The 2005 Annual General Meeting of the British Computer Society Fortran Specialist Group was held at 11.00 am on Thursday, 2^nd June 2005.

(i). Apologies for absence:

Apologies for absence were received from Ron Bell, Miles Ellis, Carol Hewlett, Philip Kraven, Alistair Mills, Ben Ralston, Lawrie Schonfelder, Jane Sleightholm and Lynne Sturgess.

(ii). Minutes of previous AGM:

The minutes of the 2004 AGM were accepted as a correct record. The minutes were approved unanimously (proposed by John Reid, seconded by Ian Chivers).

(iii). Matters Arising:

There were no matters arising.

(iv). Chairman's Report:

The chairman's report was tabled. The chairman drew attention to a number of topics:
(1) November 2004 had seen the publication of Fortran 2003. The UK participation had been led by John Reid and David Muxworthy and the Chairman thanked them formally on behalf of the Fortran user community.

(2) The possibility of a joint event with the Computer Conservation Society in 2007 — John Young and the Chairman had attended the Computer Conservation Society AGM and had proposed that the CCS and FSG should work together to organise a celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Fortran in 2007 - this item was to be revisited under item (x) later.

(3) The possibility of a presentation on Fortran to the Specialist Groups Assembly to be held on 25 October 2005 — it had been proposed that this presentation should be given at either the Autumn 2004 and Spring 2005 meetings but pressures on the agendas had meant that this had not happened.

(4) The payment of a fee for affiliate membership of the group to those not already members of the BCS — a single list of members of the Group had still not been obtained and hence no progress had been made with this - this item was to be revisited under item (vi) later.

The report was approved unanimously (proposed by John Young, seconded by David Muxworthy).

John Reid and John Young thanked the Chairman for his efforts throughout the year.

(v). Treasurer's Report and SG Development Fund Report:

The Treasurer gave a verbal report:
He had taken over from his predecessor after last year's AGM and BCS HQ had taken over the accounts for the group shortly afterwards. As stated by John Stephens at last year's AGM much of the work of the Treasurer had been be eliminated as BCS HQ handled the accounts centrally. The Group's bank account was no longer required and the main task of the Treasurer was that of checking claims for expenses before forwarding these to HQ.

The annual accounts had been received the previous week and copies of the six sheets were handed out. Having the final sheets had made the position clearer though the full details were still not understood. There had been a small deficit (~ £390) on the Income & Expenditure account, as opposed to a small surplus (~£90) last year. It was thought that a bid for funding to cover this should be made to BCS HQ and the Treasurer would investigate this.

The main expenditure of the group had been on the ISO WG5 and associated BSI meetings. This was covered by a separate account and a grant of £5380 had been awarded in February 2005. Care was needed with claims to ensure that funding was allocated from the correct account and an effort was being made to check this year's accounts to clarify the situation.

(The finalised accounts are now available in PDF format. For comparison with last year's figures the Balance Sheet is on page 5 and the Income & Expenditure Statement is on page 4.)

David Muxworthy (in his role as BSI Fortran Convenor) presented a report on the Specialist Groups Development Fund Programme. David Briggs commented that he was amazed at the way the standards process worked, with Fortran seemingly teetering from one standard to another. David Muxworthy replied that the process worked as with most other standards with the Group supporting UK requirements.

The subject of funding for meetings of the ISO Working Group was raised. The Department of Trade and Industry through the British Standards Institute did not necessarily reimburse attendees for their full expenses. The Treasurer felt that the Group ought to cover any shortfall from the SG Development Fund. This was supported by David Muxworthy and the other attendees agreed. It was decided that anyone being out of pocket from the meeting in Delft should submit a claim through the Treasurer.

The two reports were unanimously accepted (proposed by David Briggs, seconded by John Reid).

(vi). Membership Secretary's Report:

The Membership Secretary had little to add to the information from June 2004 given in the tabled report, prepared by the Chairman in August 2004.

The matter of charging non-BCS members for membership of the group was raised again and David Briggs is to follow up with Lynne Sturgess (BCS HQ) to get consistent information to allow charging £10 to non-BCS members. Two inconsistent lists had been received from BCS HQ in mid-2004. The group should clarify and publicize what membership offered and arrange for BCS HQ to send out invoices to the appropriate Group members.

