Secretary/Treasurer
Professor Frances E. Lee
Department of Political Science 
10900 Euclid Avenue
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106-7109
(216) 368-5265
Email: fel@po.cwru.edu

Editor, LSS Newsletter
Professor Ronald M. Peters Jr.
Carl Albert Center 
University of Oklahoma 
Norman, OK 73019 
(405) 325-6372
Email: rpeters@ou.edu

Editor, "Extension of Remarks"
Professor Burdett A. Loomis
Department of Political Science 
504 Blake Hall 
University of Kansas 
Lawrence, KS 66045-2157 
(913) 864-3523
Email: bloomis@ku.edu

LSS Program Chair, 2002-2003
Professor Nichol C. Rae
Dept. of Political Science
Florida International University
University Park
Miami, FL 33199
(305) 348-2270
Email: raen@fiu.edu

Member-At-Large, 2001-2003
Professor William Mishler 
Department of Political Science
Social Sciences Building, Room 315C
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0027
(520) 621-7600
Email: mishler@u.arizona.edu

Member-At-Large, 2001-2003
Professor Thomas F. Remington
Department of Political Science 
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
(404) 727-6566
Email: polstfr@emory.edu

Preceding LSS Chair
Professor John Hibbing
Department of Political Science
P.O. Box 880328 
University of Nebraska 
Lincoln, NE 68588-0328 
(402) 472-3220 
Email: jhibbing@unlserve.unl.edu

From my vantage point as LSS chair, many thanks to many people for making the 2002 APSA convention work out. To Gary Moncrief for organizing the LSS program, to Frances Lee for planning the LSS 25th anniversary reception, to Gerry Loewenberg and Dick Fenno for their remarks at that reception, to the even dozen people who served on the four LSS award committees, and to Karl Kurtz, who at the LSS business meeting introduced and won approval of a new annual award. That will be the Alan Rosenthal Prize for best book or article in legislative studies written by a junior scholar that has potential value to legislative practitioners.

Planning for the LSS side of the 2003 convention is well underway with Nicol Rae having agreed to serve as program chair.

At the 2003 LSS business meeting, we will need to elect new officers to the usual two-year terms—chair, secretary-treasurer, and three board members. For a nominating committee to recommend those new officers, I have appointed Michael Mezey (chair), Wendy Schiller, and D. Roderick Kiewiet.

For the LSS newsletter, an immediate need is a new editor of the “Extension of Remarks” section to carry on the excellent work of Burdett Loomis. Anyone interested please get in touch with me at david.mayhew@yale.edu or Ron Peters at rpeters@ou.edu.

As members are by now aware, at last September’s business meeting those present voted to approve a plan to enroll all LSS members on the LSS listserve.  This step was taken in order to “jump start” usage of the listserve, which since its inception last year had lagged in usage in comparison to those of other organized sections.  It was specified that in enrolling all members we would make provision to unsubscribe members by request.

The first flurry of activity occurred over the semester break, in December 2002 and January 2003.  It was satisfying to see members utilizing the listserve and some of the contributions and exchanges were of a substantive character, just the type of communication we hope to provide to our “virtual community” of legislative scholars.

However, some members did find it annoying to be bombarded by messages and a few observed that the kinds of interaction that the listserve was carrying were more appropriate for chat rooms or discussion boards than for a listserve devoted to posting inquiries, announcements, etc.  About 103 members have unsubscribed to the listsrve, so there are now 454 members remaining on the listserve.

During the flurry of messages over the semester break, members themselves posted helpful information, including how to unsubscribe oneself and how to create a daily digest that collects all listserve postings and delivers them once a day in a single message. 

By February 2003, traffic on the listserve had been dramatically reduced.  This may have been due to several factors: unsubscriptions, discouragement of the “dialogues” by the several complaints that were posted, or perhaps most plausibly, everyone got busy with the beginning of the new semester.

As part of our ongoing effort to make cyberspace user friendly for LSS, we want to suggest the following steps and options.

First, we post separately on the LSS website the information on how  to create a daily digest <http://www.apsanet.org/~lss/listserv.html>.  This will be very helpful to those who find it aggravating to receive email messages intermittently.  I have undertaken this myself and really like getting my digest at the end of the day. 

Second, we remind members that there is an open, Online Forum for more extended dialogues.  Information about how to access the Online Forum is posted on the Announcements <http://www.apsanet.org/~lss/announce.html> page of the LSS website.  We encourage members to open a discussion on the Online Forum, then use the listserve to announce their topic and invite other members to go to the Online Forum to participate in extended dialogue.

Third, we again encourage use of the listserve for appropriate, professional announcements and inquiries.  This is the listserve’s best and most appropriate use and it is of great benefit to us as we seek to facilitate communication among and between members of the LSS.

Finally, we invite any further suggestions or comments about the Newsletter, ListServe, Online Forum, or any other matter that we can address to better serve the membership.