April 9th 2005 Council Meeting Highlights

The APSA Council met April 9, 2005 at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.  The following are highlights from the meeting:

• Council unanimously approved the proposed 2006 budget and voted to accept the audit for FY'04.  The Council also acted to form an audit committee consisting of the Treasurer, one member of the Council at large, and one member of the Trust and Development Board.  The audit committee will oversee APSA's engagement of an auditor, receive reports from the auditor, afford "whistle-blower" protections for staff relating to financial matters, and assure APSA has appropriate procedures and standards for internal accounting and financial controls.  This action was taken to comply with current practice by nonprofits and anticipated legislation calling for such committees in non-profits and was not in response to any deficiencies within APSA at this time.
  
  
• Council accepted the report on APSA membership levels and requested additional information at the next Council meeting about the Association's membership coverage of all political scientists in the U.S. and about the graduate school subsidy.  In addition, Council decided to form a working group on political scientist membership from outside academia.
  
  
• APSR Editor Lee Sigelman and Perspectives on Politics Editor Jennifer Hochschild reported on the current state of their journals.  Council discussed the selection of the new Perspectives on Politics editor, as well as the new book review editor. 
  
  
• 2005 Annual Meeting Program Co-chair, Jim Johnson, reported on the events for this year's meeting in Washington, DC.  Council approved the 2006 Annual Meeting division chairs with the customary proviso that chairs have the ability to change and add names as necessary.  Council also agreed to a strategic review of the Annual Meeting pending the receipt of a full proposal from the Annual Meeting Committee at the next meeting.  In addition, Council reviewed the 2006 Annual Meeting location in light of ongoing labor actions and authorized the Administrative Committee to make decisions relevant to the location of the meeting.  Council also acknowledged that proposals related to the site of the Annual Meeting in light of state government actions regarding limitations on marriage rights had been received and were under consideration by APSA committees.
  
  
• Council unanimously approved the recommendation from the Teaching and Learning Committee and the Rules Committee to remove Chapter VI from the By-laws on Principles and Guidelines for Educational Programs and Activities.  These guidelines were drafted in the late 1970s and are no longer needed in the Association for our educational programs. 
  
  
• In reference to the Business Meeting Rules and the format of the ballot, Council agreed to maintain the current way of listing nominator names on the ballot, but advised the Nominating Committee to provide a fuller election agent's statement describing the process and the breadth of the endorsements it receives for the candidates it puts forward. 
  
  
• Vice presidents, Robert Axelrod and John Garcia, summarized the findings of their report regarding Single Transferable Vote and highlighted the subsequent recommendations.  Council approved with one abstention the report and all of its recommendations.  The recommendation to amend the section of the Business Meeting Rules regarding the order of candidate names on the ballot has been implemented. 
  
  
• A Council working group was created to assess and develop guidelines for public presence outreach by the Council, following the recent DC Council meeting.
  
  
• Council reaffirmed its commitment to mentoring and opted to transfer oversight of the mentoring program from the Mentoring Task Force, whose term has expired, to the status committees.  Staff members were asked to report at the next Council meeting on ways to monitor the status of the mentoring program.
  
  
• Council recognized the concerns of the International Committee with respect to international memberships and urged the Association to proceed with the new Non-OECD membership category, but asked the Association to track the success of the initiative in order to assess whether or not the rate is too high. 
  
  
• Council unanimously approved the recipients of this year's small research grants.  They authorized the Administrative Committee to approve the list in the future in order to facilitate timing of the approvals.  Council also advised the Departmental Services Committee to review whether eligibility for the program should be limited to institutions offering no PhD degree or departments not offering the degree, suggesting a solution might be to limit eligibility to those members who are not part of a "doctoral" faculty.