Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, Inc. Federal Council Minutes, Saturday 21 September 1999 PRESENT: COMMENCED: VENUE: David Pannell, Peter Daniel, Rob Fraser, Glenn Anderson, Geoff Edwards, John Mullen (NSW), Geoff Page (SA), Garry Griffith, Fredoun Ahmadi-Esfahani, Christy Chang, Venton Cook, Andrew Manson, Andrew Thornton, Paul Riethmuller 8.40 a.m. RD Watt Building, University of Sydney 1. APOLOGIES: Christine Williams (Qld), Ron Duncan, Julian Alston 2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: The Minutes of the previous Council meeting held on 14 May 1999 were ACCEPTED by Council. Fredoun Ahmadi-Esfahani, David Pannell, AGREED 3. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES: The Secretary reported that the list of office bearers had been updated. A sponsorship cheque was sent to the PhD Conference. The word refereed will be dropped from the Editor s objectives. Branches have agreed to a lower new member bonus during the membership drive with its discounted new member fees. That the new member bonus be $24 for 1999 in reflection of the reduced new member membership fee being offered. Rob Fraser, David Pannell, AGREED Queensland Branch has been considering the hosting of the IAAE Conference, more discussion later in the minutes. The Secretary will send a copy of the UNE Conference Report to Venton Cook in South Australia. The Treasurer has sorted out with Katie Bicknell the financial matters related to the New Zealand Conference. Confirmed members of the PhD Prize Committee are David Godden and Alicia Rambaldi, with a possible third member being negotiated with. Katie Bicknell has agreed to be on the Masters Prize Committee with David Pannell, there is yet to be a reply from Deborah Peterson. Garry Griffith has written to the winner of the Alan Lloyd Fellowship, Richard Shumway, and he has has been sent a cheque for US$2,300.
4. REPORT ON SYDNEY 2000 CONFERENCE Andrew Thornton, Chair of the Sydney LOC, tabled a report on the preparations for the Sydney 2000 Conference. There was discussion of possible pre-conference workshops, the possibility of a late start because it will start Sunday, the number of contributed papers, the budget and breakeven price. It was AGREED that the registration fee should be $400. Andrew Thornton agreed to circulate a reworked budget next week to David Pannell. Andrew Thornton expected that a brochure would be put out in the next few weeks. That the Report on the Sydney Conference be accepted. Garry Griffith, David Pannell, AGREED 5. TREASURER S REPORT The Treasurer tabled his report. Discussion suggested that Blackwell income needed to be adjusted upward by $7,800 because of the change to the shortfall payments for the journal and that the new member bonus needed to be recalculated because of the discount. There was also a $700 profit on the CD. The Treasurer reported that queries about the NZ Conference report had been resolved with Katie Bicknell. The Treasurer asked how he should get advice on the effect of the GST. Garry Griffith advised a formal appointment with the ATO. The Treasurer highlighted extraordinary items such as the fact that two Alan Lloyd Fellowships are being charged this year and that there was a 98 Symposium Expense. That the Treasurer s report be accepted. John Mullen, Garry Griffith, AGREED 6. MANAGER PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT S REPORT The Manager Promotion and Development tabled his report. Symposium MPD suggested that the next symposium could be held in June or July and that there were still hotels available then. He emphasised the need for someone on the ground at the location to organise it. He advised that the topic should be of national interest. There were no negative comments on the survey done after the last symposium.
Rob Fraser advised delaying a decision on the topic to make sure that it was still current. Garry Griffith suggested that it be decided in January. Rob Fraser also suggested that it was good to make profits with a breakeven point of about 25. Council was thanked Fredoun with sustained acclamation for his efforts in organising the symposium held yesterday. Membership Fredoun reported that WA had gained 50 new members, 45 had joined at the NZ Conference and another 31 at the symposium, so that by the end of 1999 there would be around 700 members, a record for AARES and a figure that makes AARES the second largest agricultural economics society in the world. Four hundred members had renewed by June. People have noticed that the Society is more active but we will need to keep up the momentum. Rob Fraser estimated that if we had a sustained membership of 700, our income would be doubled. Andrew Manson reported that South Australian membership had gone from less than 20 to about 25 and that they had had three meetings. Four names or lists had been received for the membership competition. Fredoun planned to approach students to join AARES. He also planned to have a table at the Agribusiness Association of Australia Conference on 7 September and the Economics Society of Australia conference on 30 September. Council AGREED to stick with the 30 September deadline for the membership competition. Branches Fredoun asked Branch Councillors to get Branch Secretaries to send report for News and Views and the home page. Newsletter Fredoun reported that there have been requests to advertise in the newsletter. He suggested that commercial clients be charged $500 for 1 page, $400 for ½ page and $250 for ¼ page. It was discussed that price discrimination could be used based on ability to pay. Rob Fraser suggested that summaries of journal or conference papers could be included as in Choices (findings section). Fredoun suggested that speakers from Branch meetings could also be approached. Fredoun reported that 800 to 1000 News and Views have been distributed to support the membership competition. Web Site Fredoun suggested that the web site should have the policy file and AGM and Council minutes. David Pannell said that he was spending about 10 to 15 minutes updating the site weekly. Due Dates for News and Views 30 September and 28/29 February. That the Manager Promotion and Development s report be accepted. John Mullen, David Pannell, AGREED
