Minutes
New Political Science Section Business Meeting
American Political Science Association Annual Meeting
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 28, 2003
The New Political Science section held its annual business meeting
at 5:30 pm on August 28th, 2003 at the Annual Meeting of the American
Political Science Association with John Berg, Section Chair, presiding. The
agenda included the following items.
Reports
Report from the Chair
John Berg encouraged people to attend the plenary talk by AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney, co-sponsored with Human Rights section, on
Saturday at 8:00 pm. The plenary would be followed by a reception at
9:30. John also announced the section's awards which would be given out at the
plenary preceding Sweeney's talk. Michael Parenti was the recipient of the Charles
A. McCoy career achievement award; Manfred Steger of the Michael Harrington
book award; Jennifer Disney of the Christian Bay best paper award; and the Kensington
Welfare Rights Union of the Piven and Cloward activist organization award. John
then presented a special award to George Katsiaficas for his contributions to
the journal and the Caucus.
John reported on the status of the two resolutions the section had passed at last year's meeting. APSA ruled the resolution on Iraq out of order because of the association's policy of not taking positions on political issues. However, the process of trying to get the resolution put on the agenda of APSA's business meeting did lead to the Caucus being awarded a Hyde Park session to discuss the invasion of Iraq. The Caucus also collected donations for an advertisement stating its opposition to the war to be place in the new APSA journal, Perspectives. Due to a legitimate mistake the ad did not run. APSA's executive director Michael Brintnall was very apologetic and offered several alternatives with John finally accepting an offer to run the ad for free in the program of the annual meeting (it appears on page 300). APSA also ruled our resolution on free higher education out-of-order but offered to run an article in PS on the issue.
According to the most recent figures he had received from APSA, John stated that our membership has risen to 375, its highest level in recent memory. He thanked Carl Larsen for his work the past year as chair of our membership committee. He also thanked Bruce Wright for his work on developing and maintaining our website and Michael Forman for his continuing work on our Listserv. John indicated that within the next year APSA may put in place a check-off on its membership form for subscription to our journal, New Political Science. He reminded those attending that panels were available under Caucus sponsorship at both the Midwest Political Science Association meeting and the Socialist Scholar's Conference. John reminded everyone to use both the New Political Science and APSA membership lists to promote their new books. Finally, John reflected that he thought our greater involvement in APSA had positive effects, both in terms of being more integrated into the organization and in being more confrontational and getting items on the annual meeting agenda.
Minutes of 2002 Meeting
The minutes of the 2002 business meeting, circulated by Carl Swidorski the previous Fall, were unanimously approved.
Report of the Secretary-Treasurer (Attached)
Carl Swidorski distributed copies of the 2002-2003 financial report. The sections's ending balance as of June 30, 2003 was $2827.95. Expenses for the year were $963.49 while income totaled $1490.10. Expenses associated with the annual plenary were limited once again through co-sponsoring the plenary with other sections and presenting a speaker who lived in the immediate area, thus eliminating the need to pay for travel or hotel expenses for the speaker.
Report of 2003 Program Chair
Christine Kelly explained the process of panel allocations for APSA. Panel allocation is a function of the total number of panels available in a given year, the number of organized sections, and the attendance at the previous year's panels. Each section is allotted a minimum of three panels. Other initiatives , such as the expanded program for this year's Centennial meeting, determine the final allocation for each section. Every section also receives an equal number of poster session slots.
The section had a total of sixteen panels this year - thirteen regular panels and three roundtables. Ten of the panels were co-sponsored with the following sections: Human Rights, Race, Ethnicity and Politics, Public Administration, Politics and History, Foundations of Political Theory, Information Technology and Politics, and Political Thought and Philosophy. Our program included a "Centennial Theme" panel, the Perestroika roundtable, a Hyde Park session on Iraq, one short course and one poster session. Christine stated she received 133 proposals, including seven received independently (not through the APSA website). Twenty-three panels were proposed with ten accepted (a rejection rate of 43.4% in contrast to 67% in 2002). Ninety-five papers were proposed and ten accepted (a rejection rate of 89.5% compared to 93% in 2002). Fifteen individuals offered to be discussants but none were accepted. A total of 108 individuals participated in the section's program.
