[URBANTH-L]SUNTA Board Message to the Membership about the AAA Meetings

[Robert Rotenberg]

Colleagues,

On behalf of the board, I am today reporting to the general membership of SUNTA on our recent decisions concerning the AAA meetings. Thank you for your patience while we collected data and found language we could all agree on.  Our public statement is attached to the bottom of this message. This message is for our membership.

First, the results of our survey: With 342 members responding (44.2% of the total membership of 774), we have obtained the following information about how the move of the AAA meetings from San Francisco to Atlanta affects us as a section. 

The most interesting observation is that almost 87% of those responding would have attended the meeting in San Francisco before the lock-out was announced. However, only 18% are intending to attend in Atlanta. The idea of attempting to conduct business when only about a fifth of the membership is present does not sit well with us. We need to conduct our business somewhere other than in Atlanta. Those four fifths of the members who are not attending in Atlanta agree. They have authorized the board to determine another venue, as our bylaws permit, even if it is primarily an electronic venue for conducting the business of the section. 

Nevertheless, SUNTA will maintain a presence at the Atlanta meetings. We urge those panels, papers and poster presenters who wish to do so to attend Atlanta and present. We will support you. For those cannot or will attend Atlanta, we have arranged alternative sites for you in spring, as described below. The interlocutor session with Michael Smith has been postponed. Perhaps we will be able to hold it in 2006 when AAA returns to San Francisco. However, Smith cannot be in Atlanta on those dates. 

The survey made clear that there is no venue in the spring that will attract the number of people who had planned to convene in San Francisco before the lock-out was announced. Of the two meetings to which we have received invitations, more of our members are likely to attend the Society for Applied Anthropology in Santa Fe in April (30% definite; 40% maybe = 70% potential attendance) than the UADY, SANA and CASCA meetings in Mérida in May (23% definite; 25% maybe = 48% potential attendance). 

When this result emerged toward the end of the survey time, Yesterday (11/1), I put out an urgent call through Urbanth-L for submissions to the SfAA website. Their submission page closes on November 7. I did so in order to maximize the number of days that SUNTA members had to prepare their submissions. The executive board will organize a SUNTA business meeting at the SfAA meetings to which members can be present or can submit their proxies if they can't attend. I understand the Society for Medical Anthropology will be meeting through SfAA as well. 

SUNTA members may also elect to hold their panels in Mérida in May, if that is easier for them. The joint conference committee from UADY, SANA and CASCA continues to welcome submissions from SUNTA members. Their deadlines offer a little more breathing room. They are in December and January. Members can find information about that conference at http://sananet.org.  

We are fortunate to have such strong collateral relations with SANA, CASCA and SfAA. Their offers of including us at their meetings came very quickly and without hesitation. On behalf of the entire membership of SUNTA, I thank them for their hospitality and graciousness. 

SUNTA will not officially support any panels in the San Francisco area during the original meeting dates, although panels that do so will not be barred from publication or recognition. These panels may still describe themselves as SUNTA invited sessions, if they were designated as such on the original program.

The 2004 SUNTA executive board will meet together, in person and by phone, at the Atlanta meetings. We will do so at GSU and not at the Hilton. There will be much happening politically within the association at that meeting. As a major section, SUNTA's voice must be heard. At that meeting, we will set the agenda for the spring business meeting and devise a strategy for keeping members informed. Working with our web and discussion list managers, we will explore creating discussion boards and possibly even scheduled live web chat rooms to insure that every member has a voice, whether they attend Santa Fe or not. The transition from the 2004 to the 2005 executive board will occur at the end of the board meeting in Atlanta. Announcements of the Leeds prize and Student Paper prize will be made electronically, with presentations at the business meeting in Santa Fe. 

SUNTA will contribute more money to the AAA reimbursement fund that AAA has requested. We will also use our presence in Atlanta to lobby for high percentage reimbursements, for more funds for contingent faculty reimbursements and for reimbursements for all members living abroad, regardless of the standard of living of the country they happen to reside in. Members of the board have also personally pledged to make contributions to the reimbursement fund.

Finally, thank you to everyone who participated in the survey. The members of SUNTA have shown a lot of patience as we collected the information we need. We are not done yet. There are outstanding issues to resolve surrounding the reimbursement of our members for money lost in the San Francisco meeting, the unbalanced treatment of SUNTA invited sessions to the AAA meetings, City and Society in AnthroSource, the new SUNTA dues structure, the nominations for Secretary, Counselor and Student Counselor for the Spring balloting, and the program planning and evaluation for the 2005 AAA meeting in Washington. Hopefully, we will begin to resolve some of these issues in Atlanta. Thank you again for your cooperation. I hope to see as many of you as possible in Santa Fe. 

