Attendance: Bob Rassa, Vincenzo Piuri, Pasquale Daponte, Ruth Dyer, Frank Reyes, John Schmalzel

I2MTC Board Meeting

Oct. 9, 2007

Attendance: Bob Rassa, Pasquale DaPonte, Ruth Dyer, Frank Reyes, Kang Lee, John Schmalzel, Judy Scharmann

Guests: Vincenzo Piuri, Serge Demidenko

Bob Rassa opened meeting.

Bob began by discussing an issue relating to authors going to the web site and not being able to submit. The 2008 Call for Papers in the I&M Magazine, the link went to the old site. The new 2008 site is hosted differently, so the authors couldn't submit. Chris Dyer is working to resolve this issue by the end of the day. (Link did get fixed. Chris took care of the problem.) Due to this issue, the deadline to submit abstracts has been extended from Oct. 15 to Dec. 1. (Subsequent to the meeting: final decision is Nov. 15, hard deadline is Nov 22, notification Jan 22, papers due March 22.)

Review of Minutes: Moved by Ruth Dyer, 2nd by Frank Reyes, to accept minutes as corrected. (Action Item #3 should read "Registration status for authors implemented into the conference site, not registration site.

Board Appointments: Bob indicated that someone was going off the Board; he believed it was Ruth Dyer. She can be re-appointed. Kang also expired, but can be re-appointed. Frank Reyes expires in 2008. President needs to re-appoint.

IEEE Rules on Conferences: Bob review several points relating to IEEE rules on conferences. He discussed the issue of branding. The name of any conference is as follows: Year, IEEE, name of conference. (2007 IEEE I2MTC) IEEE likes this for sorting purposes. On any of their forms, the year must appear first. Whenever we publicize, we must use IEEE logo. Also talked about the fact that IEEE wants us to do marketing for IEEE membership at conferences. They’ll supply people.

Review of I2MTC history/statistics:

2007 I2MTC has about 400 attendees.

670 abstracts submitted, 502 papers accepted, and 472 papers published. See attached spreadsheet for additional stats.

I2MTC Logos: Bob has high-resolution logos. He has asked his company to create some lower resolution logos. He will send them out to the board.

ACTION ITEM: Bob Rassa - send lower resolution logos to the board. (AI-0007)

IMTC Board Charter: Bob asked that we review that document for changes.

ACTION ITEM: Bob Rassa - Send IMTC Board Charter to the board. (AI-0008)

IMTC Reviews:

2006 Sorrento: Pasquale DaPonte

Conference is closed. Bob thanked Pasquale for the fine work. Pasquale requested that the open Action Item for President Dyer to send a thank you letter be completed. Judy indicated that President Dyer had intention to complete it. Surplus: $76,000.

ACTION ITEM: Steve Dyer - write a letter indicating closing and thanking chair. (AI-0009)

2007 Warsaw: Roman Morawski absent, Bob Rassa

This conference is not yet closed. There are 2 student award checks that have not been cashed. Janet has tried to make email contact, but no response. One problem is these students may not have a bank account and therefore have no way of cashing the checks. Vin said that there is a new system set up at IEEE. It is a "cash card" that would take the place of checks. Like a "gift card". Projected surplus from conference is $50,000.

ACTION ITEM: Bob Rassa - look into the "cash card" possibility at IEEE. (AI-0010)

2008 Victoria, BC: Bob Rassa

Plans are in place. No big presentation, had that at last meeting. Bob stressed that it was important to let people know via the website about the best way to make travel plans. Fly into Vancouver and book another flight to Victoria Island. If you book them as one, it is very expensive. People need to be alerted to this fact.

2009 Singapore: Serge Demidenko

(See attached presentations) Serge presented update for Sen Gupta. Dates for the conference are May 12-14, 2009. Sponsorship: I&M Society, 60%; IEEE Singapore Section, 20%; Singapore Polytechnic, 20%. We have a lot of support from Singapore Polytechnic. There are no changes in committee. Bob wanted to clarify that Janet Liddiard was the Treasurer. Sudhir Jhajharia, of Singapore Polytechnic will not have check writing authority. He will assist Janet, translate, etc.

Discussion on the importance of tutorials. May 11 will be the tutorials.

Currently, there is not a chapter in Singapore. There are more than 20 section members, petition is written for a new chapter and will be submitted.

