IAPS Annual (Business) Meeting

IAPS Annual (Business) Meeting

Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Saturday, 18th September, 2004

1. Welcome

The President, Jan Boxill, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Apologies

Apologies received from Andy Miah; Terry Roberts; Bob Simon; Bernard Suits; Claudio Tamburrini.

3. Confirmation of agenda

Agenda was confirmed.

4. Confirmation of minutes of previous IAPS General (Business) meeting (University of Gloucestershire, UK, 18th November, 2003)

Minutes confirmed as true and accurate record.

5. Matters arising from minutes of previous meeting

Amendment to constitution re voting

Last year’s proposal: The Constitution should be amended to expand the possibilities for voting arrangements and therefore should include the wording ‘all forms of mail’.

This has since been ratified by the membership and the Constitution amended.

(i) This now allows the membership to be balloted by email, but also where desired or needed snail mail will be used.

(ii) Agreed that all ballot information will be posted in the Newsletter, on the sportphil listserv, and disseminated via the email membership list.

Action: Sharon Stoll & Heather Sheridan

(iii) To encourage members to vote short biographies of all nominees for executive and committee positions will be posted in the Newsletter in advance of ballot.

Action: Terry Roberts & Sharon Stoll

(iv) To encourage people to accept nominations for executive and committee positions each current member of the executive or chair of a committee will be asked to provide a summary of their job description (a practical checklist of responsibilities, timelines etc) which will be posted on the website.

Action Sharon Stoll & Andy Miah

6. Officer Reports

The following presented reports at the meeting:

(a) President: Jan Boxill

Everyone was welcomed to the meeting. Thanks went to all the Officers for their work over the last year. Thanks went to Spencer Wertz for organising the conference this year. It was reported that the association was in good health generally.

The results of the Warren P. Fraleigh Distinguished Scholar Award were announced. Pleased to announce that as a result of a ballot of the membership that both Bob Simon and Bernard Suits are awarded commemorative plaques in honour of their scholarly contributions to the philosophy of sport.

It was announced that a scholarship for students and others who might not have enough funds to attend the annual conference would be set up. The scholarship will take the form of a competition. Jan Boxill will appoint a sub-committee of the Honors, Awards & Future Sites Committee to come up with a set of eligibility criteria and procedures.

Action: Jan Boxill & Cesar Torres

Issues concerning future conference sites were presented:

2005 – Montreal, Canada – Jean Francois Dore to be contacted for confirmation this weekend. If Montreal does not go ahead then possible alternatives are Prague, Czech Republic (Ivo Jirasek); Ohio, USA (Bill Morgan); Idaho, USA (Sharon Stoll).

2006 – Melbourne, Australia, to be held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Conference in March.

Jan Boxill reported that this posed challenges for our Constitutional procedures. Our year runs from 1st October to 30th September for elected officers, and presenting reports at our annual executive meeting and annual general business meeting. If we hold our annual conference in March 2006 we can either suspend the Constitutional procedures for that year or we can consider the Melbourne conference to be a special occasion like the 2004 Pre-Olympic Congress. Thus, the possibilities are:

(i) No conference in 2005; Melbourne, March 2006; No conference in October 2006; Conference in October 2007. Melbourne 2006 would be our Annual Conference.

(ii) Conference in 2005 (location tbc); Melbourne, March 2006; No conference in October 2006; Conference in October 2007. Melbourne 2006 would be our Annual Conference.

(iii) Conference in 2005 (location tbc); Melbourne, March 2006; Conference in October 2006; Conference in October 2007.

Melbourne 2006 would be a Special Joint Session with the Commonwealth International Sport Conference (CISC) not burdened by IAPS business. In other words, a similar set up to the 2004 Pre-Olympic Congress session.

(iv) Same as (c), but Melbourne 2006 would be our Annual Conference and October 2006 would be a Special Session.

Discussion

Bill Morgan endorsed the March timing for Melbourne and the meeting in Prague.

