[Air-l] minutes of the General Meeting, Oct 17, 2003

[Ulla Bunz]

Association of Internet Researchers 4.0, Toronto, Canada, October 15-19,
2003

Minutes of the General Meeting, Friday, October 17, 2003

Member of the outgoing executive committee in attendance: 
President: Steve Jones
Vice-President: Nancy Baym
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seat i: Barry Wellman
Open Seat ii: David Silver
Appointed Seat i: Leslie Shade
Appointed Seat ii: Matthew Allen
Publication Officer i: Jeremy Hunsinger

Executive Offers absent:
Graduate Student Seat: Lisbeth Klastrup
Publication Officer ii: Charlie Breindahl

1. Welcome and Introduction
Steve Jones expresses a welcome to everyone in attendance and his
delight at seeing so many members at the General Meeting after a long
day of presentations.

2. Executive Officers' Reports
2.a. President
- Steve Jones states the fact that so many people are present at the
meeting shows clearly that there is interest in the continued
development of the association. He hopes this interest will continue and
that many people will express their interest by volunteering for the
association.
- Over the past four years, a tremendous amount of work has been
accomplished, largely due to people who stepped up and just did it. AoIR
has experienced - in the most positive way - an overwhelming rate of
growth. At times it was challenging to keep up with that, but now that
an organizational infrastructure is in place, certain things will become
easier. Steve mentions that he is looking forward to the change in
leadership, as it truly means that we are now an association. Steve
introduces Vice President Nancy Baym, who will become the President of
the association during this General Meeting.

2.b. Vice President
- Nancy Baym is excited about being the new President, and is optimistic
about the association's future. She is confident that the good working
relationship she has had with Steve for the past five years will
continue, so she anticipates a smooth transition and no radical changes.

- Nancy encourages suggestions and feedback from everyone so that the
executive committee can facilitate what the association's members want.
Nancy points out that making a suggestion is a great first step, but
that "pitching in" to make things happen is crucial, especially in light
of organizing next year's conference.

2.c. Secretary
- Ulla Bunz is delighted to have been involved with AoIR right from the
first conference, where she was a local graduate student volunteer. Her
responsibilities as the secretary consist to a large part in keeping
things organized, moving topics along on the executive Listserve,
summarizing the exec list once a month for the monthly report, and,
around conference time, create meeting agendas and transcripts, and
organize awards. 

2.d. Treasurer
- Benjamin Bates reports that AoIR currently has approximately 400
members from 36 different countries. He is considering switching from
individual renewals throughout the year to a one-date-a-year renewal of
memberships for everyone, and encourages feedback about these two
options. He reports that by Friday night, approximately 400 people had
registered for the conference, with more expected on Saturday. 
- Overall, the cash flow of the association is in pretty good shape. The
2002 conference in Minnesota generated a slight profit. On the other
hand, not enough people stayed in the conference hotel in Toronto, which
means AoIR will have to pay a fee. The fee is not yet negotiated, but
will probably be several thousand US dollars. This year, AoIR did
conference registration and other financial matters on its own, and
we've learned a great deal. However, there are some problems with the
KAGI system for Europeans, who are charged taxes on membership fees,
etc., so Ben encourages people with knowledge of European tax law to
contact him.

2.e.i. Open Seat
- Barry Wellman hopes to pass on his wisdom to future members of the
executive committee. He jokes that one should never be on an executive
committee if the conference is going to be in your city, as he has
worked heavily for the conference on a local organizing level. Among
many other things, Barry organized the local conference t-shirts, though
general AoIR t-shirts and other items are available at
http://www.cafepress.com/aoir. 
- Barry thanks his volunteers by name, and concludes that he has learned
a lot.

