September, 2004 Report of the a.o.i.r. executive committee Prepared by Nancy Baym AoIR Executive Committee President: Nancy Baym Vice-President: Matthew Allen Secretary: Ulla Bunz Treasurer: Benjamin Bates Open Seats: Radhika Gajjala and Annette Markham Appointed Seats: Monica Murero and Randolph Kluver Student Seat: Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki Publications Officers: Jeremy Hunsinger and Charlie Breindahl Past President (ex-officio): Steve Jones 1. Introduction & General (Baym) This is the place to find out what's going on in the association. It's the best way for you to keep up so please read it! Our 24/7 discussions of the month on the executive committee mailing list are summarized in Ulla Bunz's section of the report. Read on... 2. Executive Officers' Reports 2.1 President (Baym) 2.1.1 With one week to go before our fifth conference, air-exec remains busy as ever. See Ulla's summary of our discussions below for a summary of the big issues we've been addressing. The conference has shaped up tremendously, thanks to the hard work of Kate O'Riordan, Sheizaf Rafaeli, and others. I hope you will be able to join us there. If you will be in Sussex, please make sure to join us for the General Meeting on Monday afternoon! We are THRILLED to welcome a new AoIR baby! Welcome to grad rep Leslie Tkach-Kawaski's son Natsukaze! He was born on August 19, 2004, weighing slightly over 2500 grams. Mother and son are in good health, and though we will miss Leslie in Sussex, it's worth it! Stay tuned for more AoIR babies in the coming month(s)! (not from me -- I've done my part!) We introduced a new member benefit of 20% off all books in Peter Lang's Digital Formation series. Yet another good reason to become a paid member! We have also updated the designs on shirts, mugs, notebooks, and other swell merchandise at http://cafepress.org/aoir I look forward to seeing many of you in Sussex. 2.2 Vice President (Allen) 2.2.1 I have been working with Radhika on reviewing progress so far on the journal; have provided a little advice to Sheizaf and Monica on conference matters; have judged the Student Prize for the conference; and been networking to increase interest in AoIR downunder. 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 In the last few months I've mostly been looking up things in the archives for our exec discussions and played late-night email tag with Jeremy. More recently I've provided tutorials on air-l, ordered various awards plaques, got the AoIR records folder in shape, and am about to begin creating the agendas for the General Meeting and the various exec meetings that will take place in Sussex. I've also been adding my two cents to discussions on the exec. Summary of What's been happening on the Executive Listserve since May 11, 2004: - Future Conferences: We are in the process of planning long term. A) As reported in the previous reports, we will switch to an external conference management team (Virginia Tech) starting with the 2005 conference. Thus, from then on we will need only a local liaison rather than a local organizer/host. We will also be able to predict costs better and lots of exec time is freed up for other things. B) The local liaison and the newly selected program chair for 2005 (location to be announced in Sussex) have been working away on the Call for Papers under what looks to be an outstanding conference theme. We are hoping to release the CfP at the Sussex conference. The local liaison has also been reporting that work with the Virginia Tech conference management team has begun, such as checking out hotels, etc., so we are ahead of the game for 2005. C) We are also in the process of setting up locations for the conferences in 2006 and 2007 (both still tentative, but were talking to local liaisons). D) After a rather animated discussion we are coming to an agreement about a general rotation schedule for conferences beyond 2005/6/7 up until 2015 (rotating North America, Europe, Asia, Other locations; at this point, cities have not been decided on that far into the future). - Conference Coordinating Committee: We continued our discussion on a conference coordinating committee (CCC). This year, we used a one-year trial conference management group, composed of three exec members, the local host, and the program chair and such coordination seemed to facilitate the process. We are still discussing the specific makeup of this committee in future years - Virtual Move: Jeremy has been moving our electronic organizational components (e.g., website, Listserve) onto a commercial server (Dreamhost by majority air-exec vote). This will free up much of his time (as basic technological maintenance issues will no longer have to be performed by him). It also makes us location independent, provides added security, and facilitates designated AoIR members access to any files. Should Jeremy ever resign his AoIR position, the electronic transition will facilitate the human transition process. Costs incurred by this electronic, virtual move are minimal compared to the man-hours that Jeremy otherwise has to put in every month. - Diverse Conference Issues: We talked about various conference issues as they came up, such as graduate student paper submissions, computer access, financial assistance (sorry, were not yet able to do that, but hope to be able soon), conference fees, location of conference dinner, financials, registration website testing, online program, session presentation guidelines. - Impact: The association has been included in the directory of quality internet resources based in the UK. If you see us listed anywhere else, please email any exec member. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1. Ben has been managing memberships. 2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham) 2.5.1 Gajjala: I have been monitoring the discussion on the Aoir journal topic, reviewed papers for AOIR and participated in the decision making process regarding grad student top papers. 2.5.2 Markham: Annette Markham has been communicating with various AOIR members about relevant issues to bring to the table, particularly about research methodologies. She has also joined the working group on the issue of AOIR journals. The qualitative research list is up and running and awaiting more members. If you would like to join, please do! http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi 2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver) 2.6.1 Murero: I have been worked a lot with Kate, Shiezaf , and their staff to help plan and organize this year's conference in Sussex , on the basis of my previous experience within AoIR. I did not leave the Internet during my vacations , getting more and more addicted :-) - this is definitively related to getting more and more addicted to AoIR as well :-)! Also, I did actively participated to all the discussion and decisions within the air-exec (see Ulla's report) , particularly regarding the future conferences planning . I am working on a survey to learn more from conference participants, and you will hear more about it at the conference in Sussex and online; now organizing... 2.6.2 Kluver: I participated in Exec Council conversations and the journal working group. 2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski) 2.7.1 The graduate representative has been somewhat quiet over the summer (while on maternity leave) but is gearing up for the fall and winter. She has been collecting information regarding graduate courses throughout the world aimed at Internet-re- lated studies with an eye to making this info available on the aoir web-site. Any and all submissions in this vein are welcome at tkach@japan.email.ne.jp. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: well, I've been busy, but it is too much to list in the end. it basically breaks down into stuff for the conference, stuff for future conferences, stuff for the systems, stuff for exec, and other stuff related to aoir. 2.8.2 Breindahl: I have moderated the listserv and worked with Jeremy on technical issues. 2.9 Past-President (Jones): Most of my work has been related to planning for the 2005 conference, coordinating with the conference planning agency, and venue, and to long-term conference planning. I have also worked on renewing the contract with Peter Lang for the AoIR Annual.