President's Message: Our Midyear Board Meeting Experiment: A Great Success!
From 18-20 January 2013, the ICA Board met at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel (the site of our next conference in May 2014) for our annual midyear board meeting. This was not business as usual. Over the last several years, midyear board meetings were conducted online over a 2-week period. Although much was accomplished in this manner, the Board decided (at the meeting in Phoenix) we could do even more.
The goals of bringing ICA division chairs and the Executive Council to Seattle for two and a half days were to 1) Give board members greater opportunities to become more familiar and knowledgeable about critical issues facing ICA, 2) Increase participation across divisions and enhance regional voices in board decision making processes, 3) Have time for increased and in-depth discussions, 4) Create a greater sense of community among board members, and 5) Experience the next conference site to help facilitate conference planning. I am pleased to say that by any measure the meeting was a great success. Thirty-five Board Members from 14 countries, the Chair of our Publication Committee, and our Executive Director and Communication Director addressed several major issues, ranging from finance to publications, conventions sites to internationalization.
Prior to the meeting, ICA board members received background information, committee reports, financial information, and proposals for new initiatives. Everyone came to the meeting prepared to work (and indeed we did)! We also had a terrific time getting to know one another, finding out how differently divisions handled the same issues, learning about divisional research interests, et cetera. Board members were even allowed to leave the hotel on Saturday evening together for an organized tour and sampling of the city sites!
Below is a summary of the discussions, recommendations, and decisions that were made at the meeting. Please contact divisional and regional board members, or the Executive Committee if you have any questions, reactions, etc. You can find their names and emails on the ICA website.
CONTEXT: Overall, ICA is in good financial shape, but circumstances are changing and we must be prepared. Not only can the association no longer rely on income that we have depended on in previous years, specifically from publishing revenue streams, but also our costs are increasing both in regards to the yearly conference and our administrative operations. For example, technology costs at our conference including wireless internet and audio visual needs are increasing exponentially each year. Roughly, the same activities that were supported at ICA’s Chicago conference at a cost of $40,000 amounted to $100,000 4 years later at the Phoenix conference (see the attached minutes of the financial working group for details about ICA expenditures and expectations for the future).
RECOMMENDATIONS: Under the excellent leadership of Finance Chair Barbie Zelizer, the Executive Committee, a working group of board members, and the board as a whole separately reviewed the finances and options for the future. After much discussion throughout the weekend the board made the following recommendations:
CONTEXT: The ICA Publication Committee, currently chaired by Frank Esser (U of Zurich), is extremely active. Not only do they recruit, choose, and help support the incoming editors of our journals, but they deal with larger issues related to ISI rankings, internationalization of journals, publication policies and a myriad of other issues that arise each year. In advance of the meeting, the Publication Committee developed detailed reports on editorial structures, terms of editorship, review systems, and plagiarism. Additionally, an ad hoc committee, chaired by Peter Monge (U of Southern California), prepared an excellent report on alternative journal formats, fair use issues, and institutional facilitation of intellectual communities. Saturday morning was spent in three small working groups discussing these issues.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
CONTEXT: The Internationalization Committee’s report, chaired by Karin Wilkins (U of Texas - Austin), generated a fruitful discussion regarding the ways ICA can better meet our internationalization goals. Over the years, ICA has focused on governance and representation issues, publication, editorships financial support, policies, and awards to a greater or lesser extent. At the meeting it became clear that this is the time for us to revisit our various internationalization initiatives, see what is still working, what still needs to be done, and suggest ways for us to do things better.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
CONTEXT: Following up on the changes in awards that were agreed upon by the Board prior to this cycle of awards (most significantly combining three awards into a new Applied Research Award), the Board discussed issues associated with greater internationalization of nominees, financial recognition and changing the name and description of other awards to clarify and expand the nomination pool.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
CONTEXT: Given that this was a new process, the board spent some time reflecting upon this grand experiment. There was consensus that meeting together met the original goals and did even more. The lack of distractions from other activities enhanced the productivity of the meeting. People felt that the informal and very animated conversations at meals were extremely informative and concerns as well as satisfaction about other ICA actions were able to be voiced. Perhaps most importantly, board members got to experience the way ICA really works! Based upon these discussions two action steps were approved.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
In summary, this was a great meeting. I want to thank all the dedicated ICA members who traveled near and far to make this meeting so successful. I am proud to be a part of such an intelligent, committed, and dedicated community. “Transparency-in-action” really works.
I look forward to seeing everyone in London.
Cheers,
Cynthia