The business meeting of IAU Commission 14 was called to order by F. Rostas (Vice-President) in the absence of W.H. Parkinson (President) at 14:00 on Thursday August 21, 1997 in room H of the Kyoto International Conference Hall in Kyoto, Japan.
 

Present were :
F. Rostas  France  Vice-President
W.C. Martin  USA  Outgoing chair WG 1
W.F. Huebner USA
R. Kurucz  USA
 

W.H. Parkinson (President) and P. L. Smith (Secretary) were excused, being unable to attend due to lack of support from their national authorities. Most of the points on the agenda, especially the proposals for new officiers and WG chairmen have been presented in a letter circulated by W.H. Parkinson before the meeting.
 

Approval of new officiers :
F. Rostas announced that P.L. Smith has agreed to serve as Vice-President and Nicole Feautrier as Secretary for the next trienium. There were no objections.
 

Organizing committee :
According to the rules set at the 1991 GA in Buenos-Aires, members of the OC appointed in 1991 are leaving (S.J. Adelman, J. Dubau). They are replaced by K.A. Berrington, Nicole Feautrier and W.C. Martin. W.H. Parkinson remains in the OC, as ex-president and P.L. Smith as vice-president.
 

Working groups :
W.C. Martin is retiring as chair of WG1, S. Johansson has agreed to replace him. D.R. Schultz has replaced Jean Gallagher as chair of WG3 when she deceased in 1995. Nicole Feautrier, is becoming secretary of the Commission and has proposed Chantal Stehlé, who accepted, as new chair of WG4.
As suggested by the executive group, vice chairpersons are being looked for by the WG Chairs. Some have already been designated as shown below.
The structures of Commission 14 for the trienium, 1997-2000 as it is shown on the table below is approved.
 

New members :
Nine new IAU members have chosen Commission 14 as their primary interest. These are K. Aggarwal (India), C. Barnbaum (USA), H. Boechat-Roberty (Brazil), F. Launay (France), A. Le Floch (France), H. Ozeki (Japan), C.C. Pei (China P.R.), F. Rogers (USA), J.-Y. Roncin (France).
All nine candidates have been accepted.
 

Evolution of the Commission Reports :
At the meeting of Commission Presidents the new General Secretary (Andersen) announced that the format of the commission reports published in Reports on Astronomy (Transactions A) will be modified : basically they would be reduced to a 2 page outline. Supplementary space could be requested by the Commissions who wish to maintain a detailed scientific report. Most presidents said they would be in that case. It has been agreed that commission 14 would continue to publish an extensive study based on the Working Group's reports.
 

Meeting on the Spectroscopy of Large Molecules :
The principle of such a meeting initiated and sponsored by commission 14 is accepted. Collaboration with interested commissions has to be looked for. The exact format and date will have to be worked out by the organizing committee in consultation with competent members.