ISCAR New Executive Board– 1st Meeting – September 2017 (ISCAR20) – Quebec/Canada

Minute

Chair: Malcolm Reed

Participants:

1. Katerina Plakitsi (president)
2. Ian Thompson (vice-president/treasurer)
3. Nick Hopwood (editor of newsletter)
4. Adolfo Tanzi Neto (secretary)
5. Martijn van Schaik
6. Carrie Lobman
7. Viktor Zaretsky
8. Marjolein Dobber
9. Gabriela Naranjo (representing Lourdes de Leó)

 

Agenda items:

1. Executive roles
2. Deadlines and timeline
3. Website/design
4. Membership
5. Asia Pacific clarifications and respond to email.

 

Item 1 – Roles

Action item 1.1: Ian Thompson was confirmed as Treasurer

Action item 1.2: Group to meet in January to discuss common issues.

 

Item 2 – Immediate tasks

Would be a good to get a newsletter out quickly, as a means to recruit members and convert temporary members from this congress registrants.

Can be sent to 1,892 people on the contact list. This is bigger than the membership list.

Action item 2.1: By end of September TL will send a post-Congress newsletter to the contact list. We will add a note from the Exec Committee to introduce ourselves and encourage people to become members. Take a cue from Cole: ISCAR is needed more than ever – range of pressures on universities, members.

Action item 2.2: Put this up on the website and in time adapt it into an open question on the site to invite two-way interaction and interest.

Action item 2.3: A series of contacts out to members/contacts between now and the end of the year. We could share keynotes’ powerpoints, links to papers.

Action item 2.4: Each regional coordinator to get access to the list of contacts and members from their respective region.

Action item 2.5: All regions to have at a basic homepage (introductions, contact) on the website by the end of the year. There was a discussion that it is important not to bury the content in layers of the web page. Maybe better than regional coordinator facilitates region members’ presence in the main website.

Action item 2.6: We need to ratify the existing Executive Orders and Articles by end of October. Carrie and Ian will do the first read of them. Two areas identified for focus:

1. Description of process of regional coordinator nomination
2. An addition that every Congress claims 1-year membership of all participants, as was implemented for Congress 2017.

 

Item 3 – Website

The Executive determined that we want to use the website not just to disseminate but to generate interest and support interaction. There is the WordPress – for sending out information, interacting. There is an integrated system (CRM), which has the database. Option to incorporate plugin called Milchin (way to make a newsletter). Region coordinators can edit member information from their region.

The Executive considered the request from John Cripps Clark for a region-restricted interactive space within ISCAR.org. The value of centralising web activity given there is not currently high interactivity in any part of the website was noted. Also, the value of pages or content in region-specific languages. The Executive was counselled to be careful in not over-committing and taking on work that could and should be taken on by members, and to ensure in coming months we focus on immediate priorities.

Action item 3.1: Secretary and Newsletter roles to meet outgoing Secretary to discuss most immediate and medium-term possibilities for the website.

Action item 3.2: Updating Executive Committee details on the website.

Action item 3.3: Updating the expiring date and making any agreed changes to Executive Orders and Articles.

Action item 3.4: Secretary to provide an overview of the website by end of September, to be followed by Skype meeting in October.

Action item 3.5: Asia-Pacific Coordinator to respond that the Committee decided to focus on trying to enhance the interactivity of the central website and for the time being to offer simple ways to foster interaction within regions. In Asia-Pacific, a listserv will be set up. Regional members are welcome to set up google docs or shared drive spaces using invite lists provided by Coordinators.

 

Item 4:  Membership

It was clarified that every participant, presenter or not, is a paid-up member of ISCAR until the end of 2017.

The importance of renewal messages and reminders being sent to members was discussed. There is an auto-renew option, but there are complexities to do with payments (eg. Brazilian cards do not allow recurrent payments; ISCAR may need to change to a business PayPal account etc.). Outgoing Secretary explained the possibility of paying a non-profit service to facilitate this. We need to emphasise that 3-year membership is less than 3x 1-year, and only with a 3-year unbroken membership that you get a discount on the Congress. We discussed potential pools from which we might recruit members. Carrie mentioned AERA – SIG and others who work in related theories.

