[Air-l] Spring 2004 executive committee report

Nancy Baym nbaym at ku.edu
Fri May 14 19:33:13 PDT 2004


May, 2004
Report of the a.o.i.r. executive committee
Prepared by Nancy Baym

AoIR Executive Committee
President: Nancy Baym
Vice-President: Matthew Allen
Secretary: Ulla Bunz
Treasurer: Benjamin Bates
Open Seats: Radhika Gajjala and Annette Markham
Appointed Seats: Monica Murero and Randolph Kluver
Student Seat: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki
Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl
Past President (ex-officio): Steve Jones
2004 Conference Chair: Kate O'Riordan
Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess


1.  Introduction & General (Baym)

This is the place to find out what's going on in the association. 
It's long, it's not always thrilling, but it's always the best way 
for you to keep up so please read it! Our 24/7 discussions of the 
month on the executive committee mailing list are summarized in Ulla 
Bunz's section of the report. Read on...

2.  Executive Officers' Reports

2.1 President (Baym)

2.1.1 Planning on Sussex continues to go well and we are beginning to 
plan the 2005 conferences and beyond. We are moving to a new 
conference management system after 2004 as discussed below. A new 
working group to examine whether or not AoIR should start a journal 
and related issues is being formed. Our publications officers are 
working to overhaul the members web site. Our first AoIR Internet 
Research Annual has been published by Peter Lang. In her report 
below, Leslie mentions the need for non-English AoIR materials; if 
you are interested in translating any of our resources for 
non-English speaking audiences, please contact her. As always, if you 
know people who you think should be part of AoIR, please let them 
know we are here. And if you are an air-l subscriber but not a 
member, please consider joining -- it's not expensive and there are 
many benefits. And finally, if you have any skills you'd like to 
offer the association, we are an all-volunteer organization and are 
only able to accomplish as much as our volunteers are willing to 
commit.

2.2 Vice President (Allen)

2.2.1 I have been working with Mia to finalise vol2 of the IR annual.


2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 Counted votes, made picky edits, retrieved archive info for discussions,
and kept relatively quiet otherwise for the past couple of months.

February 11 - May 11, 2004

This month (or better, these months) on the Executive Listserve:

-	The exec discussed submission statistics and how the location of
the conference influences the cultural backgrounds of attendees. Such
issues are important for deciding on future conference locations.
(Location for 2005 will be announced in Sussex.) The exec discussed a
possible conference location for 2006. The first tentative contact with
the potential host site will be made within the next month. In the
meantime, host proposals for 2006 are welcome any time to Nancy Baym.

-	The exec is in the process of changing the way conference
management is being handled. Two proposals from two conference
management teams were reviewed and discussed at length. The decision (10
in favor, 1 abstain) was that in 2005, Virginia Tech will provide basic
conference management services/planning for the AoIR conference (Please
note, the conference is *not* at Virginia Tech. Instead, the university
provides a conference management service for hire. Please note also 
that one of the appeals of VT is that they are willing and able to 
manage conferences outside of the United Statest).  If both AoIR and 
VT
feel that they work well together, these services may be retained for
future conferences. This means that things like hotel negotiations,
printing of programs, registration, etc. will be taken care of by the VT
management team, leading to standardization of certain procedures that
have evolved within AoIR. This more or less eliminates the "local host"
role that has existed for all conferences including the upcoming 2004
conference. While we still encourage a local liaison (like we will have
in 2005), this local person would not have to deal with many of the
issues that recur every year, but would be more of a "local liaison."
Some early planning for 2005 is already going on (i.e., hotel
reservation, book exhibitors). This reflects a sense that we can stop 
re-inventing the wheel, not a sense that our local hosts have been 
anything less than spectacular in the accomplishment of their task!

-	The exec is currently in the process of deciding on a potential
program chair for 2005.

-	The current conference management group, composed of three exec
members, the local host, and the program chair, has been working on
details for the Sussex conference such as budgets, local coordinating,
reviewing, etc. This work is ongoing and leads to a smooth conference
experience. So far this work was performed by the local host who sent
feedback to the exec, but in an attempt to work towards the 2005
conference management approach, the temporary work group was formed. The
conference planning guide is being changed accordingly.

-	A lack of conference proposal reviewers resulted in drafting a
call for reviewers which was sent to the AoIR members-only Listserve.
The response was overwhelming (in the most positive way) and many
additional reviewers were recruited. Reviewing, under the direction of
program chair Sheizaf Rafaeli, has concluded and notifications have
since been sent. For the future, we would like to encourage both AoIR
members and non-members to continue volunteering if they are willing to
review proposals. The next call for reviewers will be in early 2005.

-	A charge for a new working group to discuss issues relating 
to AoIR and the development of (or liaisoning with) one or more 
journals was created and posted to the AoIR members-only Listserve. 
Volunteers still interested in
participating in this working group should contact Radhika Gajjala. A
report of this workgroup will be presented in Sussex. If you are 
interested in this topic, but not currently a member, consider 
joining aoir!

-	The exec is continuing its efforts to find funds to support
travel to AoIR conferences for graduate students and/or members from
disadvantaged nations. There may be some support for 2004, but we 
hope to begin modestly subsidizing selected people by 2005.


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1. Ben has been managing memberships.

2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham)

2.5.1 Gajjala: Nothing reported though she's been very active in 
discussion and agreed to serve as liaison for the journal working 
group.

2.5.2 Markham: Nothing reported though she too has been very active 
in discusison.


2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver)

2.6.1 Murero: I have actively participated in all the discussions 
within  air-exec (see general report). I have done some revision work 
(interesting and unexpected) and I am doing quite a lot of work for 
the organizational part of our  conference in Sussex, particularly on 
the budget analysis (costs, incomes) and calculations, formulas, and 
more. If my boss reads this,  please be aware that I am doing all of 
this during my free time :-))  !

2.6.2 Kluver: I have just been participating in
online discussions, and trying to raise the visibility of AoIR in Asia.


2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski)

2.7.1 * Did reviewing for Aoir 5.0 (Sussex).
* Continued to assemble potential content for graduate
student section of the web-site.
* Discussed possible ways to increase Aoir's presence among
graduate students in Japan (specifically) and SE Asia (in
general) among seminar group members.

Key points identified so far in regard to the third point are:

--> Availability of information in languages other than English.
--> Availability of programs, scholarships, linkages (for example,
exchange programs) with other universities, especially those
universities with which Japanese universities currently have
exchange programs.


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger: worked on the conference
worked on the server
broke and fixed things
irritated charlie and others

[Nancy's note: Jeremy is understating the amount of work he does for us!]


2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been and still am involved in the discussions 
about the organization's web presence and I'm still busy discarding 
thousands of spam mails.


2.9 Past-President (Jones): I've spent most of my AoIR time making 
arrangements for the 2005 conference and working with the conference 
management agency. There have also been some loose threads to tie up 
from the 2003 conference. I also did our taxes.

2.10 2004 Conference Chair (Kate O'Riordan)

2.10.1 Kate's too busy making sure all goes well in Sussex to pen an 
update right now. Planning is going wonderfully and we anticipate a 
great event. Acceptances and rejections have been sent out, and we 
hope to see many of you in Sussex this fall!

2.11  AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair)

2.11.1  While there has been no response to our call for interesting 
and instructive accounts of constructive engagements with IRBs and 
equivalent oversight authorities - there certainly has been a 
constructive and engaging
discussion of online research ethics on the aoir list. As always, 
suggestions and comments for improving the ethics document and its 
resources are welcome and encouraged.




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