2009 Quarter 4

    REPORT FROM THE ASSOCIATION FOR CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING

                 October-December 2009

This is a short summary of activities within the ACP during the months October-December 2009.

ACP.1. Changes to the ACP Executive Committee

The 2010 Executive Committee comprises the following members (along with their elected terms): o John Hooker (Elected 2008-2012) o Pedro Meseguer (Elected 2007-2010) o Barry O'Sullivan (Elected 2008-2012) o Karen Petrie (Elected 2008-2010) o Thomas Schiex (Elected 2007-2010) o Peter Stuckey (Elected 2006-2012) o Roland Yap (Elected 2008-2010)

On behalf of the ACP the EC would like to offer its sincerest thanks to the following whose terms on the Executive Committee came to an end at the end of December 2009: o Christian Bessiere o Jimmy H.M. Lee o Christian Schulte o Michael Trick Each of these members have served the CP community extremely well during their time on the EC, for which we're very gratefull.

ACP.2. Call for Bids for CP-2012

We are circulating the Call for Bids for CP 2012. [ Please see the attached call ]

ACP.3. The 2010 ACP Summer School on Constraint Programming

The 2010 Summer School will be held in a CNRS Center, Centre Paul Langevin, located in Aussoix). It is in the National Parc of la Vanoise, in Savoie (France): http://www.caes.cnrs.fr/Vacances/Explorer/Aussois The school is being organised by Yves Deville and Christine Solnon. A call for participation will be issued shortly by the organisers.

ACP.4. Surplus from CP 2008

Toby Walsh, CP Conference Chair in 2008, has finalised the accounts for CP 2008 which was held in Sydney. The ACP provides seed money for the conference and sponsorship funding for the doctoral programme. We are delighted to report that CP 2008 has declared a good surplus for the community. A total of AUD 23.5k will be returned to the ACP, which includes the seed funds provided to the conference by the association.

ACP.5. Sponsorships

The ACP has agreed to provide sponsorship to CPAIOR 2010, which will be held in Bologna [ See http://cpaior2010.ing.unibo.it ]


Call for proposals to host CP-2012

We invite proposals to host the 18th International Conference on the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-2012). Proposals are due on or before April 1st, 2010. These proposals will be evaluated by the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming and a decision made for the site shortly afterwards.

The CP conferences are the premier international conferences on constraint programming. They have been held annually since 1995. CP 2010 will be held in St. Andrews (Scotland) and in Perugia (Italy) in 2011. Previous CP conferences have been held in Lisbon (Portugal), Sydney (AUS), Providence RI (USA), Nantes (Frances), Sitges (Spain), Toronto (Canada), Kinsale (Ireland), Cornell (USA), Paphos (Cyprus), Singapore, Alexandria (USA), Pisa (Italy), Schloss Hagenberg (Austria), Cambridge (USA), and Cassis (France).

Proposals should be up to two pages of plain text and should address the following numbered topics: * 1. Proposal for conference chair(s). * 2. Local CP community support. * 3. University, government and industry support, especially financial. * 4. Proposed dates, and flexibility around these dates. * 5. Co-located events that might be held alongside CP. * 6. Conference and exhibition facilities (CP typically attracts between 200 and 250 delegates). * 7. Accommodation and food services. * 8. Site accessibility, attractiveness, and desirability. * 9. Previous experience in running conferences and workshops. * 10. Provisional budget.

If available, please include URLs to any additional information (e.g. web site for the conference venue or hotel).

Guidelines for the CP conference organization, as well as the duties of the conference chair(s), can be found on the ACP web site.

Proposals should be sent to the secretary of the Association for Constraint Programming committee preferably by email to secretary@a4cp.org. In preparing a proposal, please feel free to address questions (e.g. regarding the suitability of the proposed dates) to the same address, or to any member of the ACP Executive Committee.