IN ATTENDANCE: David Andersen, Deborah Andersen, Brian Dangerfield, Stefan Groesser, Andreas Größler, Burak Guneralp, Susan Howick, Jim Lyneis, Ignacio J. Martínez-Moyano, Peter Milling, Brad Morrison, Rogelio Oliva, Özge Pala, Joel Rahn, Etiënne Rouwette, Graham Russel, Martin Schaffernicht, Markus Schwaninger, Christina Spencer, Roberta Spencer, Krys Stave, Jeff Trailer, Imrana Umar, Kim Warren, and Aldo Zagonel.
CALL to ORDER / WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS (President Erling Moxnes):
Erling called the meeting to order. He thanked the outgoing members of the Policy Council - Qifan Wang (Past President), Deborah Campbell (VP Member Services), David Packer (Secretary), Gloria Pérez Salazar, Santanu Roy, Ali Kerem Saysel, and Krystyna Stave (PC members) for their service to the Society. He also welcomed the new members to the Council - Rogelio Oliva (President Elect), Krystyna Stave (VP Member Services), J. Bradley Morrison (Secretary), Susan Howick, Birgit Kopainsky, Agata Sawicka, and Aldo Zagonel (PC members). We look forward to your input! He offered thanks to all officers and members who are continuing or taking on another term.
MINUTES:
Jim Lyneis moved to approve the minutes of the Winter Policy Council meeting and Brian Dangerfield seconded the motion. Passed
REVIEW OFFICER REPORTS:
VP At Large (Joel Rahn): no substantial activities to report
VP Chapter Activities (Tim Haslett, assisted by Martin Schaffernicht):
The full report is on line; a disappointing number of chapters have submitted reports, raising concerns for how to increase reporting. Should there be an on line form?
VP Electronic Presence (Bob Eberlein):
The discussion forum has replaced the email list. The Wiki has not been used much.
VP Finance (David Andersen):
We lost about $98K in 2008, about $38K of which was due to the Athens Conference and the rest due to decrease in investments. Changes in accounting rules to put us on full accrual basis mean that some activities are moved around in our accounting record. We made a mid-year correction to put $35,000 in to adjust. The budget for 2010 includes “invented” numbers for the Korea 2010 conference, because reliable estimates are not yet available. Because conference location was change, we do not yet have a coherent conference budget for 2010 to use in the budget. Investment income is budgeted at 0, and we are also budgeting for no change in investments (i.e., 0 capital gain).
Tiered dues structure – There has been essentially no growth in low income membership. There is still great potential for growth in low income members. There has been some decline in membership, but the decline is evident across income levels, so we do not attribute this decline to the dues structure.
Bob E. moved to approve the budget as submitted. Passed.
VP Meetings (Andreas Groessler):
The 2009 Conference seems generally seems to be going well. We have a great program committee and a great conference organizing committee. Attendance is strong. This year we are trying an experiment by running a “bonus day.” 2010: There had been a budget for this conference, but the location changed, impacting sponsorship meaningfully enough that a new budget needs to be developed. 2011: We had early interest from two locations in a North America (Portland and Mexico), but they have not come forth with proposals. We have done some investigation in Washington, DC and in Boston, but we do not yet have a conference organizing team to volunteer. We could consider doing an experiment as the Boston conference organized by headquarters or an outsourced professional organizer rather than a local volunteer team. Andreas and Bob will solicit volunteers for an organizing committee. It was suggested that we look into costs for a professional organizer. 2012: We have received a pre-proposal from Switzerland.
Bob moved to accept the Swiss pre-proposal with an intent to vote on a full proposal at the Winter Council Meeting. Passed.
VP Member Activities (Krys Stave): No new activities to report.
VP Publications (Deborah Lines Andersen):
The Wiley-Blackwell contract needs to be renegotiated and will be done at the meeting tonight. The Publications Committee has been reconstituted, with George Richardson as chair. Jack Pugh has resigned as WebMaster. Graham Russell (Wiley-Blackwell) reported that downloads are strong (11% increase), and income rose a bit this year. Susan Howick suggested that we ask members what other societies they are members of. Brian reported that we have had an increase in backlog; accepted paper today are not likely to be in print until the last issue of next year.The impact factor has about doubled. We have a contractual commitment of 92 pages per issue, which is proving to be a challenge in part because we have had special issues, and because submissions have gone up since 2006. We may need to enforce more strictly the article lengths requirements.
Executive Director (Roberta Spencer):
We hired an archivist to catalog and organize materials from Jay and MIT and other archives. If we find a student volunteer, we will scan some materials. We created a brochure about the Society. Jen Rowe left for law school. Erin Sheehan, her replacement, has been on staff since July 2008.