Gunnar Breivik suggested that the annual conference ought to return to Europe sooner rather than later in order to capitalise on the momentum within Europe that has been gaining ground over the last couple of years.

Mark Hamilton suggested that there might be some difficulties with some of the proposals concerning the university funding cycle.

Spencer Wertz asked whether it has been formalised in the Constitution that 2 out of every 3 conferences must be held in North America.

Sharon Stoll confirmed that the 2 out of 3 requirements was no longer in the Constitution.

Heather Reid suggested that North Americans are more likely to be able to get funding to travel to Europe than some Europeans (Eastern) can to travel to North America.

Sigmund Loland suggested that the association needs to be aware that national philosophy of sport associations are flourishing, meeting regularly and holding national conferences that have attracted international participants. He suggested that if IAPS is to remain as the philosophy of sport association we need to ensure the conference is accessible (financially and geographically) to as many philosophers of sport as possible.

Jan Boxill concluded the discussion by confirming that she would contact Ivo Jirasek about holding the conference in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2005. It would also be confirmed that Dennis Hemphill would be contacted to confirm that the 2006 meeting would take place in March in Melbourne, Australia.

(b) Secretary-Treasurer: Heather Sheridan

Membership currently stands at 79 (15 countries represented). Current bank balance stands at $12,292.70.

Membership: This year the way in which we paid our annual subscriptions has changed from a variable to a fixed due date of 1st October each year. Thanks go in particular to Yoshitaka Kondo (Japanese membership agent) and Doug McLaughlin (USA membership agent) for helping with the transition. Doug McLaughlin is stepping down as USA membership agent. Gregg Twietmeyer will take over with immediate effect.

Someone in Nigeria had enquired whether it would be possible to join as an “association. Agreed that different kinds of membership categories would be explored including association and university.

Action: Jan Boxill, Heather Sheridan & Deb Vossen

Budget: Human Kinetics did not increase their prices in 2004 so the price we pay them for each individual journal issue remains the same. HK assured have confirmed that the prices will remain the same for 2005.

Communication: Current email addresses of all members are held on file. The membership will continue to be kept up to date with news/info via the email membership list, sportphil listserv, Newsletter and website. Info can be passed onto all the members on behalf of a member if requested.

Concerns: The main issue concerns the payment of subscriptions, in particular the ease of payment and cost of payment. It often seems to be time consuming to have to arrange for bankers drafts to be paid and they are often accompanied by a hefty bank charge for the service. Credit card and on-line payments have been explored as replacement/additional methods of payment. In order to recruit new members and retain existing members the Executive proposes that we introduce World Pay (an on-line system) as a future optional method of paying subscriptions in addition to the existing methods. See Business on Notice for proposal and discussion.

(c) JPS Editor: Nick Dixon

Pleased to announce that Paul Davis has been approved to continue as Associate Editor for another term and Scott Kretchmar (Pennsylvania State University, USA) and Michael Burke (Victoria University of Technology, Australia) have been approved as new members of the JPS Editorial Review Board.

In 2003 the JPS received a total of 36 new submissions and 8 resubmissions. Thus far in 2004 26 new submissions and 8 resubmissions had been received. Pleased to report that the 36 new submissions in 2003 is a big improvement on the 27 received in 2002.

58% of new submissions in 2003 used the journal online review system (JORS), along with 64% of the new submissions so far received in 2004. Given the saving of time and postage that it brings for everyone involved, it is strongly recommended that JORS continues to be the preferred mode of submission.

(d) Conference Chair: Heather Reid

Main concern is on lines of responsibility (i.e. who is responsible for what and when). Clarification of roles and responsibilities of Conference Chair and On-Site Organiser is needed so that future conference organising runs smoothly.

Action: Sharon Stoll & Andy Miah

Discussion focused on whether the current format including whether the extended break on Saturday afternoon was necessary, and whether we would prefer to start later on Thursday, have papers on Saturday afternoon, and still finish at noon on Sunday.

