To see motions considered and acted upon click here.
To see Email Meeting Discussion click here.
To see Minutes of Face-to-Face Portion of Winter Meeting click here.
These reports were presented for the 2008 Winter Policy Council Meeting and are listed alphabetically by the last name of the reporter. Reports are Acrobat (.pdf) files and can be read using Acrobat Reader available from http://www.adobe.com. Supplementary material may be provided.
Andersen, David VP Finance Report (Reports for 2007 are in same format as the past: A. Profit & Loss, Budget Comparison; B. Profit and Loss Previous Year Comparison; C. Profit and Loss, Fiscal Year by Cost Center; and D. Balance Sheet, Previous Year Comparison. All reports are unaudited. A narrative summarizes overall good fiscal health of the Society.) Report
Andersen, Deborah VP Publications Report (New initiatives for the spring 2008 include scanning the Industrial Dynamics and System Dynamics Newsletters pre (1963 to 1984) for web access, archiving paper materials presently boxed at the System Dynamics office, and proofing the online scanned issues of Dynamica to replace blurred figures with high dpi images. Ongoing initiatives include the SD bibliography. A proposed future project will create a finding aid/document for all general categories of SD literature that will be especially useful to new practionners and students.) Report
Campbell, Deborah International and Intra-national Conflict (IINC) SIG -- motion background (The primary goal of the proposed IINC SIG is to link together those SD researchers with an interest in building models of international and intra-national conflict, including such topics as e.g. wars, balance-of-power negotiations, insurgencies, and terrorism. There has been a great deal of work in quantitative models of international relations and political science relating to this area. However, with few exceptions, these models exclude feedback dynamics, limiting their explanatory power. Hence, we would like to leverage the SIG to build a critical mass of SD researchers interested in this area to: (1) promote dissemination of new SD work in the area of conflict modeling throughout the SD community; (2) help bridge the gap with researchers from other fields interested in these topics; and (3) more effectively influence policy makers.) Report
Campbell, Deborah VP Member Services Report (Updates on the income-based dues structure implementation, SIGs, Career Link, and plans for 2008.) Report
Campbell, Deborah Dues Committee Report -- Next Steps (While the response to the new dues structure has been primarily positive from the membership, shortly after membership renewal forms began to arrive in the mail, concerns about the new dues structure were expressed by a few members on the SD listserv and in an email to the Society office authored by Jim Berger. In this report, these concerns are summarized and actions the Dues Committee proposes to address them are outlined. ) Report Supporting
Dangerfield, Brian Report of Executive Editor of the System Dynamics Review (The report updates the Summer 2007 report and covers (1) Special 50th Anniversary Issue; (2) Issues 23:4 and 24:1; (3) Future Special Issues; (4) Manuscript Submissions and (5) Changes to the editorial team.) Report
Eberlein, Robert Report of the Conference Sholarship Committee (The Scholarship Committee chooses recipients of conference scholarships which provide waived registration fees possibly with free hotel accommodation or a cash stipend toward that end.) Report
Eberlein, Robert Report of the Vice President Electronic Presence (The web submission system has been updated to support both report submission for the PC meetings and multiple conferences. Electronic voting will also take place in the context of and active PC session. Coming soon is a System Dynamics Wiki.) Report
Eberlein, Robert Draft Minutes of the January 31 Face to Face Meeting (These are the draft minutes for the face to face portion of the meeting. Where they contain motions, those motions will be put up and voted on using the electronic voting system.) Report
Groessler, Andreas Report VP Meetings, PC Meeting Spring 2008 (2008: negotiations with the hotel have been finalized, local team attracting sponsorship, Roberta in contact with local team 2009: running smoothly so far, meeting at 2007 ISDC 2010: proposal from Korean and Japanese chapters 2011: call for pre-proposals) Report Supporting
Groessler, Andreas Recommendation of the Conference Selection Committee--2010 Conference Site Selection (We would like to thank everyone for the input on both the specific choices for 2010 and the conference site selection process in general. ... For 2010 we continue to find both the Japanese and Korean proposals to be highly attractive, and the comments that have been made on the two proposals underscore that point. ... Based on our study of the proposals, the discussion in the face to face meeting, and the discussion by email we are recommending that Korea be selected to host the 2010 meeting and are putting forth a motion to that effect. The primary considerations that swayed us toward the Korean proposal were the simpler logistics of organizing within a hotel setting and the lower costs, both to the Society and to conference attendees. The fact that both China and Japan have hosted a conference, while Korea has not yet done so was also part of our consideration.) Report
Hovmand, Peter Diversity Committee Report (The focus of the diversity committee for 2008 is to build on earlier work and expand discussion of diversity issues within the society. Specific activities include 1) updating membership statistics on diversity, 2) initiating or supporting the development of a SD model of membership and diversity (if such efforts are already underway), 3) providing a diversity forum during the Athens conference, and 4) pilot a diversity workshop in Athens targeted toward SD practitioners with a specific focus on group model building and facilitation skills. We are also interested in recruiting new committee members, and would welcome suggestions from the nominating committee. ) Report
Lyneis, James Agenda and Schedule for 2008 Winter Policy Council Meeting ( 1- Note that all VP report updates, Committee report updates, and summaries of discussion items are due January 16th. 2- Opening Electronic Session: January 17th – 30th. 3- Face-to-Face Meeting: January 31st. 4- Second Electronic Session: February 1st – 28th. 5- By March 31st: Notify membership regarding Slate of Candidates and their opportunity to submit other candidates, as well as the results of any motions (in Newsletter or separate email). ) Report