Action item 4.1: Treasurer and Secretary to work on payment procedures

Action item 4.2: Membership benefits to be emphasised in emails and newsletters

Action item 4.3: Pools for membership recruitment to be discussed at the meeting once Orders and Articles are changed.

Action item 4.4: Working group to be formed to deal with membership issues, and whole Exec meeting to discuss this in November.

Action item 4.5: Executive to explain at closing about Congress related membership.

Action item 4.6: Executive to explore options to tie membership to journal access and to look at minutes from the previous Executive for what has been discussed already.

 

Item 5:  Asia Pacific issues

It was confirmed that all people in the regional meetings were ISCAR members by virtue of being participants in the conference.

A regional list of countries represented at the time the countries from which there were members. The meaning of the list is not to be taken as a basis for eligibility to vote. Eligibility to vote relates to ISCAR membership and provenance from countries within the broader region indicated.

We discussed the Article relating to co-opting ISCAR members. That does not make people an Executive member, they are an advisor to the Executive and this is for a defined task and for a defined period of time.

It was discussed that ISCAR is not set up to function as a top-down organisation in terms of imposing procedures. We cannot assert a downward normative process within the existing framework.

Action item 5.1: Executive needs to review how to name the regions to avoid absence.

Action item 5.2: Executive to consider relevant co-opting to address needs as they arise in future.

Action item 5.3: Coordinator to explain to regional members to explain that we are aware that there is a need for clarifying procedures by offering guidelines and have an explicit plan to address this when we ratify and amend Executive Orders and Articles.

 

Table of deadlines and actions:

ISCAR 2017-2020

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Deadline	Action	Responsible	Status
September/2017	4.5: Executive to explain at closing about Congress related membership	Malcolm	Done/ISCAR17
September/2017	3.1 Secretary and Newsletter roles to meet outgoing Secretary to discuss most immediate and medium-term possibilities for website	Nick/Adolfo	Done
September/2017	3.2 Updating Executive Committee details on website	Adolfo	Done
September/2017	2.1/2.2 Send a post-Congress newsletter to the contact list.	Nick/Adolfo
October/2017	2.6 ratify the existing Executive Orders and Articles by end of October/ 3.3 Updating the expiring date and making any agreed changes to Executive Orders and Articles/ 4.3. Pools for membership recruitment to be discussed at meeting once Orders and Articles are changed.	Ian/Carrie – First Draft   Everyone
October/2017	3.4 provide an overview of the website by end of September, to be followed by Skype meeting in October	Adolfo
October/2017	SKYPE/ZOOM General meeting	Everyone
November/2017	4.4 Working group to be formed to deal with membership issues, and whole Exec meeting to discuss
December/2017	2.5 All regions to have at a basic homepage (introductions, contact) in the website	Adolfo
January/2018	SKYPE/ZOOM General meeting	Everyone
No date decided	2.3 Share keynotes’ powerpoints, links to papers
No date decided	2.4 Each regional coordinator to get access to the list of contacts and members from their respective region	Nick/Adolfo
No date decided	3.5: Asia-Pacific Coordinator to respond that the Committee decided to focus on trying to enhance the interactivity of the central website and for the time being to offer simple ways to foster interaction within regions. In Asia-Pacific, a listserv will be set up. Regional members are welcome to set up google docs or shared drive spaces using invite lists provided by Coordinators	Nick
No date decided	4.1 Treasurer and Secretary to work on payment procedures	Adolfo/Ian
Na date decided	4.2: Membership benefits to be emphasised in emails and newsletters	Adolfo/Nick   Everyone
No date decided	4.6 Executive to explore options to tie membership to journal access and to look at minutes from the previous Executive for what has been discussed already.	Everyone