Minutes

Western Political Science Association
Executive Council Meeting

Thursday, March 17, 2005
Oakland Marriott, City Center
Room:  AJ Topper (21st Floor)
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon

Members Present:  Barbara Norrander, Ron Schmidt, Sr., Val-Martinez-Ebers, Gil St. Clair, Edwina Barvosa-Carter, Shaun Bowler, Susan Burgess, David Camacho, Victoria Farrar-Myers, Sonia Garcia, Howard Gillman, Mark Petracca,  

Ex-Officio Members Present: Harold Clarke, Kenneth Godwin, Ronald Hrebenar, William Haltom, Elizabeth Moulds, and Elsa Favila

Members Absent: Anne Costain, Al Harris, Joel Kassiola, and Clive Thomas

Guests Present: Noelle Norton, University of San Diego; Lynda Roberts, University of Utah;  Peter Steinberger, Reed College; and Dvora Yanow, California State University Hayward.

Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order by Barbara Norrander at 8:29 a.m.

I.  Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the Friday, September 3, 2004 Executive Council meeting in Chicago, Illinois were approved.

II. Reports

1. Executive Director’s Report:  Elizabeth Moulds

 Elizabeth Moulds reported on the search for the PRQ editors was underway.  The deadline for applications is May 15, 2005.  The committee will meet tomorrow, March 18, 2005.

Betty indicated that she had begun gathering information for a conference in San Diego in 2008.

She is continuing to dedicate time to the WPSA archives project.
Betty noted that there was an increase in dues and the association’s finances are very strong.

Betty was pleased to report that we have a full slate of awards this year.

As she looks forward to the months prior the APSA convention, she anticipates focusing on 2008 and prospecting in San Diego, closing Oakland, putting the finishing touches on Albuquerque, continuing the search for the PRQ editor, and begin scouting for meetings in the Northwest in 2009.

2. Program Chair’s Report:  Ron Schmidt

Ron indicated that the Oakland meetings include162 panels, 511 papers posted on All Academic, and 23 sections.  He indicated that a new section on Methods and Evaluation was added this year.

Ron discussed the problems with All Academic. He indicated that they were not able to get delivery until very recently.  For example there were problems with instructions for uploading and access to the data base.  APSA and all regional groups are involved in the contract with All Academic, and this has compounded the problem.

Ron noted that the Pi Sigma Alpha speaker this year is Jerry Brown.  He also noted the plenary panel on California politics in the age of Arnold.  Further, he noted that the APSA president Margaret Levy would address the association.

3. Local Arrangements Oakland: Dvora Yanow

 Dvora noted that this is the 3rd largest WPSA conference according to pre-registration data.  The average age of attendee is 41, with the youngest person being 20 and the oldest being 86.  36% of attendees are from California, 3% from Colorado, and 2.69% from Arizona.

Things on her mind included the ability to get financial support form institutions, caucuses, and printing presses.  Further, she indicated that attempting to round up student volunteers was time consuming.

She suggested that the association should sequence local arrangement chairs to get an overview and report or have 2 people as local chairs.

      Local Arrangements Albuquerque:  Gil St. Clair

Gil discussed the location of the Hyatt and was pleased that it was centrally located.  He noted that Santa Fe was an hour away and that transportation was better that before.  He indicated that the Hispanic Cultural Center may be a good place for the WPSA reception.   He also noted the need for a change in Local Arrangements Chair.

4. Nominating Committee Report:  Victoria Farrar-Myers

 The committee nominations are as follows:
Vice President and Program Chair, 2006-2007 – Peter J. Steinberger, Reed College
Executive Council 2005-2008
Region A
Kristin Hill Maher, San Diego State University
John Meyer, Humboldt State University
Region B
Ted Jelen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Region C
Richard Clucas, Portland State University

5. Financial Report:  Gil St. Clair

 Gil indicated that the association was financially well off. This past fiscal year we had $94,000 in revenues and spent only $53,000, thus leaving a net gain of $40,000. 

He discussed the possibility of building a formal endowment to fund administrative staff out of earnings.  He also indicated the benefits of a professionalized staff.

He discussed the IRS-501C3 and indicated there may be cap on how much money a non profit may hold.

We have invested very conservatively.  He noted that the Midwest association has a professional director.