Lyneis, James 2007 Conference Peer Review Debriefing (The attached report gives a summary of the Peer-Review Debriefing session. Major issues raised include: (1) variance among the quality of the reviews and resultant mixed signals sent to authors (e.g., two reviews accept, third review and Program Chair reject); (2) perceived inferiority of Poster Sessions; and (3) rejection rate versus attendance issue. Possible actions to improve the conference review process will be discussed in the face-to-face and second electronic meetings. Any ideas welcome. Jim Lyneis and Martin Schaffernicht.) Report
Lyneis, James Appointments to Awards Committee (As specified by Society Policies, as President I nominate the following six people to serve on the Society’s Awards Committee, to take affect immediately: David Andersen, Andy Ford, David Lane, Erling Moxnes, Khalid Saeed, and Kim Warren. ... We now have three awards, but the Forrester Awards Committee still serves as the umbrella committee. While we could continue with the Forrester Committee as the umbrella committee, it seems time to establish a separate umbrella awards committee as implied in the Society Policies. ... My proposal is that the Awards Committee consist of six members: three who are former Presidents and/or JWF award winners, and three who are representatives from the existing awards committees. Society policies specify that committees consist of at least three members with staggered terms; in order to have 3-year terms, the committee would need to be either 3 or 6 members, so I opted for 6. Two-year terms would allow for a 4-member committee, but this seemed too small given three members would come from the representatives of the three existing committees.) Report
Lyneis, James Motion: Award presentations guidelines at the annual conference (Full Motion: Proposed: Subject to the approval of the Awards Committee, SIGs and Chapters may give one or two awards for best work during their scheduled meetings at the annual ISDC. These awards will be announced briefly at one of the plenary sessions used for awards and special announcements. A representative of each SIG/Chapter with award(s) to announce will be allowed a maximum of 2 minutes total (whether it is one award or two) to describe the award criteria, the prize money and sponsor if any, and the winning work(s). Other approved award contributors will have similar allowances for presentation during one of the plenary sessions. Proposed by James Lyneis, second by David Andersen) February 13, 2008 (same information in attachment) ) Report
Miczka, Switbert Information and Update from German Chapter (For information purposes please find an email message reporting a change in the German Chapter's constitution. The German Chapter is doing fine with two events scheduled and another three in preparation for 2008, membership has just cracked the 60, that's 20% plus since Boston.) Report
Radzicki, Michael Slate of Candidates to take office on January 1, 2009 (SLATE OF CANDIDATES TO TAKE OFFICE IN 2009: President-Elect: Rogelio Oliva; VP Electronic Presence: Robert L. Eberlein; VP Publications: Deborah Lines Andersen; VP Member Services: Krystyna Stave; Secretary: J. Bradley Morrison; PC 1: Susan Howick; PC 2: Birgit Kopainsky; PC 3: Agata Sawicka; PC 4: Aldo Zagonel. NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Mike Radzicki, Jim Lyneis, Qifan Wang, Ozge Pala, Yaman Barlas, and Deb Campbell. ) Report
Rahn, R. Joel The Next 50 Years of the System Dynamics Society (A brief report on the activities of the Committee formed at the Boston Conference to develop a strategy for the second 50 years of the Society.) Report
Rahn, R. Joel Dana Meadows Award Committee-Winter PC 2008 Report (Items decided at the Boston 2007 Conference including a procedure for dealing with the renewal of the Committee.) Report
Russel, Graham Report from Publisher of System Dynamics Review (Topic covered include 1) John Wiley & Sons continue integration with Blackwell Publishing. 2) All SDR back issues online during 2007/ SDS links to content. 3) Impact Factor improvement. 4) SDR supplementary material – a new online development. 5) Marketing summary ) Report
Spencer, Roberta 2007 Boston Conference Final Report (Net Gain approximately $57,000. Largest conference to date with 586 registrations. The rejection rate for papers was 20.25%; the overall rejection rate was 19.5% (includes all submission types). This was the highest rejection rate of any SD conference. Many attendees noted that the quality of the program was higher than in the past and encouraged future conference organizers to be at least as selective and to continue to raise standards, thus making the conference more attractive for attendees and increasing the likelihood that new attendees will return. The online submission and review system worked well. A total of 477 submissions were handled through the online system. ) Report
Spencer, Roberta Athens Conference Update (Brief overview of program, optional events, sponsors to date. ) Report
Spencer, Roberta From Wiley: 2008 Marketing Plan for System Dynamics Review (From Katie Miller, Marketing Controller, Social Sciences & Humanities, Wiley-Blackwell. Please find attached the 2008 marketing plan for System Dynamics Review Please let me know if you have any additional suggestions or requests and I will incorporate these in the plans. Please also let me know if there are any specific issues or papers that you would like to highlight, I will then make to sure include these in relevant promotions during 2008. Do let me know if you have any questions - I look forward to hearing from you.) Report
Spencer, Roberta Executive Director's Summary, Winter Policy Council Meeting--January 2008 (A full Annual Report on Home Office Operations for the FYE 2007 will be presented at the Summer Policy Council Meeting. 2007 Boston conference was successful; membership was up in 2007 and using the new tiered dues structure for 2008 is well underway. Although Beer Game sales are up, overall sales are slightly down. Our sponsorship continues to be healthy and we exceeded the budgeted net income in 2007.) Report
Zagonel, Aldo Albuquerque Conference Status Report (ICSDS 2009) (In addition to providing up-to-date information on the status of the 2009 Conference, to be held in Albuquerque, the Organizing Committee requests input from the Policy Council on two action items.) Report Supporting