Bob Rotenberg
President, SUNTA

What follows is the public statement of SUNTA on the AAA meetings. It repeats much of the information above, but also includes the board's rationale for its decision in broader terms. It also includes our initial recommendations on members' financial issues. This is the statement we will post on the SUNTA website. 

SUNTA STATEMENT ON THE AAA MEETINGS

The Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology has decided to retain a presence at the AAA meetings in Atlanta. A survey we have just completed of our members has informed this decision. With 342 members responding (44.2% of the total membership of 774), we have obtained the following information about how the move of the AAA meetings from San Francisco to Atlanta affects us as a section. The most startling observation is that almost 87% of those responding would have attended the meeting in San Francisco before the lock-out was announced. However, only 18% are intending to be present in Atlanta. Attempting to conduct business when only about a fifth of the membership is present does not sit well. We have pressing matters that require the discussion of the full membership this year. We are now forced to conduct our business somewhere other than in Atlanta. Those four fifths of the members who are not attending in Atlanta agree. They have authorized the board to determine another venue, as our bylaws permit. 

We make this decision recognizing all of the issues surrounding the move from San Francisco to Atlanta, and with the full knowledge that the vast majority of our membership has chosen a different course of action. We believe that there will be significant discussions within the AAA at Atlanta. As a major section, SUNTA's voice must be heard. Those panel, paper and poster session participants who choose to present in Atlanta will be supported. The SUNTA executive board will meet together, in person and by phone, at the Atlanta meetings to set the agenda for a business meeting of the membership to be held in the spring and to devise a strategy to facilitate networking among our members for organizing panels for AAA in 2005. This meeting will not take place at the Hilton. The transition from the 2004 to the 2005 executive board will occur at the end of that board meeting. By retaining a presence at the Atlanta meetings we can better prepare the business of our section. 

The survey made clear that there is no venue in the spring that will attract the number of people who had planned to convene in San Francisco before the lock-out was announced. Of the two meetings to which we have received invitations, more of our members are likely to attend the Society for Applied Anthropology in Santa Fe in April (30% definite; 40% more maybe = 70% potential attendance) than the UADY, SANA and CASCA meetings in Mérida in May (23% definite; 25% more maybe = 48% potential attendance). 

We are concerned that many scholars, especially our junior colleagues, may not have access to an appropriate venue in Atlanta to present their work. We expect that many of the SUNTA panel, paper and poster sessions that cannot or will not present in Atlanta, will submit their sessions to the SfAA program committee for inclusion in that meeting. SUNTA members could also elect to submit their panels to UADY/SANA/CASCA in Mérida in May, if that is easier for them. Our primary goal here is to insure that all of our members have an opportunity to present their work in a setting where they can interact with other members of their scholarly community.  This may either be in Atlanta, Santa Fe or Mérida. SUNTA will not officially support any panels in the San Francisco area during the original meeting dates, although panels that do so will not be barred from publication or recognition. These panels may still describe themselves as SUNTA invited sessions, if they were designated as such on the original program. 

The SUNTA executive board has determined that we should organize a business meeting at the SfAA meetings to which members can be present or can submit their proxies if they can not attend. This will bring the greatest number of SUNTA members together in the Spring. We will announce our prizes beforehand, but reserve presentation of those prizes for the business meeting.

We are fortunate to have such collateral relations with SANA, CASCA and SfAA. Their offers of support at their meetings came very quickly and without hesitation. On behalf of the entire membership of SUNTA, We thank them for their hospitality and graciousness. 
Finally, our members are concerned that AAA recognize the extent to which this move has hurt them financially. SUNTA has committed itself to make as large a contribution to the reimbursement fund as it can. This will be in excess of what AAA suggested. We urge the AAA Executive Board to liberalize the registration fee refund policy, or to give non-attending registrants credit toward their registration for 2005. We have recognized that contingent faculty can earn less per year than well-funded graduate students. We hope the board will do the same. We also urge the Board to keep AAA truly an international organization by recognizing the additional travel costs incurred by all members living abroad in its reimbursement policy. How we care for each will mark us as an organization for the future.