er costs for the main conference. In
addition, there will be a rehaul of the
AAAI website, resulting in a one-time
expense for the Association. Kambhampati added that he would like the
association take on further commitments, given the current large surge in
interest in AI, and would like to use the
full 5 percent if opportunities arise to
do so.
After some further discussion, Tom
Dietterich moved to approve the budget, Senator seconded the motion, and
the budget was approved unanimously.
In further financial news, Senator
noted that he had circulated the tax
return to the Council. This is a good
practice required by our auditor to
retain transparency in the process.
Finally, Senator announced that he
will be transitioning out of the Secretary-Treasurer position at the end of
2017, and in conjunction with other
members of the AAAI Executive Committee, has worked out transition plan.
David Smith, who has served on the
Finance Committee for several years,
will take over as Secretary-Treasurer
upon his retirement from NASA, and
noted that Smith will attend this and
all future meetings during the transition period. Kambhampati thanked
Senator for his 14 years of service as
Secretary-Treasurer, as well as all his
other service for the association.
Membership Committee
Kambhampati announced that Blai
Bonet will be taking over as the Membership Committee chair. Bonet noted
that he will be working with the committee on several issues, including how
to develop the affiliates program. The
committee will also be reviewing the
current list of people who have applied
for the Distinguished Speaker program,
and will report on this at the February
meeting. It is anticipated that a budget
will have to be established to pay for
some travel for the speakers. Kambhampati noted that we need to reach
out to industry members more effectively, as several people have mentioned to him that they were not sure
if AAAI is open to them.
Conference Committee
Carol Hamilton reviewed the major
Kambhampati, representing AAAI,
will serve on the advisory board of the
newly formed Partnership in AI,
recently established to study and for-
mulate best practices on AI technolo-
gies, to advance the public’s under-
standing of AI, and to serve as an open
platform for discussion and engage-
ment about AI and its influences on
people and society by drawers. He will
join other industry leaders from Apple,
Amazon, Facebook, Google, Deep-
Mind, IBM, and Microsoft, as well as
representatives from UC Berkeley, the
ACLU, the MacArthur Foundation, and
the Peterson Institute of International
Economics. The first physical meeting
will be February 3 in San Francisco.
Kambhampati is also investigating
the possibility of a joint conference
with ACM on AI ethics and will be following up on this with the Ethics
Committee.
The AAAI office had to migrate their
website quite unexpectedly in the past
few weeks, and Kambhampati reported
that the migration had been completed successfully, just in time for the submission of close to 800 AAAI- 17 proceedings papers.
Finance Committee
Ted Senator reviewed the budget
approval process for the upcoming
year. The budget is officially approved
by the Council prior to the beginning
of the next fiscal year (the calendar
year). Most of the work is done by the
staff and most of the data is based on
historical trends during recent years.
However, where known, the unique
costs associated with chosen venues
for programs are incorporated into the
budget. If new programs or activities
have been requested by committees,
those are also incorporated into the
budget. Senator drew the Council
members’ attention to the line in the
program that explains how much of
the operating reserve will need to be
used to support the current projections. He noted that as long as this
number is in the 3-5 percent range, it is
an acceptable amount. A full set of
budget guidelines was circulated to the
Council prior to the meeting.
Senator also noted that the projec-
tion for 2016 is a surplus. 2017 will be
a more expensive year due to the high-
differences between the 2016 confer-
ence and the 2017 conference. The
conference technical program will be
significantly bigger with close to 150
additional technical papers accepted
for presentation, including the main
track, special tracks, senior member,
and demo tracks. Other activities will
remain similar to 2016, although the
robotics program will not be held. The
other big difference will be budgetary,
as San Francisco will be significantly
more expensive than Phoenix. This
was reviewed during the budget dis-
cussions. In addition, Yolanda Gil not-
ed that plans were underway for an
Industry Day event, comprising a
series of accessible talks geared toward
industry. Possible days for this event
will be Sunday or Friday following the
main conference. Gil also mentioned
that it would be a missed opportunity
to not reach out to industry, given that
AAAI- 17 is in the Bay Area. Gil has
agreed to spearhead this, but is seeking
volunteers to help design the best pro-
gram and promotion strategy.
The committee discussed other programs or initiatives that would be of
interest to industry, including the AI
Job Fair, also scheduled for Sunday,
IAAI- 17, and highlighting workshops
or tutorials that might be accessible.
All agreed that good promotion will be
important to reach beyond the normal
attendees at AAAI. Further discussion
revolved around possible fees for the
event, the targeted audience, and the
scope of the event. Gil said she would
do some further investigation to clarify these issues. Kambhampati would
like to establish a strong connection to
industry and this could be the jumping
board to do so.
Symposium
Carol Hamilton noted that Gita Suk-thanker will be stepping down as Symposium Chair, and will be replaced by
Christopher Geib. The committee is
currently seeking a new cochair, and
may seek a person outside North America. The Council agreed that international outreach is very important, and
that the resulting slight increase in
travel expenses was fine.
Government Relations
Steve Smith reported that the commit-