Minutes

For the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Student Chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) 1^st General Meeting on September 22, 2005 in the Isenberg School of Management, room 112, starting at 4:30PM E.S.T.

 2004-2005 Academic Year Officers Present:

• President:    Tina Wakolbinger
• Vice President:    Shenghan Xu
• Secretary:    Anh Nguyen   

    With Webmaster:    Zugang (Leo) Liu

New Members:

Trisha Woolley, Deanna Bean, Baris Hasdemir, David Bennett, Christine Leukel, Ngachi Lui

New Business:

1. Tina also recapped the 2004-2005 academic school year with slides of the seminar series and club activities.
2. Tina introduced INFORMS as well as the student chapter, its general purposes to potential members, membership, and each officer’s duty.
3. We then had nominations and elections for officer positions. The election results were as follows:
   • President:    Zugang (Leo) Liu
   • Vice President:    Qiang (Patrick) Qiang
   •  Secretary:    Trisha Woolley
   • Treasurer:    Christian Wernz

   Deanna Bean and Baris Hasdemir were assigned the position of webmasters.

4. Speaker series:

The start of the new speaker series organized by the UMASS Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter was announced.  During the Fall semester 2005, 7 professors from different departments in UMASS, University of Connecticut, and University of Vermont will present their research.  More information about the speaker series can be found at:

http://student.som.umass.edu/informs/
http://supernet.som.umass.edu/informs/speakernew.html

After each talk up to 4 members of the student chapter can join in a lunch with the presenter and our faculty advisor Professor Nagurney who substantially contributed to this speaker series as well as the startup of the student chapter.  The Department of Finance and Operations Management of the School of Management sponsors these lunches. The chapter is very thankful for the support provided by Professor Nagurney, the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of Finance and Operations Management and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund.  

The following students have already signed in to participate in the lunches:

• September 30   Lunch: Christian Wernz, Shenghan Xu
• October 14
• October 28
• November 4
• November 18
• December 2
• December 9

Members interested in participating in one of the lunches at the faculty club should contact Leo or Trisha at umassinforms@som.umass.edu.  Lunch assignments are coordinated by a first come first serve basis.

5. Activities: The group formed into smaller groups and brainstormed ideas of group activities. Some of the suggested activities are:

• Company Visits – see OR/MS in practice

• Bowling Night

• Competitions – post OR/MS problems, the person to solve this first will win

Fundraising Idea:

·        Sponsor coffee and pizza sell at school