2003 NAPA Annual Report

National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
Annual Report (November 2002 - November 2003)

Submitted by Edward Liebow, President

1) Accomplishments during the reporting period

* Membership: NAPA has 597 members as of December 2003 (430 regular members, 166 student members, 1 lifetime member), which represents a 16.6% decrease since December 2002. We believe the main factor affecting NAPA's membership decline has been the delay in distributing new volumes in the Bulletin occasional monograph series. We aim to steadily grow our membership by making sure that the services offered in support of the membership and the professional practice of anthropology are consistent with the needs and interests of our current and prospective members.

* Financial balances: NAPA's operating budget for 2003 is $30,635. We had a fund balance of $98,467 at the end of September 2003 (the latest date for which data are currently available), or a little more than three years' operating reserve. This represents an increase in net assets of $6,120 since September 2002. The scale of the increase is due to the delay in expenses associated with distributing new volumes in the Bulletin series.

* AAA meeting activities: We had seven sessions submitted for consideration as NAPA-invited sessions, and two were selected ("NAPA at 20 - Presidential Perspectives," and "Rethinking Global AIDS Policy," co-sponsored with the Society for Medical Anthropology. We had 9 regular sessions and 1 poster session considered for the regular program, and all of our "A" and "B"-ranked sessions were accepted: "Anthropology, Policy and Ambivalence: The Perils of Power," "Global Sustainability? Public Debates-Private Actors," "Organizational Culture," "Evaluation Anthropology: Emerging Issues and Examples from the Field," "Media and Anthropologists: Using Storytelling to Communicate," "Ethnography as Fetish: Practical and Theoretical Implications of the Contextual Expansion of the Devotion to Human Understanding," "Methods and Practice in Applied Anthropology," and "Posters in Applied Anthropology." *

Five of these sessions were scheduled for Wednesday, and one was scheduled for Thursday evening. This seems like an undue proportion of our program shunted to marginal portions of the program, despite the AAA claim that "every time is a good time."

NAPA organized 15 workshops for the Annual meeting program (attendance by subscription):
- Postmodern Positivism: Building Bridges in Anthropology
- Promote your Anthropology Background in 30 seconds in Plain English
- The Promise of DVD: Prepare and Produce a DVD of your Social Research
- Cultivating an Applied Perspective
- New Directions in Tourism Research and Methods
- Rapid Assessment Process (RAP): Adopting Intensive Team-Based Ethnographic Inquiry for Different Conditions
- Meet the Press: Anthropologists Talk With Science Writers
- Anthropologists in Evaluation: An Introduction of Concepts and Practical Applications (Parts 1 & 2)
- Engaged Anthropology: Designing Service Learning Courses
- Engaged Anthropology: Building Service Learning Programs
- Preparing for Professional Careers in Anthropology (free of charge)
- Teaching and Using Qualitative Software
- Evaluation of Comprehensive/Collaborative Community Initiatives
- The Ethnographic Field School Experience: Tips and Techniques for Organizers

NAPA leadership was invited to participate in the AAA-sponsored roundtable discussion on "Ethnographic Research and Institutional Review Boards," and the AAA Committee on Public Policy's roundtable discussion to consider establishing a Policy Center.

NAPA presented the third annual Student Achievement Awards to Inez Adams (first place), Michelle Albus (first runner-up), and Karen Greenough (second runner-up).

* Spring meeting activities: NAPA was invited to co-sponsor the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Portland, OR (March 2003). In addition to holding our semi-annual Board Meeting, NAPA sponsored 10 scientific paper sessions and six professional development workshops. The Board voted to seek to co-sponsor the SfAA Annual Meeting every other year.

* Communications: The NAPA Secretary prepared a column for each issue of the Anthropology News, alternating features about professional careers with information about the NAPA Mentor program, the Student Achievement Award, and employment and training initiatives. NAPA made a substantial investment in upgrading and consolidating its web presence. With the assistance of its contractor, Anthro Tech LLC, and under the guidance of the NAPA Communications Committee, we launched our new web site, practicinganthropology.org. We consolidated web content that had been hosted on four separate servers into this one scaleable, dynamic content site, including a searchable member directory, current events, discussion channel capabilities, along with job and resume postings. *

The NAPA Bulletin occasional monograph series has five new issues in production. Bulletin 22 (Ethnographic Field Schools) will be published early in 2004, along with Bulletins 23 (Tourism) and Bulletin 24 (Student Achievement Award-winning papers). Bulletin 25 (Evaluation Anthropology) is slated for publication in 2005, along with Bulletin 26 (The Global Practice of Anthropology)

Two of our more popular Bulletins, 20 (Practitioner Profiles) and 21 (Caring in Crisis) have been reprinted, and are available in sufficient numbers for classroom adoption.