REVIEW COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Administrative Committee (Peter Milling):
The Administrative Committee deliberated about the budget for 2010, the Korea Conference and missing numbers, the challenges of future conferences, the tiered dues structure, the workload of home office (no solution), and the strategic fund. The purpose was basically to prepare for this PC meeting.
Awards Committee (Khalid Saeed, not present):
1. Forrester Award: No report
2. Dana Meadows Award (Joel Rahn): Submissions are a little below expectations but may be due to lower conference attendance. Many submissions exceed the word count of 5000; some are rejected because of that.
3. Applications Award (Jim Lyneis): We will have one this year.
4. Community Service Award Committee (Jim Lyneis): We have a committee and will make an award this year.
5. Other Outside Awards: No report
Nominating Committee (Jim Lyneis):
Open positions for 2011-2013: President, VP Finance, VP for Chapter Activities, Secretary, Four Policy Council Members (The nominating committee comprises the three presidents, plus three other members – Yaman Barlas, Deborah Campbell, Ozge Pala)
Organization and By-laws Committee (Brad Morrison):
The committee is setting up a conference call in September to work on consolidating accumulated revisions to the Bylaws.
Publications Committee (George Richardson):
George Richardson is the new chair of this committee. Other members are Brian (ex officio), Rogelio Oliva, Deborah Andersen (ex officio), Graham Winch, Yaman Barlas, Roberta Spencer (ex officio), David Andersen (ex officio).
AD HOC COMMITTEES
Conference Selection (Andreas Groessler):
It would be useful to develop better documentation of what it takes to organize a conference.
Conference Scholarship (Bob Eberlein): We award 10 scholarships to students to attend our annual conference. This year we also used about $4k from a silent auction to give scholarships to K-12 educators to attend.
Diversity Committee (Erling Moxnes read a report submittedby Peter Hovmand): The report is online.
Dues/Conference Fees (Andreas Groessler):
When considering the idea to use a tiered conference fee structure, we decided to wait for results from the tiered dues experiment, so we need to wait a bit longer to understand the impact.
Strategy Development (Erling Moxnes):
The Strategy Development Committee will meet during conference. There are many suggested initiatives, so there is a need to prioritize possible initiatives. Some have the potential for high impact at a low cost. The members of the committee could be the four presidents.
Society Program Oversight Committee (Andy Ford): Nothing new to report.
KNOWN MOTIONS AND DISCUSSION ITEMS:
Psychology Chapter to become a SIG: Krys Stave moved to convert the Psychology Chapter to a SIG. Passed.
Define Task and Make up of Strategy Development Committee: Bob moved to create a standing committee called the Strategy Committee to collect and prioritize initiatives to promote initiatives for growth of the field of system dynamics. Members of the committee would be the President, Past President, President Elect, President Elect-Elect, and three other members appointed by President with approval of Policy Council. Erling Moxnes, President, appointed Jim Thompson (2009), Khalid Saeed (2009-10), Kim Warren (2009-11). Bob E. moved to accept these appointments. Motions passed.
Conference 2011 – will do electronically
Conference 2012 – done
Approval of Members:
Administrative Committee: Bob Eberlein moved to reappoint Peter Milling as chair. Passed.
Publications Committee: Deborah Andersen moved to appoint George Richardson as chair for 2009-2011; Graham Winch from 2009-2010, Yaman Barlas from 2009-2010, Rogelio Oliva 2009. Passed.
Nomination Committee: Bob moved to appoint Birgit Kopainsky (8/2009-7/2012) Passed.
Awards Committee: Jim Lyneis moved to re-appoint Erling Moxnes and David Lane (2010-12) Passed.
Krys Stave is stepping down as VP Member Services. The Nominating Committee will propose a new candidate and the Policy Council will consider in an electronic vote.
Budget for Diffusion of System Dynamics: David moved that the Policy Council earmark $25k to be set aside to be available in the expectation that the Strategy Development Committee will bring proposals to the winter meeting to undertake some strategic initiatives requiring some one-time investments. Passed.
Policy Council Meeting Timing: A suggestion was made to consider splitting the Policy Council meeting to Sunday and Thursday of the conference, and we discussed this idea. There was some discussion about Policy Council members giving more attention to posting and reading reports before the meeting, and a ways to make the meeting more efficient (e.g., Action Agenda and Discussion Agenda) rather than splitting into two meetings.
ADJOURNMENT:
Bob moved to adjourn. Passed. Meeting adjourned at 4:49pm MDT.
Recorded by Secretary Brad Morrison.