Annual General Meeting 2010

The Annual General Meeting took place on 30 June in the  elegant and peaceful surroundings of the HAC on City Road London following a welcome afternoon tea on a hot summer's day.

Those present  enjoyed a lively presentation by Jude England, Head of Social Science and Research at the British Library on the services and content of the Library, in particular the development of the UK Web Archive, which contained sites concerning, amongst others things, the 2010 General Election and Swine Flu. She made a strong plea for digital publications to be saved for future generations.

Mithu Lucraft of Sage Publishing presented on the company's new blog initiative, SocialScienceSpace. This will be launched in September 2010 as a blogging site for invited contributions from approved contributors across the social sciences and is being developed in conjunction with the Academy, the British Academy and others. Members of the Academy are invited to contribute articles to the site: if you are interested in doing so, please contact Stephen Anderson, the Executive Director for details.

Nine new Academicians received their certificates in person from the President, Professor Sir Howard Newby AcSS: Professor David Boucher of Cardiff University, Professor Sue Cox of Lancaster University (below), Professor David Kirk of the University of Bedfordshire, Professor Anne Murcott of London South Bank University, Professor Carole Pateman of UCLA, Professor Tim Strangleman of the University of Kent, Professor John Street of the University of East Anglia, Professor Laixiang Sun of SOAS, and Mr Robert Upton of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (above).

Professor Cary Cooper delivered his Chair's report, outlining many new ideas and strategies for taking the Academy forward in its mission to be the voice of the social sciences, noting that the Academy now represented 86,000 social scientists in a challenging climate. In order to pursue an advocacy role more strongly, Council had agreed to set up a Development Fund and seek to increase the Academy's resources. in particular enabling swift responses to issues in the media, and more information would become available in the course of the next year. In the meantime, the second issue of the valuable and well-received Making the Case series of booklets showcasing the impact of social science work, would be launched at the House of Commons on 20 July. This second issue covers the topic of Ageing. A further three issues are also in preparation. Professor Cooper thanked the Council for all its energetic work in developing a new-look journal to be launched at the beginning of 2011, a successful series of events from conferences to public lecture series, and responding to consultatons. He outlined a new strategy to become more international in focus, welcoming Professor Carole Pateman of UCLA into membership. Finally, he restated his aim to produce a 'Royal Society' for the Social Sciences in the foreseeable future.

Professor Mike Danson, Honorary Treasurer, presented his report, noting that tight budgetary control and successful income generation meant that the Academy was on target to meet its budget and produce a small surplus. He thanked the trustees and staff for their efforts to reduce costs year on year. Professor David Canter, the new editor of the Academy's journal urged Academicians to support the Academy through encouraging their institutions to subscribe to its journal. Ceridwen Roberts, the Chair of the Events Committee put out a call to members of the Academy for help with staging events in other parts of the country.

Stephen Anderson, the Executive Director, gave his report, noting that the Academy now included 708 Academicians, 38 Learned Societies and 20 Affiliates. He outlined incremental improvements in the operations so that the Academy could run more efficiently and reported that Taylor and Francis, the publisher of the Academy's journal, had agreed to sponsor a new website. In addition the secretariat were redesigning the electronc bulletin to make it more user friendly and hoped to issue the first html version very soon.

Sir Howard Newby recorded his thanks to the staff team led by Stephen and to the Council and officers for their work, noting that the Academy should feel confident about its future in a difficult environment, but one full of opportunities.

Professor Peter Fearon, the Honorary Secretary, announced the results of the elections to Council. As all candidates stepping down by rotation were eligible to serve a further term and there were no other candidates, Professors John Benyon, Ian Gough, Irene Hardill, David Pearson, Roger Vickerman and himself were all duly relected. He reported that Professor Phillip Davies had stepped down from his position on Council as editor of the journal and that place would be taken by Professor David Canter. The President thanked the former editor for all his work.

The meeting agreed to accept the Directors' Report and Accounts for 2009 and to reappoint Knox Cropper as accountants.