A discussion regarding the JISC e-mail list followed. This list had been closed at Christmas 2004 though the system appeared to be reluctant to die as David Briggs and David Muxworthy were still receiving "owner's" messages. David Briggs stated that the status ought to be regularized.

(vii). Web Editor's Report:

The web editor's report was tabled and he provided a verbal summary of the key points:
(1) The Web Editor had been asked to be a judge in the annual BCS Specialist Group website competition. The Fortran site, although included in the competition, had not been amongst those mentioned in the results.

(2) The group's site has over 300 files on it including minutes from AGMs back to 2000 and minutes from the first meeting of the group in January 1970.

The report was accepted unanimously (proposed by David Muxworthy, seconded by John Young).

David Briggs and David Muxworthy congratulated the Web Editor on his efforts.

(viii). Future activities of the Group:

Formal discussion of this item was deferred until after item (ix). As this was now a recurring event at AGMs it was determined that the Secretary would move the item in agendas for future years!

(ix). Election of Officers:

All the officers resigned and elections for new officers took place. There were no nominations before the AGM. The Chairman proposed that existing officers should stand again. In addition it was suggested that the other attendees should be elected onto the committee as "members without portfolio". Both proposals were accepted unanimously. The offices and committee for the year 2005/2006 are thus:

(x). Future activities of the Group ((viii) re-visited)

Aside from the AGMs the expectation was that there would be little activity in 2005 and 2006. Major activities in 2007 were expected to be connected with the 50^th anniversaries of both the BCS and Fortran.

The 50^th anniversary of Fortran was discussed with David Muxworthy wondering whether IBM would repeat their efforts of the 25^th anniversary and produce a film covering this anniversary. John Young suggested that IBM should be approached to see if they would sponsor an event. John Reid also suggested approaching NAG.

With regard to Fortran standardisation the ISO WG5 meeting was due to be hosted in the UK in 2007. A lengthy discussion took place about where the meeting should be held. There had been some correspondence with BCS HQ prior to the AGM to see if they would be interested in providing rooms at a discount, or even free of charge, to allow the ISO WG5 meeting to be held at the BCS London Office. David Muxworthy and John Reid would provide draft requirements for rooms and equipment to allow the Chairman to approach BCS HQ to see if the Society would provide this support. The alternative, in the absence of support from the BCS, was considered to be King's College London.

Use of Fortran in the BCS Programming Competition as a means of advertising the scope of Fortran was mentioned. Sam Ellis had approached Pablo Gomez in BCS HQ in the previous year to see if Fortran could be used - if a brief description of Fortran including the specification of the PC that would be required to host it could be provided BCS could make a decision as to whether it would be viable. It was felt that if this went ahead it would be advisable to be able to provide at least one team to enter the competition. Sam Ellis took an action to obtain some example questions for the members of the SG to look at to see if anyone would be willing to enter a team. If participants could be identified the matter would be pursued.

(xi). Any Other Business:

There was no other business.

(xii) Date of next Annual General Meeting:

The date of the next meeting was discussed and Thursday June 8^th 2006 was agreed.

This concluded the formal AGM business. After a break for lunch, two presentations were given:
(1) "Co-arrays for parallel programming and the other features that the WG5 Meeting in May 2005 decided to include in the revision of Fortran 2003", by John Reid, ISO WG5 convenor.
(2) "Parameterized modules, BITS, and other features that may or may not be included in the revision of Fortran 2003", by David Muxworthy, BSI Fortran convenor.

These were followed by a discussion on the topics for inclusion in the revision of Fortran 2003.

The chairman then closed the meeting. He thanked everyone for coming, in particular the speakers. He hoped that the meeting had been useful and said that the reports would be posted on the website together with the minutes.

Note

It is still possible to propose requirements or amendements for consideration by WG5 at its next meeting in February 2006. The deadline for submissions to the BSI Fortran Panel via its Convenor David Muxworthy is Friday 16 December 2005.

Comments on this or any other of the Group's pages should be sent by e-mail to the BCS FSG Web Editor, Peter Crouch.