Minutes of the RASIG business meeting, November 17^th, 2002, in conjunction with the 2002 INFORMS annual conference.

Meeting was called to order by Chair Chip Kraft at 5:50pn.

Natasha Lukiantseva gave the Treasurer’s report. The beginning balance as of September 30, 2002, was approximately $9,700. The student prizes and invited speaker reimbursements totaled $3,095, leaving an ending balance prior to the conference of $6,605. There will be a few bills from the conference.

Announcement – The University of Illinois is looking for a faculty member for rail engineering –systems. Contact Travis Waller or Chris Barken through www.cee.uiuc.edu

Chip then thanked Kal and Natasha for jobs well done, as well as thanking Dave Hunt in absentia.

Election results: Vice Chair – Pooja Dewan 18, Roger Baugher 9 – Pooja is elected.

Treasurer – Mike Gorman 15, Kal Silverberg 11 – Mike is elected.

Secretary – Maarten Oosten 26 – Maarten is elected.

Congratulations to all candidates.

Student paper contest – There were 10 or so abstracts submitted, but only three papers. The student paper presentation will be Monday afternoon. The planned second student paper session will now be chaired by Mike Gorman, and deal withreplaced by a tutorial session: Cchallenges in rail roOperations Research. Warren Powell, Chip Kraft, and Mike Gorman will present.

New business –

Natasha presented a plaque to Chip in honor of his outstanding efforts chairing RASIG these past 18 months.

Chip presented the student paper awards. There was a tie for first place: First prizes goes to Liu Jian and Ramon Lentink. Second proze prize goes to Jodelson Sabino/.

Other business –

Bruce Parry Patty asked about having the RASIG session at the practitioners conference in the spring instead of the annual conference in the fall. An advantage is less competition with other sessions which may improve attendance. Disadvantages are cost and a smaller group of people who attend, making registration higher. The consensus from the discussion was to continue with the fall meeting.

The student paper contest will run again, with good support from Railway Age.

There will be a brief discussion later on on a strategic view of operations research for all forms of transportation – Transportation, Logistics, Air and Rail.

Mike Gorman has agreed to be Cluster Chair for next year in Atlanta.

Bruce Patty informed the group of a change in the number of representative sections on the INFORMS board. Also, it was agreed that the correct pronunciation of RASIG is Ray-Sig, not Rass-sig, per the grandfather of the group, Ajith.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.

Attendance:

Kal Silverberg

Bengt Mutén

Chip Kraft

Mike Gorman

Masroor Hasan

Ron Griffith

Bruce Patty

Natasha Lukiantseva

Ravi Ahuja

Krishna Jha

Brian Ellis

Jeremiah Dirnberger

Erika Yazid

Johannes Enders

Jodelson Sabino

Jian Liu

Pooja Dewan

Maarten Oosten

Warren Powell

Ajith

Michelle Hanna

Arvin

Guvenc Sahin