Annual General Meeting 2022 - Minutes

2022 IRSPM AGM MINUTES

21/4/2022

11.00 am-12.30 pm CEST

ONLINE

Attendees: 30 IRSPM members (attendance list available on request).  

1. Minutes of 2021 meeting

2. President’s items

The President presents her report, referring to the main achievements of the past 12 months, including the following:

• Main achievements of past 12 months:
• Surviving 2021 and running what turned out to be a good online conference with more than 650 people attending (2022 easier because of experience)
• New tiered membership/conference fees based on OECD classification in 2021, keynotes for Routledge and O’Leary prize winners continued for 2022
• Winners of these prizes announced in advance this year so they have time to organise media
• Awarding of the Rosemary O’Leary prize for scholarship on women in public administration for the fourth time in 2022, this time not restricted to IRSPM members
• Established better processes for our annual prizes based on the proposal discussed last year, with Eva Thomann taking on the prize coordinating role this year
• Strategy working group was established with Christine Flynn as chair – some interviews and surveys conducted over the last year
• New website almost ready with much better functionality and ability to connect with existing members and attracting and enrolling new members (Olga leading this – almost ready)

Opportunities/issues for next 12 months:

• Board has relied upon extensive support (Olga) for our second online conference, work on the website
• IRSPM still heavily reliant on running a successful conference to gain income, with no steady stream of royalties or other income from a publisher or any other source of income
• Securing a source of ongoing financial support other than the conference needs to be aligned with our view of ‘where we are going’ as a society – longer-term strategy working group begun in 2021 to continue in 2022 to progress this
• Number of tensions identified by the strategy work can underpin thinking about new directions in the short and longer term

Thanks and welcome:

• Thanks to the IRSPM board for support over another challenging year of change and lockdowns
• Thanks to Joris and Olga who have worked tirelessly on the conference for a second year
• Welcome to new board members (election report to follow)

The President presented the SWOT analysis, prepared by the comitte, summarizaed as following:

Strengths 

•      Great and highly international network

•      Reputation of academic excellence in public administration/public management

•      Great journal (PMR)

•      Conference with strong reputation

•      SIGs

•      Dynamic, diverse, and committed board

•      Financial stability

•      Good membership

Weaknesses  

• • Difficult access to IRSPM from new researchers and those from the global South
  • Passive membership
  • Low engagement with practice
  • Poor communication
  • Lack of other sources of income
  • Lack of fresh perspectives

            Opportunities

• • Digital technologies
  • Opportunities provided by other organizations, particularly in countries from the global South
  • Increasing importance of governments around the world

Threats

• • Economic divide
  • Academic divide
  • Ambiguous future for international conferences
  • Large workload for core board members without income stream
  • The future of public administration/public management as an academic discipline (Narrow focus or broaden? Set priorities or leave very open? More interdisciplinarity or ‘spread too thin’?)

 

She concluded raising questions to future consideration:

• How can we resolve the tensions noted in thinking about future steps of the strategic planning process?
• Work through the findings and future directions as a board, consult SIG convenors and IRSPM membership to refine the list
• Define priorities (e.g. target groups, regions, structure, governance, events, communications) – what things are most important for IRSPM as a voluntary society to focus on immediately and in the longer term?

3. Announcement of election results 2022

The Election officer chair as Elections Secretary presents the results of this year’s elections, which are summarized in the following table:

Offices up for Elections	Status of Office-holders	Deadline for nominations 25th of February	Results (an email has been sent to IRSPM members)
President: Jenny Lewis	Eligible for another term and not available to serve for another term	1 candidate: Ileana Steccolini	Ileana Steccolini
VP Eastern Europe: Hajnal György	Eligible for another term and available to serve for another term	-	Hajnal György
VP Latin America and Caribbean: Ricardo Gomes	Eligible for another term and not available to serve for another term	1 candidate: Eris D. Schoburgh	Eris D. Schoburgh
VP Africa: Michelle Esau	Not eligible for another term	-	The post will covered through co-optation in the next months
Communication Secretary: Sanja Korac	Eligible for another term and available to serve for another term	-	Sanja Korac
Election Secretary: Mariafrancesca Sicilia	Eligible for another term and available to serve for another term	-	Mariafrancesca Sicilia
4 At-Large members (Deborah Blackman, Christine Flynn, Mila Gasco, Madeline Powell)	Eligible for another term and available to serve for another term, with the exception of Madeline Powell	1 candidate: Ines Mergel	Deborah Blackman, Christine Flynn, Mila Gasco New at-large member: Ines Mergel

4. Conference Manager’s report

The Conference Manager summarizes the past conferences, in 2020 conference in Tampere (Finland) got cancelled due to Covid-19, and the physical conference at Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) also due to covid-19 was replaced by first virtual edition. The conference was overall very successful according to the survey responded by attendees: 75-95 % ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with various elements of the conference! The issues less favorable of the survey were the system Webex & and time zones. The conference joined 33 panels, 450 papers, 637 paying participants, +50 nationalities, achieving positive financial results.

This second virtual edition in 2022 covers 27 panels, 368 accepted abstracts, and about 430 registered participants.

To the 2023 conference the plan is to return to physical conference (not hybrid), probably hosted at Budapest (Hungary). The committee considers the worst-case going virtual again. The conference in Tampere (Finland) is being considered for 2024. For 2025, it is planned a non-European destination (engaging Host Site Selection Committee). Some key issues are: (i) uncertainties for conference planning, as Covid-19-pandemic & geo-political issues like Russian war in Ukraine). Finally, the report suggests exploring a shift in balance between role for IRSPM (professional support) & role for local organizer, after positive experience with virtual editions.

6.  Treasurer’s report

The Treasurer discusses the financial results for 2021 and the 2022 and 2023 budget projections considering  a physical conference for 2023. The projection for 2022, considering the online conference, anticipated expenses for 2023 conference. For 2023, it is expected to run the typical physical conference, expecting surplus. The Treasurer points out that IRSPM remains a financially healthy organization.

8. AOB

None

The meeting was closed at 12.00 CEST.