Minutes of the Meeting of the Policy Council of the System Dynamics Society
20 July 1999
Wellington, New Zealand
In Attendance.
Officers:
Alexander L. Pugh, III (President), Jac Vennix (President Elect)
Policy Council:
Carmine Bianchi, Magne Myrtveit, Ginny Wiley, Graham Winch (System Dynamics Review Editor)
Guests:
John Barton, Jonathan Coyle, Julia DiStefano, Saburo Kameyama, James Melhuish, Peter Milling, Habib Sedehi, Roberta L. Spencer (Executive Director), Toru Suetake
1. Call to Order.
The meeting was called to order at 5:02 PM by President Jack Pugh. He stated that he would like to go as far as possible in the informational items now, and cover the action items later. The important thing is to go over the materials so that we can discuss them at the next meeting.
Jack reviewed the action items briefly. He stated we do need to approve the 2000 budget. He also noted that the motion to raise dues may not be made because the publisher originated the idea.
Regarding the 2000 slate of candidates -- since the chairman of the nominating committee Yaman Barlas is not here, the nominating committee is not here either, and attendance by members is low, approving it electronically is probably a better idea.
The Australia/NZ chapter can be considered, but the South Korean chapter proposal will be tabled.
2. Informational Items.
 | Report of the Vice President - Finance. President Pugh summarized the report submitted by David Andersen and asked if there were any questions. This year, the Society will probably have a small loss. No one is frightened by this. One thing to note is that the sale of the Beer game has passed its peak. Conferences will be something we will depend on, in addition to dues, to pay for the operations of the Society. Operating costs at the home office include conference work.
| Executive Director's Report. Roberta Spencer gave a summary of the Executive Director's Report. She also reported, per Yaman Barlas' request, that membership in Turkey has grown to about 15 members. These members are extremely excited about the field. They have formed an e-mail discussion list, and interest spans the public sector, private sector, academicians, students, consultants and the military. After a few meetings, if interest keeps growing, Yaman will apply for a Turkish Chapter.
After the report, discussion ensued about how to get attendees to join the Society at the New Zealand conference. A suggestion was made to offer a ten percent discount on back issues of the Review if a person becomes a member at the conference.
| Report of the Executive Editor of the System Dynamics Review. Graham Winch gave the Editor's Report. Volume 15(3) is a special issue on health care. Volume15(4) has enough acceptable material, so we are into next year. Quantitative data is included in the written report. Basically there are five articles plus a few in the backlog. Right now there is almost a year between acceptance and publication. People are requesting that their article be published in the current year, but they have to wait until next year's issues. Acceptance rate is around 35 percent. This does not include informal submissions. Future plans: Volume 16 is a millennium issue. There is a suggestion to have some kind of a millennium theme next year. We may invite eminent people in the field to make comments. Graham will be happy to receive ideas from the Policy Council. Volume 16 could have a millennium theme rather than being a special issue. There are two proposals for special issues. Usman Ghani is proposing a practitioner/consultant issue and Carmine Bianchi is proposing a small enterprise issue.
The System Dynamics Review is on a Wiley website and is accessible by libraries. Member access is now being discussed with the publisher. Jack discussed the website and password issue. Members will receive a password and Wiley will initially maintain the website, as the Society's website cannot support this activity at this time.
Ginny Wiley wanted to know if membership will be affected if someone can join for one year and receive all past information as a one year member.
Peter Milling asked about the graphics in the journal. Other journals re-do their graphics to make them look better. Graham said it would make the price go up. Peter wanted to know if we can request higher quality graphics from the authors. Graham said if the feeling of the members is to make the graphics better, we can do that. We need to bear in mind some people do not have access to the most up-to-date graphical software packages.
| Report of the Vice President - Meetings. James Melhuish read Bob Eberlein's report. Also handed out were a sample conference budget and a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Society and the annual conference and program chairs. Jack asked everyone to review the M.O.U. and draft budget and get any comments back to Bob. In addition, everyone received a copy of the Norway conference preview sheet in their conference satchel.
The 2001 Atlanta Conference Proposal was handed out.
| Chapter Reports.
The Chinese and Italian chapters will present at the business meeting.
Habib Sedehi asked if chapters could receive Policy Council information.
Regarding chapter development, Jack commented that Nan Lux has been doing a great job and that he really appreciates her efforts.
Japanese Chapter. Saburo Kameyama gave a summary of the report. He provided a hard copy of the report and also gave the Policy Council a copy of the Japanese Chapter Newsletter.
UK Report. Jonathan Coyle stated that UK now has 89 members. They would like to run a conference next January to help raise money for the Chapter. Geoff Coyle is the current President. There will be a student prize each year awarded by the UK Chapter. Jonathan also handed out a copy of the report.
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