2.e.ii Open Seat
- David Silver is very excited about AoIR and has attended all four
conferences. He jokes that he now assumes that all conferences are run
the way AoIR is run. He continues that it is great to see so many
disciplines represented at AoIR, and that working with Steve has been
amazing, due to Steve's generosity, kindness, and gracious manner. He
also believes that the executive members are great.
- He urges AoIR to engage more directly with the world events around us.
He mentioned that in our times we see imperialism, empire, war, terror
(although David was quick to ask what is the difference between the
two), and surveillance. He mentions that much but not all of this is
played out in digital environments and gives two examples: the elevation
of the network in contemporary warfare and the Patriot Act.  He strongly
believes that AoIR should work proactively to include these items,
especially in the form of the Call for Papers.

2.f. i. Appointed Seat
- Leslie Shade has also been involved with AoIR since the first
conference, and was then program chair in Minneapolis, at the second
conference. She jokes that she will miss all the emails on the executive
list, and states that working with this executive committee was great.
She thanks Steve for his generosity of spirit and sense of humor, and
gives thanks to all for "bringing it on."

2.f. ii. Appointed Seat
- Matthew Allen jokes how he is a perfect example for the Internet in
time, as due to his location in Australia, he reads everything twelve
hours after everyone else. His goal has been to create a space for the
membership to contribute, and be believes that the association provides
multiple overlapping spaces for voices finding expression. 
- As this year's program chair, he got to see many fantastic ideas. He
is delighted to be the new Vice President, and states that he has had a
fantastic experience at the conference. 

2.g. i. Publication Officer
Before Jeremy Hunsinger can speak up, Steve Jones states that without
Jeremy, the association as we know it would not exist. None of the
Internet related things that we take for granted would exist. Jeremy is
tireless, takes on everything he is asked to do, and does it right away.
Steve thanks Jeremy.
- Jeremy Hunsinger states that without everyone else, he wouldn't be
able to do all this work. He especially points out his friend and
co-Publication Officer Charlie Breindahl. He points out that Charlie
runs the website, and Jeremy does the backbone. He points out that there
are places we can go with the website, but that this is up to membership
involvement. He encourages everyone to contribute. Two new lists have
been created, an ehealth list, and a grad student list.

3. Association Action Items
3.a. T-shirt Contest
- Steve Jones announces Caroline Haythornthwaite as the designer for the
chosen conference logo for the conference t-shirts. In gratitude and
recognition, Steve presents Caroline with a t-shirt she has chosen from
http://www.cafepress.com/aoir. 

3.b. Transitions
- Steve Jones announces that with this meeting the old members of the
executive committee step down, and the new members are officially
appointed. He acknowledges that the outgoing committee has provided
tremendous contributions to the organization, and that they are to be
commended for what they have done. 
- Steve gives thanks to his own department and various deans for seed
funding. He thanks his wife Jodi for listening and supporting him. He
then announces that it actually gives him pleasure to turn over the
presidency because this transition and all that AoIR has done in the
last four years now means that we truly are an association. Steve then
turns over his presidency to new President Nancy Baym.
- Nancy Baym introduces the new members of the executive committee (see
below) and thanks Jennifer Stromer-Galley for counting the election
votes. [Note: At the General Meeting, the Appointed Seats were not yet
filled. Since then, the executive committee has nominated Monica Murero
and Randy Kluver, who have both accepted their nominations. Their names
are included here for the sake of completeness.] 

Members of the incoming executive committee:
President: Nancy Baym
Vice-President: Matthew Allen
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seat i: Annette Markham
Open Seat ii: Radhika Gajjala
Appointed Seat i: Randy Kluver
Appointed Seat ii: Monica Murero
Graduate Student Seat: Leslie Tkach Kawasaki
Publication Officer i: Jeremy Hunsinger
Publication Officer ii.: Charlie Breindahl

3.c. Reports of Work Committees
3.c. i. Ethics Working Group
- Charles Ess reports that the ethics group has continued to move
forward with their work. The ethics report, available at
http://aoir.org, has been used several times already to pass people's
Internet related research proposals through Internal Review Boards, and
continues to be much inquired about. He encourages people to send
inquiries, and also requests that people let him know if their proposal
is approved so that we can collect a record similar to "case law." He
states that talking to IRBs is frustrating, as they only listen on
occasion, and encourages all to push forward the body of work on
Internet ethics. He thanks the members of his ethics committee. Steve
Jones adds that he is impressed with the quality of the ongoing work.

