal the
divisions in the community.  After some discussion as to whether this
was a suitable subject for a motion, and a failed procedural motion
put to leave this on the table, it was put to a vote and carried: 8
for and 4 against.

\subsection{Motion 11b)}
    \begin{quote}
    ``This meeting asks the Committee to produce a printed list of
      members of UK TUG, to be distributed to the members, for their
      personal use.  Any member may, if they so wish, not appear
      in the list.''\end{quote}

The discussion centered mainly on the data protection act, but it
seemed that it would be allowable to ask if members wanted to be added
to such a mailing list, although possibly not to directly use the
existing membership records for this purpose. However the motion
failed:
 8 for and 10 against.

\subsection{Motion 11c)}
    \begin{quote}
    ``This meeting asks the Committee to allow those persons who
      through UK TUG pay dues to TUG to indicate that they wish
      these dues to be held in trust, until the Committee of
      UK TUG can be satisfied that TUG's financial affairs are in
      proper order.''\end{quote}

Jonathan withdrew this motion for lack of time.

\subsection{Motion 11d)}
    \begin{quote}
    ``This meeting resolves that the position of Chair shall remain
      empty as from this AGM, until it can be filled by an election,
      to take place in the first quarter of 1998.''\end{quote}

  Jonathan outlined his objections to the conduct of the last two
  elections.  He was concerned that their conduct was probably
  unconstitutional, and believed he had been discriminated against.
  Robin Fairbairns referred the meeting to the points made under item 7.

The motion failed:  2 for and 18 against.

\section{12. The Future of UKTUG Meetings, and possible topics}

Philip Taylor asked for suggestions on the number of meetings per year
the group should hold, and for possible topics. Various numbers were
suggested with a consensus perhaps of something in the range 2--3.
Suggested topics were: `\TeX\ for interactive Documents' (otherwise
known as Con\TeX t for all); `\TeX\ in Publishing' and `\TeX\ in
Education'

There was discussion (principally involving Malcolm Clark and
Sebastian Rahtz) on whether UKTUG should consider hosting a future
larger meeting, perhaps Euro\TeX, or something tied to Knuth's 64th
Birthday.

\section{13. Any other business}

No items raised.

\end{Article}



