Minutes of the meeting of the ECIS Standing Committee: Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday July 3rd, 17.30-18.30 and Thursday July 4th, 08.30-10.00 1996
1. Present: Edgar Whitley, Dan Remenyi, Helmut Krcmar, Leslie Willcocks, Niels Bjorn-Andersen, Ramon O'Callaghan (for the first part of the meeting), Jacques-Andre Bartoli, Wim Van Grembergen, Bob Galliers, Michael Smirnow, Tawfik Jelassi, Georgios Doukidis, Agneta Olerup, Dirk DeSchoolmeester, Markku Saaksjarvi, Ciaran Murphy, Wolfgang König, J Dias Coelho, Hans Hansen, Sven Carlsson, Claudia Loebbecke
Apologies: Walter Baets
In attendance: Chrisanthi Avgerou (to speak on item 7)
1 Minutes of the previous meeting
1.1 Noted
Hans Hansen and Ciaran Murphy had not been informed of the December meeting that was held in Amsterdam and that Ciaran Murphy's apologies should have been listed as ex-post apologies.
That, in addition, the minutes of the meeting, had not been forwarded to the missing (or any) members until June 1996.
1.2 Reported
The Secretary apologised for the oversight which lead to Hans Hansen and Ciaran Murphy not being informed of the meeting in Amsterdam.
On the issue of minutes, it was the norm in the Secretary's institution to distribute minutes for confirmation in advance of the next meeting, rather than within a week of the previous meeting occurring.
This was therefore simply an issue of cultural variation. There was no reason, however, why minutes could not be distributed within a week of the meeting and this practice would be followed in the future.
1.3 Resolved
That subject to this clarification, the minutes be agreed.
2 Changes to guidelines
A number of proposals to make changes to the Standing Committee and conference guidelines had been received and these were discussed. Each proposal was considered in turn.
2.1 1.13: To add a new point. This proposal was accepted
2.2 1.14: To add a new point. This proposal was accepted
2.3 3.3.
2.3.1 Noted
That there was some difficulty in creating a programme Committee that satisfied the criteria of the proposal, in terms of turn-over of membership and in terms of knowing who had previously been on the programme Committee.
2.3.2 Resolved
That the Secretary draft a procedure for maintaining a list of previous members of the programme Committee and those that had assisted the programme Committee in its work, as a matterof record. Ideally this should be implemented in a database.
That the programme chairs communicate informally about their experiences of the support that members of the programme Committee had actually provided.
That the proposal be modified to read: "After a period of three years on the programme Committee, an individual should not normally be considered for the programme Committee for a minimum period of one year".
Subject to these changes the proposal was accepted
2.4 1.6
2.4.1 Noted
That no such report had been made for ECIS 95 although it would be desirable.
That such reports were intended for the ECIS Standing Committee and not the ECIS community
Amongst the issues that such reports should consider would be items on the organisation of conference arrangements including the amount of time allocated to breaks and the location of the conference hotels in relation to the conference site.
That the Committee had no formal way of policing its guidelines once a proposal was accepted
Concern was again raised about the idea that each conference be self-funding, but no changes to the guidelines were proposed.
2.4.2 Resolved
That the conference chair co-ordinate the writing of the conference report and that they be made available electronically to the ECIS Standing Committee.
That the Secretary act as a central repository of such reports, both in paper and electronically.
That the conference organisers consider issuing attendees with an evaluation form, either distributed during the conference or electronically.
Ramon O'Callaghan would provide a draft of an evaluation form.
Subject to these changes the proposal was accepted
2.5 1.8 The proposal was accepted
2.6 1.13
Noted
That the most effective way of doing this would be through a pointer from the ISWorld Net
The proposal was accepted
2.7 1.12
2.7.1 Noted
That it was essential that the Secretary inform all members of the Standing Committee about the meeting.
That the Standing Committee should meet at least once per year at the ECIS conference, but that electronic and other meetings (for example at ICIS) should be available.
That, in order to allow adequate time, the Standing Committee meeting be scheduled as part of the conference / parallel events. It was suggested that it should normally be timetabled for 3 hours on the day before the main conference.
There would be a meeting of the Standing Committee at ICIS 96 in Cleveland, USA. Details about this meeting would follow.
2.8 1.15 The proposal was accepted
2.9 7.3
2.9.1 Noted
The same points as were raised under 1.13
Subject to these changes the proposal was accepted
2.10 3.5
2.10.1 Resolved
That such issues be considered as part of the proposals for future conferences brought to the Standing Committee
That decisions about electronic submission and publishing of the proceedings for the coming year be left to the organisers of ECIS 97.