6. PRQ Report:  Harold Clarke/Ken Godwin

 Harold introduced a new PRQ from University of Texas, Dallas.

He noted that total manuscripts were down by 5 this year and that the overall acceptance rate was about 15%.  He discussed the difficulties in categorizing manuscripts around ethnicity, race, and ender.  He indicated a median turnaround time of 81 days.

He noted that costs have decreased with the ability to email manuscripts to reviewers.  However, editorial assistants are still costly.

He outlined our partnership/arrangement with the University of Utah.

There was a discussion about reviewers and perceptions of gate keeping.  There was a discussion regarding the tensions between the association and groups within the association and the journal.  Harold indicated that reviewers are selected by the type of papers submitted.  Howard Gilman raised the question on whether there was a philosophical or methodological logic to the journal.

7. Membership Report:  Elizabeth Moulds

 Elizabeth indicated that there was an increase in the number of individual members this year.  The size of membership typically reflects the success of the convention of the previous year.  For example, Las Vegas was a very successful convention, thus membership rose substantially in the fiscal year which began with the Las Vegas convention.

There has been a decrease in institutional memberships (library subscriptions).  Thus, we should encourage universities to support the WPSA by maintaining and/or initiating a subscription.

III. Old Business

1. Convention Site:  San Diego options, Noelle Norton and Barbara Morris

 Noelle Norton provided the committee with a spread sheet of hotel options in San Diego.  It was the recommendation of Barbara and Noelle that the committee consider the Manchester Hyatt in the Gaslamp/Downtown area for the convention site.  The cost of the hotel was discussed as was the timing.  The convention dates would fall over Easter weekend.  There was discussion about making the convention family friendly.  The council agreed with the recommendation and voted unanimously to authorize Betty to negotiate a contract with the Hyatt at the proposed guest room rate of $179.

2. PRQ Editor Selection:  Barbara Norrander

 The selection committee includes:
Luis Fraga, Stanford University, Chair
R. Michael Alvarez, California Institute of Technology
Nancy Hartsock, University of Washington
Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Whitman College
Lyn Ragsdale, University of Illinois, Chicago
Ex-officio members include:
Ron Hrebenar, Managing Editor of the PRQ
Ron Schmidt, WPSA President Elect
Elizabeth Moulds, WPSA Director

The deadline for the applications is May 15th. 

There was a discussion regarding the costs for producing the journal constraining the ability to search for editors.  It was stated that there may come a time when the association will have to pay for more editorial costs.  The University of Utah will be increasing its support of production.

Harold indicated that PRQ costs included:  $3000.00 for a reception, Graduate student salaries for 12 months, one course buyout for each editor and $8000.00 stipend.  In the end costs totaled about $45,000 for each editor’s institution.  There was a discussion of reducing costs by using work study students instead of graduate students.

There was also discussion regarding consortia editorships which include 3 – 4 institutions.

IV. New Business

1. Budget:  Gil St. Clair

 See attached Report. 
Betty has negotiated successfully with her provost for an inside rate buy out for one more year.  There was a motion to approve the budget by Gil St. Clair.  The motion was seconded and then approved unanimously by the council.

There was a discussion regarding WPSA committees.  Betty indicated that the WPSA covers committee expenses, however, committees rarely ask for reimbursement.

2. Convention Cancellation Insurance

 See attached report.  Betty discussed the costs of convention cancellation premiums and noted that losses due to terrorist attacks are not covered.  Ron Schmidt moved that the association not purchase convention cancellation insurance (i.e. self insure)next year.  The motion was seconded and unanimously passed by the council.

3. Other

 Mark Petracca discussed WPSA membership and graduate students.  He indicated that we should encourage departments to reward graduate students with 2 year subscriptions.  Thus, perhaps we could create a program allocating subscriptions to institutions for the purpose of forwarding them to graduate students.  Barbara and Ron suggested that Mark summarize the idea and forward it to the membership committee.

Shaun Bowler suggested the council and the association needed to think of creative ways to increase revenue streams form outside sources.  Placement services and advertising were briefly discussed.  There were suggestions that a committee be formed to consider possible sources of external revenue.  Another option would be to assign this task to the membership committee.
 
It was moved that the meeting be adjourned at 11:36 AM. 

                                                                       
                                                            Respectfully submitted,

                                                            Barbara Morris, Recording Secretary