The Sixth Symposium Platonicum was held in Jerusalem, last August, on the Laws. First of all, I woud like to thank on behalf of all the members of the TPS the outgoing President, Prof. Samuel Scolnicov, for all he did to keep the society running smoothly during the Triennium, for the warm hospitaliy, we enjoyed in Jerusalem and for the Symposium itself, so well organised and so stimulating. As our host, Prof. Scolnicov set standards which will not be easy to meet again. Prof. Scolnicov is now in charge of editing the volume of selected papers arising from the Symposum to be published as usual by Academie Verlag.
The Executive Committee
Elections for the Executive Committee : Professor Maurizio Migliori (Macerata), Professor Francisco Bravo (Caracas) and Professor Noburu Notomi (Tokyo) were elected to the Executive Committee, replacing, respectively, Professor Matthias Baltes (Miinster), Professor Nicole Ooms (Mexico) and Professor Tarrant (Newcastle, NSW) as the second European, the Latin-American and the Asia, Africa and Australia representatives. Professor Scolnicov (Jerusalem) continues to serve as member of the Committee (past President) as do Professor Lloyd Gerson (Toronto), Professor Christopher Gill (Exeter) and Professor Abraham Bos (C.J. de Vogel Foundation). I have asked Professor Luc Brisson to continue to serve as Vice-President in order to profit from his great experience and enthusiasm. I look forward to working with the new Executive committee and I am sure, that the Committee will be very supportive, encouraging and helpful
The Cornelia J. de Vogel Foundation
The Cornelia J. de Vogel Foundation always has been a generous supporter of the Society. I am delighted and very grateful, that Professor Abraham Bos, the representative of the de Vogel Foundation, announced at the General Assembly and assured me personally that the Foundation has decided to continue its support for the International Plato Society during the next Triennium, on the same conditions. I would like to thank the Foundation and Professor Bos both for their interest and for their support for the best of our Society.
Internet journal
I am delighted to inform you that the second issue of the IPS internet journal Plato is now on the web at http://www.ex.ac.uk/plato. The contributions this time focus on the problem, whether or not there is development in Plato. Papers are presented by Charles Kahn, Christopher Rowe, Enrico Berti and M.M. McCabe. Luc Brisson reviews Mario Vegetti’s latest volume of a collection of papers on the Republic and Lloyd Gerson discusses recent work on Neoplatonism. May I add my warmest thanks to Christopher Gill for bringing to life this excellent tool of Platonic research and encourage all members to make use of it and to submit contributions (which can be done in five languages).
Site of the Eighth Symposium Platonicum :
Given the circumstances of the VI. Symposium, the Assembly felt that it should give the opportunity to vote for the site of the eighth Symposium Platonicum to all members of our society. Nobody should feel excluded. The Assembly therefore decided to give the members of the Society the chance of an extraordinary postal vote. This postal vote will be conducted by me early next year. In order to do so I now cali for proposals. Two proposals already have been offered, one by Professor Jolm Dillon for Dublin and the other by Profesor Shinro Kato for Tokyo. I suggest, that the proposals should be sent to me by the end of February 2002. As has been done before, I will then send them to all members of the Society and put it on our web site. I then will await the returns by a date to be announced at that time, probably within two months of the closing date for submitting the proposals, i.e. end of April. The count will take place in Würzburg. The Dean of our Fakultät kindly agreed to oversee the counting. The result will be announced by a newsletter to be sent by e-mail and snail mail immediately after the results are known. As specified in the Statutes of the Society, the host of the Symposium is also the President Elect and will take his or her place in the Executive Committee. I hope everyone agrees to this procedure.
Editorial Committee
Tomàs Calvo and Livio Rossetti asked to resign from the Editorial Committee. The Executive Committee respected their wishes and thanked them warmly for their work. The Executive Committee has replaced Professor Calvo with Professor Maria Santa Cruz and Professor Rosetti with Professor Mauro Tulli. I am grateful, that both of them accepted the offer and will take over their duties shortly. I should like to take this opportunity also to thank Professors Christopher Rowe, Luc Brisson and Thomas Szlezàk, members of the Editoria] Committee, for their work making sure that the high standards of scholarship are maintained in the publications of the Society. Special thanks go to Luc Brisson for making available to us in advance the bibliographical notes to be published as the next Lustrum volume. I also wish to thank Herrn Richarz of Academia Verlag for his enthusiasm and support toward our Society. He already has been of great help to me, cince I took over office, as he will – I am sure – during the rest of the Triennium.
Membership fees for 2001-2004
As announced by the outgoing President, Professor Scolnicov, the General Assembly has decided to raise the triennial membership fee from US $60 to US $75. The fees for Associate membership, open to doctoral students, remain at US $30. Cheques in US dollars should be sent to my address, above, made out to ’Michael Erler – IPS’ . Your prompt payment is of great importance for the smooth running of our Society. It also is crucial for our planning of the VIIth. Symposium Platonicum, which hopefully will attract many members.