Minutes of the Cybernetics Society Council 23 July 2013, at Kings College, London
Present: Martin Smith, D J Stewart, William Pratt, Nick Green, David Dewhurst,
Apologies: Janos Korn, Ranulph Glanville, Sally Ingram, Tony Booth,
1. The Minutes of the previous Council meeting of 24th July 2013 were accepted.
2. Matters Arising. None, not discussed below
3. Web Site. There was a vigorous debate between some members as to the merits of a
longer or shorter front page. The Webmaster would appreciate members of the Council
being more vigorous in practically implementing some of the modifications they
theoretically advocate. He gave an outline of the elementary steps needed to do this. It
was agreed that M Smith, D Dewhurst and S Ingram would visit N Green at 2pm Sunday
1st September 2013 in a session to ensure they had practically mastered these elements.
A future session could be available to Cybernetics Society members who had expressed
an interest in contributing to the site and also to S Ingram should 1st September be
inconvenient. N Green proposed that officers of the Council each have individual pages to
report on their activities for the Society. This option would be reconsidered after the
next web-site meeting.
4. Use of current balance. The Treasurer noted that all our money was now in a single
account to which there was on-line access. Best use of the balance should emerge more
clearly from the meetings planned through the year. It would be inappropriate to spend a
disproportionate amount on room bookings.
5. Organisation. Room booking at King’s continued to be difficult and, periodically,
expensive. Free nearby alternatives, such as the Savoy Tup meeting room, were available
given about two months notice. It was noted that Conway Hall, in Red Lion Square, has
suitable rooms for hire and their charges are reasonable. The Royal Institution, in
Albemarle Street, is expensive but might be usefully prestigious on some occasions.
The Society is invited to use Brooke Coombes House for Council meetings and possibly
other small meetings (maximum 10 people). This offer was accepted.
The address is 52 Mountfield Road, Ealing, W5 2NQ - 300 metres from Ealing Broadway
Station.
Council members and officers, where reasonably appropriate, would seek to identify
specific dates and venues, minuted in advance, to better secure achievements of targets
and would nominate less involved members to nudge or progress-chase by the due date
in cases where progress was not apparent. The effectiveness of this would be reviewed
before the next AGM.
.Accordingly Council members (and other Cybernetics Society members giving notice)
would meet at Brooke Coombes house on Sunday 6th October at 2pm. to address the
issues in William Pratt’s ‘Continuing Professional Development’ paper. The existing
syllabuses on the website would contribute to judgements about the appropriate corpus
of cybernetic knowledge at various levels.
It was suggested that more commitment to using the Cybcom network would be useful.
Those attending would aim to pre-circulate ideas rather than simply tabling them.
On Saturday 24th May 2014, also at Brooke Coombes house at 2pm Council Members and
other interested Cybernetics Society members would meet to review progress in
planning the AGM and 2014 Conference.
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6. a) Annual Conference. It was too late to guarantee a full programme this year and
the ACS were holding a conference in Bolton. Planning for 2014 (provisionally Saturday
13th September) would begin at the meeting on 6th October 2013.
b) Discussion lunches/symposia would be held at Salieri’s on the Strand from 2pm on
14th September 2013, 4th Jan and 12th April 2014. As many members as possible are
encouraged to attend.
c) It was noted that Dr Magnus Ramage was now editor of Kybernetes and that we
should use this channel more to publicise and report events as well as appropriate
papers.
7. Alex Andrew – Alex’s enormous contribution over many decades was discussed and
the Council expressed their appreciation. Some elements are outlined in the President’s
report at the following AGM. The eulogy given by George Wallis would be sent to Nick
Green for our website.
8. Bolton Conference of the American Cybernetics Society. This was publicised on the
website and D Dewhurst would approach R Glanville and B Scott for a report to go on it.
9. Date of next Council Meeting Tue 22 July 2014 6pm if none notified earlier. It would
take place at Brooke Coombes House.
The meeting closed 7.53pm.
(AGM below – P3)
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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Cybernetics Society
King’s College, London, 23rd July 2013
1. Minutes of the previous AGM. Item 7, first paragraph, last line – gap in ‘about’
corrected, then accepted.
2. Matters arising. From a phone call and their written communication the FCA now
seemed clear that our Registered Office is at Brooke Coombes House and knew the
address of the Treasurer. However it was suggested that the Treasurer send an email
reinforcement of this so that we could prove that the Cybernetics Society had correctly
communicated this. It was legally necessary that all communications used the
appropriate wording.
3. Election of President and Council Members. Professor Martin Smith relinquished the
chair in favour of Dr DJ Stewart, the Vice President. Dr David Dewhurst nominated
Martin Smith for President and Dr William Pratt seconded this. He was the only person
nominated and was elected nem. con. He resumed the Chair.
