Fwd: 3 news items for SIGs

From: Bill Barowy (wbarowy@attbi.com)
Date: Thu Oct 31 2002 - 14:24:38 PST


Hi Folks,
FYI

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 06:47:21 -0600
From: Bruce Thompson <bruce-thompson@TAMU.EDU>
Subject: 3 news items for SIGs

Dear SIG Chairs:

As reported previously, the six-member SIG Executive Committee did meet
last weekend in Chicago as part of the annual October "Coordinated
Committees" meeting within AERA. Various committees gather at this event,
including the AERA Executive Committee (a subgroup of the AERA Council),
the Division Vice-presidents, the Publications Committee, AERA Editors, and
many others. There are 3 news items of particular interest to SIGs:

1. SIG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTIONS. The SIG Executive Committee consists
of six members elected to staggered two-year terms. Two current members'
terms expire at the end of the AERA fiscal year. Thus, the AERA ballot
mailed early next year will contain 6-8 candidates to fill these two
pending vacancies.
     Diana Michael, the Past-Chair of the SIG Executive Committee, is
serving as chair of the 4-member Nominations Subcommittee of the SIG
Executive Committee. Diana has been or soon will be in touch with you to
solicit nominations. Diana's e-mail address is:
Diana.Michael@pepperdine.edu
     All ~6,025 AERA members who are members of SIGs are eligible to vote
in this election. In her solicitation Diana will indicate deadlines (a) for
making nominations and self-nominations and (b) for receipt by Debra
Gallagher at AERA headquarters of the candidate statements to be used as
part of the annual AERA ballot. PLEASE E-MAIL DIANA'S CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
TO MEMBERS OF YOUR SIG, or otherwise contact SIG leaders and members to
solicit nominations.

2. SIG MEMBERSHIP RECORDS. The one concern of SIG chairs consistently (and
loudly) voiced for several years to the SIG Executive Committee and AERA
staff has been the inaccuracy of AERA records of SIG memberships. These are
critical because they drive AERA annual meeting program allocations for
SIGs. Because of these problems, at the requests of the SIG Executive
Committee, "hold harmless" provisions for space allocations have been in
effect for each of the previous 3 years.
     At the AERA Council meeting in June the new AERA Executive Director
and other staff reported an initial plan to address records problems, and
software for managing association data was demonstrated for Council.
     Bids are currently being received by staff for the purchase or
licensing of membership records software. There will be an emphasis on
INTEGRATION and TRANSPARENCY of records. For example, it appears that soon
members may join AERA and SIGs on-line, and then with password protection
access their personal organization records, if they wish, to confirm the
accuracy of records. Databases such as SIG membership rosters will be
automatically updated as related elements (e.g., individual's membership
information) within the database change. When members submit annual meeting
proposals, there may be the capacity for software to confirm on the fly
active AERA membership as part of the proposal submission process. SIG
Chairs may be able to easily generate rosters and e-mails of SIG members
whose memberships are about to expire, or of members who did not renew
membership upon a given membership expiration date. We are about to enter
the 20th (or maybe the 21st) century!
     In other words, the good news is that membership records may soon
become fully accurate and accessible. Of course, this also means that SIG
program space allocations would no longer be made on a "hold harmless"
basis, and that SIGs with fewer than 30 members for two years (after
records are accurate) may be terminated, as stipulated within the _SIG
Manual_ distributed to SIG chairs at the SIG Council meeting during the
annual AERA meeting and also mailed to SIG Chairs in mid-summer each year.

3. AWARDS. There has been concern expressed within AERA Council regarding
the number of awards given by AERA Committees, Divisions, and SIGs. Under
AERA policies the creation of all new awards must be approved by AERA
Council. An ad hoc AERA Council subcommittee has been appointed to review
criteria for evaluating such award applications and what caps might be
placed on awards. As SIG Representative to AERA Council, I was asked to
serve on this ad hoc awards subcommittee. Recommendations of the
subcommittee will be formulated and then reviewed by AERA Council at its
January meeting. I will keep you posted on this discussion. If you have
strong feelings related to awards issues, please let me know your views.

Bruce Thompson
Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow,
   Texas A&M University, and
Adjunct Professor of Family and Community Medicine,
   Baylor College of Medicine (Houston)
Home Page: http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~bthompson/

and SERA Executive Director
SERA URL: http://www.sera-edresearch.org

LibQUAL+(TM) bibliography:
   http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~bthompson/servqbib.htm
Bibliography on Effect Size choices and computations:
   http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~bthompson/eff_bib.htm
"Reliability Generalization" (RG) bibliography:
   http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~bthompson/religenr.htm

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