[Air-l] AoIR Executive report March 2006

[Matthew Allen]

Matthew Allen, President
Briefly, since October, I have been mainly working as liaison between
the Executive and the Conference and Program Chairs for the 2006
Conference. I have also been negotiating with Peter Lang concerning
future publishing arrangements for the annual, redeveloping parts of the
AoIR website, seeking new discounts for members, coordinating exec
activities including finalising locations for the 2007 and 2008
conferences.

Charles Ess, Vice-President
1) I worked with the exec and the program chairs for AoIR 2006 to
develop the call for papers and distribute it widely.
2) I summarized the results of the AoIR Ethics Working Group meeting at
AoIR 2006, including proposals for new projects and our endorsement of a
new chair, Elizabeth Buchanan; presented these to the executive
committee, and received their approval.
Elizabeth Buchanan is now official chair of the Ethics Working Group,
but I continue to work with her, e.g., in fielding occasional queries.
(We've received a few over the past several months regarding research on
blogs and forums, as well as occasional notes informing us that the AoIR
guidelines are being used in a research and/or publication project.)
3)  I will work with the exec and members to identify the conference
venue for 2007, and then pursue the organizational details with local
organizer(s) and volunteer(s).

Monica Murero, Treasurer
Since my election as the new Treasurer I have been taking  major steps
to improve the AoIR membership process and criteria, and make them
easier.  I am about to present to the exec a report about  the further
steps we need to introduce to activate the new process (re 1 date for
renewal at conference time -- you will hear more from me very soon) with
the help of our system officer and secretary.  This is a complex
process, but all is proceeding smoothly. I am involved in several other
volunteer activities for aoir. For example, I am offering  the chance to
have refunds or donations to members who renew in 2006.  I am going to
introduce an organized activity of fund raising and donation, and have
been very active in all aoir exec business, and discussions; these
include for example criteria for organizing the current conference in
Australia , future conference locations, and previous conferences
financial matters. Lack of volunteers to form a working team refrained
me from organizing a new survey to learn more from AoIRs (expectations,
needs etc.), but hopefully in the future conditions will be more
favorable. I invite all to contact me anytime to let me know  thoughts
and suggestion to bring to the exec's attention.  I often remind to the
exec to be very careful in their decisions when have an impact on costs,
to make wise use of our limited resources, and keep in mind students
'pockets. In these days, I am looking forward to receiving from Matt the
budget and the conference fees of this year's conference. I am  working
with Steve Jones to finalize  financial aspects of the last conference
in Chicago.

Irene Berkowitz, Secretary
Assisting with membership changes

Ted M. Coopman, Graduate Student Representative
Since taking office I have strongly advocated for the interests of
graduate student members. I am happy to report that the Executive
Committee has shown a great deal of interest and support for the special
needs of graduate students in the planning and execution of AoIR 7.
These include the availability of less expensive accommodations at the
conference site as well as food inclusive in the price of registration
during many breaks and events. I successfully advocated for an
alternative presentation session that provides an opportunity for novel
ways to display research and intellectually interact in more casual
environment (so use it!!). Finally, we are in the final stages of
approving a Graduate Student Research Group project that will provide
graduate student members a way to contribute to the success of AoIR
through supportive research. This research will be used to provide the
Exec with important data concerning our past and present operations as
well as create useful content for the membership.

Randolph Kluver
I have been focused primarily on building the visibility of AoIR in the
Asia-Pacific region, through recruitment to the organization and to the
Brisbane conference. 

Caroline Haythornthwaite
I have been participating with the executive in discussions of current
business.

Kate O'Riordan
1) Co-ordinating an updated list for distributing the AoIR conference
cfp and helping to distribute the cfp
2) Organising an opportunity to promote the work of the AoIR ethics
committee through the Economic and Social Research Council methods
festival (UK) in negotiation with Charles Ess
3) Helping review proposals for papers at the AoIR conference

Alex Halavais, Systems Officer
Much of my work has been getting up to speed on systems since I got
started. I think I've got a map of our systems and an idea of where we
want to move going forward. Instating, maintaining, and fixing the
submission process for our coming conference, and dealing with papers
from last year. Looking now at alternatives that are more effective for
our 2007 meeting. Working with Monica and Irene on creating a new system
for managing membership.

Holly Kruse, List Admin
I've been approving subscription requests and helping people who are
having problems subscribing to AoIR lists, unsubscribing, setting them
to digest, and so on; and just generally working to make sure the lists
are running smoothly.


Dr Matthew Allen
Associate Professor in Internet Studies 
President Association of Internet Researchers
Faculty of Media Society and Culture
Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
http://smi.curtin.edu.au/NetStudies/allen.htm
+61 8 92663511 (v) +61 8 92663166 (f)