SIAM Activity Group on Geometric Design Business Meeting Minutes 13 October 2015 Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel The Canyons Room Salt Lake City, Utah 4:45 - 5:30pm meeting minutes author - Dan Gonsor (in place of Gudrun Albrecht) Activity Group Officers Tom Peters, Chair - present Stephen Mann, Vice Chair - present Dan Gonsor, Program Director - present Gudrun Albrecht, Secretary - not present Tom Peters conducted the meeting The slides that Tom worked from are provided (GD-15-Biz-TJP-2.pptx). These notes will not repeat the content of the slides. There were about 40 - 50 people in attendance. The Geometric Design activity group is in danger of being discontinued by SIAM due to lack of interest (reducing numbers of conference attendees and SIAG membership). There is a real chance there won't be an activity group or conference in 2019. What can be done? Increase student participation. Tom asked that each member in the audience try to recruit two students, and noted that SIAM waives the membership and SIAG fee for up to two students for each active member. Increase visibility of SIAG SIAM News publishes articles that are of informative content, and Tom pointed out that it is a relatively easy process. Particpate in SIAM Blogs. Increase conference attendance Option 1 - Have the 2017 conference held with the SIAM annual meeting in Pittsburgh (we need a decision on this by December). pros - Should ensure continued survival of activity group and conference to 2019 thus buying more time to firm up viability of SIAG. Will increase visibility of SIAG. Option 2 - continue with joint SPM conference 2017 conference location comments from audience, and responses from officers and SIAM (Bill Kolata). - Washington DC (or Arlington area which would be cheaper) Jan Vandenbrande - College Station (Scott Schaefer) - Boston (too expensive) - San Antonio (Larry Schumaker, has organized several conferences there) - having conference with annual meeting may be attractive to students (Tom Lyche) - Why would I want to go to Pittsburgh? (Larry Schumaker) - Should we have a short course? (Tom Peters) Other topic Scott Schaefer did not like having four parallel sessions at the current conference Tom emphasized contributing to SIAM News and recruiting students. Bill Kolota asked that conference attendees complete the survey when they receive it. Last conference only about 40 of 150 attendees completed the survey. It is valuable feedback for SIAM.