A Very Short History of the NSW ANZIAM Branch

At the moment this is a very short web-page containing a selection of miscellaneous comments about the NSW ANZIAM branch. The full title of the branch is: the NSW branch of the division of applied mathematics of the Australian Mathematical Society.

The history of the branch

The early history of the branch

The Sydney and Victorian branches of ANZIAM are the oldest branches of ANZIAM. Both were holding meetings as early as November 1973 (Braddock 1983, page 21), operating before ANZIAM was formed as a division of the Australian Mathematical Society, and were noted as being `active' at the 1974 ANZIAM conference (Braddock 1983, appendix E). The division of Applied Mathematics itself was formed following a ballot of members of the Australian Mathematical Society in 1974. It was formally setup and launched at the 1975 ANZIAM conference (Braddock 1983, page 21 & appendix E).

Contradictory, Braddock (Braddock 1983, page 22) notes that the "Sydney and Victorian Branches started in 1974/5". The constitution of the Sydney branch was adopted in May 1977 (constitution). In March 2002, by electronic ballot, the name of the branch was changed to NSW (constitution) 1.

When ANZIAM is organised from within NSW it is not usually organised by the branch but by a group principally from one university. However, in 1979 ANZIAM was organised by the Sydney Branch of the division of applied mathematics.

Organisers of early ANZIAM meetings held in NSW. (Braddock, appendix D).
Year Main organising group
1972 University of Wollongong
1973 Newcastle University
1976 CSIRO
1977 University of New South Wales
1979 Sydney Branch
1982 University of Wollongong

The turn of the millennium

There was no activity in the Sydney Branch in 1999. At the ANZIAM AGM in 2000 Charlie Macaskill stated that "he had taken on board the advice that a `Careers Evening' type event should be arranged and a website set up" (Minutes, 2000) 2. He also suggested that the name of the branch be amended to the NSW Branch sometime in the future. 2. I believe that there was no branch activity throughout 2000 because at ANZIAM 2001 (3-7 February, Barossa Valley) the Sydney branch of ANZIAM was reactivated with a meeting at `The Entrance' (de Mestre, appendix B).

In 2002 the branch had a very successful meeting at Bannisters Point. There were 33 registered delegates, although only 30 attended the meeting (Sexton 2002) - the figure of thirty is still a record. The registered delegates included 20 (!) from Sydney University, 7 from the University of Wollongong and 3 from the Australian Defence Force Academy. There was one delegate each from Canon, DSTO and the University of New South Wales. The number of presentations at this meeting would not be surpassed until the 2008 branch meeting.

Random historical comments

2003 meeting. The nationalistic editors of the Gazette removed the final paragraph from the report (Nelson 2003).

ANZIAM 2004. Professor Hill commented that $500 was sought for 2004 activities. The $500 was paid.
"... the chair asked for comment on the requests from various Branches for membership lists. A/Professor Weber suggested an automated list server, on the ANZIAM website, might allow all that was required. Professor Taylor and Dr Clarke agreed to bring a proposal to the Executive Committee as soon as possible. Minutes of the Twenty-Ninth General Meeting of ANZIAM (02/02/2004) as reported at the Twenty-Seventh General Meeting of ANZIAM (01/02/2005, item 2).

ANZIAM 2005. $500 requested, but it appears that nothing was paid.

ANZIAM 2006. No money requested.

ANZIAM 2007. In the "Report on NSW ANZIAM 2006". "An email list of NSW ANZIAM members is to be generated. In the first instance this is to be used to solicit nominations for a new NSW ANZIAM committee." No request for funding, due to sufficient existing funds.
2007. Delegates came from: (ADFA 7, UoW 7, USN 1).

In 2008 the NSW and ACT branches again organised a joint meeting. The meeting was held at the Coachhouse Marina Resort in Batemans Bay (21-22 November). There were 22 delegates (ADFA 5, CISRO 1, ANU 9, misc 1, UoW 6). The report that appeared in the Gazette (Nelson, 2009b) included two photographs. The first shows the winners of the best student talk. (The standard of the student walks was very high). The second shows Dr Bob Anderssen (winner of the ``The Most Heroic Attendee''), Associate Professor Harvinder Sidhu (ACT organiser) and Professor Brain Gray.

