General Meetings of ISUF, 2001

The 2001 General Meeting of ISUF took place on 9 September 2001, the last day of the conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Reports were given by the President, Anne Vernez Moudon; the Editor of Urban Morphology, J.W.R. Whitehand; and the Secretary-Treasurer, Michaël Darin.

Having teased the conference delegates by waiting until the General Meeting to announce the location of the next conference, Anne Vernez Moudon took pleasure in informing the meeting that ISUF 2003 will be held in Trani, Italy, hosted by the Polytechnic of Bari. The Conference convener will be Attilio Petruccioli. The Council Meeting in 2002 will be held in Lugano, organized by Pier Giorgio Gerosa.

The President acknowledged the presence in ISUF of a hard core of members and a wider `soft body' of the membership. She encouraged the wider body to participate more actively. In particular she invited people to contribute to the work of the Working Parties and Commissions. There are currently two Commissions: Archi-tectural Composition and Building Typology, headed by Gian Luigi Maffei; and History, Theory and Methodology, led by Pier Giorgio Gerosa. There are also two Working Parties: Legislation and Urban Form, headed by Nicola Marzot; and GIS and Cartography, led by Elwin Koster.

Looking forward, the President emphasized that the ISUF website and e-mail should be seen as the principal means of communication and interaction for the organization. She noted that steps will be taken to improve the website and maintain it more regularly.

Jeremy Whitehand reported that the Editorial Board agreed that the journal should remain independent despite another approach by a commercial publisher. The main reason behind the decision was the desire to retain complete control of the nature and contents of the journal within ISUF, and to keep down its price and hence accessibility to members. He reiterated that the journal is currently produced and published by members, only printing and binding being done by a commercial firm. Whitehand entreated delegates to request that the libraries of their respective institutions take out a subscription to the journal. On the basis of the content of the journal so far, he noted with satisfaction that the journal is truly international, is interdisciplinary and promotes debate. He did concede, however, that some parts of the world are under-represented, notably South and Central America and Africa. He ended by encouraging the submission of papers, adding that people should not be put off by the rate of rejection, which is no higher than that for most major social science journals.

Michaël Darin noted that payment of subscriptions had been simplified and that it is now possible to pay in three different currencies: US dollars, pounds sterling and euros. He pointed out that the conference fee entitled delegates to membership for two years, including four issues of the journal, noting that virtually all income from subscriptions goes to production and distribution of the journal. Any surplus income will be used to maintain and develop the website.

Regarding the complexion of the organization, Darin reported that there is a relatively static core of members, the remainder, totalling about 200, being more transient. He informed the meeting that Jean Castex, Giancarlo Cataldi and Gian Luigi Maffei had all been re-elected to the Council unopposed. The President, Secretary-Treasurer and Editor were confirmed for a further term of 4 years.

Darin concluded by encouraging delegates to come forward and participate in the core activities of ISUF.

No significant other business was noted, and the meeting, and the conference itself, were brought to a close.

K.S. Kropf, Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Urban Morphology Research Group, School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: ksk@compuserve.com