Highlights of the IAALD Executive Committee Meeting Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA, April 24, 2003

The IAALD Executive Committee (EC) met for its annual meeting immediately prior to the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) Biennial Conference, which several EC members attended. The meeting was the first since former IAALD President Jan van der Berg stepped down on January 1, 2003, and was officiated by Acting President Pamela Andre. In addition to the routine items and regular reports from the Acting President, Secretary/Treasurer and Editor, some highlights were:

● Finances: The benefits from increasing the sterling rate in 2003 were apparent, given the reduced total number of subscriptions. However, IAALD continued to spend more than it earned. It was proposed and agreed that £5-8K of IAALD’s reserves would be used to market IAALD and enable it to survive and grow, by targeting regional associations (through personal contact, attending meetings and conferences), offering special membership deals, developing the chapters, enhancing communications, conducting the membership survey and acting upon it. EC members undertaking these activities should be allocated a budget to enable them to do the job effectively.

● Quarterly Bulletin (QB): The QB continues to be a priority for the EC. The proceedings of the 2001 China Conference are in preparation, and issues containing papers from the USAIN and RIBDA conferences are planned. A theme issue with a guest editor is planned for 2004; possible topics include: biotechnology, impact assessment, or knowledge management/ICTs at the community level.

Amélie Charron, who has assisted in the production of the QB for many years, was commended for her sustained contribution to the QB in particular, and to IAALD in general. Her contribution was acknowledged with two years’ free membership, an honorarium, and by being named QB Associate Editor.

● World Directory (WD): It was agreed that the WD in its present form would wind up when the new EC takes office in 2005;  Patrick Brennan agreed to continue in a co-ordination role for the WD, with assistance from Carol Robertson, until that time. The EC continued to discuss future publishing arrangements for the WD, including a proposal from NISC to publish the WD online.

Website: The new  website site was launched in April 2003. Plans for the site include publication of abstracts of Quarterly Bulletin articles and news from IAALD and from around the world (previously published in the Quarterly Bulletin). It was also proposed that there be a section of the  website devoted to education and training.

● Listserv: It was agreed that the listserv should be used for discussion groups, with a summary on the website at the end of each discussion. It was proposed that the themes of the 2005 congress could be used to generate discussion among IAALD and USAIN members. It was also agreed that all members should be subscribed to the listserv.

Conferences: EC members attended and participated in several significant conferences, including AFITA 2002 (Beijing, China), USAIN 2003 (Champaign, Illinois, USA), the 9th Central and Eastern European Round Table (2003, Nitra, Slovak Republic), RIBDA 2003 (Antigua, Guatemala), and EFITA 2003 (Budapest, Hungary). In addition, IAALD provided sponsorship monies to the CEE Round Table and RIBDA Conference.

World Congress 2005: Congress Chair, Toni Greider, distributed a progress report, a brochure, and a tentative schedule. She proposed to start promotion and seeking sponsorship immediately after the 2003 USAIN conference. Particular emphasis would be placed on the fact that 2005 is IAALD’s 50^th anniversary, and ways of marking this should be reviewed and agreed upon. She emphasized that the financial objectives of the congress should be to do better than break even, to generate money for both IAALD and USAIN, and to gain additional membership. This view was strongly supported by the committee.

Recruitment Drive: After further discussion based on what had been agreed at the September 2002 meeting, it was agreed that a membership committee should be formed, and that key contacts needed to be made on a regional basis.

Membership Survey: It was agreed that the survey should be based on the AGRIAA and SLA surveys, with three main foci: 1) demographic, 2) IAALD’s products and services, and 3) other products and services. The preferred method of delivering the questionnaires was by e-mail.

Future Executive Committee/Election Cycle: The committee endorsed their perception from the 2002 meeting, that the future IAALD EC needed geographical balance and for the President and Vice-Presidents to be drawn from international organizations with institutional support, such as CGIAR and FAO. In addition, the possibility of sitting an IAALD Secretariat at FAO in Rome or a similar institution needed to be pursued with more vigour. A nominations committee should be established early in 2004.

It was agreed that the next meeting would take place in Rome in June 2004, to coincide with the Third COAIM meeting (editor’s note: the June 2004 Third Consultation meeting has been postponed, a new date had not been set at the time of this writing).

 -- From Minutes recorded by Margot Bellamy; adapted by Debbie Currie
 -- Submitted  February 2004