Mr. Hunsinger who brought the matter up and I had to respond to it.
I brought the matter up, but I gave my understanding of the situation was was based on fiscal concerns with translation and organizational problems. The actual composition of the exec at the time 2002 was 3 Europeans, Ulla, Charlie, and Lisbeth, 2 Canadians Leslie and Barry, then the rest of us, everyone in exec in varying capacities likely reads or speaks at least one other language to some degree of competency. The 2003 exec was likewise diverse, but had more Asian representation and even less North American participation. The past exec listing is at http://www.aoir.org/?q=node/591 . The lingua franca is English because that is what AoIR has for the majority has held in common. Remember first and foremost the conferences have been AoIR conferences, and not 'locality' conferences, that is a confusion that often causes misunderstandings. As we attempt to further our internationalization, we will bring more people into AoIR and we'll expand as appropriate, but in my minds the pragmatics of the organization such as not going bankrupt come first Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal