Minutes: IB meeting 28/7/18, 9:30am
1. Results were presented. 396 students, 277 (69.9%) prizes awarded. 42 Gold, 69 Silver, 99 Bronze, 67
Honourable mention. Absolute winner: China, S5. Approved unanimously by the IB.
Academic chair (Manuel Feidhos) thanks the IB delegates for their work, and thanks the President for his 10years of service and his help with this Olympiad. Universal acclaim.
2. Andrzej Kotlicki spoke on behalf of the Appeal Committee to congratulate the graders and the AcademicCommittee for their excellent work making a smooth Olympiad. Universal acclaim from the IB.
3. After a vote which was a combination of electronic and counting hands, the number of present board members
was set at 130.
4. The president spoke about future Olympiads, presenting a graph showing the statistics of the number ofparticipating countries for the recent years. Also presented was a list of the future Organising countries for theOlympiad. The host for 2021 was announced as Belarus.
Anatoli Slabadaniuk spoke on behalf of the Organising committee and declared that there is state support for theOlympiad and hence a confirmation that it will go ahead. All countries are invited to Belarus in 2021.
5. Eli Raz invited to speak on behalf of Israel, the host of IPhO 2019. Eli thanks Portugal for its hosting thisyear. Eli introduced four members of the local and academic committees for the 2019 IPhOs, representing theUniversity and the Ministry of Education. The Olympiad will be between 7 July and 15 July, 2019. The opening
ceremony will be Sunday evening, with theory discussion starting on the Monday morning. An additional night’s
accommodation will be provided on the Saturday night for delegations who cannot arrive before 3pm on theSunday due to flight schedules. All nations, regardless of diplomatic relationships, are invited to the Olympiad,with no exceptions. If a nation does not want a visa or stamp in a passport, then this should be possible - will try
to convince authorities to give a different paper for the visa also. Gift bags include a USB stick with a short clip
about Israel. This may help to convince parents that Israel is safe for their children to visit. The logo is based on
quasicrystal diffraction patterns, for which an Israeli received the Nobel prize in 2011. Delegations were asked tofill in a form for Israel.
6. Proposals for changing the statutes and regulations were presented.
a) First proposal: To change the regulations to section 2 with the intent that the IPhO secretariat be members of
the local organising committee for future IPhOs in an advisory function. Presented by the President. Paper
comment from Japan: feel that this undermines their autonomy and costs money, and that the loc should betrusted to organise the Olympiad. President considers that an advisory capacity does not undermine theauthority or autonomy of the loc, and that trust goes both ways; the committees and the secretariat should both
trust each other, and that the entire Olympiad is based on trust. President also states that the monetary cost is
not large in the budget of an Olympiad. Leader from Japan: Japan will host in 2022, and that motivation will bereduced due to a feeling that autonomy will be undermined, and to have to pay for this is also not the right thingto do. Japan is opposed to this proposal. Suggests that if the host country wishes, then they could invite theIPhO secretariat in any case, and that the proposal should hence be amended. Suggestion that the proposal be
modified to replace “should be” by “can be”, and add “if needed”, which would return the power to the hostcountry. Israel: to ask for advice is already possible. Some of the hosts have been involved in this business formany years and hence have seen many different ideas and ways to run an Olympiad. It does not seem nice that
the Secretariat would force the hosts to have their input, and does not engender trust. President: considers thatthe perspective is different, and that there is no forcing: it is merely a proposal and it is up to the International
Board to make the decision. Georgia: if there is a crisis, we expect the IPhO secretariat to be crisis managers,
and if we have such expectations, then they should have the rights to participate in the organisation also, or theexpectations are unreasonable. Canada: it is best to hope for the best and plan for the worst. The role of thePresident and Secretary would not have to do anything in the case where the organisers are experienced. Some
organisers, though, would need support because they have not this experience. Strong support for this and notethat current President will not even be there - not a personal matter. Formal note: cannot amend a proposal,must be voted upon as it is. Egypt: there have been lots of lists of what went well and what didn’t, over the past
long time; as a country who has not hosted, would feel more confident if there were Secretariat members on theLOC. Suggest that debate is closed. Time to vote.
Electronic vote conducted. Regulation change: >50% (65) to pass. 72 in favour, 44 against, 2 abstentions. 72>
59 (65), so the regulation change CARRIED.

b) Proposal to change the regulations to section 2, that requires that the organisers invite the President to attend
the venue one month before the Olympiad to inspect all facilities and the competition problems. Saudi
Arabia: there is nothing in the previous proposal that forces the secretariat to be physically invited. This

proposal does. Not really necessary with experienced hosts but might be needed sometimes. The President
does not necessary have to come if there is no need, but should have the opportunity to come if there is a needfelt. This gives enough time to change tack if needed. No further comments and so we now vote.
Electronic vote conducted. Regulation change: >50% (65) to pass. 72 in favour, 58 against, 4 abstentions.
(134?) 72>65 so regulation change CARRIED.

