Minutes of the IBPSA England Board Meeting, Sheffield, 13 September 2006

Attendees
Ian Ward, University of Sheffield (Host and Chair)
Malcolm Cook, De Montfort University
Mike Davies, University College London
Dejan Mumovic, University College London
Simon Rees, De Montfort University
Pieter de Wilde, University of Plymouth
Jonathan Wright, Loughborough University

Apologies
Martin Mayfield, ARUP

Agenda
17:00 Welcome
17:05 Status of IBPSA England and previous actions
17:20 New issues
18:20 Any other business
18:30 Summary, and date + location of next meeting

Minutes
The Board Meeting follows on the Launch Event of IBPSA-England, held during the day. Therefore there are no formal introductions and the Board focussed on new issues and business from the start.

The launch event of today was cinsidered successful, with 40 attendees and good keynote presentations by Jeff Spitler, Lori McElroy and Jake Hacker.

The main discussion focussed on ideas how to move IBPSA-England forward, partly fuelled by an open forum discussion with the attendees of the Launch Event. Topics discussed were:
• Article to be published in the CIBSE Journal, to be written by Martin and Pieter. This is to be circulated amongst Board Members for comments before submission.
• Article for IBPSA News, to be initiated by Pieter; again to be circulated amongst Board Members for comments before submission.
• Development of the website to include a secure-access session for members only, to include an job openings session, FAQs, tools/vendors section. All board members are to think about items that can be included here; Dejan will bring them together and put them to the web.
• The pros and cons of setting up either a forum or mailing-list for UK-based simulationists, similar to the mainly US-oriented BLDG-SIM list. No final decision is reached.
• The board has a strong feeling that in order to organise future events it would be good for IBPSA-England to be able to hold funds. Malcolm and Mike will investigate the options and consequences in terms of liabilities, risks etc. An informed decision will be taken at the next meeting.
• Options for getting funding for IBPSA-England will be researched, looking into EPSRC Network funding (Ian) and CIBSE (Simon). The board agrees that approaching CIBSE is best done once IBPSA-England has a bit more firm standing, and is best carried out by industrial partners.
• The organisation of future events. Malcolm offered to organise an event on the topic of ‘Good Practice in Building Simulation’. Preliminary date and location: 6 March 2007, DMU, Leicester. Pieter offered to oganise an event on ‘Building Simulation in the SouthWest’. Preliminary date and location: 16 November, Plymouth. Both will submit a short paragraph to Dejan for the website.

Decisions
• Two events to be organised in 2007 – Best Practice in Building Simulation, DMU, 6 March, and Simulation in the SouthWest, 16 November.
• Options for holding funds to be investigated.
• Website to contain a members-only section, with clear benefits.
• Publications to announce the launch of IBPSA-England, and to increase the number of members.
• Decision on launching a forum or mailing-list is postponed for the time being.

The next Board Meeting will take place after the CARB Meeting:
Thursday 30/11 November 2006 at the De Montfort University


Actions
Thank-you letter to speakers o launch event Ian
Article for IBPSA Newsletter on IBPSA-England Pieter
Article for CIBSE Journal Martin and Pieter
Update email/member list Dejan
Investigate options to hold money Malcolm and Mike
Think about items for FAQ, links on web All
Organise Event at DMU (March 07) Malcolm
Organise Event at Plymouth (November 07) Pieter
Paragraphs on events for web Malcolm and Pieter
Investigate EPSRC network funding Ian
Investigate CIBSE network funding Simon
Upgrade website with member section etc Dejan