To: Policy Council
From: Ginny Wiley, VP Chapters Activities
Date: 23 July 2007
I am pleased to offer the following report.
First, it has been a privilege and a delight to work with Aldo Zagonel as Assistant Vice President. He took on the bulk of the work in a timely and very enthusiastic manner. The society is fortunate to have such a committed and hardworking member.
We now have sixteen chapters:
· Australasian Chapter – Shayne Gary
· Brazil Chapter – Helder Leal da Costa
· China Chapter – Bing Wu
· Economics Chapter – Oleg Pavlov
· Egypt Chapter – Walid Badr
· Hellenic Chapter – Emmanuel D. Adamides
· Italy Chapter – Habib Sedehi
· Japan Chapter – Michiya Morita
· Korea Chapter – Sang-Wook Kim
· Latin America Chapter – Gloria Perez
· Pakistan Chapter – Ijaz Yusuf
· Psychology Chapter – Ralph Levine
· Russia Chapter – Leeza Osipenko
· Student Chapter – Stefan Groesser
· Swiss Chapter - Thomas Beck
· United Kingdom Chapter – Brian C. Dangerfield
We have also had ongoing discussions about the formation of the German Chapter. I will ask that the following motion be placed on the policy council agenda during the conference:
MOVE to formally accept the German Chapter into the System Dynamics Society. Their constitution was reviewed and is in order. They have the requisite ten members of the society.
Officers for the German Chapter as follows: Switbert Miczka, president and society liaison; Mathias Fischer, VP finance; Jurgen Strohhecker – VP SD in Research and Education; Florian Kapmeier
All chapters were asked to submit written annual reports and membership lists. As of 20 July 2007 reports were received from the following:
Australasia
Brazil
China
Economics
German (petitioning recognition)
Latin America
Psychology
Russian
Student
Swiss
United Kingdom
Reports were not received from:
Egypt
Hellenic
Italian
Japan
Korea
Pakistan
Aldo summarized the chapter reports. His report follows this report. Also he created a synthesis of the reports which is being submitted along with this document.
Our goals for the coming year are:
Submitted by Ginny Wiley, VP Chapters and Aldo Zagonel
Summary of Chapter Reports
(Prepared for the PC Meeting – Boston, 2007)
Executive Summary:
According to Society Policy, the Chapter Representatives were asked to submit reports of chapter leadership, membership, activities, publications and finances. Ten (10) out of the sixteen (16) chapters of the Society complied with this requirement. The organization of the chapters varies substantially. Chapter membership ranges from seventeen (17) to over four hundred (400+). Several chapters are holding annual meetings of substance. Many have created a web site. Some are concerned with outreach to the academic and business communities. There is some effort to publish the product of chapter initiatives (proceedings, online journal, and an interactive book). There was virtually no financial reporting. There is wide variation in the coverage and format of the reports. With a few exceptions, the reports were prepared at the last minute, and very little time was available to synthesize and analyze them. In order to better meet this requirement, a number of recommendations are made to provide clarity of purpose, and improve the process and instruments to achieve better results.
Positive highlights:
Negative highlights:
Requested:
Policy 8, Section 7, requires that the Chapters submit an Annual Report to the Society Office, at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the Annual International Conference. These reports should contain:
· A list of active members and current officers, and
· A report on recent activities
In addition, the Sample Constitution (Exhibit A) requires the Society PC review also the finances of the chapters.
The chapter liaisons were contacted via email by the Society Office on May 23rd. A reminder was sent on July 9th. The reports were due on July 15th.
Response Rate:
Ten (10) out of the sixteen (16) chapters recognized by the Society submitted their reports (62.5%).
A new chapter seeking recognition (German) also submitted their report along with their petition to be recognized by the Society PC.
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Reporting chapters |
Non-reporting chapters |
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A few reports were submitted early (following our plea), but the bulk of the reports arrived only on the due date.
