President's Corner
A personal message from the president of ICSD
It is
gratifying to report to you some of the positive developments
that have taken place with ICSD during the past year.
The organization is continuing to grow and to make tremendous
progress in achieving its goal of promoting social justice
throughout the world.
The 15th
Biennial Symposium in Hong Kong was a great success. There was
a record attendance at this conference—over 700 participants
from 40 countries and territories. The keynote speaker was
Professor Amartya Sen, who holds the Nobel Laureate in
Economics. His speech, along with the presentations of plenary
speakers and session speakers, set a high mark in quality. The
Symposium Chairs, Ce Shen, from Boston College, and Angie Yuen,
from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, did a remarkable job in
planning the event along with the help of their committees. I
am grateful to Boston College for serving as stateside sponsor
of the symposium, and to Hong Kong Polytechnic University, for
serving as the local sponsor and host of the conference. As
host of the conference, the University committed significant
financial resources to make the symposium a success.
Planning is
well underway for the 16th Biennial Symposium, which
will be held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2009. The University of
Southern California (USC) will serve as stateside sponsor of
this conference, and the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL)
will be the local sponsor and host. Kristin Ferguson, from USC,
is chairing the planning for the event, in collaboration with
co-chairs from UANL, Manuel Ribeiro and Eduardo Lopez. Kristin
and I visited UANL in September, 2007 to meet with Manuel,
Eduardo and the local planning committee. I was greatly
impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment of the planners and
with the location of the conference itself. UANL will be an
excellent venue for the meeting. I am confident that delegates
to the symposium will be struck by the beauty, culture, history
and cuisine of Monterrey and Mexico.
Several new
officers have been selected since the publication of our last
newsletter. Elected to the Board as Members-at-Large are
Michael Klassen, Antoinette Lombard, Brij Mohan, and Vijay
Pillai. European Branch representatives to the Board are Roar
Sundby and Nada Stropnik. Asia-Pacific Branch representatives
are Manohar Pawar and Ernest Chui Wing-Tak. Karen Sowers has
been appointed Treasurer of ICSD, replacing Jan Hartman, who
resigned because of health reasons. In addition, Marilyn Flynn
has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Managers of
Social Development Issues, Joe Leung has been
appointed Editor of the journal, and Haluk Soyden has been
appointed to be the journal’s Book Review Editor. I have also
appointed Carol J. Williams as Director of Information
Technology and Dhrubodhi Mukherjee as Associate Director. These
are new positions, having been created to carry out the tasks of
webmaster and myriad other technology activities that are now
required to maintain the operation of ICSD.
The ICSD
Executive Council and the Board met during the symposium in Hong
Kong in July and also during the Annual Program Meeting of the
Council on Social Work Education in San Francisco in October.
In addition, the Executive Council held “virtual meetings” via
conference calls on two occasions during the past several months
to deal with matters that needed immediate attention.
One important
development that took place during the last Executive Council
and Board meetings was the approval of a new system of
membership record management. Lyceum Books, which publishes
Social Development Issues, has graciously agreed to take on
this responsibility. This work will include maintaining a
membership database, sending out renewal notices on a rolling
basis to individual and institutional members, collecting
membership fees, and promoting membership growth. Given the
systems already in place at Lyceum Books to handle such matters,
all the members of ICSD throughout the world should see a great
improvement in membership the renewal process. I am grateful to
David Follmer, owner and CEO of Lyceum Books, for his
willingness to take on this responsibility.
Another
significant recent achievement for ICSD is the attainment of
tax-exempt status with the U.S Government. Special thanks goes
to (former ICSD President) Chuck Cowger for handling the long,
complicated application process to make this happen.
I am
particularly impressed with the progress being made by our
Regional Branches. As you will note elsewhere in this
newsletter, The European Branch is planning a symposium in
Romania in summer 2008, and the Asia-Pacific Branch is planning
a symposium in Nepal in fall 2008. There is growing enthusiasm
among the ICSD members from Latin America regarding the
development of a Branch for that region. Hopefully this will
occur with the 16th Biennial Symposium in Mexico, if not before.
These and the
other accomplishments of ICSD would not occur without the
dedication and hard work of its volunteer leaders and the
support of other organizations. As President, I deeply
appreciate all the time, effort and talent devoted to ICSD by
its officers, board members, conference planners, and other
individuals who keep the organization alive and well. I am also
grateful for the support of our Institutional Members whose
contributions help ICSD extend its services to persons and
organizations throughout the world, including those living in
less favorable economic situations. Finally, I am thankful for
those schools of social work that are “Partners” in the
publishing of Social Development Issues. Their
financial support enables ICSD to make the journal available to
its members without charging them exorbitant membership fees.
Frank
B. Raymond
President
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