ATTENDANCE:

ACIA Enric Plaza

ADUIS Vadim Stefanuk (RAAI) as proxy

AEPIA Francisco Garijo, José Cuena

AFIA Oliviero Stock, Pietro Torasso

ARC Nathalie Chaignaud

BAAI Frank Van Harmelen (NVKI) as proxy

BAIA Danail Dochev

BCS.SGES M.A. Bramer

CSCI Olga Stepankova

DAIS Oana Mateescu, Tomas Stidsen

EETN Costas Spyropoulos (Candidate association Greece)

GI/KI Otthein Herzog, Wolfgang Wahlster

IAAI Amnon Meisels, Martin Golumbic

LIKS-AIS Vytautas Cyras (Candidate association Lithuania)

NAIS Carl Gustaf Jansson

NJSZT Peter Koch

NVKI Frank Van Harmelen, Yao-Hun Tan

OEGAI Werner Horn, Gerhard Widmer

RAAI Vadim Stefanuk

SAIS Carl G. Jansson, Erik Sandewall

SGAICO Boi Faltings

SLAIS Ivan Bratko, Nada Lavrac

SSAISB Roger Evans

SSKI SAV A. Capkovic

1. OPENING OF THE SESSION BY NICOLAAS MARS

2. MINUTES OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 7 JULY 1995

The minutes were approved without changes.

3.CHAIRMAN REPORT

Nicolaas Mars has distributed a copy of his report.

4. SECRETARY REPORT

The travel award allocation results were reported. 91 submissions were received from 31 countries. It was decided to assign an award of 400 ECU to authors of accepted papers in the main conference. For authors from Eastern Countries the grant for an accepted paper in the main conference shall be 650 ECU and 400 ECU for others. In summary, with the available resources only 31 awards could be granted according with the following table:

SUBMISSIONS: Western EuropeanCountries 38 (41,75 %)

AWARDS GRANTED: 21 (67,8 %) with accepted papers in the main conference

ECUs ASSIGNED: 8650 ECUs (62,23 %)

SUBMISSIONS: Eastern European Countries 47 (51,64 %)

AWARDS GRANTED: 8 (25,8 %)

4 with accepted papers in the main conference

1 with 2 papers in workshop

3 other awards

ECUs ASSIGNED: 4200 ECUs (30,21 %)

SUBMISSIONS: Other countries 6 (6,59 %)

AWARDS GRANTED: 2 (6,4 %) with accepted papers in the main conference

ECUs ASSIGNED: 1050 ECUs (7,55 %)

TOTAL SUBMISSIONS: 91, TOTAL AWARDS GRANTED: 31

TOTAL ECUs ASSIGNED: 13900

5. TREASURER REPORT

The ECCAI Chairman, Nicolaas Mars, acting as Treasurer, presented the situation of the ECCAI finances at the moment and distributed a copy of the financial statement.

6. ECAI-96 REPORT

Maria Toth, Organization Chair, reported the results of the Conference in terms of attendance and expenses. Wolfgang Wahlster, Conference Program Chair, reported the results of the Conference. It was reported that ECAI was the AI Conference, compared with AAAI and PRICAI, with lower acceptance rate: 456 papers were submitted and 133 were accepted (29%), the other conferences acceptance rates were 30% and 32%, respectively. The Program Committee consisted of 35 members, with 7 members from Eastern Europe, 2 members from outside Europe and two previous Program Committee Chairs.

The review process was described based on the assignment of every paper to 2 PC members, who were responsible of getting a review. 1000 reviews were written by 350 reviewers. Additional reviews were provided when there was a tie in the decision of a paper. Controversial paper decisions were discussed in the PC meeting held 9-10 March in Budapest. Other statistics were presented like the distribution of authors per country. The contribution of 25 authors from outside Europe and the presentation of international author teams in 9 papers was highlighted. The multiple submission management policy was discussed. It was observed that 95 submissions to ECAI were also submitted to AAAI (77) and PRICAI. 16 accepted papers for ECAI were withdrawn because authors decided to present their papers elsewhere. Finally, the best paper award for Murray Shanahan was reported.

