Minutes of meeting to be held Faculty of law, 3 av. Robert Schuman, Aix-en-Provence, France at 2.30PM, June 3rd and continued at 12.30 on June 5th 1998
1 Apologies
Present: Joze Gricar, Sven Carlsson, Walter Baets, Claudia Loebbecke, Bob Galliers, Niels Bjorn-Andersen, Helmut Krcmar, Philip Ein-Dor, Dirk DeSchoolmeester, Jan-Pries Heje, Wim Van Grembergen, Jacques-André Bartoli, Karl Heinz Kautz, Ellen Christiaanse, Georgios Doukidis, Stan Wrycza, Frantz Rowe, Claudio Ciborra, David Avison, Miroljub Kljajic, Hubert Oesterle, Thomas Huber, Leslie Willcocks, Gordon Davis, Kalle Kangas
Apologies: Hans Hansen, Tawfik Jelassi, Markku Saaksjarvi, Wolfgang Koenig, Ramon O'Callaghan
2 Minutes of the last meeting
One change was proposed, re applications for attendance at the ECIS-AIS PhD consortium from outside the region. The revised wording is given below:
3.3 Resolved
If these outside proposals for the consortium were received on time, they would be reviewed but applicants from within the region which met basic quality thresholds would be given priority, as other regions have their own PhD consortia.
2.1 Resolved
That, with these changes, the minutes be accepted
3 Matters arising
3.1 Address labels
3.1.1 Reported
That labels were available from AIS at cost price but that there were no clear procedures for e-mail addresses.
3.1.2 Proposed
That AIS be contacted with a proposal that the e-mail list would be available for free for any conferences. In return, the conference would provide AIS with any updates / errors in the existing database.
3.1.3 Resolved
That Niels, together with Joze and Hans as future conference organisers work together on this issue with the full support of the standing committee.
3.2 Reviewers
3.2.1 Noted
Some problems with the quality of reviews this year
That it was important that ECIS maintains its quality reputation
3.2.2 Proposed
To formally move to the ICIS model of having one associate editor and two reviewers per paper with careful co-ordination of reviewers and associate editors between different streams.
To revisit, at a future meeting, the aims and objectives of the ECIS conference
4 Review of ECIS in AIX
4.1 Noted
That, so far, things were under control for the conference
That the aim of increasing the number of participants had been met (338 to date compared to 300+ in Cork--details given below). Between 350 and 400 participants were expected in total.
That there were far more Francophone and German speaking participants this year.
Some concerns were raised about the number of accepted papers from non-native English speakers.
4.2 Resolved
To formally note the standing committee's appreciation of the work of Jacques Andre Bartoli and his colleagues.
To instruct the associate editors to take into consideration the issue of non-native English speakers and the use of non-English literatures in the reviewing process and to include this issue in the review of the aims and objectives of ECIS
5 Proposal to host ECIS 2002 in Gdansk
5.1 Noted
An excellent proposal from Gdansk to organise the 10th European conference on information Systems
That ECIS was moving to new areas in Europe as had been intended.
5.2 Resolved
To accept the proposal at this time, with a review of the budget occurring at a future meeting
6 ECIS 1999 Copenhagen
6.1 Noted
That everything was going well until Sunday when t-shirts and calls for papers were stolen
The conference expects to break even on fewer than 200 people
Dinner and conference contracts arranged
Key note speakers were still to be contacted
Call for papers will be mailed in August with November 15th being the final deadline.
Main conference to be held in the old building, except for keynote speakers which are in the auditorium nearby.
7 Gordon Davis report on AIS
At this point, Gordon Davis, president of AIS, joined the meeting and gave a brief review of the work of AIS
7.1 Noted
That AIS remains supportive of ECIS
AIS continues to see its role as an international organisation supporting various regional conferences
That membership of AIS would now allow discounts on more journals
That two electronic journals were being launched
That AIS was now sharing an office with ICIS
8 ECIS 2000 Vienna
8.1 Noted
That preparation for the conference was proceeding in line
That a detailed call for ideas would be distributed at the conference, containing preliminary information for ECIS 98 participants, informing them of the changed structure to the conference in 2000.
8.2 Resolved
To congratulate Hans Hansen on becoming rector of his university
9 ECIS 2001 Slovenia
9.1 Noted
Professional groups in Slovenia had been contacted
The Government was supportive of the conference
That formal activities for sponsorship had been initialised
The Conference centre had been booked
School will provide resources
10 SIGMIS sponsorship of PhD consortium
10.1 Noted
That since the e-mails earlier in the year, no further contact had been received. The item will be brought back to the meeting when it has been clarified.
11 PhD Consortium
11.1 Reported
That the consortium had been very successful this year
That there were 35 students, 8 faculty, 17 nations represented including 3 from Australia and 1 from the United States
Useful feedback for next year in terms of information about the location, some changes to the programme and more faculty.