7. SECRETARY S REPORT The Secretary tabled his report plus proposed motions for constitutional change. Council AGREED that they would be happy to pay for typing of the Policy File and LOC Instructions. Council supported the proposed constitutional changes with the tax exemption clause following wording proposed by Glenn Anderson after his discussions with the ATO. These motions will be put to the members at least six weeks before the AGM. The Secretary also presented a draft calendar of AARES annual events and adminstration. That the Secretary s report be accepted. Garry Griffith, Glenn Anderson, AGREED 7A. EDITORS REPORT Geoff Edwards presented his Editor s report and tabled the contents pages of upcoming issues of the journal. The Journal is running on time. 36 papers have been received so far this year compared with 45 last year. The content of the 2000 volume will increase by about 20 per cent. The hardest sections to fill are the survey and policy forum sections. It would be good to have one in each issue. The millenium issue has been advertised twice in the newsletter and a small number of approaches but so far there are few firm commitments. Council was asked to make suggestions of people who could be approached for contributions. There will be an obituary for Alan Lloyd. Alistair Watson will write or coordinate it. Geoff said he would be away on leave from 6 September to 2 October. That the Editor s report be accepted. Garry Griffith, David Pannell, AGREED 8. ADELAIDE CONFERENCE 2001 Andrew Manson and Venton Cook reported on preparations for the 2001 Adelaide Conference. A nine member LOC has been formed with Doug Young as the Convenor. Costs are around $350/head if it is held at a university or $500/head at the Convention Centre. In discussing professional conference organisers, Rob Fraser said that New England, New Zealand and Sydney did the job themselves rather than use a professional organiser and that the LOC should think carefully before using one.
Council advised that the concentration of conference facilities was more important than whether it is at a university or convention centre. If at a university, the University of South Australia was suggested as being better. Fredoun Ahmadi-Esfahani preferred hotels and suggested the possibility of getting good deals. Council advised having a conservative break even point to lower the risk of making a loss. Council preferred the dates of Tuesday 23 to Thursday 25 January. Peter Daniel gave Allan Rae s contact details to Andrew Manson. Allan is organising the Trade Consortium meeting in Auckland from about 15-19 January. Council advised the SA Branch on various matters of conference planning. The LOC is considering collaboration with the SA Branch of the Farm Management Society. 9. PRESIDENT ELECT NOMINATIONS Two nominations were received for President Elect for 2000, Allan Rae from New Zealand and Julian Alston from the U.S. 10. BRANCH REPORTS South Australia Mentioned earlier at items 6 and 8 Western Australia More detailed information has been reported in News and Views. They held a workshop in second semester on non-market valuation conducted by Jeff Bennett. Victoria Several meetings have been held in recent months with a range of visiting speakers. New South Wales Graham Marshall and Julian Alston addressed branch meetings, there was also a symposium and the ongoing work of the LOC in organising the upcoming conference. New England Christy Chang tabled a report. Three seminars have been held this year plus a picnic for member and families. There is an upcoming golf day and a workshop planned on the Wool Taskforce Report. Queensland Paul Riethmuller tabled a report. The branch held a symposium in August on the Japanese and Australian Agricultural and Food Sectors, which made a small loss. Paul suggested that it may be better to have fewer big events rather than monthly meetings. Fredoun suggested that the registration fee may have been too low. Queensland Branch has been discussing holding the 2006 IAAE Conference. It would require raising $300,000 in sponsorship. The IAAE takes more than half the registration fees of the first
500 registrants and most of the risk is on the local organisers. Ken Menz at ACIAR said that they could not fund it. 11. AARES SYMPOSIUM Already covered in item 6. 12. RELATIONSHIP WITH BLACKWELL Garry Griffith tabled a letter from Blackwell agreeing to the page increase for the journal and the waiving of the shortfall payment. Garry said that there was now less immediate pressure to look at the contract and time to run a few spreadsheet scenarios. Rob Fraser suggested setting up a Blackwell working party with Geoff Edwards and Fredoun Ahmadi-Esfahani as two obvious members plus Garry Griffith or David Pannell. 13. CAB INTERNATIONAL Garry Griffith tabled an email from CAB International requesting members for an advisory board on economics for their publications. Garry asked that any suggestions be sent to him for reply to CAB. 14. ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS CONFERENCE The International Society for Ecological Economics will be having its conference in Canberra in July 2000. Mike Young would like stronger links between their society and ours and would like AARES to organise a session. Fredoun Ahmadi-Esfahani and Peter Daniel suggested that it would be a good opportunity for publicity. Peter Daniel said that he would write to the ACT Branch. David Pannell said that he would wrote a piece for News and Views and SEA News. Action: Peter Daniel, David Panell 15. OTHER BUSINESS David Pannell tabled the list of honoured members of the Society. John Quilkey has been suggested to Garry Griffith for service to the Society. John Dillon was also suggested. That all Honorary Members be made Distinguished Fellows. DEFERRED TO JANUARY There was discussion of Warren Musgrave s article in News and Views and the need to undertake market research about the future of the discipline. Peter Daniel mentioned Fredoun s survey work of a few years back. Fredoun argued that AARES was now taking a strategic approach. 16. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of Council will be Saturday 22 January
Peter Daniel Secretary Meeting closed:2.30 p.m.