ASC EXECUTIVE BOARD
MEETING
Tuesday November 15, 2005
Toronto Royal York Hotel
MINUTES
Attending: Robert Agnew, Frankie Bailey, Donna Bishop, Todd
Clear, Frank Cullen, Finn Esbensen, Chris Eskridge, Rosemary Gartner, Denise
Gottfredson, Julie Horney, Gary Lafree, Janet Lauritsen, Alan Lizotte, Jim
Lynch, Doris McKenzie, Ray Paternoster, Michael Tonry, Chris Uggen, John Wright
Meeting called to order at 3:05, November 22
Introductions
l. Julie Horney expressed thanks on behalf of the Society to
Frank Cullen, Bob Meier, Finn Esbensen, Rosemary Gartner, and Ray Paternoster for
their service.
2.
Michael Tonry, Doris McKenzie, Bob Agnew and Pat Van Voorhis were welcomed to
the Board.
3.
Julie Horney discussed the conference registration system and thanked Frankie Bailey and Colin Loftin for their service as program chairs. This year’s meeting featured 610 sessions, 59 roundtables, 11 professional development sessions, and 6 author-meets-critics sessions. A total of 2,350 people pre-registered for the meeting, the largest pre-registration total in the Society’s history.
Frankie
Bailey described the conference registration system. Because our membership
lacks unique identification numbers, members with multiple affiliations and
email addresses can cause difficulties with the conference software. The
program chairs attempted to encourage full roundtables and completed sessions
to minimize the problem of papers appearing on sessions with unrelated papers.
The Board characterized the new subject index in the conference program as a
useful addition for the membership. There were few problems with members using
the online submission system. One recurring problem involved people
inadvertently submitting sessions while intending to submit single papers.
Members of the program committee also described some difficulties in moving
papers from one session to another. The Board suggested relaying this feedback
to All-Academic and providing the program committee with more explicit
instructions.
4. Director report -- Chris Eskridge.
The
Society continues to be in sound financial condition. We received one complaint
about raising conference registration fees, but the revenues are beneficial in
providing LCD projectors and the Saturday breakfast for the membership. The
Divisions are currently in solid financial condition. The budget in the
Director’s report will be amended to reflect the increased costs of buses
needed for the
The
Board requested an annual Treasurer’s report, to be completed by Treasurer John
Wright. The Board would also like some information about international
initiatives expenditures and expenses for the Criminology & Public Policy marketing and mailing list
coordinator. Todd Clear will report back to the Board on the latter matters.
5. Email mentoring report -- Chris Eskridge
Bonnie
Berry has worked hard to establish an email mentoring system and has purchased
her own server for this purpose. She requests $500 per year to pay for
technical support to continue this work. The Board accepted a motion to approve
$500 for annual expenses related to administering the mentoring program by
unanimous vote with one abstention. The Board unanimously accepted a motion to
fold the mentoring program into the Student Affairs Committee, with the head of
the mentoring program reporting to that committee’s chair. A related matter
concerns the establishment of a “mentor of the year” award. Under one
arrangement, the Student Affairs Committee annual report could include a
recommendation for the
6.
The
ASC Board has been asked to consider establishing a procedure to nominate
individuals for the annual Stockholm Prize for criminology. Any three
individuals, institutions, or organizations may submit nominations. Board
members expressed concern that an official ASC nomination may have a chilling
effect on nominations from our individual members. The Board considered the
possibility of nominating the Sutherland Award winner, though the criteria for
the two awards differ in important ways. The Board accepted a motion to make no
nomination for the 2007 Stockholm Award by a vote of 9 to 1 with 1 abstention.
7. Criminology and Public Policy report – Todd Clear
Natasha
Frost’s new title of Associate Editor was noted. The journal has worked closely
with a public relations firm funded by
8. Criminology report – Denise Gottfredson
The
Board discussed the transition in editorship from Ray Paternoster to Denise
Gottfredson in June, 2005. The Associate editors are now John Laub and Wayne
Osgood. A total of 197 manuscripts were submitted in the last year, 82 percent
were submitted online, and the mean decision time is now 66 days from
submission. Approximately 80 percent of the manuscripts receiving a revise and
resubmit decision have been accepted in recent years.
9. Nominations report
Nominees
for President are Bob Bursik and Sally Simpson.
Nominees for Vice President are Rosemary Gartner and Steven Messner.
Nominees for Executive Counselor are David Weisburd,
Peggy Giordano, Laura Dugan, and Alex Piquero. A
motion to approve the full slate of candidates was accepted unanimously with
one abstention.
10. Undergraduate Minority Program report – Todd Clear
The
ASC Undergraduate Minority Program currently awards $5,000 to students in their
junior and senior year of undergraduate study with the expectation that they
will deliver a paper at the annual meetings during their final year of support.
For the first cohort, two of the four funded projects will be presented, and
only one is a completed product. Nevertheless, in keeping with the goals of the
program, two students in this cohort are intending to apply for graduate study.
Of the six new proposals this year, three received some support but not great
enthusiasm. Program goals and funding were discussed, as well as advertising
efforts to help generate the best possible pool of applicants. The Board
accepted a motion to “encourage the committee to support strong projects, to
enforce existing rules on project reporting, and to emphasize that program
success will be gauged by participants’ entry into graduate study. Further
discussion was tabled until the November 19, 2005 meeting when Todd Clear will
return with additional information.
11.
Division reports – Division on Critical Criminology
12. Futures Committee – Julie Horney and Gary LaFree
A
strategic planning committee is being formed to examine long-term issues
regarding the future of the Society. The committee will meet on Thursday and
report to the Board on Saturday.
13. Membership List and Unique Member
Identification Numbers – Julie Horney
The lack of unique identifiers for each of our members causes difficulties with the software system used for the annual meetings. We currently maintain lists in different formats for purposes of mailing journals and newsletters and election ballots. All-Academic meeting software requires a unique member identification number. The Board discussed plans for transitioning from our current dBase system into Microsoft Excel. Other professional organizations will be surveyed to determine the best procedures for managing membership lists.
14. Memorial notices in The Criminologist
The
Board discussed procedures for determining the length and costs of memorial
notices in The Criminologist and in
the conference program book. The matter was referred to the publications
committee to develop recommendations.
15. Reports
Board members requested that they receive a packet of committee reports prior to each meeting, rather than a series of individual reports.
The Board adjourned to dinner at 7 pm.
The
next meeting is scheduled for 3 pm, Saturday, November 19, 2005.