The Executive Committee of the Branch

Year Chair Secretary Treasurer
2001Charlie Macaskill (?)
2002 Jane Sexton (?)
2003Charlie MacaskillJane Sexton Peter Buchan
2004Tim Marchant Jane Sexton Peter Buchan
2005Tim Marchant Peter Buchan
2006Tim Marchant Peter Buchan
2007Mark Nelson Peter Buchan
2008Mark Nelson Grant Cox William Bertram
2009Grant Cox Mark Nelson Charlie Macaskill

Ordinary committee members
Year Members
2004 Ian Benn, Barrie Fraser, Mark Nelson.
2009 Natalie Thamwattana

Branch Meetings

In the presentations column the first numeral is the number of presentations. The second numerical is the number of student presentations. In the final column ACT denotes a joint meeting with the ACT branch of ANZIAM.
Year Location Date Delegates Presentations Misc
1999 No meeting organised
2000 No meeting organised
2001 ???
2002 Bannisters Point, Mollymook 25-26/05/2002 33 15 (9)
2003 Mittagong 22-23/11/2003 18 9 (4) ACT
2004 Vincentia Golf Club, Jervis Bay 26-27/11/2004 c. 25 10 (4) ACT
2005 No meeting organised
2006 Vincentia Golf Club, Jervis Bay 8-9/12/2006 c. 25 9 (4) ACT
2007 University of Wollongong 10/12/2007 15 10 (6) ACT
2008 Coachhouse Marina Resort, Batemans Bay 21-22/11/2008 22 18 (10) ACT

Best student talk at the branch meeting

(HC) denotes highly commended
Year Winner(s) Institution
1999 No meeting
2000 No meeting
2001 ???
2002Alex Antic University of Wollongong
William Bertram (HC) University of Sydney
Tim Schaerf (HC) University of Sydney
2003Bronwyn Bradshaw University of Wollongong
2004Paul-James White University of Wollongong
2005 No meeting
2006 Barry Cox University of Wollongong
2007 Alex Bardan University of Wollongong
Roslyn Hickson UNSW@ADFA
2008 Aaron Thornton University of Wollongong
Chin Foon Khoo ANU
Roslyn Hickson (HC) UNSW@ADFA

Invited speaker at the branch meeting

Year Speaker Institution
1999 No meeting organised
2000 No meeting organised
2001 ???
2002 No invited speaker
2003 Dr Bob Anderssen CSIRO
2004 ??? ???
2005 No meeting organised
2006 Professor Venkat Subramanian Tennessee Tech University, USA
2007 Dr Miccal Matthews University of Wollongong
2008 No invited speaker

Miscellaneous awards handed out at the branch meeting

Year Award Winner Institution
2008 Most Heroic Attendee Dr Bob Anderssen CSIRO

Footnotes

  1. The Secretary of ANZIAM (Geoff Mercer) has kindly checked the constitution of all the branches of ANZIAM: no other branch has had a name change. Geoff notes that the other branches "were all sensible inclusion names from the start. Says something about Sydneysiders..." (email. 12.02.2009)
  2. The NSW web-page was not created at this time. The idea remained dormant until the first version of this web-page was created.

Finances

I thought it would be interesting to keep a record of how much money the branch has asked for from ANZIAM, and how much money ANZIAM has given the branch.

Budget requests

Year$ requested$ given
2004 $500 ???
2005 $500 $0
2006 $0 $0
2007 $0 $0
2008 $600 $600
2009 $1500$1500

Registration Fees

Year Full Student member Accompanying person
2008 $50 $25 $30

Bibliography

This shows the sources that I have used to write this document.

  1. ANZIAM Executive Committee. 2007-2009.

    Contains the branch report that is tabled at the AGM and is unlikely to contain anything else.

