SPA 2001 Annual Report

Annual Report
Society for Psychological Anthropology
Geoffrey White, President

Leadership

At the AAA Meetings in Washington D.C., Geoffrey White assumed the presidency of SPA, and Dorothy Holland became president-elect. Bradd Shore stepped down after two years as SPA president. A major accomplishment this year, engineered by past President Bradd Shore, was the production of a new SPA Leadership Handbook that codifies most of the practical information board members require to manage the affairs of the Society.

There were a number of changes to the SPA Board. Suzanne Kirschner and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco finished their terms and were replaced by Robert Desjarlais and Linda Garro. John Lucy and Katherine Ewing have two years remaining in their terms on the Board. Our next general election will be in 2003. Our Secretary-Treasurer, Theresa O’Nell, had to retire a year early, and was replaced on an interim basis by Carmella Moore. Claudia Strauss was appointed as the new Secretary-Treasurer and will assume the position in November 2003. Kevin Birth is outgoing SPA column editor for the AAA Newsletter and will be replaced by Rebecca Lester in March. Sara Harkness is completing her first full year as editor of Ethos and has made a number of changes in composition of the board (see below). Douglas Hollan replaced Naomi Quinn as editor of the SPA book series; and Steven Leavitt completed his first year as Electronic Publications Editor (webmaster). April Leininger continues for one more year as Graduate Student member of the Board. The Board has drafted changes in the By-Laws to formalize the addition of Student Representative and Electronic Publications Editor to the board. These are being submitted to the membership for voting and ratification in 2002.

Membership and Fiscal Issues

Over the past several years, our membership has remained relatively constant at between 6-700. Given the growth in the AAA Membership, this means that SPA is not keeping up with the growth of the discipline at large, a situation that requires our attention. We are taking measures to expand membership and improve participation of our current members. Now that we have established a Listserve and website, we plan to maintain more regular communication with the membership to encourage involvement and assistance with efforts to expand membership and participate in SPA activities. We will also explore ways to encourage individuals outside of Anthropology to subscribe to Ethos and, where possible, become members of SPA. One of our priorities, reflected in the appointment of a student member to the SPA board, is recruiting new members from current graduate students. The fact that approximately one third of the SPA members are student members bodes well for the future of the association.

But there is a need to increase revenues, due in large measure to increases in the costs of publishing Ethos that are depleting the Society’s reserves. In response to this situation, the Board formed an Ad-Hoc Budget Committee chaired by incoming President Geoff White and including President-elect Holland, Board members Ewing and Leininger, and Ethos Editor Sara Harkness. The committee developed a list of actions including: marketing the journal more aggressively; recruiting more non-SPA subscribers; raising non-SPA and institutional subscription rates; reducing costs; changing publishers for the jorunal; scrutinizing the costs passed onto the SPA by the AAA; increasing advertising in the journal; charging a processing fee for submissions to Ethos from non-SPA members; raising endowment funds; and raising membership dues.

Budget (Prepared by Secretary-Treasurer C. C. Moore)

The SPA began 2001 with a fund balance of $41,506.43. Revenues generated by the society (through Nov. 30, 2001) were $58,619.37, and total expenses (through Nov. 30, 2001) were $40, 092.13, for a positive net income increase of $18, 527.24, bringing the fund balance (through Nov. 30, 2001) to $60,033.67.

However, total expenses for the year 2001 were estimated in the budget planning to be $57, 223.00 (only slightly less than our revenues through Nov. 30, 2001). Because there are still some outstanding bills for 2001, including some SPA 2001 biennial meeting expenses, as well as some expenses associated with the society’s journal, Ethos, it is unclear whether the SPA will end 2001 in the black or with a small deficit. Originally, a deficit of about $7,500 was anticipated, but it doesn’t appear the deficit will be quite that large. (Revenues were greater than projected due to some unexpected increases in journal subscriptions.)

Because the society has been experiencing a deficit over the last few years (approximately, $2500 in 1999, and $3500 in 2000) due primarily to rising costs of journal production, the SPA Board of Directors at its annual board meeting in November 2001 approved an increase in membership dues (from $35 to $45 per year) beginning January 2002. We note that our membership numbers have remained very stable over the last eight years, and that there has not been a dues increase in that time.

Biennial Meeting

The 7th SPA Biennial Meeting took place in Decatur, GA from Oct. 18-21, 2001. There were about 110 people in attendance, which was higher than expected attendance in light of the drop-off in travel following the WTC attack. The theme of the meeting was Reaching Out, a theme that included reaching out to student anthropologists, to other disciplines and to our own membership. Notable at these meetings were free housing provided to students, three sessions devoted to students and a Presidential Session on Culture and the Cognitive Revolution that included an anthropologist, a philosopher and a cognitive psychologist. There were thirteen sessions at the meetings, including a plenary session for an open discussion by the membership of issues confronting the SPA. The Distinguished Lecture, "Ethnography, Comparison, and Confusion" was delivered by Robert Levy to a full house. The Awards Banquet featured the bestowal of SPA's Lifetime Achievement Award to Bob Levy, along with a book of tributes to him and his career from colleagues across the United States. Douglas Hollan delivered a personal tribute to Bob.

The Boyer Prize was awarded to Tanya Luhrmann (in absentia) by Robert Paul for her book Of Two Minds. And the Condon prize for the best student paper was awarded to Diana Smay of Emory University for her paper "OCD: The Disease of Ritual."

Despite the tensions in the world, the weather was beautiful, the sessions stimulating and the spirits of SPA members in attendance seemed high. The Meetings were a great success. Looking ahead, the Society is planning to host its 8^th Biennial Meeting in 2003. The Board is currently discussing location and timing, which should be determined by the time this report is read.

received nearly 60 submissions during the year prior to the annual meeting in November. The Board interpreted this as evidence of broad interest in our field, as well as an opportunity to recruit more subscribers to the journal.

SPA Book Series

Douglas Hollan was appointed as Series Editor for a four year term, taking over from Naomi Quinn. The series is in the middle of a change of publishers, as it has terminated its agreement with Cambridge University Press and is in the process of finding a new home for the series. Doug Hollan has drafted a new prospectus for the series, “Culture, Mind, and Society” and has begun discussions with several presses. It is hoped that the series will have a new contract early in 2002. In the meantime, the following volumes progresses through the present series:

1. Carmella Moore & Holly Mathews, eds., The Psychology of Cultural Experience, 2001 (SPA Publication No. 12).

2. Jeanette Mageo, ed. Power and the Self, in press (SPA Publication No. 13).

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