Report ISUF business meetings, London, 2005

Reports

All reports have been published in the Journal Urban Morphology.

The regular business meetings of ISUF took place during the Symposium held at the Prince's Foundation, London. The Council Meeting was held on Thursday 25 August and lasted for three hours, and the General Meeting took place on Saturday 27 August and lasted for two hours. As the most significant issues were discussed first by Council and then reported to the membership at the General Meeting, one report will appropriately cover both meetings and all business.

Secretary-General's report

Michael Conzen reported that this had been a very significant year for ISUF, with some changes in long-serving members and consequent changes to the remit of some officers. Some of these changes had been put in place at the last meeting, in Newcastle upon Tyne, and this had, therefore, also been a year of experiment.

The previous Secretary-Treasurer, Michaël Darin, had retired; his duties had been split between the new roles of Secretary-General and Treasurer. Michael Conzen had taken on the former role, necessitating the appointment of a new Book Review Editor for Urban Morphology, and Keith Lilley had taken on the role of Treasurer.

It had not been an easy year for the incoming Secretary-General owing to other professional and University commitments, and he apologized that some issues had not been progressed as far as he had hoped. However, he announced that the University of Chicago was supporting him with a research assistant from October 2005, and that the appointee would be able to take on some ISUF development issues, including a membership survey.

It was reported that resources had been allocated to the ISUF website both to acquire the new domain name urbanform.org, and to permit the scanning of back issues of Urban Morphology. Further consideration did, however, need to be given to refreshing the website structure, content and appearance, but this would need to take into account a possible change in the journal's style, and the Webmaster's concern that an image-based site would be difficult to access in certain areas and thus some members might be disadvantaged.

The desire of Council to appoint Regional Representatives, to promote ISUF and its activities particularly in areas where it is under-represented, was discussed. This developed into a broader discussion of Council's call for a greater involvement of the membership in the management of the organization: ISUF had been characterized by stability and hence experience in its officers, but it was felt that new ideas were necessary.

Treasurer's report

Keith Lilley reported on his first year in this new post. He thanked Michaël Darin for assistance in this transitional period, but emphasized that he was still investigating a number of important issues.

One of these was the complexity of ISUF's bank accounts. For the Treasurer's convenience a new account had been opened with the Ulster Bank, and other accounts would be closed and their balances transferred in due course.

Finances were healthy at the present, with over £13 000 in current accounts and a reserve of over £10 000. However, development of the website and, in particular, increased expenditure on journal production meant that the balance of income and expenditure, and subscription rates, would need to be kept under review.

A further issue investigated during the year was that of credit card payment for subscriptions and conference bookings. The Paypal system, as used by Ebay, appeared to be secure and low cost, and subject to some further clarification it was agreed that ISUF should move to this service as soon as possible, via links on its website. Charges and subscriptions may have to be slightly raised to cover the costs incurred in due course. It was recognized that this would not be suitable for all members' transactions, and alternatives were discussed.

It was also proposed to create, for the first time, a database of ISUF members. This would streamline renewal procedures and allow easier contact with members.

Editor's report

J.W.R. Whitehand reported that Urban Morphology was now well-established, being one of the most highly-cited urban studies journals in 2003-4. There were over 100 institutional subscribers, and approaches continue from commercial publishers interested in producing the journal on behalf of ISUF.

The journal was genuinely international in terms of its authors and topics covered. English, although the language of publication, was not the first language of about two-thirds of authors: it was a major job of the editors to ensure that their published texts read as though it were.

The journal's acceptance rate had remained at 40%, and this was not far from the average for international journals in the social sciences.

As always, two things remained in short supply: high-quality papers, and library subscriptions. Both were very welcome; and feedback from ISUF members was also sought on the journal's structure and content.

Lastly, it was reported that the journal production was now entirely electronic, with the printer being supplied with pdf files. This also allowed new issues to be placed on the website easily, although the past three years' issues would only be available to subscribing libraries. All other back issues would eventually be scanned and available electronically.

Appointment of the President

Michael Conzen reported that Professor Anne Vernez Moudon was retiring as ISUF's President and was not seeking re-appointment. Both Council and the General Meeting formally expressed their great appreciation of all that Anne Moudon had achieved for ISUF in her eight years of office and, in particular, her critical role in ISUF's foundation.

Council had appointed Professor Gian Luigi Maffei to serve as President for the next four years.

Election of Council members

The terms of office of Professors Castex, Cataldi and Maffei as members of ISUF Council had ended. They, too, were thanked for their work on behalf of the organization.

Three nominations had been received following the notice in the previous issue of Urban Morphology, and thus an election was not required. It was announced that Professors Rémy Allain, Nicola Marzot and Giuseppe Strappa were appointed as Council members.

Appointment of the Editor

The term of office of Professor J.W.R. Whitehand had also ended. Council had, however, reappointed him for a further term as the journal's Editor, welcoming his efforts to "go the extra 1.7 km to maintain the journal's high standards" and expressing its appreciation of his editorship so far.

Future conferences

There was some discussion in both Council and General meetings about what had become the normal pattern of ISUF meetings, with a major international Conference and a smaller Symposium in alternate years. For a variety of reasons this pattern had been broken, and Council's wish of holding a smaller meeting in 2006 and a major conference in 2007, thus reinstating that pattern, was agreed. Venues and organizers for both would be sought.

In discussion it was suggested that a transparent and competitive bidding process should be developed: it was hoped that members and organizations would feel that holding ISUF meetings was sufficiently prestigious that they would compete for it.

Professor Lafrenz suggested that an ISUF meeting could be held in late August 2006 in conjunction with the international conference of historical geographers in Hamburg. It was agreed that this offer would be considered together with other possibilities, and a decision taken as soon as possible.

Other issues

Both meetings were running short of time, and discussion of some important issues was curtailed. It was accepted that further debate would take place amongst Officers and Council members, and that next year's meetings would have to return to these matters.

They included the various Commissions, Working Parties and Projects set up in the past. Giuseppe Strappa noted that work on an Italian translation of M.R.G. Conzen's study of Alnwick was proceeding well. Other groups needed some re-invigoration, and the studies produced by the Working Party on Legislation and Urban Form should be circulated more widely.

Thought was given to achieving greater publicity for ISUF and its activities, although as yet no volunteer had come forward to act as Publicity Officer. Related to this was the issue of membership: what sort and size of organization was wanted? The existing New Researchers' Forum needed to be integrated into the programmes of conferences and symposia, and it was strongly suggested that ISUF should be promoted to doctoral students the next generation of researchers, practitioners, and members.

The planners of future ISUF conferences and symposia will need to allocate even more time for these necessary business meetings, in order to allow issues relating to the management and development of ISUF to receive full consideration. The General Meeting might be programmed in the middle of the session, to promote a larger attendance!

Peter Larkham, School of Property, Construction and Planning, University of Central England, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU, UK. E-mail: peter.larkham@uce.ac.uk