An election was held from 19 September through 6 October 2002 to fill three positions on the board of trustees of CADE Inc. Two positions were left vacant by Harald Ganzinger and David Plaisted, whose terms expired, and a third one was created to complete the implementation of the amendment approved in the summer of 2000 to increase the number of trustees from nine to twelve (see AAR Newsletter No. 48, August 2000). Harald Ganzinger, Jean Goubault-Larrecq, Reinhold Letz, Andrei Voronkov and Toby Walsh were nominated for these positions (see AAR Newsletter No. 56, September 2002).

Ballots were sent by electronic mail to all members of AAR as of the 19th of September, for a total of 566 ballots (up from 548 in 2001, 445 in 2000 and 396 in 1999). Of these, 149 were returned with a vote, representing a participation level of 26.3% (up from 22.5% in 2001 and 24.5% in 2000 and down from 30% in 1999). The majority is 50% of the votes plus 1, hence 75.

The following table reports the initial distribution of preferences among the candidates:

No candidate reaches a majority right away, and the redistribution of the votes of Jean Goubault-Larrecq yields the following new distribution:

Again, no candidate reaches a majority, and by redistributing the votes of Reinhold Letz one gets the following table:

Redistribution of the votes for Toby Walsh produces the final table for the first slot:

Thus, Harald Ganzinger is elected for a second term on the board of trustees. (Since 69 votes does not suffice for the majority, the STV algorithm executes another round distributing the votes of Andrei Voronkov, but this is not reported because the outcome is obvious.) The redistribution of the votes of the winner produces the following table:

None of the candidates has a majority to be elected, so that the votes of Jean Goubault-Larrecq need to be redistributed again:

Reinhold Letz and Toby Walsh have the same number of first preferences, but because of the difference in second preferences, the next round redistributes the votes for Reinhold Letz, producing this outcome:

Thus, Andrei Voronkov has a majority and is elected. Returning to the table after Harald Ganzinger's votes were redistributed, and redistributing those of Andrei Voronkov also, one obtains the following matrix:

None of the candidates has a majority to be elected, so that the votes of Jean Goubault-Larrecq need to be redistributed again:

There is again a tie between Reinhold Letz and Toby Walsh, which is solved by comparing the second preferences. The votes for Reinhold Letz get redistributed, and Toby Walsh is elected.

After this election, the following people are serving on the board of trustees of CADE Inc.:

Franz Baader (CADE 2003 Program Chair)

Maria Paola Bonacina (Secretary)

Gilles Dowek (Elected 9/2001)

Ulrich Furbach (President, elected 8/1997 and re-elected 10/2000)

Harald Ganzinger (Past program chair, elected 10/1999 and re-elected 10/2002)

John Harrison (Elected 9/2001)

Michael Kohlhase (Elected 10/2000)

David McAllester (Past program chair, elected 10/2000)

Neil V. Murray (Treasurer)

Frank Pfenning (Vice-President, elected 10/1998 and re-elected 9/2001)

Andrei Voronkov (Past program chair, elected 10/2002)

Toby Walsh (Elected 10/2002)

On behalf of the AAR and CADE Inc., I thank David Plaisted, for his service as trustee during the past three years; Jean Goubault-Larrecq and Reinhold Letz, for running in the election; and all the members who voted, for their participation; and I offer the warmest congratulations to Harald Ganzinger, Andrei Voronkov, and Toby Walsh on being elected.

Conference Chairs: Geoff Sutcliffe (University of Miami, USA) and Jeff Pelletier (University of Alberta, Canada)

Program Chair: Franz Baader (TU Dresden, Germany)