* Outreach efforts: NAPA's Mentor Program continues to arrange for volunteer mentors with individuals who request assistance with career planning in the professional practice of anthropology. We received requests from more than 50 individuals for mentor matches or further information, and provided matches for 32 individuals, while providing further information to more than 20.

NAPA has an officially designated liaison with the Local Practitioner Organizations that have been established in several cities (e.g., Washington, DC, Southern California, Chicago, Tampa Bay, High Plains, and Memphis). We have been asked to provide technical assistance to anthropologists in other locales (e.g., Boston, New York, Detroit) who are contemplating establishing similar networking institutions.

NAPA has a Councillor Program, which is designed to arrange for volunteers to work with university anthropology departments that are interested in upgrading their organizations to better support training in the professional practice of anthropology. U North Texas, Cal State-Long Beach, Central Washington, and Northern Arizona are participating in the program.

NAPA has representatives on the AAA-SfAA Commission on Applied and Practicing Anthropology, and on the AnthroSource Steering Committee.

2) Future plans or activities (3-5) year time frame

* Strategic Planning - Substantial changes are afoot in the world around us and in the professional practice of anthropology, prompting us to take stock in the organization, and reassess our priorities since the last time this was done, in 1996-97. The resources we have available to invest, including significant reserves of money and volunteer talent, should be invested wisely to grow our membership by offering needed services that we have the capacity to provide. *

NAPA held a workshop in November, which followed from a general query of the membership. Over the next year, we will be updating our strategic plan, articulating a common vision for the organization
- what kind of organization we want NAPA to be 10 years from now, and identifying key goals and specific initiatives that can be undertaken to accomplish these goals. The goals and specific initiatives will be based on the recognition that:
- NAPA has a role to play within AAA as an organizational bridge between theory and practice. It also must be acknowledged that as long as it remains within AAA, some people are likely to find it unwelcoming as an organizational home.
- Career development and organizational development are key aims for NAPA-sponsored activities. We need to develop the capacity to help training programs anticipate the requirements of a career in the professional practice of anthropology in the private, government, and NGO sectors.
- Shaping the public image of anthropology is important for several reasons. First, it will help prospective employers understand how anthropological training can contribute to their organizations' success. It will enhance the legitimacy of anthropologists who have something to contribute to public dialogue on policy problems. It will make our publications more widely read. It will also increase the standing of professionally practicing anthropologists in the mainstream discipline.

* AnthroSource - NAPA will be making a substantial investment in the AAA efforts to move its publishing operations to the digital platform known as AnthroSource. We are excited about the prospects of having our NAPA Bulletin series digitally archived and available via online searches, and about having the substantial marketing expertise of the University of California Press at our service. Because the career trajectories for anthropologists engaged in the professional practice of anthropology don't necessarily revolve around scholarly publications, we will be re-assessing the level of investment that is required, and how we can maximize our benefits to members and the profession based on this assessment.

* Public Policy - NAPA has agreed to make an investment in the AAA Committee on Public Policy's efforts to build the case for a Policy Center. This is wholly consistent with our strategic goals, and presents a promising opportunity to tap into the profession's considerably policy-relevant expertise. *

3) Other Items

* AAA "Professional Services" Department - We heartily support, and want to continue to work closely with the Career Services and Government Relations staff at AAA. We fully support the recommendations that have been proposed to the AAA Operations Committee concerning the restructuring of membership categories so that the "Institutional" category is eliminated, to be replaced by a re-defined "Organizational" category. Redefinition would encompass eligibility requirements, and the cost structure would be revisited, making it more attractive for non-academic employers to join AAA and take advantage of career services and publication subscription services.

4) Elected Section Officers During the Reporting Period Included:

Ed Liebow (President 2002 - 2004) Battelle Ctrs for Public Health Research and Evaluation liebowe@battelle.org
Douglas Feldman (Treasurer 2002 - 2004) Anthropology, SUNY-Brockport dfeldman@brockport.edu
Susan Squires (Past President 2002-2004) Tactics tactics@inreach.com
Madelyn (Micki) Iris (President-Elect 2002-2004) Beuhler Center for Aging, Northwestern University miris@northwestern.edu
Kathi Kitner (Secretary 2001-2003) South Atlantic Fishery Management Council kathi.kitner@safmc.net
James Beebe (Member-at-Large 2002 - 2004) Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies beebe@gonzaga.edu
Judy Tso (Member-at-Large 2001-2003) Aha Solutions, Ltd. judytso@ahasolutions.com
Patricia Sachs (Member-at-Large 2001-2003) Social Solutions, Inc. pascha@social-solutions.com
Alex W Costley (Student Member 2002 - 2004) Columbia University awc10@columbia.edu December 19, 2003

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