[Air-l] Summer 2004 executive committee report

[Nancy Baym]

September, 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


1.  Introduction & General (Baym)

This is the place to find out what's going on in 
the association. It's 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  With one week to go before our fifth 
conference, air-exec remains busy as ever. See 
Ulla's summary of our discussions below for a 
summary of the big issues we've been addressing. 
The conference has shaped up tremendously, thanks 
to the hard work of Kate O'Riordan, Sheizaf 
Rafaeli, and others. I hope you will be able to 
join us there. If you will be in Sussex, please 
make sure to join us for the General Meeting on 
Monday afternoon!

We are THRILLED to welcome a new AoIR baby! 
Welcome to grad rep Leslie Tkach-Kawaski's son 
Natsukaze! He was born on August 19, 2004, 
weighing slightly over 2500 grams. Mother and son 
are in good health, and though we will miss 
Leslie in Sussex, it's worth it! Stay tuned for 
more AoIR babies in the coming month(s)! (not 
from me -- I've done my part!)

We introduced a new member benefit of 20% off all 
books in Peter Lang's Digital Formation series. 
Yet another good reason to become a paid member!

We have also updated the designs on shirts, mugs, 
notebooks, and other swell merchandise at 
http://cafepress.org/aoir

I look forward to seeing many of you in Sussex.


2.2 Vice President (Allen)

2.2.1 I have been working with Radhika on reviewing progress so far on the
journal; have provided a little advice to Sheizaf and Monica on conference
matters; have judged the Student Prize for the conference; and been
networking to increase interest in AoIR downunder.


2.3 Secretary (Bunz)

2.3.1 In the last few months I've mostly been 
looking up things in the archives for our
exec discussions and played late-night email tag 
with Jeremy. More recently I've
provided tutorials on air-l, ordered various 
awards plaques, got the AoIR records
folder in shape, and am about to begin creating 
the agendas for the General Meeting
and the various exec meetings that will take 
place in Sussex. I've also been adding
my two cents to discussions on the exec.


Summary of What's been happening on the Executive Listserve since May 11, 2004:

- Future Conferences:

We are in the process of planning long term. A) 
As reported in the previous reports,
we will switch to an external conference 
management team (Virginia Tech) starting
with the 2005 conference. Thus, from then on we will need only a local liaison
rather than a local organizer/host. We will also 
be able to predict costs better and
lots of exec time is freed up for other things. 
B) The local liaison and the newly
selected program chair for 2005 (location to be announced in Sussex) have been
working away on the Call for Papers under what 
looks to be an outstanding conference
theme. We are hoping to release the CfP at the 
Sussex conference. The local liaison
has also been reporting that work with the 
Virginia Tech conference management team
has begun, such as checking out hotels, etc., so 
we are ahead of the game for 2005.
C) We are also in the process of setting up 
locations for the conferences in 2006
and 2007 (both still tentative, but we’re talking 
to local liaisons). D) After a
rather animated discussion we are coming to an 
agreement about a general rotation
schedule for conferences beyond 2005/6/7 up until 2015 (rotating North America,
Europe, Asia, Other locations; at this point, 
cities have not been decided on that
far into the future).

- Conference Coordinating Committee:
We continued our discussion on a conference 
coordinating committee (CCC). This year,
we used a one-year trial “conference management group,” composed of three exec
members, the local host, and the program chair and such coordination seemed to
facilitate the process. We are still discussing 
the specific makeup of this committee in future 
years

- Virtual Move:
Jeremy has been moving our electronic organizational components (e.g., website,
Listserve) onto a commercial server (Dreamhost by 
majority air-exec vote). This will
free up much of his time (as basic technological 
maintenance issues will no longer
have to be performed by him). It also makes us 
location independent, provides added
security, and facilitates designated AoIR members’ access to any files. Should
Jeremy ever resign his AoIR position, the 
electronic transition will facilitate the
human transition process. Costs incurred by this electronic, virtual move are
minimal compared to the man-hours that Jeremy 
otherwise has to put in every month.

- Diverse Conference Issues:
We talked about various conference issues as they 
came up, such as graduate student
paper submissions, computer access, financial 
assistance (sorry, we’re not yet able
to do that, but hope to be able soon), conference fees, location of conference
dinner, financials, registration website testing, online program, session
presentation guidelines.

- Impact:
The association has been included in the 
directory of quality internet resources
based in the UK. If you see us listed anywhere 
else, please email any exec member.


2.4 Treasurer (Bates)

2.4.1. Ben has been managing memberships.

2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham)

2.5.1 Gajjala: I have been monitoring the 
discussion on the Aoir journal topic, reviewed 
papers for AOIR and participated in the decision 
making process regarding grad student top papers.

2.5.2 Markham: Annette Markham has been 
communicating with various AOIR members about
relevant issues to bring to the table, particularly about research
methodologies.  She has also joined the working group on the issue of
AOIR journals.

The qualitative research list is up and running and awaiting more
members.  If you would like to join, please do!
http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi


2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver)

2.6.1 Murero:  I have been worked a lot with 
Kate, Shiezaf , and their staff to help plan and 
organize this year's conference in Sussex , on 
the basis of my previous experience  within AoIR. 
I did not leave the Internet during my vacations 
, getting more and more addicted :-)
- this is definitively related to  getting more 
and more addicted to AoIR as well :-)!
Also, I did actively participated to all the 
discussion and decisions within the air-exec (see 
Ulla's report) , particularly regarding the 
future conferences planning . I am working on a 
survey to learn more from conference 
participants, and you will hear more about it at 
the conference in Sussex and online; now 
organizing...


2.6.2 Kluver: I participated in Exec Council conversations and the journal
working group.


2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski)

2.7.1

The graduate representative has been somewhat quiet over the
summer (while on maternity leave) but is gearing up for the
fall and winter. She has been collecting information regarding
graduate courses throughout the world aimed at Internet-re-
lated studies with an eye to making this info available on
the aoir web-site. Any and all submissions in this vein are
welcome at tkach at japan.email.ne.jp.


2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl)

2.8.1 Hunsinger:

well, I've been busy, but it is too much to list 
in the end.  it basically breaks down into stuff 
for the conference, stuff for future conferences, 
stuff for the systems, stuff for exec, and other 
stuff related to aoir.

2.8.2 Breindahl:

I have moderated the listserv and worked with Jeremy on technical issues.

2.9 Past-President (Jones):

Most of my work has been related to planning for 
the 2005 conference, coordinating with the 
conference planning agency, and venue, and to 
long-term conference planning. I have also worked 
on renewing the contract with Peter Lang for the 
AoIR Annual.