  2. Annual General Meeting of ANZIAM. 27th (2001), 30th (2005) -- 34th (2009).

    The branch is supposed to submit a report each year to the ANZIAM executive, which is printed for both the executive meeting and for the ANZIAM AGM. Reports appeared in: 2005-2009. Reports did no appear in: 2001. I've listed the reports that appeared under the names of the author's elsewhere in this bibliography.

    It is sometimes useful to read the minutes of the previous general meeting. This is usually item 2 on the agenda. For instance, the minutes of the 2000 meeting (distributed at the 2001 general meeting) contain a report of what was said by Dr Charlie Macaskill about branch activities in 1999.

  3. Australian Mathematical Society Gazette. Volume 27 (2000) -31 (2004).
  4. A detailed reading of the Gazette might reveal a treasure-trove of information about the branch. Due to lack of time I have just looked through the index of each issue. That this is problematic is illustrated by the branch report for the 2003 meeting which was printed in the "News" section rather than as an indexed article. (I knew that the 2003 branch meeting report appeared in the Gazette because I wrote it!)

  5. Braddock, R.D. (1983). An Anecdotal History of the Applied Mathematics Conference and the Division of Applied Mathematics.
  6. You can download this document from the ANZIAM web-page at http://www.anziam.org.au/myfiles/uploads/AMC-1966-1984.pdf.

  7. Cohen, G. (2007). Counting Australia In. Halstead Press.
  8. The information on NSW ANZIAM in this book came from Braddock's article

  9. Constitution of the NSW Branch of ANZIAM. Amended March 2002.
  10. Financial Statement. (2004). NSW ANZIAM Branch.
  11. Financial Statement. (2005). NSW ANZIAM Branch.
  12. Financial Statement. (2006). NSW ANZIAM Branch.
  13. Financial Statement. (2007). NSW ANZIAM Branch.
  14. The financial statement should appear as part of the branch submission to the AGM, but this does not always happen.

  15. Marchant, T.R. (2005). Report on NSW Branch 2004. 30th General Meeting of ANZIAM (01.02.05) Item 6b.
  16. Marchant, T.R. (2006). Report on NSW ANZIAM 2005. 31st General Meeting of ANZIAM (07.02.06) Item 6b.
  17. Marchant, T.R. (2007). Report on NSW ANZIAM 2006. 32nd General Meeting of ANZIAM (30.01.07) Item 6b.
  18. de Mestre, N. (2003). A Continuation of the Anecdotal History of the Applied Mathematics Conference and ANZIAM (1984-2003).
  19. You can download this document from the ANZIAM web page at http://www.anziam.org.au/myfiles/uploads/AnziamHistory.doc .

  20. Minutes of the Twenty-Sixth General Meeting of ANZIAM (10/02/2000), as reported at the Twenty-Seventh General Meeting of ANZIAM (05/02/2001, item 2).
  21. Nelson, M.I. (2004). NSW ANZIAM 2003 Branch Meeting. The Australian Mathematical Gazette 31(1), 63.
  22. Nelson, M.I. (2008). Report on NSW ANZIAM 2007. 33rd AGM of ANZIAM (05.02.08). Item 6b.
  23. Nelson, M.I. (2009) Report on NSW ANZIAM 2008. 34th AGM of ANZIAM (03.02.09) Item 7b.
  24. Nelson, M.I. (2009b). ACT/NSW ANZIAM meeting. The Australian Mathematical Society Gazette, 36(1), 28-29. Read the article online.
  25. Program. NSW Branch of ANZIAM Mini-Meeting. May 25-26, 2002.
  26. Program. NSW ANZIAM Mini-Meeting. 22-23 November, 2003.
  27. Program. ACT & NSW Joint Mini-meeting. 10 December 2007.
  28. Program. ACT & NSW Joint Mini-meeting. 21-22 November 2008.
  29. Sexton, J. (2002). Report on NSW Branch Meeting of ANZIAM 2002. (2002) Australian Mathematical Gazette. 29(3), 188.


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Page Created: 12th February 2009.
Last Updated: 22nd September 2009.