Sociology of Education Section Business Meeting
August 4, 2008 9:30 a.m.
Minutes
There were 30 people in attendance.
Chair Steven Brint announced that the council approved two new awards such that the awards made by the section beginning in 2009 will be as follows:
Annual Awards (more information and a list of awardees):
1). The Pierre Bourdieu Award for the Best Book in Sociology of Education. This award is made annually. Books published in the two years prior to the year in which the current annual meeting occurs are eligible for nomination (e.g., in 2009, books published in 2007-2008 are eligible).
2). The James Coleman Award for the Best Article in the field of Sociology of Education. This award is made annually. Articles in the two years prior to the year in which the annual meeting occurs are eligible for nomination (e.g. in 2009, articles published in 2007-2008 are eligible).
3). The David Lee Stevenson Graduate Student Paper Award for the best paper written by a graduate student in the field of Sociology of Education. This award is made annually and carries a cash prize of $500.
Other Awards:
4). The Willard Waller Award for lifetime achievement in the field of Sociology of Education. This award will be made every three years, beginning with the year 2010 (since the last award was issued in 2007).
The expansion of our awards from two (the Willard Waller award which was used to acknowledge lifetime achievement, best book and best published article on a rotating basis and the David Lee Stevenson award) to four means that we will need more people who are willing to serve on award committees beginning this year.
The Chair also announced the two new council members: Jim Ainsworth at Georgia State University and Catherine Riegle-Crumb at the University of Texas at Austin .
Our membership numbers have declined this year from 809 to 770. We lost at least 25 regular section members and 8 student members. We will have a membership drive in order to try to get our numbers back up over 800 so that we can get an additional session at the 2009 ASA meetings.
Suet-ling Pong, Secretary-Treasurer then gave us an update on the budget. We are in good shape, with expenses for the current meeting of 2,200 for the reception, 800 for plaques and the student paper cash award. American Institutes of Research generously provided the section with $2,000 for the reception. After remaining expenses are accounted for we should have around 20,000 dollars to work with.
Rob Warren, Deputy Editor of Sociology of Education , then spoke about the status of the journal. He reported that average turn around time from submission to getting reviews is 17 weeks and that the acceptance rate is about 8 percent. He announced the search for a new editor, for which proposals are being accepted through November. The ASA website has complete information on the proposal process. Mike Hout, past chair, announced that as of next year all ASA journals are moving to an electronic submission and review process.
Brian Powell, chair-elect of the section for the 2008-2009 year, discussed the idea to have a mini-conference the day before the 2009 meeting in San Francisco . This timing is right since our section day is on the first day of the conference. The last such mini-conference was a great success and it provides valuable professionalization to graduate students and junior faculty in the field. He asked that people interested in helping to organize this conference email Claudia Buchmann. We will need to find funding to make this mini-conference possible.
Steven Brint then opened the floor for discussion and other announcements.
Maureen Hallinan announced that she is organizing a thematic session titled "Whither Go the Common School" and asked interested participants to email her at Hallinan.1@nd.edu .
Alan Sadovnik announced that he is the chair of the Sociology of Education SIG of the American Educational Research Association. He encouraged members of our section to consider joining that SIG, especially if they attend the AERA meetings.
Floyd Hammack noted that the attendance at two section sessions he attended at the meetings were standing room only and populated by many people that he did not recognize. This led him to the idea that next year that we ask the chair or presider of the sessions to make some preliminary comments welcoming the audience and encouraging them to consider joining our section.
Carl Schmitt, webmaster of the section website discussed plans for the website and the need for funds to continue and expand the website. NORC has generously contributed funds for website maintenance for the past two years, with the recent contribution of $4,000 for the coming year. He asked that people who would like to be involved in the website contact him or Claudia Buchmann, chair for the 2008-2009 year. Further discussion of funding for the website will be taken up
Caroline Hodges Persell asked whether we might consider waiving the fee of $5.00 for students section memberships as a way of getting more new members. Discussion ensued and it was agreed that the $5.00 fee is already quite low and that ASA only counts members who have paid fees in its calculation of section membership numbers, so we would continue to offer student memberships at $5.00
Chandra Muller made the motion that we add a student member to the Sociology of Education Section Council. Chiqui Ramirez seconded this motion and a vote was taken showing a great majority of those present supported this idea. Thus we will alter the by-laws of our section to indicate that one student member will be on our council. The student member will serve a one-year term and will be elected during the annual election.
Steven Brint adjourned the meeting at 10:20 .