Christine indicated that she followed the traditional criteria for selecting
panels and papers. These were 1) the quality of the proposal;
2) the correspondence of the proposal to the progressive values of the Caucus;
3) the relation of the proposal to section and meeting themes; and
4) Caucus membership. She stated she was more inclined to reach out to scholars
who were not already members in hopes of increasing membership and diversity
within the section. She also tried to look for people early in their professional
careers.
A brief discussion ensued about whether there was an overemphasis of US politics in the program. Christine urged scholars in international and comparative to submit proposals next year because the composition of the program obviously was significantly affected by the substantive area of the proposals submitted.
Report of 2004 Program Chair
Jennifer Leigh Disney 2004 Program Chair, first expressed her thanks to the Caucus for the flowers and card she received after her very serious automobile accident the past summer. She informed the meeting that the call for papers was available in a variety of places, including the program for this year's meeting. As a comparativist and theorist, she indicated that she would be very interested in a global/international perspective, especially since the theme of next year's meeting was global inequalities. She is particularly interested in panels and papers which explore the intersection of multiple oppressions and which bridge class, race, and gender, not separate them.
Membership Chair Report
John Berg thanked Carl Larsen, the chair of the new membership committee for all the work he had done over the previous year. Carl thanked the other members of the committee and briefly reported on the basic strategies used to increase section membership. These included a mailing to all current and lapsed members, which included an appeal to subscribe to our journal; an email version of the mailing which was also sent to all panel members; and preparing brochures of the Caucus' program which were distributed at this year's meeting. Carl also reported that he had successfully "badgered" APSA to include links to our website on the official APSA website.
New Political Science Journal Report
Joe Peschek reported that the journal was doing well and expressed his personal thanks to George Katsiaficas for the great work he had done as journal editor, including his many contributions to the quality and coverage of the journal and his role in developing our successful partnership with Taylor and Francis. The journal was co-edited in 2003 with Joe assuming primary responsibility with the September and December issues. Joe indicated that our application to be listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) was being processed and he anticipated acceptance early in 2004. The peer review process was working well. The acceptance rate was about 30%-35%. Reviewers were demanding but fair. Joe indicated that he still needed more reviewers in order to meet his criterion of having people responsible for only one review a year. The content area of the journal was strong in articles dealing with international and comparative issues and these areas also were well-represented on the membership of the editorial board. Joe stated that the editorial board was having its first breakfast meeting at APSA the next morning to discuss a variety of issues about the journal. Finally, Joe introduced the new reviews editor, Mark Mattern of Baldwin Wallace.
Mark thanked John Berg for all the work he had done as reviews editor over the years and for helping him in the transition. Mark urged everyone to submit their books for review and to volunteer as reviewers.
Joe then introduced our new representative from Taylor and Francis, Richard Delahunty, managing editor. Richard stated that subscriptions were holding up well. The journal had 154 institutional and 31 personal subscriptions, although only 26 members of the Caucus were subscribing. Readership figures were very encouraging. Over 4,000 people had looked at the content titles and abstracts in the last six months. Over 1,400 articles had been downloaded the past year with the top article for downloads totaling 265. In addition, over 200 downloads had come from highly rated universities and colleges. A new partnership has been instituted with EBSCO that has resulted in over 4,000 article abstracts downloaded in the past six months. Richard stated that Taylor and Francis planned to aggressively promote the journal, and the Caucus. Included in these efforts was a new initiative to work with developing countries where the journal would be offered at a special rate.
Resolutions
The meeting then heard a brief presentation from graduate student union organizers at Yale University who reported on the twelve year organizing effort at Yale. The meeting unanimously endorsed a resolution which called upon "Yale University administrators and faculty to positively affirm graduate teachers and researchers the right to organize in an atmosphere free from intimidation and coercion; and calls on the University to agree to a free and fair process for allowing graduate teachers and researchers to decide whether or not they want to represent themselves through a union."
A graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania then told the meeting about the organizing effort among graduate students at Penn. After hearing this report the meeting unanimously passed another resolution calling upon the "University of Pennsylvania's president, Judith Rodin, and the Penn Trustees to drop their appeal of the November 2002 Nation Labor Relations Board ruling that granted Penn's graduate employees the right to vote in a union recognition election, held in February 2003. We urge President Rodin and the administration to allow the ballots cast in the February 2003 election to be counted, and should the union prevail, to bargain in good faith and reach a fair agreement with GET-UP/AFT."
Members of the Caucus were also urged to sign the petition supporting these efforts that was circulating at the meeting and to write letters to both administrations.
New Business
John Ehrenberg reported on a meeting he had attended of an initiative by individuals within the Modern Language Association to form a "Left Alliance" of radical caucuses within the various professional organizations. Steve Bronner and Bertell Ollman also attended the meeting on behalf of the Caucus. John indicated that the idea was at a very formative stage and that they did not have much information to report at this time.
George Katsiaficas introduced a resolution to fund the Christian Bay Award at $100; the Michael Harrington award at $250; and the Richard Cloward and Frances Piven Award at up to $1000, depending on the discretion of the chair and Executive Committee of the journal since the funds for these awards comes from the journal treasury. The resolution passed unanimously.
Election of Officers
Manfred Steger and Beth Kelly were nominated for chair. Beth declined the
nomination and seconded that Manfred who then was unanimously chosen as chair.
The meeting then elected by acclamation the following
officers: Carl Swidorski as Secretary/Treasurer; Christine Kelly and John Martin
as Caucus representative to the Executive Committee of the journal; and Bradley
MacDonald as 2005 Program Chair.
The last order of business was a resounding "Thank You" to outgoing chair John Berg for all the work he has done for the Caucus over his career.
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM..
Respectfully submitted,
Carl Swidorski
Secretary/Treasurer
Return to New Political Science
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Political Science
Executive Committee Meeting, August 27, 2003
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Minutes
The Executive Committee met at the Charles Plaza Restaurant in Philadelphia at 7:00 PM. Present were: John Berg, George Katsiaficas, Laura Olson, Victor Wallis, Joe Peschek, Steven Bronner, John Ehrenberg, Mark Mattern, and Carl Swidorski.
Minutes
Carl Swidorski reported that the minutes of last year's meeting had been circulated to the Executive Committee via the newsletter and email during the Fall. He also distributed a copy the minutes to those present. The Committee approved the minutes.
Reports
Editor's Report
Joe Peschek reported that the journal was doing well and the relationship
with Taylor and Francis remained excellent. This past year was a transition
year with George Katsiaficas having primary responsibility for the March and
June issues and Joe for the forthcoming September issue, which was in the mail,
and the December issue which had gone to the publisher. Thirty-four articles
had been submitted the
previous year. Of those, ten were accepted for publication, eight
through the normal peer review process, and two by the editor. Of the latter
two, one was a "commentary" and the other was the Christian Bay Award
winner. Sixteen articles were rejected, three by reviewers and two at the editor's
discretion. Five articles currently were under review and
three others had been received but not yet sent our for review. Given
the rejection rate, and the need for twenty to twenty-four articles per year,
the rate of submissions needs t increase. He planned on contacting those individuals
presenting papers at Caucus panels at this year's APSA and encouraging them
to submit their papers to the journal. Joe stated that he was pleased with the
peer review process and thought that the reviewers were not only being demanding,
but frequently were offering authors cogent critiques of their manuscripts and
supportive suggestions for improving the quality of their work. Joe reaffirmed
his intentions to develop a larger pool of reviewers so that, as a general rule,
individuals would be asked to review only one manuscript a year. Finally, he
stated that he expected that the journal would be certified for listing in the
SSCI Index early in 2004.
A discussion followed about strategies for encouraging more submissions and about the possibility of varying the content of the journal, if necessary, so that it was not as reliant on peer-reviewed articles. Suggestions were made to work on putting a special theme issue together each year; including more reviews, including review essays; and including interviews with prominent scholars or activists. A request was made to keep reviewers informed about the status of the manuscripts they had reviewed. The remainder of the discussion dealt with questions related to theory, jargon, and accessibility and readability of articles.
