The Executive Committee had its third meeting in Madrid on 31st August - 1st September 1997. Beside in meetings, the work of the EC is conducted by correspondence and electronic communication under the direction of the President and the Secretary. As of 1st January 1997, Latvia and Uruguay have been adopted as new members of IMU and hence of ICMI as well. Also ICMI continues to receive applications from countries to be co-opted as non-IMU member states of ICMI in accordance with the terms of reference. In 1997 it was decided, with the endorsement of the International Mathematical Union, to co-opt Indonesia as a non-IMU member of ICMI. The Adhering organization is the Indonesian Mathematical Society. Other applications were considered by the EC in 1997. Final decisions are expected to be made in 1998. A number of countries have not (yet) appointed National Representatives in ICMI. These are Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, Slovenia, and Uruguay. It is part of ICMI's general policy to encourage member states to establish National Sub-Commissions of ICMI. In 1997 the EC was not informed of the establishment of new National Sub-Commissions. The next International Congress on Mathematical Education, ICME-9, will be held in Makuhari, Chiba, Japan, in 2000. Preliminary dates are 31 July to 7 August. An International Programme Committee was appointed in 1996. It is chaired by Professor Hiroshi Fujita, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. The list of members was published in the ICMI Bulletin No. 42, June 1997, p. 17. The IPC has been working for most of 1997 by means of electronic post under the direction of Professor Fujita. The IPC will meet for the first time in the beginning of March 1998. No official bids have been received by the Executive Committee with respect to ICME-10 in 2004. However, Brazil has produced a declaration of intent to let ICMI know that it is preparing a bid to host this Congress. The mounting and conducting of so-called ICMI studies on crucial themes and issues in mathematics education were continued in 1997. The ICMI studies are published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, under the general editorship of the President and the Secretary of ICMI. The study Mathematics Education as a Research Domain: A Search for Identity. An ICMI Study, based mainly on the study conference What is Research in Mathematics Education, and What Are Its Results?, held at University of Maryland, College Park, USA, May 1994, appeared, in two volumes (576 pages), at the beginning of 1998. The study is edited byAnna Sierpinska and Jeremy Kilpatrick. The manuscript for the study on Perspectives on the Teaching of Geometry for the 21st Century, the corresponding study conference of which was held at Università di Catania, Italy, September-October 1995, was sent to the publisher in the autumn of 1997. The study, edited by Vinicio Villani and Carmelo Mammana, will appear in the beginning of 1998. The next study in the series is devoted to the theme The Role of the History of Mathematics in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. An International Programme Committee was appointed in 1996 (a list of members' names was published in the ICMI Bulletin, No. 41, December 1996, p. 14) with John Fauvel, the Open University, UK, and Jan van Maanen, the University of Groningen, the Netherlands as co-chairs. The Discussion Document for this study was published in various journals and newsletters, including the ICMI Bulletin, No. 42, June 1997, pp. 9-16, and in an abbreviated version in L'Enseignement mathématique, 2e Série, t. 43, fasc 1-2, janvier-juin 1997, pp. 199-203. The study conference will be held in France, at CIRM, Luminy (near Marseille), 20-25 April 1998, with Jean-Luc Dorier, Grenoble, France, in charge of the Local organization. Moreover, the ICMI EC has mounted a study on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics at University Level. The IPC which was appointed in 1997 (a list of members' names is included in the ICMI Bulletin, No. 42, June 1997, p. 18) is chaired by Derek Holton, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. The Discussion Document for this study has been/will be published in numerous places, including the ICMI Bulletin, No. 43, December 1997, pp. 3-13, and L'Enseignement mathématique, 2e Série, t. 43, fasc. 3-4, juillet-décembre 1997, pp. 381-390. The corresponding study conference will take place in Singapore, 8-12 December 1998. Plans for further studies, on average one per year, are under development. No ICMI Regional Conferences were held in 1997. The next such meeting, The First ICMI East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education (ICMI-EARCOME 1), will be held in Chungbuk, The Republic of Korea, 17-21 August 1998. ICMI continues to have four affiliated study groups, HPM (The International Study Group for the Relations Between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics), IOWME (The International organization of Women and Mathematics Education), and PME (The International Group for the Psychology of Learning Mathematics), and WFNMC (The World Federation of National Mathematical Competitions). In 1992 ICMI established a Solidarity Programme to help the development of mathematics education in countries in which there is a need for it that justifies international assistance. The first stage in this programme was the mounting of a Solidarity Fund based on private contributions by individuals, associations, etc. The Fund is to be activated to support concrete initiatives and activities that may foster solidarity in mathematics education between well-defined quarters in developed and less developed countries. The SolidarityFund has received donations from various organizations and individuals in mathematics education for which it is most grateful. Thus, in 1997 the Fund received a donation of French Francs 5.000 from the French National Sub-Commission of ICMI, C.F.E.M. In 1997 no projects were supported by the Solidarity Fund. Although the total funds are not excessive, the ICMI EC would welcome applications concerning projects which are worthy of support in line with the general aims of the Fund. In order to consider, plan and prepare the main aspects of ICMI's involvement in the World Mathematical Year 2000, an ad hoc committee, ICMI WMY 2000 Committee, has been formed, under the chairmanship of ICMI's President, Professor Miguel de Guzmán. The other members are listed in the ICMI Bulletin No. 42, June 1997, pp. 18-19. In 1997, ICMI Bulletin Nos. 42 and 43 were published under the editorship of the Secretary of ICMI. Furthermore, the ICMI Bulletin is available in the following electronic forms: In ASCII-format on direct request to the editor. On the World Wide Web, where it can be found under the following coordinates on the IMU-server, through URL: or Since the end of 1995, information concerning ICMI can be found on the ICMI-pages of the IMU-server on the World Wide Web. The pages are located through URL: or organization