Bob asked if committee was made up of IEEE members. IEEE encourages RAB cooperation. There was a discussion about the section having a small financial share to support their involvement. This is not up to individual conferences. The board and the I&M AdCom need to agree. Alessandro pointed out that we already voted it in. We discussed co-sponsorship in Warsaw and already approved it in AdCom in Warsaw. Minutes reflect that. The 2009 progress report shows a 60/20/20 split. (See attached Progress Report).

Welcome Reception will be on 11th or 12th. Both have pros and cons. Historically, it is held on the evening of 1st day to get more participation. And, that is our tradition.

Bob pointed out that the registration fees listed were not consistent with what was in place. Fees are established by the board and it must be followed and reflected. Ruth pointed out that the difference between member and non-member fees must cover membership costs.

Good thing about the hotel: we are only committing ourselves for conference facilities, not room block. The hotel is very expensive, $260++USD. There are many lesser expensive hotels in the area. We should look at getting room blocks set up at those hotels. Any room for bargaining the $260? No, that is final. Once we sign contracts, room rate will be set. It cannot go up.

ACTION ITEM: Bob Rassa and Serge Demidenko - visit Singapore and look at the facilities. (AI-0011)

ACTION ITEM: Serge Demidenko - check to see if we can get other hotel contracts and room blocks (without penalty) since the Copthorn is so high. (AI-0012)

Serge pointed out a 2nd option in Santech City. Lots of hotels nearby. It is on waterfront. Bob said it was too big for us. But it can serve as a back-up plan.

Dinner will be at Esplanade. (See attached presentation). It is a 10 minute bus ride. Bob pointed out that buses for that many people will be expensive and we may lose people. Night Safari is a possibility. An unusual experience. Also a bus ride to get there.

Serge pointed out that Singapore is 3rd best in the world for meetings. Best in Asia. It will be a great meeting. Singapore has excellent public transportation.

They want contracts signed ASAP. Judy will send Bob the proposal.

ACTION ITEM: Judy Scharmann - Send Bob the 2009 hotel proposal. (completed). (AI-0013)

Also attached: The I2MTC 2009 proposed budget and the I2MTC 2009 Call for Papers.

2010: Austin. John Schmalzel and Ruth Dyer

(See attached presentation). John thought attendance would be up in Austin. Bob pointed out that historically, US IMTC's were not well attended. John wants to grow by offering good product, more "trade show" type. Ruth said she definitely wants to avoid what happened in Vail, hard to get to so attendance was way down. Room rates were high.
Room rate in Austin will be $180-190.

Space looks too small for our needs. Plenary of 500+ people. We need a minimum of 30,000 to 35,000 sq. ft. The 23,000 here might not be enough. John will look at that.

Future sites:

There was much discussion regarding future sites. Go to China? When? Bob said that we can't wait 5 years to go back to Europe because the majority of our attendees are from Europe. Austria is a possible site. Brazil is possible site. Plan:

2009: Singapore

2010: Austin

2011: Austria or China

2012: China or Austria

2013: Brazil? Hungary?

Old Business: none

New Business: much discussion on GOLD members. (Graduate of Last Decade) Do we need to offer some incentive to them? To get them to attend? Bob said most attendees are already GOLD members. John wants some positive move toward this. Do we give them lower rate? Alessandro thinks we should give an award to GOLD member. After much discussion,

MOTION: Ruth Dyer moved to add a GOLD initiative to future IMTC's and let the Conference Committee facilitate. 2nd by Kang Lee. Motion passed. (AI-0014)

Next meeting: Victoria Island, BC, May, 2008 Meeting will be the afternoon on Thursday of I2MTC.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Scharmann

ACTION ITEMS

1. Bob Rassa - send lower resolution logos to the board.
2. Bob Rassa - Send IMTC Board Charter to the board.
3. Steve Dyer - write a letter indicating closing and thanking chair.
4. Bob Rassa - look into the "cash card" possibility at IEEE.
5. Bob Rassa and Serge Demidenko - visit Singapore and look at the facilities.
6. Serge Demidenko - check to see if we can get other hotel contracts and room blocks (without penalty) since the Copthorn is so high.
7. Judy Scharmann - Send Bob the 2009 hotel proposal. (completed).

MOTIONS

Ruth Dyer moved to add a GOLD initiative to future IMTC's and let the Conference Committee facilitate. 2nd by Kang Lee. Motion passed.