2.11 4.3
The proposal was accepted
2.12 Further points
Concern was raised about the amount of work involved in Organising the research papers stream.
It was decided that, rather than have two named research chairs, there should continue to be one chair who could then co-opt a second person to assist in the task.
(The meeting broke up at this point and resumed on the Thursday morning)
3 Brief review of ECIS 96
J Dias Coelho presented a brief review of ECIS 96
3.1 Noted
That there were some 300 participants from 27 countries
111 from Portugal, 49 from the UK, 26 from the Netherlands and 16 from Germany. Other countries had 10 or fewer participants.
That the largest item of expenditure was on publishing the proceedings
That there had been considerable problems associated with the French postal strike
Suggestions were made about publishing the proceedings on CD-ROM, although there were some doubts about the cost of doing this, and about whether papers would count as 'publications' for career development.
That there were considerable benefits to publicising the conference at related meetings throughout the year
That the PhD consortium would help
That members of the Standing Committee have a vital role to play in publicising the conference within their region and helping to ensure a balance of attendees from different countries.
That preparing the final version of the proceedings had introduced some serious typographical errors into at least one paper
That the 'editorial costs' associated with producing a paper proceedings and an electronic proceedings were roughly comparable
Jose Dias Coelho and Helmut Krcmar were thanked for Organising a great conference.
4 Proposals for future conferences
4.1 Noted
That no formal proposals had been received, although Copenhagen had expressed a willingness to host ECIS 99 and Austria to host ECIS 2000. Slovenia had also expressed an interest in hosting a future conference.
4.2 Resolved
After discussion, it was decided that Niels Bjorn-Andersen be invited to present a formal proposal for hosting ECIS 1999 in Copenhagen and Hans Hansen be invited to present a formal proposl for hosting
ECIS 2000 in Vienna. It was decided that Slovenia be asked to provide a formal proposal for a future conference.
5 Membership of the Standing Committee
5.1 Noted
That Edgar Whitley, Dan Remenyi, Walter Baets and Leslie Willcocks had come to the end of their period on the Standing Committee. They were thanked for their work during their time on the Committee.
That Edgar Whitley had agreed to continue to act as secretary to the Standing Committee despite ceasing to be a member of the Standing Committee.
That there were conflicting demands between long term stability and the need for the chair of the Standing Committee to be in close contact with the secretary
That the current secretary had made a number of mistakes this year and may not be suitable for the position. Nevertheless, it was resolved that he be asked to continue at least for the next year.
It was noted that the role of secretary was an evolving one. The secretary was thanked for his efforts and for being prepared to carry on for a further period.
That it was unclear who would come up with proposals for future regional members of the Standing Committee.
5.2 Resolved
That Edgar Whitley be asked to be secretary of the group for one year and the decision to be reconsidered at EICS 97.
That the chair of the programme Committee comes to the meeting with proposals for new members
6 AIS PhD consortium
Chrisanthi Avgerou spoke to this item
6.1 Noted
That Leslie Willcocks had agreed to act as programme chair for this event
That sponsorship was being sought to cover part of the expenses for the students and, ideally, also the staff members
That it was hoped that there would be a total of around 40 participants (staff and students)
That there were various opportunities available from the European Union for funding such events, provided the total size of the conference was less than 100 delegates.
That Arthur Andersen was being approached as a medium term sponsor for ECIS and it was therefore inappropriate to contact them for sponsoring the PhD consortium
That a one page summary of the PhD consortium could be mailed with the call for papers for ECIS 97.
That there was not intended to be any formal link between the AIS region PhD consortium and national PhD consortia or with the ICIS consortium
That a copy of the current plans will be distributed for comment
7 Any other business
Jose Dias Coelho distributed medals to Markku Saaksjarvi, Edgar Whitley, Frank Land and Bob Galliers, in appreciation of their assistance with the conference
Cieran Murphy noted the following members of the Organising Committee
Publicity: Jerry Gremhan (DCU)
Finance Martin Fahy (UCG)
Parallel Events Howard Willliams (UCC)
Conference coordinator Patricia Lynch (UCC)
8 Dates of next meetings
There will be a meeting of the Standing Committee at ICIS 96 in Cleveland. Full details to follow.
The next full meeting of the Standing Committee will take place at ECIS 97 in Cork on June 18th at 2PM