Present: Dr G de Barra (Secretary, 49^th Colloquium) Royal Holloway
Prof K A Brown (EMS) Glasgow
Prof J W Bruce (LMS) Liverpool
Dr M D Coleman (Secretary, 48^th Colloquium) UMIST
Prof H G Dales (LMS) Leeds
Prof J W Essam (Chairman, 49^th Colloquium), Royal Holloway, in the Chair
Prof G D James, Imperial College
Prof G Rees (EMS) Edinburgh
Dr G Walker (Secretary, 50^th Colloquium) Manchester

It was agreed to co-opt Prof R Bryant (Chairman 48^th Colloquium) for this meeting.

Minutes of the Committee Meeting at Heriot Watt
These were approved with one alteration to make it clear that the proposals of Leeds and of Warwick as sites for the year 2000 Colloquium were considered on the same basis.

Matters Arising

1. It was agreed that a continuing file of papers and Committee Minutes be kept. Also: that the minutes be sent to the Secretaries of the LMS and EMS.

2. Attendance was considered: over 300 at Heriot Watt, approximately 280 at UMIST.

3. It was proposed (Prof Dales) that two persons from the host institution should be members of the Scientific Committee when it met at their institution. This was agreed and would be put forward at the next AGM, at Royal Holloway.

4. 48^th BMC progress. It was reported that there had been no real difficulties. The total attendance had been satisfactory; there was no evidence that the Special Sessions had drawn extra members. It was agreed that 'Satellite Conferences' on the Special Session topics (to precede the Colloquium) would be a good idea. This would be pursued for 1997, and neighbouring institutions would be encouraged to put on such conferences.

   The Committee noted that the Colloquium had overlapped with a Functional Analysis conference in London; this might have affected numbers.

5. The main speakers for the 49^th Colloquium were reported as: Prof W Fulton, Prof P Lions, Prof A Lubotzky.

6. Special Session Topics (for Royal Holloway): Partial Differential Equations [Possible organisers: Prof E B Davies (KCL), Prof D G Vassiliev (Sussex), Prof J F Toland (Bath)]; Low-dimensional Topology [Possible organisers: Prof W B R Lickorish (Cambridge), Dr R A Fenn (Sussex), Dr G A Niblo (Southampton)].

7. Possible Special Session topics for Manchester: (1) Group Theory, (2) Logic/Model Theory, (3) Analysis.

8. Possible Morning Speakers (for Royal Holloway):

   Algebra:
   D Testerman, [J Alperin or P Neumann (Res)], [G Lehrer or D Macpherson (Res)]. Reserves: A A Primet, M Nazarov. Not both Alperin and Lehrer.

   Analysis:
   S Power, M Pollicott, J Langley. Reserve: T Lyons. Other reserves: Y Safarov, Gregorian, C Batty, A Sinclair (not as well as Power), A Wassermann.
   Topology/Geometry:
   John Roe, F Clarke, P McMullen. Reserves: John Wood, Victor Goryunov, M Singer.
   Number Theory:
   R Vaughan [Res: R Hall], Martin Taylor [Res: Nekovar], names in Combinatorics to be suggested by Royal Holloway. Other reserve: J Coates.
   Other Areas:
   S B Cooper, John Ball, R Penrose [Res: D Fowler]. Other reserves: Mark Roberts, Nick Young, T Pedley.

9. Space problems at Royal Holloway were considered; it was accepted that the main lectures would need to be given in less than perfect surroundings.

10. Principal Speakers at Manchester were considered. The proposals were: K Uhlenbeck (Texas); one of: A S Kechris (Caltech), Woodin (Berkeley); one of: de Concini (Rome), R P Stanley (M I T), M Artin (M I T), J Alperin (Chicago) (if not booked for Royal Holloway). Others names proposed: I Daubechies (Princeton), A Shalev (Hebrew Univ, Jerusalem), Friedmann(?), A Connes (IHES Paris), Haager-up (Odense, Denmark).
    
11. It was agreed that the year 2000 BMC should be at Leeds.

12. It was announced that the dates for Manchester would be: 6^th to 9^th April, 1998.

13. For the year 2001 Colloquium, it was agreed that Glasgow, Warwick and Newcastle should be approached by the 49th BMC Secretary (G de Barra).