One of the PAA's most important functions is to administer awards named in honor of distinguished deceased members of the population community. Currently, the Association administers five such awards, four of them biennial (Taeuber, Sheps, Lapham and Clogg) and one annual (Thomas). Unlike other professional associations, PAA does not have a policy about the establishment, disestablishment, or administration of such awards, nor a standing committee to make recommen-dations about awards and awards policy. Moreover, as the Association's membership ages and many founders of major population centers approach retirement, the probability of new awards being proposed increases. For these reasons, at their Spring 1997 meeting the Board of Directors approved the formation of an ad hoccommittee to make recommendations about awards and awards policy. Chaired by Suzanne Bianchi and assisted by V. Jeffrey Evans, this committee prepared a report for the Board of Director's October 24 meeting (edited version on page 4). In response to the five recommendations in the report, the Board took three actions at their Fall meeting.
First, those Board members attending the meeting voted unanimously to establish a minimum of $30,000 in 1997 dollars as the endowment necessary for a new biennial award to be considered by the Association.
Second, the Board adopted the policy that for any new PAA award, the PAA President shall have the right to determine the composition of the entire award committee and PAA shall have responsibility for administering the award funds with the right to draw appropriate administrative fees from that fund. Finally, the Board voted to establish a three-member Award Committee charged with recommending further policies concerning awards to the Board of Directors. For example, the recommendation of the Bianchi committee that the PAA take a more pro-active role in establishing new awards will be part of this committee's charge.
In order to ensure that the work of the new Awards Committee is informed by members' opinions, members are invited to send their reactions to the Bianchi committee report and their suggestions for new awards policies to PAA President Karen Oppenheim Mason (Email: MasonK@hawaii.edu). Issues of particular concern include whether the Association should attempt to renegotiate the terms of existing awards, for example, to consider adding names or changing the terms of the award; whether awards should be established with "sunset" clauses that limit the number of years or cycles during which they will carry only the "founding" name; whether the total number of awards administered by PAA should be limited; whether awards should be given in a session other than the Presidential address, especially if the number of awards grows; whether new awards should be for types of careers or activities (service, scholarship, publi-cations) rather than for substantive areas of work (studies in migration, statistical studies, mathematical demography, etc). We urge you to read the accom-panying report from the Bianchi committee and to pass on your reactions and suggestions to President Mason.