Standing Committee of the European Conference on Information Systems
Minutes of the ECIS Standing Committee meeting, be held on June 6, from 17.00-19.00 at Institute of Information Management (IWI), Mueller-Friedberg-Strasse 8
1. Apologies
1.1 In attendance:
Edgar Whitley, Jan Ljunberg, Joachim Schelp, Hans van der Heijden, Virpi Kristiina Tuunainen, Helmut Krcmar, Hubert Osterle, Robert Winter, Jan Pries Heje, Eric van Heck, Giannia Jacucci, Karlheinz Kautz, Alessandro D'Atri, Roy Johnson, Willie Golden, Richard Baskerville, Remko Helms

1.2 Apologies

Eph Maclean, Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, Guy Fitzgerald,
 
2. Minutes of previous meeting
2.1 Noted
The minutes were accepted
 
3. Report on ECIS 2007
3.1 Reported
That the track chairs had been spread across the ECIS community so that no single area was over represented.
That some tracks had been merged and some new tracks created
That the average acceptance rate was 34%
That Germany was the largest submission group, with Swiss submissions appropriate for the country size
That there were some French submissions and some from 'Greater' China
That India, Italy and France had a number of submissions but few acceptances but that overall there didn't appear to be any systematic bias
That 197 papers would appear in the proceedings and would be presented over 66 sessions
That there would be 3 conference workshops and, to date, 398 attendees had registered, including 30 from Switzerland
That McKinsey were a major sponsor and provided a keynote speaker
Others provided financial support but not keynote speakers
That the conference broke even the previous day

3.2 Noted
That the review system was quite good.  It had a few disadvantages but it was too late to change.
That the documentation was relatively poor but the system is inexpensive
 

3.3 Report on ECIS doctoral consortium
3.4 Reported
That the doctoral consortium had run from Sunday with 19 participants from 13 countries, covering a range of topics and research approaches, although some care needed to be taken in the selection process to ensure all students were at a similar level
That the 6 faculty came from 6 different countries
That the location was wonderful, despite the sun and rain
Some of the attendees had taken part in a 4 hour hike and there were many metaphors about the PhD being like a hike
 

3.5 Noted
That there was a question of inclusivity and that consideration should be given to one student per 'advisor' rather than one student per institution, especially for areas where the tradition was for students to be associated with their advisor over the institution.  Such an approach would need to ensure that the selection process was balanced to avoid overwhelming the pool with applicants from one institution, so that the final selection includes a mix of nations and approaches.
 

4. Report on forthcoming conferences
4.1 ECIS 2008: Galway, Ireland
4.2 Noted
That the conference brochures would be in the conference bags
That accommodation / rooms etc had all been booked
That the website was now live
That the reviewing process would follow similar models to previous years and, as with St Gallen an attempt had been made to distribute track chairs geographically, and by gender through a process of 'gentle coercion' and 'slight social engineering'.
That there was a tension between using 'tried and tested' track chairs and introducing new blood into the community
That in so doing the attempt was to generate an inclusive (rather than competitive) process
That whilst some traditional tracks might have appeared to have 'disappeared' to be replaced by 'smaller' tracks, it should be possible for all papers to find a home and track chairs would be suitably accommodating.
 

5. Proposals to host future conferences
5.1 Proposal from Manchester, UK (to follow)
5.2 Noted
This proposal was not received.
However, there were expressions of interest to host ECIS 2011 in Helsinki and it was suggested that ECIS 2012 might be held in Spain
That there was an expression of interest to host ECIS 2010 in Norway
That Utrecht had expressed an interest in 2013

6 Secretary of ECIS standing committee
6.1 Reported
That Edgar would be standing down as secretary of the ECIS standing committee and that an email had gone to the ISWorld list asking for volunteers to take his place
6.2 Noted
That two strong applications had finally been received, with very different profiles and hence the decision about the likely replacement would, effectively, determine the likely profile for future secretaries
That a three year (renewable) term seemed appropriate given the role of the standing committee secretary as a repository of experience about the organisation of the conferences.
That it would be preferable for the secretary to be an established academic, as the stability of their position would help ensure the minimum three year term
That some active role in ECIS (or equivalent international conference) (e.g. as track chair / AE / reviewer / author) would be preferred
That while there was no formal requirement that the secretary reside in Europe, they would be expected to attend ECIS and the planning meeting, making a European location preferrable
That the outgoing secretary would 'shadow' the new secretary for one year to provide backup support and guidance
 

6.3 Decided
That on the basis of the agreement on the criteria listed in 6.2, that Pat Finnegan (UC Cork,  P.Finnegan@ucc.ie) be invited to act as Secretary of the ECIS standing committee, for the period 2008-2011 in the first instance
 

7. Any other business
There was no other business

8. Date of next meeting
8.1 Reported
That the next meeting would be held at the ECIS planning meeting in Galway on February 22 2008