PAA Affairs, Summer 1997: Report on the Spring 1997 Board of Directors Meeting

Report on the Spring 1997 Board of Directors Meeting

The PAA Board met on Wednesday, March 27, to consider a range of issues. President Karen Oppenheim Mason announced committee appointments. Elizabeth Evans of the Carolina Population Center has been made an Advisor on Electronic Publishing Issues to the PAA Committee on Publications. A committee to consider the PAA's awards has been formed and will be chaired by Suzanne Bianchi of the University of Maryland, College Park, with V. Jeffrey Evans of NICHD as a member. They will report to the Board at the Board's Fall meeting, which will be held in Washington, DC on Friday, October 24. President Mason has also formed a Computing Support and Policy Committee to advise the PAA Office and Board on needed hardware, software, and Internet connections. The committee is chaired by John Marcotte of the Urban Institute, and has as members Griffith Feeney of the East-West Center and William Mason of UCLA.

The Board then discussed the policy on member-initiated meetings held during the PAA annual meeting (see accompanying article), and reconfirmed that member-initiated meetings are to be accommodated on a space-available basis but are separate from the Presidential program. A formal application process to request space for such meetings will be instituted for 1998. Members interested in holding a self-organized meeting will be required to use an application form that will be distributed with the Call for Papers. There will be a deadline for submitting applications.

The Board also discussed the heavy burden carried by presidents of the Association, first in their year as president-elect when they organize the annual meeting and prepare the Preliminary Program, and then during the first quarter of their year as President, when they write a presidential address. After discussing alternatives, the Board decided to allocate $10,000 for use by this year's President-elect, Anne Pebley, to hire staff or purchase software to help with the preparation of the 1998 program. This allocation is experimental, and will be assessed by the Board at their Spring, 1998, meeting in Chicago.

The Board also accepted the report of the Finance Committee, presented by committee chair Cynthia Lloyd of the Population Council, and approved several Finance Committee recommendations, including:

Not to raise membership dues or the registration fee for the annual meeting.
To follow recommendations made by the PAA's investment advisor, Daniel Seiver of Miami University of Ohio, to consolidate several existing bank accounts into a low-risk money market account, and to invest the funds contributed over the past four years to The PAA Fund (approximately $25,000) in a relatively conservative, all-market equities fund. It was also agreed that the Board should consider a long-range plan that would, among other things, incorporate ideas for use of The PAA Fund.

The Public Affairs Committee chair, Beth Soldo of Georgetown University, and the PAA's public affairs specialist, Anne Harrison-Clark, reported to the Board on recent public information activities of the Association. (See PAA Public Affairs)

The PAA Secretary-Treasurer, Elizabeth (Betsi) Hervey Stephen of Georgetown University, reported on the status of foundation grants, the current membership count, and meeting pre-registration figures (see 1997 Annual Meeting Sets New Attendance Record). She also commended the Association's new Executive Administrator, Stephanie Dudley, for the excellent work she has done on behalf of the Association thus far. The same can be said of the Secretary-Treasurer, who assumed the position at short notice late last year. To the individuals named in this report and the many other PAA members who serve on committees and otherwise work on behalf of the Association, the Board extends their heartiest thanks.