George Katsiaficas, outgoing editor, stated that the transition to the new editor had been very smooth and that he and Joe had established a very close working relationship. He raised the issues of whether it would be possible to get selected past articles from the journal posted on the New Political Science section website. Joe Peschek indicated that he would explore this issue with Richard Delahunty of Taylor and Francis beginning with their luncheon meeting the next day. The discussion concluded with agreement that the Executive Committee favorably received the editor's report. Finally, the Executive Committee thanked George Katsiaficas for the tremendous work he had done during his time as editor raising the professional quality and visibility of the journal as well as re-establishing it as an important source of progressive scholarship.
Treasurer's Report (Attached)
Carl Swidorski submitted the treasurer's report. The journal once again had just managed to reach the magic subscription level of 200 so that we received a royalties payment from Taylor and Francis in addition to the usual operating expenses. As of the end of the fiscal year we had an operating balance of $12,780.05 plus a contingency reserve of $6,000. Overall revenues were down slightly because of the decline in earnings from the book series. Expenses declined even more however, because of a decline in editorial expenses and the fact that contributors' fees for the book series had been paid out of last year's budget.
Given the sound financial shape of the journal the Executive Committee decided to transfer $4,000 instead of the normal $1,200 to the contingency reserve so that it would total $10,000 at the end of the fiscal year. Carl was asked to investigate creating a separate, interest earning account for the reserve. The Committee also voted to provide funding of $200 for the Michael Harrington award and $100 for the Christian Bay award. Funding for the Piven and Cloward award was to be continued at $500 and it was decided not to attach any financial remuneration to the Charles McCoy career achievement award.
Reviews Editor's Report
Mark Mattern reviews editor, informed the Committee that reviews had been commissioned through November, 2004. He submitted a report listing the reviews commissioned for the next four issues. Film reviews also had been initiated. He indicated that if an issue had a particular theme he would try to coordinate reviews with that issue. Mark initiated a discussion of "negative" reviews. The Executive Committee agreed that the purpose of reviews included criticism and that as long a professional standards were maintained, critical reviews were not only appropriate but desirable. It was the discretion of the reviews editor to assess such matters and how to respond to those who books were critically reviewed, including the consideration of a response if the editor felt it was appropriate and would contribute to a scholarly discussion of issue of concern to members of the Caucus. The group then discusses whether there was an overemphasis on US politics in the reviews. Mark replied that he would monitor this and try to assure coverage that included international politics. Finally, the suggestion was made that graduate students be recruited as reviewers to provide them with opportunities for publishing and to introduce them to the journal and the Caucus.
Editorial Board Breakfast
At last year's Executive Committee meeting the decision was made to inaugurate a breakfast meeting of the editorial board at the annual APSA meeting. According to Joe Peschek, more than thirty members of the board had expressed plans to attend the meeting. Joe reported on the agenda for the meeting on Friday morning at 7:00 am. In addition to reports from the editor and reviews editor, the agenda included a discussion of the role of the editorial board; how to encourage more submissions; problems of language and accessibility of articles; the political identity of the journal; the relationship with Taylor and Francis; whether to have special issues in 2004; and information on the process of getting the journal listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI).
Routledge Book Series
George Katsiaficas stated that our Routledge editor had left to take another position and that there had been some problems with the transition. Nonetheless, the series remained one of the better selling ones for the publisher. George indicated that we needed more books for the series and that he would work on soliciting more book proposals. The fact that royalties from the series has provided an important source of revenue for the journal over the past two years was an addition reason for obtaining more submissions. A discussion ensued about whether we needed an editorial statement about the purposes of the book series that would be included on the inside cover of books. The group agreed that the book series need to be seen as something other than just a catch-all for special theme issues of the journal.
The meeting concluded in its ususal jovial spirits at 10:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted
Carl Swidorski
Treasurer
Return to New Political Science