Minutes of the
Joint Business Meeting of the
APSA Section #27 New Political Science
And the
Caucus for a New Political Science
American Political Science Association
Annual Meeting
Chicago, Illinois, August 31, 2007, 6:00 pm
The New Political Science section held its
annual business meeting at 6:00 pm on August 31, 2007 at the Annual Meeting of
the American Political Science Association with Co-Chairs Alethia Jones and
Christine Kelly presiding.
I.
Introduction of Caucus/Section Officers: Meredith Reid Sarkees, Sec/Treasurer; R.
Claire Snyder, Program Chair; Jennifer Disney, Chair Membership Taskforce;
Laura Katz Olson and Michael Forman, Caucus Representatives to the Journal
Executive Committee, Clyde Barrow, incoming Program Chair.
The Chairs also distributed 40th
anniversary Caucus pamphlets.
II
Conference Report - by
Program Chair, R. Claire Snyder
Claire passed out copies of the Summary of
the Program Report. This year the NPS Section had an allotment of 8 panels
(down from 12 in 2006). We increased our panels to 12 by co-sponsoring and
offering a theme panel. We also offered 8 posters. Claire admitted that she did
not look at most of the individual paper submissions, and accepted mostly pre-formed
panels. She received 18 panels accepted 8. She also received 106 papers and only
accepted 7, for a 6.6% acceptance rate. This low a rate should qualify us for more
panel slots next year. Caucus members filled 50% of conference participation
slots.
Clyde Barrow will be the Program Chair for
2008. He is going to mostly look at papers that fit into the call for papers
theme (which is printed in the Caucus Anniversary Pamphlet..
Laura Olson asked why we don't we give
preference to Caucus members for inclusion in the program. Claire responded
that APSA doesn't allow this.
Hamidegh Segdhi asked why we give preference
to panels and not papers. She thinks s paper proposal s should be considered
seriously. She thinks we need more of a commitment to women a, gender issues,
global issues.
Alethia responded that we do try to include
both, but that trying to cobble individual papers together into a coherent
panel is more difficult. Thus it is easier to accept completed panels. She thinks
the panels reflect the themes of APSA.
We should include Caucus members in other
ways.
III
Membership Report - Jennifer Disney, Chair of the Membership Taskforce
The APSA Section (New Political Science) crossed
the 500 members threshold this year. Some of us allow our memberships to lapse,
so we are below 500 now. For $20 you get membership to the NPS Section that
includes a subscription to the journal New
Political Science. Jennifer
encouraged members not to let their memberships lapse, or you may lose an issue
of the journal. Grad students pay $5 section dues and still get the journal as
well.
Membership this year is centered on the 40th
anniversary. To celebrate 40 years of the Caucus. We have celebratory program that
could be used to give to new other members, All of us should try to recruit new
members
IV
Report of the Secretary/Treasurer – Meredith Reid Sarkees
Meredith distributed copies of the minutes
of the 2006 joint Caucus/Section Business meeting, the financial report of the
Caucus for a New Political Science, and a financial report for the APSA New
Political Science Section.
Motion by John Berg, seconded by Carl Boggs,
to approve the minutes. By voice-vote the Minutes were approved.
Miniutes of 2006 business needing we
approved,
Both
the NPS Section and the Caucus are in good financial shape, primarily due to
the journal and our relationship with the journal publisher Routledge. Due to
the new dues structure, the dues received by the APSA Section have risen from
about $700 to $5,277 this past fiscal year. The Section then has to by the
issues of the Journal that are sent to Caucus members, which cost $2,697 for
the period September 2005 to December 2006.
Moat other Section expenses relate to the Plenary speaker (which were
low last year) and the awardees’ plaques. So the Section currently has a
balance of $8,719.20.
The Caucus for a New Political Science,
which owns the journal, is also doing very well financially. As the report
shows, our income was up substantially this year. This was partially due to the
new contract which we just signed with Routledge that pays the Caucus more
money for advanced journal royalties and editorial expense. The increased
revenues also were a result of negotiations with Routledge for both the journal
and the book series, in which royalties that had been disallowed in 2005-2006,
we now paid this year. Caucus revenue from investment interest has also grown.
As a result, the Caucus now has assets totaling $35,661.71.
V
Report of the Journal Editor – Joe Peschek and Book Series Editor – Georgy
Katsiaficas
Joe Pescheck indicated that he will circulate
copies of his Editor’s report. In particular, he noted that many people in the
room are authors of journal article, and
he encouraged people to submit their work to New Political Science. Joe would like to increase article submissions.
The December issue will also contain a special section on the history of the Caucus.
Joe mentioned that we haven’t had a special theme
issue of the journal in awhile, and he asked for ideas for future theme issues.
There are going to be vacancies in the
Publications area next year. Joe Pesch is ending his two terms as Journal
Editor next year, and Mark Mattern is also ending his second term as Book
Review Editor. Thus they will have to be replaced. Geoorgy Katsiaficas is also
resigning as Book Series Editor. So there will be a search process for three
positions. It is important to find good people. Joe mentioned that serving as
Editor has been a rewarding experience for him.
Georgy Katsiaficas agreed and noted that it
has been an honor to have been Book Series Editor George distributed flyers
listing the books in the book series, including the newest volume on democracy
is South Korea. He indicated that there are 4 new books in the pipeline. He
encouraged people to consider publishing their monographs in the series.
Joe mentioned that Routledge is going to put
a complete run of the journal New
Political Science, from 1979 to the present online. More Recent issues are
already there, and Routledge had proposed developing a procedure by which all
Caucus members could have access to the journal at no charge.
