DISCUSSIONS ON COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE LMS AND IMA

On 4 July 2008 the Council of the LMS received a report from a Joint LMS–IMA Planning Group (JPG) proposing a single unified society to replace both the LMS and the IMA. The Council adopted the report and agreed to consult the membership on the proposals, which it recommended to the members.

The Council of the LMS agreed in November 2008 to put the proposal to create a New Unified Mathematical Society to votes of the society’s members in two stages. (The IMA Council agreed a similar process for its members.) Stage 1 comprised a Referendum of LMS members to obtain an assessment of their views on the proposals in the report Proposal for a New Unified Mathematical Society, using all reasonable mechanisms for the Referendum in order to maximise the response and thus obtain the best possible representative view of the membership. Stage 2, following members' support in Stage 1, comprised taking a formal motion to two consecutive Special General Meetings of the LMS, as required by the Charter and Statues, to enable Council to proceed with negotiations with the IMA and ultimately to wind up the existing society.

The first stage, the Referendum, closed on 25 March and the LMS Council on 27 March received the results of the Scrutineers’ report. That reported a 48% turn out. Of those who voted 56% were in favour of the proposal to proceed to the second stage. Accordingly the Council confirmed its decision to proceed to the Special General Meetings at which members would vote formally on the motion to create a new society and in due course to wind up the LMS.

The first SGM was held on the afternoon of Tuesday 21 April. The outcome announced by the Scrutineers, taking into account the proxy votes, was 437 in support of the motion and 361 against. (The interim result announced at the Meeting, of 433 in favour and 351 against was subsequently revised by the Scrutineers after a detailed rechecking of the votes.)

At the second Special General Meeting of the LMS held on 29 May 2009, the membership rejected by 591 to 458 (56% to 44%) the proposals to wind up the Society and create a new unified mathematical society with the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

The Society's Council met on 3 July 2009 and received the results of the voting and the decision thereby not to proceed with unification discussions with the IMA. It issued a statement reaffirming its intention to continue to develop its collaboration with the IMA and to strengthen its cooperation with other bodies in mathematical sciences.

The following documents are available.

• A Statement by Council on future collaboration with the IMA
• A Statement by Council on the criteria it proposed to use to decide on taking the proposals forward after the second SGM
• The report on Council’s decision on 27 March
• The Scrutineers’ report on the Referendum (PDF)
• A message from the President (PDF)

There is a separate consultation website at http://www.newmathsoc.org.uk containing:

• downloadable copies of the report and other documents,
• background information,
• a set of “Frequently Asked Questions” that arose during the consultation,
• video recordings based on the presentations made by the two Presidents during a series of visits to universities around the UK to discuss the proposals with members.