35 students applied, none were rejected
That Henk Sol and Lars Matthiason would be the co-chairs next year
11.2 Noted
Commonwealth Secretariat had been less forthcoming with funds this year
That the consortium received $4000 from AIS
Previously Andersen consulting had sponsored the consortium
They had first option for this year's consortium but had not responded
That there had been considerable uncertainty for all involved in organising the event
The consortium needs a sound financial base, a year in advance, with a local sponsor to add to the pot
That SAP UK had stepped in and given £10,000 for this year's conference at the last moment
11.3 Resolved
That the chair of the standing committee should write formally to SAP to thank them for stepping in at the last moment.
12 Links with journals
12.1 Noted
A proposal to formalise the link with journals more closely (attached below)
The fact that the specialised focus of JSIS meant that it was unlikely to do a full special issue was noted
12.2 Resolved
To accept the proposal with the hope that the first special issue (published by JIT) would appear in March 1999
13 Dates of next meetings
The next meeting of the standing committee would be on Tuesday morning, before the main ICIS conference. The time would be finalised when details of the ICIS programme were known.
The following meeting of the standing committee would take place on the afternoon prior to ECIS (June 22nd) at 2PM with lunch being held at the conference site. Care would be taken to link the times with the PhD consortium.
At this point, Bob Galliers formally stepped down as chair of the ECIS standing committee and Niels Bjorn-Andersen took over this role. Bob was warmly thanked for his efforts over the year in chairing the committee.
Second continuation meeting, 12.35, June 5th
1 Chair of the Standing Committee
1.1 Noted
Under the normal rules, Niels would now take over as chair of the standing committee
However, as a result he was due to oversee the conference being held at his own institution which lead to a potential conflict of interest and he was therefore standing down as chair.
Bob Galliers therefore agreed to chair the continuation meeting
It was noted that Georgios Doukidis had expressed a willingness to act as chair of the Standing Committee
Bob Galliers was unable to continue in the role of chair due to existing commitments, particularly his role as President of AIS.
It was therefore agreed unanimously that Georgios Doukidis would take over as chair of the standing committee from the next meeting.
As a result, the question of the role that the chair of the standing committee in the organisation of future conferences, especially as ECIS was now a valuable corporate asset, was raised.
There was some concern about the potential for simply adding an extra level of bureaucracy to the organisation of the conference
1.2 Resolved
That this issue should be addressed at the next standing committee meeting in the general review of the structure of ECIS
2 Marketing of ECIS 2000
2.1 Noted
That Hans Hansen had gone to considerable effort to prepare a call for ideas for ECIS 2000 which emphasised the different structure (industry tracks rather than research, research in progress, case studies and panels) of the conference that year.
That there was concern that a mixed message might be being given out with confusion between ECIS 1999 and ECIS 2000.
That alternatively, there was no risk of cannibalisation and that the advanced notice of two conferences indicated how institutionalised ECIS was becoming.
That the challenge for the standing committee was to ensure that Copenhagen was as successful as existing conferences
2.2 Resolved
That the call for ideas for ECIS 2000 be distributed now
That the main mailing for ECIS 2000 would be done around the time of the Copenhagen deadline for submissions (November 15th) and would benefit from the tidied mailing list provided by Copenhagen.
That all members of the standing committee would work to ensure that ECIS 1999 (and all future conferences) were a success.
Attendance figures for ECIS 98 (at June 3rd, 1998)
UK 43
France 43
Australia 36
Denmark 27
Germany 27
USA 22
Netherlands 20
Finland 14
Sweden 11
Greece 11
Belgium 9
Canada 8
Suisse 8
Italy 8
Austria 7
Spain 7
Portugal 6
South Africa 5
Poland 4
Slovenia 4
Norway 4
Ireland 3
Israel 3
Hong Kong 2
Czech Republic 1
China 1
New Zealand 1
Romania 1
Singapore 1
Japan 1
Total 338
Leslie Willcocks has spoken to all the editors of ISJ, EJIS and JSIS. Leslie is editor of JIT.
The idea of publishing 4-6 papers explicitly as papers from ECIS was well received.
The agreement was:
1. JIT would do it this year
2. ISJ or EJIS would do it next year
3. ISJ or EJIS would do it in year 3.
4. JSIS would not publish a theme issue because as a journal it was restricted to 'strategic' papers. However, if interested in any paper it would agree with the relevant theme issue journal in any year about whether it could publish specific papers which when published would also be referenced as developed from ECIS papers.
5. Journals of at least equivalent ranking would be open to join the queue.
6. If in its designated year a journal did not want to publish an ECIS theme issue the journal would go to the back of the queue.
7. Journal editors reserve the right to develop the papers further with the authors to ensure they are publishable as Journal papers.