Alethia - thanks to Joe, Mark and George for
the work they have done.
VI Chairs’
Report
Christine passed along greetings from Bruce
Wright. He is our webmaster and was one of the founders of the Caucus. He sends
us his best. He and Christine have put new materials on the Caucus website and
encourage people to look at it as a resource.
There is a recommendation from the Journal Executive
Committee to raise the monetary amounts given with the Caucus awards. The suggestion
is to raise the Christian Bay award from $100 to $500, the Harrington award
from $250 to $500 and Cloward & Piven activist group award from $1,000 to
$2,000.
Motion was made and passed (one negative one
abstention)These new amount stake effect in 2008.
The searches for the Journal Editor, the
Book Review Editor and the Book Series Editor will begin in early 2008
Clyde Barrow is working on a history of the
Caucus and an ethnographic history of the Caucus. Clyde is trying to interview
as many people as possible for the history. Clyde also indicated that he wants
any previous Caucus documents. He would ultimately like to find a place to
house a Caucus archive.
Hamideh Segdhi announced that she has box of
Caucus records, and she want to get these documents out - to be published. We
should try to utilize these materials (including letters from original Caucus
members) on the history of the Caucus. It would be nice to contact these people
to see if they have additional materials in their possession about the Caucus.
Upon the death of Christen Bay, we had a panel on him, and Hamideh suggested
that one of paper from this panel should be incorporated in the history of the
Caucus.
Alethia announced that the Caucus award
winners will be highlighted at the Saturday evening plenary. Mark Roelofs will
be attending, and he will receive the career achievent award this year. The
Christian Bay award goes to Angelica Bernal. The Harrington award to Dan
Zuberi, and the Cloward & Piven award to the Grassroots Collaborative for
its Chicago Living Wage Campaign.
VII. Labor
Project
Maggie Firth, Chair of the Labor Project, noted
that there would be no labor project without the Caucus. You can read about
Labor project on page 16 of the Caucus anniversary handbook. The Project and
the Caucus had suggested that APSA should adopt a policy to only meet in union
hotels. APSA agreed to do that, but they decided not to join INMEX the umbrella
organization, because of APSA’s policy of not taking political stands.
VIII.
Caucus Constitution
Clyde Barrow has been heading up the effort
to revise the Caucus for a New Political Science Constitution. He summarized
the major revisions to the current Caucus Constitution, while Christine
distributed the revised Constitution. He noted that the Caucus for a New Political
Science is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) corporation. There was a constitution
dated 1978, which was revised in 2004. The revisions mostly encompass a number
of customary practices that the Caucus had developed over the years. The
revised Constitution is to show new members what the processes are. Thanks go
to John Berg who supplied a lot of information about how Caucus practices had
evolved. In particular, the by-law changes spell the duties of each of the
Caucus Officers. There are no changes in the duties of officers, but they are just
clarified. One particular change was the Program chair only serves a one-year
term (which is a policy suggested by APSA). Article 7 is probably the most
important because it officially brings the Caucus publications into the
Constitution. The Journal Executive Committee (which had been created by Caucus
vote but not incorporated into the Constitution) is now renamed the Publications
Executive Committee in order to encompass all Caucus publications. The
revisions now include a formal process to select the Journal Editor, book
Review Editor and Book Series Editor.
Joe Peschek made a motion to adopt the
revised Constitution, it was seconded, and passed by acclamation.
IX
Section By-Laws
Christine
made a motion that the revised Caucus Constitution also be adopted as the
By-Laws of the APSA New Political Science Section.
Meredith objected, indicating that these
were legally two separate organizations with different legal status and
memberships.
Clyde suggested that the revised Caucus
Constitution could be revised for the Section by eliminating all references to
the publications and changing the membership section.
The amended resolution was passed.
Christine expressed thanks to the by-laws
committee for its hard work.
X
Elections
Christine nominated Jocelyn Borsyczka for
the position of 2009 Program Chair. Jocelyn is from Fairfield University, has
been Caucus member for 5 years, and Chaired the Bay Award Committee. She was
elected by acclamation.
Christine Kelly announced that the terms of
office of Co-Chair Alethia Jones was expiring and that she had declined to run
for re-election. Alethia noted that she had enjoyed serving as Chair with
Christine, and nominated Christine Kelly and Jennifer Disney as Co-Chairs for
2007-2009. There were no other nominations. They were elected by acclamation.
The term of office for Meredith Reid Sarkees
as Sec/Treasurer was also concluding, and she nominated F. Peter Wagner as
Sec/Treasurer. Peter indicated that he wants to be more involved in the Caucus,
but that he is just starting a new job teaching 156 students. He is not sure
how the upcoming year will treat him. He
noted that the Sec\Treasurer is an involved job, and he was hesitant to accept
the position. He thus encouraged other volunteers for the position. Christine
noted that we can’t split the Secretary and Treasurer positions into two
separate ones. Thus, Peter sought another person to share it with him. Meredith
Weiss nominated. Thus Peter Wagner and Meredith Weiss were elected jointly as
Secretary/Treasurer though they could split the tasks so that Peter would do
more of the Secretarial tasks and Meredith could serve more as the Treasurer.
They were elected by acclamation.
Christine suggested that Laura Katz Olson
and Michael Forman continue to serve as the Caucus Representatives to the
Journal, and they were elected by acclamation.
Christine invited everyone to attend the
special 40th anniversary celebration sponsored by Routledge
immediately following the meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm
Respectfully Submitted by,
Meredith Reid Sarkees, Sec/Treasurer
9/7/2007