May, 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 2004 Conference Chair: Kate O'Riordan Ethics Working Group Chair: Charles Ess 1. Introduction & General (Baym) This is the place to find out what's going on in the association. It's long, it's not always thrilling, but it's always 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 Planning on Sussex continues to go well and we are beginning to plan the 2005 conferences and beyond. We are moving to a new conference management system after 2004 as discussed below. A new working group to examine whether or not AoIR should start a journal and related issues is being formed. Our publications officers are working to overhaul the members web site. Our first AoIR Internet Research Annual has been published by Peter Lang. In her report below, Leslie mentions the need for non-English AoIR materials; if you are interested in translating any of our resources for non-English speaking audiences, please contact her. As always, if you know people who you think should be part of AoIR, please let them know we are here. And if you are an air-l subscriber but not a member, please consider joining -- it's not expensive and there are many benefits. And finally, if you have any skills you'd like to offer the association, we are an all-volunteer organization and are only able to accomplish as much as our volunteers are willing to commit. 2.2 Vice President (Allen) 2.2.1 I have been working with Mia to finalise vol2 of the IR annual. 2.3 Secretary (Bunz) 2.3.1 Counted votes, made picky edits, retrieved archive info for discussions, and kept relatively quiet otherwise for the past couple of months. February 11 - May 11, 2004 This month (or better, these months) on the Executive Listserve: - The exec discussed submission statistics and how the location of the conference influences the cultural backgrounds of attendees. Such issues are important for deciding on future conference locations. (Location for 2005 will be announced in Sussex.) The exec discussed a possible conference location for 2006. The first tentative contact with the potential host site will be made within the next month. In the meantime, host proposals for 2006 are welcome any time to Nancy Baym. - The exec is in the process of changing the way conference management is being handled. Two proposals from two conference management teams were reviewed and discussed at length. The decision (10 in favor, 1 abstain) was that in 2005, Virginia Tech will provide basic conference management services/planning for the AoIR conference (Please note, the conference is *not* at Virginia Tech. Instead, the university provides a conference management service for hire. Please note also that one of the appeals of VT is that they are willing and able to manage conferences outside of the United Statest). If both AoIR and VT feel that they work well together, these services may be retained for future conferences. This means that things like hotel negotiations, printing of programs, registration, etc. will be taken care of by the VT management team, leading to standardization of certain procedures that have evolved within AoIR. This more or less eliminates the "local host" role that has existed for all conferences including the upcoming 2004 conference. While we still encourage a local liaison (like we will have in 2005), this local person would not have to deal with many of the issues that recur every year, but would be more of a "local liaison." Some early planning for 2005 is already going on (i.e., hotel reservation, book exhibitors). This reflects a sense that we can stop re-inventing the wheel, not a sense that our local hosts have been anything less than spectacular in the accomplishment of their task! - The exec is currently in the process of deciding on a potential program chair for 2005. - The current conference management group, composed of three exec members, the local host, and the program chair, has been working on details for the Sussex conference such as budgets, local coordinating, reviewing, etc. This work is ongoing and leads to a smooth conference experience. So far this work was performed by the local host who sent feedback to the exec, but in an attempt to work towards the 2005 conference management approach, the temporary work group was formed. The conference planning guide is being changed accordingly. - A lack of conference proposal reviewers resulted in drafting a call for reviewers which was sent to the AoIR members-only Listserve. The response was overwhelming (in the most positive way) and many additional reviewers were recruited. Reviewing, under the direction of program chair Sheizaf Rafaeli, has concluded and notifications have since been sent. For the future, we would like to encourage both AoIR members and non-members to continue volunteering if they are willing to review proposals. The next call for reviewers will be in early 2005. - A charge for a new working group to discuss issues relating to AoIR and the development of (or liaisoning with) one or more journals was created and posted to the AoIR members-only Listserve. Volunteers still interested in participating in this working group should contact Radhika Gajjala. A report of this workgroup will be presented in Sussex. If you are interested in this topic, but not currently a member, consider joining aoir! - The exec is continuing its efforts to find funds to support travel to AoIR conferences for graduate students and/or members from disadvantaged nations. There may be some support for 2004, but we hope to begin modestly subsidizing selected people by 2005. 2.4 Treasurer (Bates) 2.4.1. Ben has been managing memberships. 2.5 Open Seats (Gajjala, Markham) 2.5.1 Gajjala: Nothing reported though she's been very active in discussion and agreed to serve as liaison for the journal working group. 2.5.2 Markham: Nothing reported though she too has been very active in discusison. 2.6 Appointed Seats (Murero, Kluver) 2.6.1 Murero: I have actively participated in all the discussions within air-exec (see general report). I have done some revision work (interesting and unexpected) and I am doing quite a lot of work for the organizational part of our conference in Sussex, particularly on the budget analysis (costs, incomes) and calculations, formulas, and more. If my boss reads this, please be aware that I am doing all of this during my free time :-)) ! 2.6.2 Kluver: I have just been participating in online discussions, and trying to raise the visibility of AoIR in Asia. 2.7 Student Seat (Tkach-Kawaski) 2.7.1 * Did reviewing for Aoir 5.0 (Sussex). * Continued to assemble potential content for graduate student section of the web-site. * Discussed possible ways to increase Aoir's presence among graduate students in Japan (specifically) and SE Asia (in general) among seminar group members. Key points identified so far in regard to the third point are: --> Availability of information in languages other than English. --> Availability of programs, scholarships, linkages (for example, exchange programs) with other universities, especially those universities with which Japanese universities currently have exchange programs. 2.8 Publications Officers (Hunsinger, Breindahl) 2.8.1 Hunsinger: worked on the conference worked on the server broke and fixed things irritated charlie and others [Nancy's note: Jeremy is understating the amount of work he does for us!] 2.8.2 Breindahl: I have been and still am involved in the discussions about the organization's web presence and I'm still busy discarding thousands of spam mails. 2.9 Past-President (Jones): I've spent most of my AoIR time making arrangements for the 2005 conference and working with the conference management agency. There have also been some loose threads to tie up from the 2003 conference. I also did our taxes. 2.10 2004 Conference Chair (Kate O'Riordan) 2.10.1 Kate's too busy making sure all goes well in Sussex to pen an update right now. Planning is going wonderfully and we anticipate a great event. Acceptances and rejections have been sent out, and we hope to see many of you in Sussex this fall! 2.11 AoIR Ethics Working Group (Charles Ess, Chair) 2.11.1 While there has been no response to our call for interesting and instructive accounts of constructive engagements with IRBs and equivalent oversight authorities - there certainly has been a constructive and engaging discussion of online research ethics on the aoir list. As always, suggestions and comments for improving the ethics document and its resources are welcome and encouraged.