Minutes of the ISBA Board Meeting - May 30, 1998

Agenda:

1. Reports

President Susie Bayarri reported that a new webmaster has been named (Mike Evans), a new Vice Program Chair (R. Wolpert) and that a special award is being given to Arnold Zellner for his work as a founder of the ISBA and a certificate of apprecition is being given to Carlos Rodriguez for his work as ISBA's first webmaster. Past-President Steve Fienberg raised the issue concerning the need to incorporate ISBA and indicated that he will research this issue and report back. The Executive Secretary M. Evans reported on the new website and discussed several issues associated with this. In particular an essay explaining Bayesian statistics to the general public is required and board members indicated that they will investigate possibilities. In the next dues request members will be asked whether or not they would like their names to appear in an ISBA Directory on the website. Susie Bayarri reported for the Treasurer Rob McCulloch. We have approximately 300 members and $22,000 in the bank. As memberships are still being processed these totals will increase shortly.

2. Meeting Issues and Policies

A report was given by the Program Chair Mark Steel. It was noted that ISBA sponsors 3 types of meetings: world meetings, regional meetings and co-sponsored meetings. ISBA policy with respect to each of these was discussed. Essentially the policy is as follows:

- ISBA World meetings will be held every four years (alternating with Valencia)
- suggestions for future World meetings will be solicited from the membership and determined on the basis of the accessibility and availability of local resources
- ISBA will raise funds to increase participation of students, young researchers and members from developing countries
- the membership will be informed about any requests for Regional meetings
- funding for regional meetings will be the responsibility of the organizing committee
- requests for co-sponsorship of meetings will be treated similarly

The full policy on meetings can be found in ISBA Program Committee Report .

ISBA 2000 will be held in Crete and co-sponsored by Eurostat with a partial theme of government statistics. It was noted that it is important to get started on planning this meeting because of the necessity to write grant proposals. It was also noted that papers presented at ISBA World Meetings can be published in SBSS.

3. Publications

The current Newsletter Editor Frank Kleibergen reported and a general discussion ensued concerning the role of the Newsletter. It was noted that steps should be taken to improve on this. In the general area of publications it was decided that the President appoint a committee to examine ISBA policy and report back to the Board on or before the next Board meeting. This will cover electronic publications, archives journals, etc.

4. Meetings of the Board

It was decided that the website should have a password protected area for Board meetings via the web. The following motion was passed:

"The President will call meetings of the Board when and in which form he/she prefers but there will be a biannual personal meeting."

5/6. Organization of ISBA Chapters - Constitution and Bylaws

There was some discussion concerning the organization of Chapters. The following motion was passed:

"The President will appoint a Constitution and Bylaws Committee to examine the organization of chapters, elections, the procedure for nominations by the members, etc."

7. Nominating Committee and Elections

A Nominating Committee was proposed with Steve Fienberg as Chair and an additional 12 members. This committee will produce a slate of 2 names for each position and the slate will be posted on the website. A request for nominations will also be made to the membership. This requires 30 members or 10% of the membership to place a name on the balot. The President, Treasurer and 4 Board Members will be elected in the fall 1998 election. The Nominating Committee was approved and its membership can be found on this site under Past Officers.

8. Adjournment