West Lakes Division of the
Association of American Geographers

Minutes of the 48th Annual Meeting

Chairman Jon Kilpinen (Valparaiso) called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

The minutes of the October 25, 1996 meeting at Valparaiso were approved as submitted. The financial report of the 1996 meeting was approved as submitted.

Treasurer Mehmet Aritan (UW-LaCrosse) reported changing the location of the account to get higher interest and reported a current balance of $8644.73.

Secretary Bill Miller (Carthage) thanked members for the fine turn out and reported that 55 papers had been given in 14 sessions that day. Preliminary figures indicate more than 150 had attended (157 did register) and approximately 120 were expected for the Awards Banquet (112 did attend). He announced the cancellation of Saturday field trip #4, due to lack of interest, and also reported that although he had lowered fees from the previous year, this meeting would produce a budgetary surplus. A motion to commend the Carthage hosts was made, seconded and passed without dissent.

Chairman Jon Kilpinen gave the Regional Councillor Election Report. He reported that Bill Dando (Indiana State) had been elected West Lakes Councillor after multiple ballots; commenting on the high costs of multiple mailings to nearly 950 West Lakes members, Jon raised the question as to whether e-mail balloting might be equally suitable and less costly. A discussion followed, but no change was enacted.

Old Business: A brief discussion ensued regarding division membership and meeting attendance. The large attendance at these 1997 meetings seemed to make this discussion moot.

New Business: From the Division Chairs meeting in Ft. Worth.

• A. It was reported that the AAG national office would provide $30,000 to help underwrite the costs of student travel to the 1999 Honolulu meeting and AAG leadership hoped that the regional divisions and the specialty groups could contribute another $20,000 for this purpose. It wad moved and seconded that $1,000 from West Lakes funds be allocated to support student travel to the 1999 Honolulu meetings and that these funds be allotted using the AAG national guidelines and selection system. These guidelines provide for the selection of five West Lakes region students, selected at random from a list provided by the national office; each will receive $200 to support travel expenses to the 1999 national AAG meeting. After a lengthy discussion, the question was called and the vote resulted in a tie. Shorthly thereafter, an opponent of the original motion changed his vote allowing the motion to pass.
  B. The membership endorsed the suggestion that the random selection of travel grant recipients, mentioned above, would be made by next year's West Lakes Chair and Secretary from a list which will by provided to them by the AAG in mid July.
  C. Councillor Bill Dando, noting that ours is the only division without a regularly published newsletter, suggested that we initiate a West Lakes Divisional Newsletter and support its costs with divisional dues. Modest divisional dues would enable hiring a firm to print and mail the newsletter as is done in some regional divisions. Discussion revealed some were interested in pursuing this idea while other were not. No action was taken.
  D. Wally Brinkmann (UW-Madison) reported that the 1998 West Lakes Meeting at Madison would be a combined meeting, co-hosted by the Wisconsin Geographical Society.
  E. As yet, no one has volunteered to host the 1999 WLAAG Meeting.
  

Regional Councillor's Report: Bill Dando provided copies of his written report which summarized many of the items discussed at the AAG Council's meeting in Bozeman, Montana (Sept. 13 and 14). As time was short, Bill briefly summarized his written report. His oral summary included: (1) reference to AAG initiatives to review, strengthen and renovate the AAG publications; (2) AAG's desire to expand its outreach to non-academic geographers; (3) plans are in progress for the centennial meeting at Philadelphia in 2004; (4) a summary of 1995 and 1996 numbers of college students enrolled in geography courses (down 13%), number of full-time geography faculty (down 1%), number of colleges reporting geography offerings (down 2.5%) and total AAG membership (down 4.4%). Both Bill Dando and Pat Gober, AAG President, addressed problems created by the success of the annual meeting. Our meeting needs so many presentation rooms that only 10 or 11 hotels in the nation are large enough to provide these. For the Boston meeting 2050 abstracts were received and these presentations must fit into the 30 presentation rooms. Presentations will begin at 7:30 a.m. and continue until 6:25 p.m. with committee and specialty group sessions earlier and later. Novel session modes will be tested in Boston.

Election of Officers: Bill Miller was elected Chair and Wally Brinkmann was elected Secretary. They join Mehmet Aritan, Treasurer, serving a three-year term which will be completed at the 1998 WLAAG meeting and Bill Dando, Councillor, serving a three-year term which will be completed at the 1999 WLAAG meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Miller
1996-1997 West Lakes Secretary

This web site is maintained by the Department of Geography and Meteorology at Valparaiso University. If you have questions or comments about these materials, or if you have any corrections, please address them to Jon T. Kilpinen at jkilpinen@exodus.valpo.edu.

Last revised June 2, 1998, by JTK.