[Air-l] February 2002 executive committee report

[Steve Jones]

February 15, 2002
Report of the a(o).i.r. executive committee
Prepared by Steve Jones



AoIR Executive Committee
President: Steve Jones
Vice-President: Nancy Baym
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seats: David Silver and Barry Wellman
Appointed Seats: Matthew Allen and Leslie Shade
Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup
Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl
2002 Conference Coordinator: Monica Murero
2002 Conference Program Chair: Klaus Bruhn Jensen
Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess


1.  Introduction & General (Jones)

Below is the monthly report from AoIR executive committee members.


2.  Executive Officers' Reports

2.1 President (Jones)

2.1.1 If we didn't know before that serving on the AoIR executive 
committee would be a lot of work, we know it now. Much has been 
discussed since the last report, and I think we are making good 
progress on several initiatives, as reported below. My thanks to the 
committee members for their hard work and dedication.


2.2 Vice President (Baym)

2.2.1 This month I raised several issues I had heard voiced at our 
conferences, executive committee candidates' election statements 
(both those elected and those who nobly volunteered to serve and were 
not elected), and air-l for consideration by the executive committee. 
These included outreach, enhancing our website, and examining our 
election procedures. Vigorous discussion ensued, and I worked hard 
pulling these discussions together to draft potential charges to 
potential working groups and to craft compromise solutions to bridge 
differences amongst executive committee members. Though these 
discussions have been occasionally stressful and often exhausting, I 
think the members of aoir should feel some excitement to know that 
they have one heck of a passionate and committed group of people 
struggling with the issues of how to make aoir a solid and consistent 
organization that can best serve the interests of its members. Next 
time though I think I'll raise issues one at a time so the exec 
committee can get some sleep and make it through weekends without 
having to check our email and offer opinions hourly :)


2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 It has been a busy month because the Executive Committee has made many
decisions. Please see the summary below. I have participated in these
discussions, created various summaries, and investigated various awards and
plaque vendors.

Short-Summary Jan 10-Feb 10, 2002:
The Executive Committee (EC) agreed:
* to create monthly summaries of decisions made on the air-exec list. The
job was added to the secretary's responsibilities. Procedural decisions are
available to current and future members of the EC. Major changes will be
reflected in the bylaws. All other decisions will be shared with air-l
either through the monthly summaries, or through separate postings.
* to continue its current policy on listserve postings: Messages over 10K
are technically rejected. "Public shaming" is continued for people who don't
delete previous messages when replying to them.
* to allow the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research to give an
award at AoIR 3.0.
* to register AoIR as an organization for the World Summit of the
Information Society, Geneva 2003.
* to accept a discount offer by vanDuesseldorp and Partners for their TV
Meets Web Seminar. More information will be made available on air-l soon.
* to encourage outreach and recruitment towards all groups, but especially
currently underrepresented groups. Promotional material will be made
available on the website.
* to investigate demographics etc. of membership in the near future. A call
for volunteers will be posted on air-l soon. Please wait until this call has
been posted before you volunteer.
* to create a work group that will be responsible for Internet Research
related online materials posted on the AoIR website. A call for volunteers
will be posted on air-l soon. Please wait until this call has been posted
before you volunteer.
* to create a work group that will investigate a possible election reform. A
call for volunteers will be posted on air-l soon. Please wait until this
call has been posted before you volunteer.
* to raise conference fees very slightly to confirm with higher costs
associated with conference planning.
* to begin giving keynote speaker award plaques. To continue giving a "best
student paper" award, which consists of a book and a plaque. The program
chair decides on the best student paper. The secretary is responsible for
having the plaques made.
* The EC is currently debating policies for possible affiliation, association,
and joint ventures with other organizations, businesses, and associations.


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1 We had a pretty good month.  Paid some bills, processed 16
new memberships, 2 renewals.  Managed to lose my local dump
of the "treasurer" emails during a disk crash, but thankfully had
kept originals on the server, and have been able to reconstruct
most of the correspondence (Thanks, Jeremy!).


2.5 Open Seats (Silver, Wellman)

2.5.1 Silver: I've spent the better part of the month trying to wade 
through and in
turn contributing to all of the email generated by the executive
committee mailing list.  We've had a very productive last few weeks,
discussing important issues regarding outreach, collaboration, and the
elections process, among other topics.  Personally, I think these are the
kinds of discussions and debates that are useful for a growing
organization, and reflect the amount of commitment all of us have for
this organization. I've fielded dozens of emails regarding AIR 3.0, 
and tried to pass along
word of the conference to all virtual nooks and crannies I could find.

2.5.2 Wellman: On leave.


2.6 Appointed Seats (Allen, Shade)

2.6.1 Allen: Nothing to report; clearing the decks here for my leave; 
semester starts on
Feb 18 and we have just worked out that the 22 fulltime staff in my school
are teaching 684 equivalent fulltime students this year lord!

2.6.2 Shade: Started review process for AOIR 3.0. Talked to lots of 
Canadians about participating in AOIR 3.0


2.7 Student Seat (Klastrup)

2.7.1 Nothing much to report, still trying to catch up with backlog 
after sickleave and discussions on EC-list. Taken first steps towards 
gathering interested phd.students in a taskforce which can think 
about phd.student initiatives within A.i:R. If you are interested in 
participating, please contact me!


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: busy month
general aoir
    maintained/upgraded aoir server
        new security patches, maintenance patches
        new perl installed
        new security policies and systems installed
        other assorted things
    it was a very active discussion period on exec.

conference aoir
    helped Klaus with conference
    finished rewrite and maintaining conference submission system
        90+submissions as of the 12th
    helped Monica with conference
    answered questions for the reviewers and coordinators
    sent out final cfp
    answered some submission related questions, sent others to Klaus 
and/or Monica

2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been formally assigned the task of 
maintaining aesthetic properties of our web presence by the Honorable 
and Ever-present-in-e-mail Dr. Hunsinger. I have even been able to 
answer several listserv requests before said Dr. Hunsinger (requires 
sub-second response times from Europe).


2.9 2002 Conference (Monica Murero, Coordinator; Klaus Bruhn Jensen,
Program Chair)

2.9.1 Murero: The organization of AoIR 3.0 is proceeding as planned, 
here in Maastricht.
I am coordinating several activites, from the choice of the  conference
facilities, to the update of the conference web-site . The first payments
have been done. Particular attention is dedicated to the quality of the
organization for the AOIR 3.0  conference.

2.9.2 Jensen: I have been working with Jeremy Hunsinger and volunteer 
reviewers in adjusting the review system for October 2002 conference 
as well as initiating the review process itself, which is on 
schedule. Following the February 15 deadline for submissions, we will 
gradually move from reviewing papers to planning the elements of the 
program.


2.10  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.10.1 We are beginning to discuss a draft of a document that we may present at
aoir 3.0 in Maastricht as a follow-up to our preliminary report posted in
October, 2001, as part of aoir 2.0 (see <aoir.org/reports/ethics.html>).
This document is more oriented towards specific questions to be raised by
researchers, IRBs and others in the efforts to evaluate proposed research;
it provides case studies that illustrate both dilemmas and possible
resolutions; and offers a range of additional resources for considering the
ethical dimensions of Internet research.