1.

Apologies

2.

Minutes of the last meeting (see Minutes, 14 February 2004)

3.

ECIS 2004

3.1.

Review of experience

3.2.

Report from doctoral consortium

4.

ECIS 2003

4.1.

Final review

4.2.

Presentation of final accounts

5.

Forthcoming conferences

5.1.

ECIS 2005

5.1.1.Presentation of current status

5.2

ECIS 2006

5.2.1.Presentation of current status

6.

Proposals for future conferences

6.1

Martin Hughes, from University of Galway, Ireland, will give a brief presentation about plans to host ECIS 2007 in Ireland. A full proposal will come to the next meeting of the standing committee

6.2.

Robert Winter, from University St Gallen, Switzerland, will give a brief presentation about plans to host ECIS 2007 in Switzerland. A full proposal will come to the next meeting of the standing committee

7.

ECIS doctoral consortium

7.1.

Document from Chrisanthi Avgerou reflecting on the ECIS 2004 doctoral consortium

8.

ECIS AIS institutional links

8.1

Discussion document on ECIS AIS institutional links

9.

Date of next meeting

9.1.

For discussion: It has been customary to hold breakfast meetings of the ECIS standing committee at ICIS. However, in recent years, very few members of the committee have been attending ICIS and de facto standing committee meetings have been held at the February programme confirmation meeting.

These meetings were originally set up to make the final decisions on papers and arrangements for that year's conference and typically included representatives from the following year's conference, who were there to get a feel of the experience of making such decisions. Both Eph Maclean, representing AIS, and I, as secretary of the standing committee, have been attending these meetings.

The standing committee is asked to consider whether it wishes to make the norm for these meetings to replace ICIS as the venue for the second meeting each year.

In making this decision, members may wish to note that some expenses at the programme confirmation meeting (typically meals and accommodation) are often covered by the local organisers and it might be problematic to open this up to a wider group. Also, while some members may be able to obtain institutional financial support for attending ICIS, they may find it less easy to obtain such support for attending what is in effect a business meeting. These factors may affect the representativeness of attendees at the business meeting

10.

Secretary of the Standing Committee

10.1.

For discussion: Although I have held the role of secretary of the ECIS standing committee since its inception, I have, in recent years, become increasingly aware that my own academic work pressures have affected my ability to perform this task as well as I would like. I believe it would therefore be appropriate to begin to think about handing over this role to someone else.

The key responsibilities of the secretary are to schedule meetings of the standing committee and to provide minutes of the meeting. The secretary also plays an important role in assisting with the development of proposals for future conferences, coordinating with other organisations, journals etc, and acting as a central point of reference for enquiries about the conference and its practices.

A number of alternatives spring to mind, as a starting point for the discussion:

To hand over this role to an individual, who would hold the role for a fixed number of years.

To hand over this role to AIS, acting in an administrative capacity.

To make the role more transitory, for example, having someone from next year's conference acting as the secretary for this year's meeting.

The committee's views on possible developments are welcomed.

Dr Edgar A Whitley
Secretary