DJ Stewart, Tony Booth, Nick Green, Sally Ingram and Dr Bernard Scott were proposed
by W Pratt and seconded by D Dewhurst. As vacancies remained and there were no other
nominations they were duly elected.
It was agreed Tony Booth become a Trustee, subject to his acceptance.
4. Treasurer’s Report. The accounts and written report were received and adopted
without alteration. Following the resolution at the 2001 AGM to disapply the
provisions requiring audit of the accounts and the accounts not having been audited, it
was noted that the conditions of that resolution still apply.
5. It was confirmed that the full address, Brook Coombs House, 52 Mountfield Road, Ealing,
W5 2NQ be used in publicity and general correspondence by the Society. However care
should be exercised. The desirability of using our letterhead, with a ‘please reply’ at the top
was emphasised. Correspondence with the bank would go directly to and from the
Treasurer.
6. Secretary’s Report. The generality of activity for the Cybernetics Society remained
very much the same although the number of enquiries had slightly reduced. A little more
work had been done on membership lists but a full utilisation of information held by DJ
Stewart remained outstanding. The three symposia were enjoyed by all those present and
the Secretary looked forward to more regular higher attendance by members in the
coming year.
The Secretary noted that the award of Nobel Prize in Economics to Alvin Roth, of the
American Cybernetics Society, reflected work on the possible variety of forms of market
mechanisms the significance of which was not generally appreciated.
Janos Korn’s new book, ‘A Change of Paradigm’ was due out in December and was
beginning to appear in search engines.
7. President’s Report. On the 31st May this year Dr Alex M Andrew died quite suddenly
from cancer. He had been a highly respected member, trustee and significant contributor
to the society as well as cybernetics in general over a long and distinguished career. He
was the author of six books and many papers on cybernetics and related topics. I had the
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honour to attend his funeral and the reception at his home. This gave me the opportunity
to offer my condolences to his family and friends on behalf of the Cybernetics Society and
of WOSC, at the request of WOSC’s Director General Professor Raul Espejo. Alex had
preceded Raul in that post.
At Alex’s funeral Dr George Wallace a former close colleague of Alex’s at Reading
University gave a eulogy. I have asked Alex’s family and Dr Wallace if the society may
publish the eulogy on our website and they have agreed. I have asked Dr Wallace if he
would like to provide an obituary. I have also asked if there is any material that the
former colleagues and family would like us to publish we would do so, for example a
complete bibliography. If any member has any material that might be of interest please let
me know. We have just published Alex’s very fine talk entitled “In Defence of Strong AI”
on the website and I commend it to everyone.
I hope we can publish an obituary for Alex on the site soon.
When Wiley were looking for a writer for their ten-page entry on Cybernetics for their
£1,300 five volume Encyclopaedia of Computer Science and Engineering they asked Alex. I
had the privilege of reviewing the article for Wiley, on Alex’s recommendation. I would
like to publish this on our site and will look into the possibility.
I urge all officers of the society to update their profiles as a service to members and the
many visitors to the site. Several members will have documents and information that
should be on the website for all to see. I will undertake to do this by scanning originals or
photocopies and using the excellent, fast, free, easy, accurate service provided by
www.onlineocr.net to create text files for publication. However I encourage members to
do this as well. I am very keen to see much more on our site on Stafford Beer and Gordon
Pask for example.
On a happier note, we have to hand this year’s Treasurer’s report. Bill has done a fine job
chasing down many niggling details to enable him to confidently state that he now has the
true picture of our finances which are most healthy. He notes that this healthy balance
gives us the freedom to do more.
The Treasurer has submitted a paper concerning the development of society policy on
continuing professional development. I will be interested to see and hear any suggestions
for future developments.
The Secretary organised three long lunch meetings on Saturday 13 October, 5 January and
Saturday 13 April. They took place from 2-4.30 pm at Salieri’s Restaurant, 376 Strand.
Future meeting dates have been agreed.
Viewers of the Discovery Science channel in June may have spotted me being interviewed
on “Sci-fi Saved my Life- Terminator” giving my opinion on the likelihood of robots
attempting to exterminate mankind. I shared the platform with Professor Kevin Warwick
of Reading University who gave his very different opinion.
Last year I noted the details of a local pub, the Savoy Tup, which was advertising free
room hire. It is just a few yards from King’s College/Somerset House on the other side of
Waterloo Bridge. I attempted to book a room for this AGM and Council meeting, but I
needed to have booked some two months in advance. We may meet there next year.
8. Next AGM 22nd July 2014 c. 7.15pm. following the Council Meeting at Brooke Coombs
House, 52 Mountfield Road, Ealing, W5 2NQ (tube Ealing Broadway, 3 minutes walk).
The meeting finished at 8.26pm.
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