Newsletter 2001-1 - Combustion Institute British Section

Professor Bray is to resign as Chairman from October 2000. His successor is to be
appointed at the next committee meeting. The Secretary expressed gratitude to
Professor Bray on behalf of the Section for his loyal service as Chairman since 1992.
The Secretary is also to relinquish the post as soon as a successor (or successors)
can be appointed. An issue that has exercised the minds of committee members is
that, while the nature of the secretarial duties have not changed, the demands on
and commitments of individuals have increased considerably. Consequently, it
seems prudent to divide the duties between general secretarial and membership
matters, and for there to be two appointments made.
An intervention was made by Dr Smith at this point to express thanks to the current
Secretary for his contributions to the operation of the Section.
4. Honorary Secretary's Report
Membership of the Section is a lower than that expected by this stage of the year, by
approximately 30 people. There is some concern that it may be a reflection of the
diminishing combustion community within the UK, and will be a matter of discussion
by the Committee.
There was no Spring meeting during 2000 on account of the activity connected with
organisation of the International Symposium. Also, there were already a number of
other combustion or combustion-related meetings in the UK early in the year
(UKELG, two-day, Fire and Explosion Seminar, IOP congress, IChemE Hazards).
Ten grants of £500 per person were awarded to presenters of papers at the 28 th
Symposium and six grants of £300 were awarded to student members so that they
could attend the Symposium.
The Sugden Prize for 1999 was awarded to K H Luo for a paper entitled,
“Combustion Effects on Turbulence in a Partially Premixed Supersonic Diffusion
Flame”, which was published in Combustion and Flame, vol. 119, pp.417 - 435
5. Honorary Treasurer's report
The Treasurer presented a statement of accounts audited at the end of 1999. The
reduced balances reflected sums that had been paid in advance of the 28 th
Symposium but which had not yet been refunded. Ordinarily the accumulated funds
would stand at approximately £70,000. In response to a question about the policy
for retaining a balance of this magnitude, the Treasurer noted that the principle was
that the operation of the Section should be financed out of income rather than
capital. Registration fees alone did not cover the annual expenditure. Professor
Moss made the point that, nevertheless, perhaps some of the reserves might be
used to support secretarial needs, given the difficulties associated with the post.
A question about the viability of electronic methods of money transfer for payment of
membership fees was raised. There are cost implications in most of the electronic
methods which are beyond the scope of Section funds, but the Treasurer agreed
that the Committee should keep this matter under review and devise a system if
possible. The Section accounts were audited by Drs Davies and Sykes, who were
thanked for their services.
6. Election of Committee members,1999 - 2002
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