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May 27, 2010
To My Fellow AFEE Members:
I would like to begin by apologizing for the tardiness of my letter to the AFEE membership. I failed to anticipate the size of the responsibilities and challenges that would come my way over the first part of this year, and was overwhelmed by them.
Let me begin this letter by extending credit and thanks to those who have worked so hard to make AFEE the success that it is as an organization. Taking the most recent first, I would like to begin by thanking everyone who individually and collectively contributed to the success of our Atlanta meetings. This begins with our presenters, chairs, and session organizers. I also want to underscore my congratulations to this year’s Veblen-Commons Award winner, Glen Atkinson, who was so greatly deserving of this honor after his long and crucial service to our organization. I would also like to extend my thanks and congratulations to our Street Scholar, Arturo Guillen, for his excellent presentation entitled, “The Effects of the Global Economic Crisis in Latin America.” His presentation was most informative and meeting him was, to me, a highlight of this year’s meetings.
I would also like to extend a most grateful thanks to outgoing President Dell Champlin for the excellent job she did as President, her long and distinguished service to AFEE, her insightful and interesting Presidential Address and – to me specifically -- her wonderful willingness to help me out in so many ways, large and small, as I struggled to put together the Atlanta meeting.
The same accolades, perhaps even more of them, are due to our long serving Secretary-Treasurer, Janet Knoedler. Alas, she is stepping down after serving so brilliantly for so many years in this so necessary, if sometimes so thankless, position. Her knowledge of the rules and practices of AFEE, along with her understanding of the history and “local knowledge” that have created and sustained our organization as an “ongoing concern” are unsurpassed. It is hard to imagine what AFEE would be without the stability that was the one of the greatest gifts of her long service and steady leadership. One of the most profound things we can say about Jan’s contribution was that the Board has decided to split her former position into two. David Zalewski has taken over the position of Treasurer, and Eric Hake is our new Secretary. I have known them both for some time, and have every confidence that they will prove to be excellent selections. I also wish to bring to the attention of the membership, in this list of appreciations, to the work of Helen Sauer. She knows so much about the organization, its “ins and outs,” and can readily answer any question that any officer might have immediately and fully. She has been most helpful. Thank you.
Our new President-Elect, Janice Peterson, has sent out the Call for Papers for the 2010 annual meeting to be held at the ASSA meetings in Denver, Colorado, from January 7 – 9, 2011. The theme of this year’s conference will be “The Policy Relevance of Institutional Economics.” These promise to be wonderful and important meetings, so I do hope that many of you will be able to attend. Janice has been a long-standing and important voice within and without our organization, and all of us were pleased that she was able to accept this position despite the many demands on her time.
Professional publication of the Journal of Economic Issues (JEI) officially began with the March 2009 issue. We have been very fortunate in having Rick Adkisson as our editor before and during this transition. He has ably maintained the traditions and high standards of the journal, while simultaneously managing all the challenges and changes associated with the transition to a professional publisher. The journal continues to be marvelous when it arrives four times a year, and I know that I still very much enjoy the quality and diversity of the articles and reviews. Thank you, Rick. This past year Tim Wunder began to serve as AFEEMAIL’s coordinator, and Nathaniel Brown has come on board as our Webmaster. Each of them has been defining and developing these position. Despite my ignorance of almost all things electronic, I do believe that I can safely say that they are off to a great start in performing these important services for AFEE. My guess is that these positions will continue to grow and change with technology and as we all learn more about how it can serve the organization and its membership. Thank you, Tim and Nathaniel.
Sadly, an ongoing issue in AFEE is a continuing decline in paid memberships although it is my understanding that this is a trend widely experienced across social scientific organizations. We are hopeful that an increased electronic presence for AFEE will encourage more members. The membership committee will discuss additional ideas for promoting membership. Ideas past and present include pre-conference sessions, an AFEE speakers’ bureau, and an AFEE summer school. More coordination with sympathetic regional and parallel organizations has also been examined. As perhaps everyone is now aware, the small number of sessions allocated to AFEE by the ASSA (currently 11) severely constrains the number of people who can present a paper on the annual program. If anyone has a comment on these or any other ideas for promoting AFEE membership, please contact John Marangos, who has kindly agreed to be reappointed as Chair of the Membership Committee (marangos@econ.soc.uoc.gr ).
Click here for the Appendix to this letter contains information on all current AFEE committees.
I wish to thank all of the members who served on AFEE’s committees last year and the many of you who have agreed to serve in 2010. Once again, I would like to thank our outgoing President, Dell Champlin, along with those members of the Board who are stepping down this year.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Prasch
AFEE President