Membership
Membership total as of November 2004 was 627 as compared to total for November 2003 which was 639 and total for December 2002 which was 709. Figures suggest that the drop was due to the elimination of Retired category. On the bright side, student membership increased and full members held steady.

Budget [from the report of the Secretary/Treasurer, Claudia Strauss] The SPA began 2004 with a fund balance of $37,074. Revenues generated by the society (through Oct 31, 2004) were $37,321, and total expenses (through Oct. 31, 2004) were $29,782 for a positive net income increase of $7,539, bringing the fund balance (through Oct. 31, 2004) to $44,613. Total expenses for the year 2004 are projected to be $61,463 and revenues are projected to be $64,723, which should leave the fund balance with $40,334. While this balance is low for purposes of unforeseen circumstances and certainly for expanding our activities, we are pleased to be heading in a positive direction.
AAA Meeting [from the report of the Program Committee Chair, Linda Garro]
This was a difficult year for SPA's AAA program and the Committee. To start off, changes to the AAA process for invited sessions caused a lot of initial confusion among section chairs. Because different sections followed different procedures and time lines for designating invited status, coordinating invited session slots with other sections proved quite difficult. Contrary to the past when sessions were invited before the start of the general review, the invited sessions were selected at the end of the general review process. As a result of these difficulties, SPA did not jointly sponsor invited session with other sections this year. This is a departure from our past practice and we hope that AAA procedures will be revised so as to facilitate, instead of complicate, joint sponsorship.

Following complex instructions from the AAA, each of the volunteered papers received "grades" and "comments" from each committee member. Then, after creating three panels out of the volunteered papers, all panels were independently graded, commented on, and ranked by each member of the SPA review committee. One double session ("Uncanny Minds" organized by Pinto and Oldani) and a single session ("Engaging Psychoanalytic Theory" by Leininger and Chapin) were selected as the SPA invited sessions. Despite the diverse research interests and theoretical orientations of the SPA review committee members, there was relatively high agreement on the panel rankings. Six sessions, including all three of the double sessions and all three of the sessions with strong student involvement, were accepted to the AAA program. Five sessions, including all three of the sessions created out of the volunteered papers, were rejected.

After the move from San Francisco to Atlanta was announced, updated information was obtained about participation on SPA panels. A list is provided below. Three sessions cancelled completely. One session cancelled but with the remaining two presenters merging with another session. The remaining three sessions indicated they would participate, albeit in modified form, at the Atlanta meeting.

Somewhat surprisingly, two of the panels with strong student involvement went forward in modified, but still quite strong, form at the Atlanta meetings. Bambi Chapin took the initiative to revitalize her session (Engaging with Psychoanalytic Theory) by adding three new papers.

Three of the 7 panels have indicated that they will resubmit something akin to their original proposal to the SPA biennial meeting. Another panel is still thinking about whether to submit a modified session to SPA. One will resubmit for the 2005 AAA meetings.

Status and Plans of Panels Accepted to the 2004 AAA Meetings Social, Emotional, and Subsistence Transitions during Childhood
No indication of future plans -- 4 confirmed, possibly 7 papers in Atlanta
Cultural Models and Intracultural Variation
Almost complete panel at Atlanta meeting, may resubmit a modified panel to SPA meetings
Once and future theory: next steps towards Gregory Bateson's ecology of mind
Two remaining papers moved - no indication of any future plans
Narrative, Interaction, and Experience
SESSION CANCELLED (will resubmit to SPA) Engaging with Psychoanalytic Theories
2 original papers remain and 3 new papers added - plans to resubmit original panel to SPA meetings Religion, Emotion and The Body
SESSION CANCELLED (will resubmit to SPA)
Uncanny Minds
SESSION CANCELLED (plans to resubmit to AAA 2005)

Biennial Meeting
The biennial meeting for 2005 will be a joint meeting of the Society for Psychological Anthropology and the American Ethnological Society. The meeting theme is "Anxious Borders: Traversing Anthropological Divides". It will be held April 7-10, 2005 at the Catamaran Hotel, San Diego, California.

Ethos [from the report of the Editor, Sara Harkness]
Ethos has had an active year, with a total of 73 manuscripts (including 34 that were part of four proposed special issues) submitted since October 1, 2003. Comparing submission rates with last year, the number of individual submissions is up slightly, but the overall number of paper submissions has almost doubled, due mostly to the special issues. Time from paper submission to an editorial decision has averaged around 8 months.

Several particular points can be made about this year. First, we have published more than the usual number of special issues: they include Holland and Leander's issue on Positioning and Subjectivity, Quinn and Strauss' issue on Feminist Psychological Anthropology, and (for volume 33) Lende and Hruska's Biocultural Anthropology. An issue of papers by Ronald Rohner and his international group of researchers on Parental Acceptance and Rejection Theory will also be published in the coming year. Second, the problems in production schedule that I mentioned last year have been largely alleviated, thanks to a quick response by the AAA to my last Ethos report. Third, the transition to UC Press seems to be going smoothly and we are impressed by the attentiveness to both quality and efficiency shown by their editorial staff.

There is also some continuity from the last couple of years. Leaving aside the special issues, which have been entirely organized by anthropologists and mostly by members of the SPA, it is my impression that a large proportion of our submissions continue to come from outside not only the SPA but also the AAA. I am pleased by the diversity of these papers; it seems evident that we have been "discovered" by psychologists with interests in culture and human development, as well as by representatives of other disciplines in various countries around the world. In this regard, I would like to raise a concern that we NOT endorse a recent proposal to charge a "processing fee" to non-AAA members who submit papers to Ethos, which would undoubtedly result in a decline in both the number and quality of our submissions. Note: the Board voted against charging a "processing fee" at this point.

