Minutes of the Inaugural Meeting on September 24, 2007

• Constitution and by-laws
  • Mission statement - We deliberated about the intended mission of the society. Two proposals were on the table: To foster the vision of constraints as a central aspect of a wide variety of fields that spans a large number of topics in CS, OR and in application sciences like the biological sciences or the engineering sciences. The alternative was to concentrate on a smaller scope in which constraint programming as a particular way of solving constraint problems was to be fostered in North America, while CP is understood in a very broad sense. The assembly voted in favor of the latter mission.
  • The name of the society - In order to underline that the term America was not referring to the US alone, it was decided to change the acronym of our Constraint Programming Society in North America to CPNA (instead of the originally proposed CPSA).
  • Eligibility - It was decided that all people (and no organizations) 18 years or older who subscribe to our mission can join the society.
  • Structure - The proposed offices of platform chair, publicity chair, career cahir, and liaison were removed from the constitution and shall be moved into the policies and procedures where the steering committee can create or remove offices as it feels necessary over the years. Primary functions of officers are to be mentioned before replacement or aiding functions to other offices.
  • Elections - It was decided to create an elections pattern that ensures overlapping terms of the members elected to the steering committee. Elections take place yearly, members of the steering committee serve a two-year term, and in the first election the three candidates with the highest number of votes are elected for a three-year term.
  • Specific terms - The term "constraint programming research" is to be replaced by "constraint-based research." The term "constraint programmers" is to be replaced by "constraint programming researchers and users."

• Formation of the first steering committee
  Andrew Davenport, Chris Beck, John Hooker, Gilles Pesant, Meinolf Sellmann, and Willem-Jan van Hoeve.