Officers and Membership:
The Sample Constitution (Exhibit A) specifies that the Chapters shall be government by a PC consisting of: a President, one or more Vice Presidents, a Secretary, and a Society Liaison (Representative). However, the Chapters do not seem to follow this organization necessarily. Instead, the reports refer also to Past-Presidents, Presidents-Elect, Treasurer, Directors, Web Masters, and List Serve Masters. On one hand, the reports are not always clear as to who is the Society Liaison (Representative). On the other, it is not clear from the reporting requirements what the Society would really like to know and keep track of.
According to the reports, chapter membership ranges from seventeen (17) to over four hundred (400+) participants. Most chapters submitted their membership listing; some in spreadsheet format including contact information. With some exceptions, the Chapters do not seem to keep track of who in their ranks is affiliated to the International Society.
Activities:
Publications:
Most noteworthy is the effort by the Latin America Chapter to maintain an online journal with two issues per year, and to produce an “interactive” book. The U.K. prints the proceedings of their Annual Gathering. Some chapters have a newsletter (German –to be, Latin America, and Student). The Economics Chapter prepared a Wikipedia entry and a bibliography.
Finances:
There was virtually no financial reporting on the part of the Chapters. However, it is not clear from the Society Policies if the financial reports should be part of the annual reporting requirement.
Only one (1) chapter submitted a banking statement containing records of deposits and withdrawals between January and May of 2006.
Three chapters mentioned membership fees (Brazil, German –to be, and Swiss), but it seems most activities were carried out on a volunteer basis (Student) or sponsored by academic institutions (Brazil) or businesses (Russia).
In at least one case the finances are tabled and accepted by the chapter membership, under the responsibility of a Treasurer (U.K.).
Recommendations:
The consequences for not submitting the chapter report are not clear. The PC should consider allowing late reports, and establishing consequences for chapters that do not comply.
A survey of the membership of the chapters would encourage more input and cross referencing the information provided by the chapter leadership. It would also allow for anonymous feedback both to the Society and the Chapters. This survey should focus on how the Chapter can better serve its membership.
The chapter reports should be solicited earlier and the deadline for compliance should allow for more time to follow up with non-complying chapters, as well as provide sufficient time for preparation of the synthesis report with recommendations for improvement of Chapter and Society services to the membership.
What is it that the Society hopes to gain with this requirement? Is the purpose oversight (leadership, membership, activities, publications, and finances)? Is the purpose to cross pollinate and induce good ideas originating from one chapter to spread to others? Both? Depending upon the intents of this requirement, we could focus the effort in particular ways and make the results more effective.
To the extent possible simplify the reporting requirements to take the burden off the chapter representatives and the Officers of the SD Society. Focus the reports on those elements that are important in light of the objectives intended (see item above).
Create a structured questionnaire to better structure and to standardize the reports. This would create greater uniformity in the reports and would expedite the process of reporting and analyzing/consolidating the reports.
Shift the responsibility to reauthorize or suspend the chapters to the chapter memberships. This can be accomplished by feeding back to the chapter membership the information provided by the chapter leadership, and having the membership express continued support for their chapter activities and leadership. In specific, at least ten (10) members of the chapter affiliated to the Society should respond to a survey of chapter membership based upon the information provided by the chapters, and render their support to the work that is being done.
In the short term, creating the survey instruments for the reports and for the membership feedback.
In the long term, as these survey instruments prove effective, implement them online. This would allow the chapter leadership to fill out the answers to the structured questionnaires on line, for the results to be synthesized automatically, and for the survey to the membership to be generated from the reports. The membership would also log on to provide their feedback to the Society, and support to their chapters.
Concluding comments:
As it is, the process of seeking out the chapter reports and to convey an assessment and strategic recommendations to the Policy Council is extremely cumbersome and somewhat ineffective. There is wide variation in coverage and format in the reports, and probably from year to year. Some chapters do not comply. We only receive information from the chapter leadership and do not know how the membership feels about the activities and services provided by the chapters. The process can be significantly improved by clarifying purpose and objectives, structuring and standardizing the survey instruments, extending the timeline and allowing more time for analysis of the results. Also, it is proposed here that the chapter memberships are a better judge of the effectiveness of the chapters than is the Society.