Minutes of the 2000 Risk Theory Society Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 4:45 by President Rob Hoyt.

The following documents were distributed to members: 

Minutes: President Hoyt drew attention to several of the high points of the previous year's minutes.  After revisions to reflect attendance and membership information, the revised minutes of the 1999 Business Meeting were approved.

Attendance/Membership: The 2000 Risk Theory Seminar was held April 14-16 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The program consisted of nine papers presented by 13 individuals (20 total authors or co-authors with seven not attending). Eight presenters were new RTS members and five were current RTS members. After the 2000 Seminar there were 73 members of RTS. Seven members lost their memberships for failure to attend the 2000 Seminar (A. Barkume, J. Ibarra-Salazar, S. Harrington, Y. Kahane, J. Ligon, J. Ruser, C. Smith).

Treasurer's Report: Mike Smith presented the report.  He noted that recently the inflows approximated the outflows on the RTS books.  He also solicited suggestions for a third contributor, since the RTS lost the financial support of the Alliance of American Insurers five years ago, and the treasury balance has been slowly declining since that time.  He also noted that, if ARIA were to give the RTS interest on our outstanding balances, the Society would benefit.Treasurer Smith also drew attention to the Society's travel reimbursement policy, and noted that he could have a bound copy of the Seminar Proceedings prepared for any of the members, although at that member's expense.  The members of the Society in attendance then expressed their continued, and collective, appreciation to Treasurer Smith for a job well done.

Meeting Arrangements: Georges Dionne commented briefly on the arrangements for next year's meetings, which are to be held at the University of Montreal.  Robert Gagne will be in charge of local arrangements at the 2001 meeting.  Discussion ensued regarding changing of the meeting dates in the future from mid-April to mid-May, but there was no obvious consensus on the change.

Site Selection for 2002: Steve D'Arcy  nominated the University of Illinois, which won by acclamation.

Officer Elections:

            Nominations for Secretary of the Risk Theory Society were as follows:

After statements of support were voiced for each candidate by Society members, an election was held.  George Dionne will be Secretary of the Risk Theory Society during the coming year, Keith Crocker will be President, and Rob Hoyt will be the Past President.

Recognition of New Life Members: Under the current rules of the Society for life membership, there are no members qualifying for life membership this year.

Other Business: Dick Butler moved that we not change the rules of membership for the Society except in situations where the meetings are held outside of  North America.  Discussion ensued, after which the motion passed by a unanimous vote.  The discussion then turned to the issue of overseas meetings.  There seemed to be a consensus amongst the membership in attendance that more overseas meetings of the Seminar would be a good idea, although concerns were voiced about adverse effects on meeting attendance.In a somewhat different vein, several members expressed concern about the late arrival of several papers for this year's Seminar.  The decision was to post the papers on a web site (in *.pdf format) rather than to send them as email attachments, as was done for this year's meeting.The assembled membership then expressed their appreciation to Dick Butler, the local organizer, for the fine job he had done in orchestrating the 2000 Seminar of the Risk Theory Society.  Well-deserved applause ensued, after which local organizer Butler gave the membership directions to dinner.

The meeting adjourned at 5:25.