Website [from the report of the Electronic Publications Editor, Steve Leavitt]

The electronic publications scene for the SPA has been in maintenance mode for the last two years, with the most significant innovation being the implementation of an online registration system for the SPA Biennial Meetings. Otherwise, the SPA web site has continued, with updates in all the central areas. It continues to be comprised of the following: • instructions for joining and quitting the SPA listserv, • description of SPA's Culture, Mind and Society book series, • archive of all Ethos article titles, from 1973-2004, • catalog of descriptions of 140 recent books of interest, • list of some 180 recent articles of interest, • manuscripts in progress for download, • links to some 40 syllabi in psychological anthropology, • full text online of the SPA Leadership Handbook, • bylaws of the SPA, SPA officers, • descriptions and past winners of Stirling, Boyer & Condon prizes, • SPA Biennial Meetings info with online registration, • list of SPA affiliated sessions at 2004 AAA Meetings, and • photos from 2001 and 2003 Biennial SPA Meetings

Use of the web site has increased dramatically over the last two years. At the time of the 2002 AAA meetings, the site had had 5000 hits. That number has climbed to 13,000 in the past two years.

We have had some success with our concerted effort to publicize and promote the SPA listserv as a vehicle for communication among colleagues interested in psychological anthropology. We made an effort to contact all current SPA members, inviting them to subscribe to the listserv. As of now there are 320 members of the listserv, out of some 680 SPA members overall. This number represents an 80% increase over the numbers two years ago. (It is possible to join the listserv without being an SPA member).

For future plans, we are endeavoring to develop resources associated with our journal by expanding the Ethos site itself. The Electronics Publications Editor also hopes to expand the web site as a better resource to psychological anthropology students, with detailed descriptions of psychological anthropology programs, features on ongoing research projects, and links to other sites and services of potential interest to psychological anthropology students.

SPA Book Series [from the report of the Editor of the Book Series, Doug Hollan]
This past year saw the publication of our first book in the new Palgrave series, American Individualisms: Child Rearing and Social Class in Three Neighborhoods, by Adrie Kusserow. A second book, Finding Culture: Methods for the Cultural Analysis of Talk, edited by Naomi Quinn, is now in press and has a scheduled publication date of September 2005. It demonstrates for students and other scholars how one uses interview data to generate interesting ideas and theories about human culture and psychology. We have received four new book projects over the past year.

There have been some problems getting the new series off the ground. Most importantly, Palgrave has tried to renegotiate some of the terms we thought we had settled two years ago. Three issues stand out: (1) the default royalty on academic books and on trade books (with higher rates negotiable depending on the visibility of the author, likelihood of sales, etc.); (2) author's and editor's an advance of $1,000 to help pay for production costs and indexing; and (3) word limits on the books to be accepted.

Student Representation [from the report of the Student Representative, Jason Throop]
At present, the most effective means for reaching out to new student members has been through NASA (National Association of Student Anthropologists). Accordingly, I have played an active role in NASA in their ongoing discussions and kept their members abreast of SPA sponsored opportunities for students. I suggest that another possibility for expanding our student base is through contacting student organizations in other allied disciplines (e.g. psychology, psychiatry, sociology) with a statement that introduces them to the society, our web-page, our journal, and invites them to submit papers for the upcoming biannual.

Regarding the AAA 2004 Meeting: It is clear that many students suffered a great financial loss as a result of the AAA Executive Board's decision to cancel the meetings in San Francisco and shift them to Atlanta. And while it is true that the AAA decided to provide a relief fund for student participants, in many cases the $100 reimbursement did not come close to covering what was lost to students financially in canceling their reservations. NASA drafted an official position on the relief fund that attempted to highlight some of the issues with the fund, though it did not, at least to my knowledge, affect the EB's policy.
Aside from the financial burden, an overwhelming majority of students had strong political objections to the EB's decision (e.g., not wishing to give any economic benefit to Hilton) and were clearly frustrated by the fact that their concerns did not seem to have much, if any, effect on the final decision making process. To remedy this, it is recommended that the SPA do whatever it can to ensure that AAA sections are given a formally recognized channel through which to impact the EB's decisions, especially when such decisions have such vast, and potentially negative effects on the AAA membership; both student and professional alike.

Prizes
The Stirling Prize was redefined by the Board as an annual prize that will alternate between books and articles. This year no prize was awarded. Future Plans: Previously the board passed a resolution authorizing a fundraising campaign to fund a $10,000 endowment for the Stirling prize (as is, in fact, now required by AAA By-laws for new prizes initiated by sections). Now that the Prize has been redefined, the Board can move forward and submit a request to the finance committee of the AAA board for approval of the campaign.
The Boyer Prize for best publication in psychoanalytic anthropology was awarded to Patricia Gherovici for her book, The Puerto Rican Syndrome. The prize was awarded at the SPA business meeting at the AAA meetings in Atlanta.
The Condon Prize for best student paper in psychological anthropology was awarded to Julia Cassanti. It will be awarded at the SPA biennial in April.

Contributing Editor's Report [from the report of the AN Section Editor, Kathleen Barlow]
Barlow began as Contributing Editor at the end of February 2004. Column topics so far have consisted mainly of Section business. She has also tried to incorporate information that will help to show the range of psychological anthropology, not just to Section members, but to students considering psychological anthropology and a broader audience.