7. ECAI-98 REPORT

The current situation of ECAI-98 organization was presented by Roger Evans. Henri Prade was proposed as ECAI-98 PC Chair. The nomination was accepted unanimously.

8. APPLICATIONS FOR ECCAI MEMBERSHIP

EETN from Greece, LANO from Latvia, and LIKS-AIS from Lithuania had applied for ECCAI membership. The Chairman summarized the characteristics of every application and proposed the acceptance, since all of them satisfy the conditions for admission. The three associations were accepted as new ECCAI members.

9. SELECTION OF THE ECAI-2000 SITE

Only one bid had been received: the one from Berlin, Germany. Professor Herzog from GI/KI summarized the proposal included in an excellent document, distributed before the Gneral Assembly to all Member Societes of ECCAI. It was accepted unanimously.

10. SELECTION OF ACAI-97 SITE

Only one bid was received: the one from a Lithuania organization. There were concerns that the draft proposal was not detailed enough. The provisional approval was decided until the reception of a more detailed proposal before 1st November, which will be decided finally by the new Board.

11. ECCAI DIRECTORY OF EUROPEAN AI

The Chairman reported about the work performed to produce this document. It was emphasized the interest in keeping it adequately up to date. To produce successive versions the association should ask permission from their members to include their data in the directory. At this moment of the Assembly the Chairman asked permission to advance the item 14 of the agenda related to the new Board Election so that it was possible to count the votes simultaneously to the discussion of items 12 and 13.

12. AI COMMUNICATIONS REPORT

A discussion was started on the future of AICom. No clear agreement was produced to decide its transformation to a scientific journal (that could be electronic) or to a simple European Newsletter. The decision was postponed for the new ECCAI Board. Erik Sandewall's proposal for a electronic publication scheme sponsored by ECCAI was welcomed by the delegates. The new ECCAI publication could complement AICom, would be based on the Internet and differ from conventional journals not only with respect to the medium of transmission, but also with respect to how the submission and refereering process is organized.

A statement by the Editor-in-Chief.

13. THE FUTURE OF ECCAI AND ITS MEMBERS

This item was adressed in the written report "Downsizing ECCAI?" distributed by Nicolaas Mars. It was proposed that for the year 1997 membership of a national society in ECCAI will require payment of a yearly membership fee to ECCAI.

The Board proposed the following fee structure:

Category 1: societies in countries of European Union: full fee (3 or 4 ECU)

Category 2: societies in Associated member countries of the EU:

fee reduced to 40%

Category 3: other countries fee waived (no shipping of hardcopies)

14. ELECTION OF ECCAI BOARD

Two candidates were presented for Chairmanship: Gustav Jansson and Wolfgang Wahlster. After the individual presentation of both candidates, the voting results were:

Wolfgang Wahlster 40 votes

Carl Gustaf Jansson 2 votes

Invalid votes 2 votes

Then, the voting for the remaining 5 board positions was performed. The results of the first round were:

Walter Daelemans 39 votes

Nada Lavrac 37 votes

Pietro Torasso 30 votes

Jean-Paul Barthes 27 votes

Carl Gustaf Jansson 24 votes

Vadim Stefanuk 24 votes

Yao-Hun Tan 22 votes

There was a tie for the 5th place between Jansson and Stefanuk. There was a second voting round to decide between both candidates with the following results:

Carl Gustaf Jansson 21 votes

Vadim Stefanuk 20 votes

Thus, the new board is:

Wolfgang Wahlster Chairman

Walter Daelemans

Nada Lavrac

Pietro Torasso

Jean-Paul Barthes

Carl Gustaf Jansson

15. TRANSFER OF CHAIRMANSHIP

Nicolaas Mars transferred his role to Wolfgang Wahlster.

16. BUDGET FOR 1996/97

Postponed for ECCAI Board Meeting and next General Assembly.

José Cuena