c) Proposal to change the regulations and the statutes to remove the requirements for the host countries toprepare the text in any language other than English.
Electronic vote conducted. Statute change: >66.6% (87) to pass. 105 in favour, 39 against, 7 abstentions.
Proposal CARRIED. (151 in total…)d) Proposal to change the regulations to section 5 with the intent that cuts to questions should be able to besuggested for reasons not just wrong or poor physics, but also when nothing from the syllabus sections 2 or 3 istested, and when there is not a simple, clear explanation possible for some new physics needed in thequestions. Canada: this is very dangerous proposal for the future organisers as it will restrict ability of organisers
to find novel problems and/or incorporate new physics into the Olympiad. Saudi Arabia: students know that they
have the syllabus, and if they go through this, they should be able to solve the problems. If they can be required
to read other physics, then this is not fair on students. 12000 character limit is the definition of whether it can besufficiently concise. Singapore: there were many suggestions to cut based on its length this year, and it seems
that this proposal is too restrictive because considering the length is an important part of whether to cut theproblems or not. Russia: strongly opposes because it is too subjective. Israel: we already cut things that aren’t
in the syllabus. What is a new physical concept? What we usually want is to measure creativity, not justknowledge, and this suggestion could actually restrict that by forcing students only into familiar contexts.
Electronic vote conducted. Regulation change: >50% needed to pass. 48 in favour, 100 against, 5 abstentions(153). Proposal is REJECTED.
Quorum query from Slovenia. Quorum change to 153. (To pass: 108 statutes, 77 regulations)e) Proposal to change the regulations to section seven, with the intent to compel the organisers to invite theSecretariat plus a group of five experienced IB members, at the organisers’ expense, to the next Olympiad a dayin advance to discuss the problems in advance, sworn to secrecy. Intent is to shorten the discussions. Israel:process of the discussion of the problem is part of the Olympiad, and that there are other logistical changes that
could be made to shorten the time. There should be enough time during the IB discussion that we don’t need tohave a select group who have seen the problems before time. It is not good for the spirit of theOlympiad. Austria: in the past, there has been a lot of movement to shorten the discussion. Everyone has thechance to see whether it is okay for their own students - no-one else can do this. The current system is muchbetter than it has been in the past, not in favour of this proposal. Saudi Arabia: one hour is not enough to readthe text and check the problem as leaders are not better than students, who need five hours. 99% of resources
often used on 1% of problem. If there are 5 leaders pre-processing the questions it might remove the need todiscuss a number of possible proposals in advance. UK: can see the point of the proposal, but we are all equal,
and everyone has an opinion that could be heard. Hard to select five people who would normally make lots ofcomments and then give them an additional chance to make comments beforehand. Against the spirit of theenterprise although some practical advantages. Would the questions really be ‘fixed’ even if looked at the day
before? Still would take a long time to discuss.
Electronic vote conducted. Regulations, so need 77 to pass. 28 accept, 107 against, 11 abstentions; proposal isREJECTED.
f) Proposal to add a section to the regulations to formulate proposals in a form which can be voted upon withjustification. Suggestion that proposals should be sent in early, and that there is a formal role for feedback fromthe Advisory Board, which can help the proponent to refine the proposal and hence to help people to formulate
the proposals and give time to make them good.
Electronic vote conducted. Regulations, so need 77 to pass. 110 in favour, 20 against, 6 abstentions. Proposal istherefore CARRIED.

7. Presidential Election. Candidates have been presented to the IB at a previous meeting, and so voting
proceeds with no further discussion.
Electronic vote conducted. First two will pass to second round. The two candidates passing to the second roundare: Rajdeep Rawat, and Vitaly Shevchenko.
Robin: 15
Rajdeep: 64
Jaan: 17
Vitaly: 25
Matt: 24
Abstention: 1
Second round results:
Rajdeep: 105
Vitaly: 44
Abstention: 2
Rajdeep Rawat is elected President of the IPhO for the term 2019 - 2023 inclusive! Congratulations to Rajdeep
from the entire International Board.
8. Invitation to EuPhO: Slava Kashcheyevs invites all countries to attend the third European Physics Olympiad
from 31 May to 4 June 2019 in Riga, Latvia.

9. Helmuth Mayr: involved with the IPhO from ages 37 to 73. Established the national Olympiad in Austria, andhas given long service since 1982 to the IPhO including a year as Secretary. Helmuth acknowledged by theInternational Board.
10. The outgoing President spoke of his own involvement in the Olympiad, from 1982. Note that the Olympiad
started to grow enormously throughout the 90s. Organised the Olympiad in the Netherlands. Elected president
in 2008, and again in 2013. Considers that it is good not to stay too long in the one position, and to hand overthe position to others before it is too long. Presidency has been an honour and has allowed a lot of help to begiven. IB acknowledged for all its support.
President was acknowledged by the IB with a standing ovation for his work over the years.
11. The new President, Prof. Rajdeep Singh Rawat, thanked Hans Jordens for his work and leadership. Henoted that this is a serious responsibility and challenge. Prof. Rawat has been involved since 2002 with thetraining of the Singaporean team. First was at an International Olympiad in 2005 in Salamanca, and enjoyedseeing the work of the students. Since then has trained students in experimental techniques for two weeks everyyear. Reiterated that there are a number of plans in place already, but we can benefit from some morestructures. Expressed that we should have some more working together of the international community that canhelp to guide every country to help organise the Olympiad. The IB is congratulated for its hard work not just overthe last 8 days but also over the past year and best wishes given.
12. Meeting declared closed at 11:33 am.