3.c. ii. Research Annual
- Mia Consalvo, the main editor for the first AoIR Research Annual,
covering the first three conferences, states that she was asked only
last November to take responsibility for this annual. The annual is now
in the publisher's hands and will be published within the next month as
"Internet Research Annual, Volume 1." The annual has over 30
contributors and 26 chapters. She thanks the other editors and states
she had fun putting it together. Work on the second volume, based on
AoIR 4.0 in Toronto, begins immediately. Mia encourages all to submit
their papers to Matthew Allen or her by October 30.

4. Conference Items
4.a. AoIR 5.0, in 2004
- Nancy Baym announces that next year's conference, AoIR 5.0, will be
held at Sussex University in the UK. The conference chair will be Kate
O'Riordan. Nancy hopes that everybody will be able to join us in Sussex.


5. Audience Feedback
5.a. Matthew Allen is congratulated as the new Vice President.

5.b. An audience members asks David Silver how he suggests that AoIR
could weave poitics more into the association and what the consequences
would be. David responds that he would like to see this in the Call for
Papers more clearly. As the association grows, inclusion is important,
and he wants to extend inclusion to the world outside of academia. He
believes that most research agendas are difficult to distance from the
world anyway, and that in that world, there is a return to military
(funding for) technology. He suggests invited panels, or specific talks
about grants from the military. He wants reflexive talk about the
political economy of Internet Studies and the directions we can take. He
simply wants more dialogue about these issues. Barry Wellman voices his
disagreement with David's position.

5.c. An audience member asks for the theme of next year's conference.
Nancy Baym responds that it is not set yet and will have to be discussed
with Kate O'Riordan, but encourages to send suggestions to Nancy. She
adds that the conference listserves allow people to get involved, for
example through reviewing. She encourages everyone to share ideas with
the executive committee. Matthew Allen adds that he is interested in
hearing what "worked" at the conference, and what did not.

5.d. Mia Consalvo points out that the Birds of Feather meeting on Games
was great, and that people interested in this topic can meet her for
dinner afterwards.

5.e. An audience member thanks Matthew Allen for last year's email
"postcards" from the conference and asks if there is something similar
this year. It is pointed out that this year, there are numerous bloggers
blogging the conference. A link is available from the conference website
at http://aoir.org/2003.

5.f. An audience member inquires whether there will be an effort to
market AoIR to disciplines other than communication. Nancy Baym responds
that AoIR doesn't really actively market itself, but relies on personal
networks and word of mouth, and that we invite everyone to join AoIR.
Since the Internet goes across all disciplines and everyone has their
own research ideas, people should tell people about the conference, and
try to recruit on their own those people who they would like to see
involved. Steve Jones adds that there have been subtle recruiting
efforts by all members of the executive committee, but that we rely on
word of mouth. AoIR continues to attract new people and ideas. He
believes that our goal should be to present Internet Research at our
institutions to establish AoIR as just as credible as disciplinary
meetings. Nancy Baym adds that AoIR will provide resources for ideas and
projects if members take charge of them. Public relations materials such
as posters are available at http://aoir.org and AoIR merchandise is
available at http://www.cafepress.com/aoir. 

5.g. An audience member inquires how much profit AoIR makes off
Cafepress merchandise. Benjamin Bates answers that we get approximately
one to two dollars per piece sold. 

6. Adjournment
- Nancy Baym thanks Steve Jones as stellar leader and friend. She thanks
all for attending the General Meeting and hopes to see all in Sussex
next year. The meeting is adjourned.

Submitted respectfully,
Ulla Bunz, Secretary, October 22, 2003

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Ulla Bunz
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Rutgers University
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Email: bunz at scils.rutgers.edu
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