Minutes 2001

IASSIST General Assembly, 17 May, 2001, Amsterdam, Netherlands

0. Call to order

Peter Burnhill (president) called the meeting to order as 12:55, with approx. 209 persons present.

1. Welcome

P Burnhill welcomed those present, reported that the Administrative Committee had met on the previous Wednesday, and reminded those present that print minutes of the 2000 AGM were available.

2. Approval of minutes

MOVED that the minutes of the IASSIST AGM June 8, 2000, in Evanston Il., be approved. Moved: Peter Burnhill; seconded: Margaret Adams. CARRIED

3. Matters arising from the minutes

There being none, the meeting moved to the next item on the agenda.

4. Report of the Nominations and Elections Committee

P Burnhill introduced the new executive for 2001-2003:

• President: Ann Green
• Vice-president: Ron Dekker
• Regional secretariates:
  • Africa Julia Paris
  • Australia Vance Merrill
  • Canada Wendy Watkins
  • Europe Melanie Wright
  • USA Margaret (Peggy) Adams
• Members at large (2001-2005)
  • Canada Suzette Giles
  • Europe Louise Corti
  • USA Faye Booker
  • USA Cindy Sievert
  • USA Daniel Tsang
• Ex-officio
  • Treasurer Wendy Thomas
  • Assistant treasurer Alison Bayley
  • Assistant treasurer JoAnn Dionne
  • Assistant treasurer Gaetan Drolet
  • Secretary Laine Ruus
  • IQ editor Karsten Boye Rasmussen
  • Archivist Yvette Hackett

5. Reports

5.1 Report of the president (P Burnhill)

P Burnhill reported on his previous term as president. Is of the opinion that IASSIST is doing fine, continually reinventing itself, dealing with new opportunities to learn about the wider world. The term has yielded some successes, some continuing, and some to be repeated. The main successes were:

a. the reorganization of the IASSIST Quarterly, with thanks to the work of M Adams, who modernized and streamlined the processes, and to J Statford who brought it up to date. b. the Treasury was modernized, thanks to the work of W Thomas c. Outreach Action Group, thanks to the work of I Einowski. A way must be found to manage and sustain this success.

Additional areas that need future attention are:

d. regionalization - this needs rethinking, and is associated with the Membership Committee, under the direction of S Giles e. liaison and representation

P Burnhill thanked the outgoing Administrative Committee members for their contributions: V Kvalheim, R de Vries, D Geraci, A Janda, J Stratford.

5.2 Regional Secretariats

5.2.1 Europe (V Kvalheim)

V Kvalheim presented a very short report this year. The full report will be published in the IASSIST web page. One-third of all European members are in the UK; the remainder are from 15 different countries. Emphasis on developing tools for data access and extraction. NSD will be the archive and service point for the European social survey. Two new social science archives have been accepted into CESSDA: the Irish Data Archive, and the Czech Data Archive. EDINA (Edinburgh) received a recent award for Information Technology.

5.2.2 Canada (W Watkins)

W Watkins reported that DLI (Data Liberation Initiative) is now a permanent project in Statistics Canada. RDCs (research data centres) are being developed, pattered on the worst aspects of the American RDCs. Canada is again considering the issue of a national data archive.

5.2.3 USA (M Adams)

The US report will be posted to the WWW site.

5.2.4 Africa (J Paris)

Report is from the South African perspective. Africa has 54 countries, and a lot of different activities. Next year’s report will be more representative. Issued an invitation to IASSIST to come to Africa.

5.3 IASSIST Treasury

P Burnhill reported that, based on recommendations from the Treasury, IASSIST has shifted the fiscal and membership years to July - June of each year. Membership income covers membership expenses. Additional details are available from W Thomas on request.

5.4 IASSIST Archive (Y Hackett)

Y Hackett reported that the IASSIST records that have been collected are now in Washington, and will be shipped to the University of Toronto. A University of Toronto FIS student will be hired to organize the records before they are shipped to York University.

5.5 Action Groups

5.5.1 Outreach (I Einowski)

I Einowski gave a brief history of the Outreach Action Group, which began in 1997, and from 1997 to 2000, assisted a total of 15 people to come to IASSIST conferences. This year there are a total of 20 people attending under this program. Funding for this year’s effort was received from the World Bank and from UNESCO. Now it is important to manage this success. Other initiatives being considered by the AG include seeking funding to hold a conference in a developing country, and helping fund IASSIST members to assist in one of the developing countries.

T Yudina thanked I Einowski and all the members of the Outreach Committee.

5.5.2 Liaison and Representation

P Burnhill informed the meeting that a new action group on Liaison and Representation is being launched.

5.6 Interest Groups

5.6.1 US Data Issues

P Burnhill informed the meeting that a new interest group on US data issues is being launched.

5.7 Membership Committee (S Giles)

S Giles reported that the Membership Committee is comprised of the vice-president, treasurer, regional secretariats, and herself as chair. Short-term plans are: to first deal with and clean up the membership database, to update the IASSIST brochure, and to producing a directory of members for the current membership year.

5.8 Publications and Communications Committee (L Niedert)

L Niedert reported that the priorities of the committee now are to: follow up with presentors to obtain their papers for publication, also to collect PowerPoint presentations from sessions, and redesigning the WWW site, with P Yott and C Humphrey.

5.9 Committee on the Constitution (C Geda)

The objective of the committee is to examine election issues. The chair is C Geda.

6. Incoming President & Administrative Committee (A Green)

A Green thanked P Burnhill for his contributions, welcomed the incoming Administrative Committee members. She stressed the importance of sustaining and growing the association

7. Conference Reports

7.1 Amsterdam, Netherlands 2001

The Amsterdam Local Arrangement Committee members present were given a standing ovation.

7.2 Connecticut 2002 (L Timms-Ferrara)

L Timms-Ferrara welcomed all participants to Storrs and the University of Connecticut, on behalf of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, for the 2002 conference.

7.3 Call for proposals 2003 (A Green)

A Green informed the meeting that a call for proposals to host the 2003 meeting would be made via the WWW site.

8. Closing remarks

There being none, the meeting adjourned at 13:50.