It was agreed that the Executive Committee need to meet earlier on Thursday. It was suggested by Spencer Wertz that a 1 hour panel discussion or workshop in which under-developed papers could be discussed/explored might be a useful format for future conferences.

(e) Newsletter Editor: Sharon Stoll

Three Newsletters were placed on line at http://www.educ.uidao.edu.iaps in October/November 2003, March 2004 and July/August 2004. The Newsletter has run smoothly over the last year.

Agreed that the Newsletter would be changed from seasons to months to reflect the different seasons of worldwide members.

Action: Sharon Stoll

The following did not attend but sent a report prior to the meeting:

(f) Elections Chair: Terry Roberts

12. Elections

The following Officers have come to the end of their term of office:

Journal Editor: Nick Dixon

Conference Chair: Heather Reid

Elections Officer: Terry Roberts

Members at Large: Jeffery Fry & Claudio Tamburrini

The following have been elected/re-elected Officers:

Journal Editor: Nick Dixon (re-elected)

Conference Chair: Danny Rosenberg

Elections Officer: Terry Roberts (re-elected)

Members at Large: Dennis Hemphill & Mike McNamee

Honors, Awards & Future Sites: Jim Parry & Bob Simon

Action: Sharon Stoll & Andy Miah

(g) Website: Andy Miah

The website www.iaps.net continues to run smoothly.

7. Committee Reports

(a) Honors, Awards & Future Sites: Cesar Torres

It was reported that the 2005 conference site in Montreal, Canada had not yet been confirmed by Jean Francois Dore. Confirmation would be sought during this conference.

It was suggested by Cesar Torres that perhaps a bidding process for future site with costs and details outlined might help with planning and negotiating future conference sites.

Main concern focused on the difficulties the Committee had in negotiating future conference sites. It was proposed that the Committee would be able to do their job more effectively if they could negotiate future annual conference sites at any time throughout the year, rather than wait for the Annual General Business Meeting to vote on any proposed sites. See Business on Notice for proposal.

8. ICSSPE Report: Heather Sheridan (IAPS Representative)

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2005 the International Year for Sport and Physical Education (IYSPE 2005). More information about funding possibilities can be found at http://www.un.org/themes//sport and www.sportanddev.org.

The Second World Summit on Physical Education will take place in 2005. Letter with more details to follow from ICSSPE.

International Forum: Sports And Development – Economy, Culture, Ethics, February 13th – 15th ,2005, Bad Boll, Germany. For further info contact Volker Steinbrecher at

Mike McNamee has been elected Associations Board Chair. As Chair he simultaneously becomes the Speaker of the Associations Board on the President’s Committee. Heather Sheridan has been elected to the Executive Committee.

9. Business on Notice

(a) On-line subscription payments

The cost and difficulty of paying subscriptions has been an on-going problem in retaining members and recruiting new members. Heather Sheridan explored a variety of different payment methods. Agreed that World Pay (an on-line system) be proposed to the membership as a future optional method of paying subscriptions in addition to the existing methods.

Proposal: We (the Executive) propose to introduce World Pay (an on-line system) as a future optional method of paying subscription in addition to the existing methods.

The proposal was seconded and passed unanimously.

Action: Heather Sheridan & Andy Miah

(b) Future Conference Sites

In order to avoid some of the planning issues that have arisen over future conference sites the following proposal was presented to the membership.

Proposal: The Honors, Awards, and Future Sites Committee is to be allowed to negotiate future annual conference sites at any time throughout the year, rather than wait for the Annual General Business Meeting to vote on any proposed sites. Once negotiated, the HW&FSC Chair will present the candidates for future sites to the Executive Council for approval via email, if necessary, or at the Annual General Business Meeting if there is enough time to do so in advance of the conference taking place.

The proposal was seconded and passed unanimously.

10. Any Other Business

Heather Reid announced details of the opportunity to participate in a television panel debate and details of a book proposal.