IASSIST Annual General Meeting, June 8, 2000, Evanston, Il., USA
1. Call to order
The meeting was called to order at 12:55 with approximately with approximately 120 persons present. Chair: Peter Burnhill, President. Minutes: Laine Ruus
2. Welcome and announcements (P Burnhill)
P Burnhill welcomed the attendees to the 26th annual IASSIST conference. He expressed thanks to the members of the 2000 conference Local Arrangements Committee and introduced the Conference Co-chairs, Ann Janda and Faye Booker, and the Program Committee chair, Diane Geraci.
F Booker thanked all those who had worked on the conference, both Northwestern University staff and University of Chicago staff. She reported that the 2000 conference had 159 registrants, of which 102 were from the USA, 22 from Canada, and 35 from Europe and elsewhere. The workshops attracted 64 participants.
3. Approval of the minutes of the previous annual general meeting
Moved that the minutes of the 1999 annual general meeting be approved as presented. Moved - Tess Trost, seconded - Wendy Watkins. The motion CARRIED.
4. Matters arising from the minutes
There being none, the meeting proceeded to the next agenda item.
5. Future conferences
5.1 2001 - Amsterdam, joint conference with IFDO
E Mochmann, president of IFDO, invited IASSIST to join with IFDO in a joint conference in 2001. He informed the meeting that the first joint IASSIST/IFDO conference was held in 1981 on the theme of data protection. The theme of the 2001 conference is yet to be decided by the program committee. Cor van der Meer will chair the Local Arrangements Committee, and Ron Dekker will be Program Committee chair.
5.2 2002
Interested institutions are invited to submit a proposal to host the 2002 and 2003 conferences. Regulations re hosting IASSIST conferences are available on the IASSIST web site. One offer has been received from a US university to host the 2002 conference.
6. Reports
6.1 President and vice-president’s report
P Burnhill reported that the past 3 years have been spend resolving infrastructure issues within the association, and that there are opportunities for new avenues of work for the association. A new Action Committee for Liaison and Representation has been formed, and new chairs appointed of the Membership Committee and the Publications and Communications: Membership Committee chair: Suzette Giles Publications and Communications co-chairs: Patrick Yott and Lisa Niedert
6.2 Regional secretariates
6.2.1 Canada
W Watkins advised that the Canadian report is available on the IASSIST WWW site.
6.2.2 Europe
C van der Meer advised that the European report is available on the IASSIST WWW site.
6.2.3 USA
M Adams advised that the US has no report at the present time, that the report will be produced via a participatory process via e-mail.
6.2.4 Australia and Africa
Representatives of these secretariates were not present. Reports to be made available on the WWW.
6.3 Treasurer’s report (W Treadwell)
W Treadwell reported that there are 3 regional treasurers: JoAnne Dionne, Allison Bayley, and Gaetan Drolet. Membership fees have not changed since last year. The association has one (1) year’s operating funds in the bank. Conferences tend to break even. Discretionary funds are needed for one-time expenses, and funding of new initiatives. She proposed raising membership fees to US$50.00 ($20.00 for students to take effect next July (2001). The membership year has been shifted to July through June to improve management of the process; membership fees can be paid with conference fees.
MOVED that membership be raised from US$40.00 (US$20.00 for students), to US$50.00 (US$25.00 for students). Moved: Wendy Treadwell; seconded: Laine Ruus. The motion CARRIED.
6.4 Membership Committee report
No report from this committee, as the chair is newly appointed. The committee will be composed of the regional secretariates, the president, and the chair of the committee. Responsibilities will include increasing membership, and member services.
6.5 Publications and Communications Committee (M Adams)
M Adams thanked the members of the Committee for their work. The committee has three major areas of activity:
- Domain name - W Piovesan reported that iassist.org, iassist.com and iassist.net are all taken. After some discussion, it was proposed that the committee seek availability of iassist.int or iassist.org.
- IASSIST Quarterly (IQ)- W Piovesan and R de Vries discussed proposed format changes to the IQ, including the production of a table of contents with links to individual articles, and individual title pages for each article.
- there was additional discussion of R de Vries’ ’town crier' project. K B Rasmussen and R de Vries to conduct a session on ‘Whither IASSIST’ at the conference.
- IQ production team: 5 issues of the IQ have been produced since the 1999 conference. To the team has been added Bill Block (U Minnesota), responsible for printing labels and mailing. J Stratford reported on the current status of IQ production; all but 4 papers from the previous conference have now been published. He encouraged presentors to send their papers in ascii text or MSWord, and to convert any purely verbal presentations into a paper.
P Burnhill thanked M Adams for her work on revitalizing the Committee.
7. Reports of Action Groups
7.1 Outreach Action Group (Ilona Einowski)
I Einowski outlined the intent of the Outreach AG is to support professionals from emerging economies. The first activity was in 1997. In total 15 people have been able to attend IASSIST through this initiative. Financial support has been through the commitment of funds to the initiative by the Administrative Committee, and the good will of the membership. The AG has looked for outside funding: the World Bank is willing to entertain an application. Other sources are also being explored. Activity thus far has centered on Eastern Europe, but the AG would like to expand to Latin America and Asia. The AG is also exploring fostering mentoring arrangements between emerging and established data services.
P Burnhill announced that the term of the Outreach AG will to be renewed for another year.
7.2 Liaison and Representation Action Group
P Burnhill explained the intent of this Action Group, which constitutes IASSISTs representation to other organizations. Such representation was once active, but it has since lost momentum. Therefore there is need to rethink at both national and international levels, and possibly coordinate with the regional secretariates.
8. Elections
Approximately 50% of the Administrative Committee positions will be due for re-election in the fall of 2000. A Nominations and Elections Committee has been appointed.
9. Other competent business
There being none, the meeting adjourned at 13:35.