IASSIST Annual General Meeting 1998, New Haven, Connecticut, May 22, 1998
Chair: Peter Burnhill
Approximately 45 persons present.
0. Call to order
the meeting was called to order at 13:08.
1. Welcome
The president welcomed those present at the annual general meeting. He noted that IASSIST depends on volunteers, and mentioned a number of initiatives, such as the WWW site, standards building, listservs. He also noted that this is the second time IASSIST is meeting together with CSS, and welcomes thoughts on collaboration with other associations.
2. Approval of minutes
Of the annual general meeting of May 9, 1997 in Odense. Approved.
3. Introduction of the Admin Committee
P. Burnhill introduced the members of the Administrative Committee.
3.1 Outgoing
P Burnhill introduced the outgoing members of the Administrative Committee, Marty Pawlocki, Linda Langschied, and Laura Guy, and thanked them for their contribution.
3.2 Treasury Group - Wendy Treadwell
W Treadwell reported that the function of Treasurer has now been reformed into a group consisting of a treasurer and three assistant treasurers, Gaetan Drolet (Canada), JoAnn Dionne (United States), Alison Bayley (Europe) to administer IASSIST’s dispersed funds.
IASSIST is financially comfortable. She is working with the membership database with the goal of enabling the assistant treasurers to update it remotely.
With the new structure, it is not possible to submit a financial report, but a full report will be submitted at the next AGM, including a consolidated account, and a business statement identifying incomes and expenditures. This will allow the association to assess the adequacy of the membership fees, et al.
3.3 Publications Committee - Margaret Adams
M Adams acknowledged the members of the publications committee: Diane Geraci, Chuck Humphrey, Greg Haley, Repke de Vries, Karsten B Rasmussen, Walter Piovesan, Juri Stratford, and Laura Bartolo.
J Stratford provided an update on the IASSIST Quarterly: vol 20(2) to be mailed at the end of June. Intend to have finished publishing the 1997 volume by October 1998, and to have completed the 1998 volume by June of 1999.
M Adams encouraged contributions to the IASSIST Quarterly. Submissions should be in electronic formats, such as MS Word. Issues are published simultaneously in print and on the WWW site.
There was brief discussion of a project to scan back issues of the IASSIST Quarterly.
3.4 International Outreach Committee - B Winstanley
B Winstanley outlined the purpose of the International Outreach Committee, to sponsor attendance from outside the countries from which IASSIST normally draws its conference attendance.
She identified the need for a policy, to be posted on the WWW, and the intention of having this policy ready for posting in the next couple of months, with criteria for selection.
Teresa Wildhardt thanked IASSIST on behalf of this years recipients. She briefly touched on the social changes in the countries in Eastern Europe as a result of political changes, and predicted effects such the a doubling of the number of students in the social sciences in the future.
P Burnhill reminded the committee that IASSIST is not a foundation.
3.5 Regional secretariates - P Burnhill
P Burnhill noted the need to explore how we can use the regional structure to reach out in the Pacific Rim, to South America, and to continue to reach out to Eastern Europe. Regional secretariates need to be re-formed as a membership committee. It is also necessary to consider what function the regional secretariates should perform when conferences are no longer held in the North American corridor.
3.5.1 European secretariate - B Winstanley
B Winstanley will post the European Secretariates report. IASSIST members are involved in an impressive number of EU projects:
- feasibility study on a Royal Irish Academy
- EconData project in the Netherlands and NIWI
- there will be an important conference in early June in Northern Ireland
- CHESHIRE implementation
B Winstanley recognized the important contribution of Denise Lievesley, formerly of the ESRC Data Archive, and now president elect of the Royal Statistical Society.
3.5.2 Canadian secretariate - W Watkins
- The Data Liberation Initiative now includes 61 universities
- DLI activities now largely involved with training
- DLI Web development group seeking to improve the WWW site
- Statistics Canada has now made files collected in the 1970s available
- 1996 Census of population data are being produced
- longitudinal data collection is becoming more prevalent
- Quebec initiative to provide a common interface to data, SHERLOCK
- Canada is undertaking a review of the National Archives and the National Library
- ICPSR still has 24 Canadian member institutions
- She introduced Canada’s latest data librarian, Walter Giesbrecht of York University
3.5.3 US secretariate report
will be posted on the WWW
3.5.4 Australian secretariate report
will be posted on the WWW
3.6 New regions - P Burnhill
P Burnhill advised that the newest region, Africa, will have have the opportunity to host an IASSIST conference in time.
3.7 By-elections - P Burnhill
P Burnhill advised that it will be necessary to conduct by-elections for regional secretariates in Africa, Europe, and the United States. He asked the out-going president to convene a Nominations and Elections Committee for this purpose.
The following statement by the Nominations and Elections Committee was read by B Winstanley:
IASSIST will hold an election in the summer of 1998 for the offices of Regional Secretary. We need to fill positions left vacant at the European and U.S. Secretariates, and we need to elect a representative to the newly established South African Secretariate.
The Nominations and Elections Committee, composed of Libbie Stephenson, Jean Stratford, Maseka Lesaoana, and Bridget Winstanley, are seeking nominations for the Secretariates.
A request for nomination will be sent out, but if anyone has a nominee in mind now, please communicate this to one of the committee members.
4. 1998 Conference
P Burnhill expressed IASSISTs thanks to Ann Green and Jocelyn Tipton. Ann Green thanked all who came and presented, who chaired sessions, the plenary speakers, those who organized the plenaries, Judith Rowe, Brigit Winstanley, Vigdis Kvalheim, Manfred Kuchler from CSS, Suzette Giles, and the webmaster, as well as local staff, Jocelyn, Lu Stavris, and Gloria Hardman.
5. Future IASSIST conferences
5.1 1999 conference
will be in Toronto, Canada, with CAPDU (Canadian Association of Public Data Users).
- Program chair: Chuck Humphrey.
- Local arrangements: Suzette Giles and Laine Ruus
5.2 2000 conference
A number of suggestions have been received for the year 2000 conference. P Burnhill will be asking each for a proposal by the end of June.
The meeting adjourned at 14:05.