Asian Population Association

Minutes of the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the APA

Minutes of the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Asian Population Association held in New Delhi, 19 November 2010, 18:00 - 19:00 PM

The second AGM of the APA was held in New Delhi during the First Conference of the APA. All APA members were invited and the non-member participants attending the conference were invited as observers. The following is a summary of the reports presented at the meeting. In all 90 APA members and nearly 40 non-members attended the AGM.

President?s report: Professor Leela Visaria, President of the APA welcomed the participants, and highlighted the main activities of the association which have been accomplished during the first term of the APA Council. The activities included:
? Regular meetings and interactions with Council members during 2009 and 2010
? Increase in membership to around 1100 by November 2010
? Design and launching of the APA website
? Organizing the APA conference which is being held during 16-20 November 2010 in New Delhi
?? Formation of the Nomination Committee for the second election of the APA

Financial report: Professor Aphichat Chamratrithirong, APA Treasurer reported that Professor Bhassorn Limanonda, Executive Secretary of APA has kindly provided him the financial report for 2008-2010. However, as the audited report was not available at the time (November Conference), the official financial figures will be reported to the Second Council of APA which will take place in Bangkok in March 2011. The funding to run APA activities during the past 3 years has been raised from different donor agencies including the UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (UNFPA APRO). The funds was used on many important activities including the Workshop on “Hopes for 2010 Census Round in Asia” held in Bangkok in June 2008 and organized by the APA Establishment Committee (EC). The other event on which expenditure incurred was the First APA Council Meeting held in Bangkok in February 2009. A part of the funding (fully supported by UNFPA APRO) has been used for the APA Website Development, and some was provided to APA organizing Committee specifically for publication of Abstracts of the papers presented in APA First Conference in New Delhi.

According to the APA list at the moment, there are about 800 registered APA members (1080 including students). However, only about 200 members had paid their membership fee up to 14 October 2010, for the year 2010. The amount raised was 165,960 baht. APA had a balance as of 14 October 2010 of 1,032,872 baht or about US$34,430 in its account in Bangkok.? The financial report is being audited for transfer from Professor Bhassorn to Professor Sureeporn Punpuing, our new APA Executive Secretary working in Mahidol University

Scientific report: Dr Shireen Jejeebhoy, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the APA Conference reported on the activities leading to the successful conference of the APA. She reported that 14 theme leaders were invited to review nearly 700 abstracts received for the conference in response to a call posted on the APA website. Around 500 abstracts were accepted to be presented at oral and poster sessions. In all, 58 sessions were created. Close to 400 participants from 29 countries attended the conference.? Four plenary sessions were organized.

Professor Terence Hull reported on joint activities of the APA-PAA in 2010. The Population Association of America supported a session at the PAA 2010 meeting for APA members. Around 50 abstracts were submitted and four were selected for presentation plus Dr Keiko Osaki-Tomita served as a discussant. The International Committee of PAA, chaired by Professor John Casterline, also held a meeting of the international collegiate organizations, including APA, to discuss further ways of fostering collaboration. The President of the PAA represented the organization at the First Conference of APA, and met many of the members in lively and informative sessions. Contacts were also fostered with the African and Latin American regional organizations.

Professor Hull also reported on meetings that Professor/s Bhassorn Limanonda, Abbasi-Shavazi and Aphichat Chamratrithirong and he had with the UNFPA Regional Office in Bangkok to promote APA-UNFPA collaboration on creating an interactive website. The Webmaster, Mr Anuwat, has designed an improved data base with member information, which will be accessible by password. This will mean that APA members, and approved UNFPA officers will be able to search the data base to identify specialists for consultancies and participation in meetings.

Online election: On behalf of the Executive Secretary, Professor Visaria reported of the Secretariat activities for the online election of the APA. After many months of preparation, the second online election took place during 15 August to 16 October 2010.? The online votes were securely registered and automatically counted. Out of 818 members eligible to vote, 366 (equivalent to 44.7%) registered their votes. Professor Visaria announced the results for different positions of the Second APA Council for the two-calendar-year period (2011-2012):

President: Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi (IRAN)
Vice President: Terence H. Hull (AUSTRALIA)
Secretary General: Socorro Gultiano (PHILIPPINES)
Treasurer: Vipan Prachuabmoh (THAILAND)

Council members: (listed in alphabetical order of first names)
? ? ?Barkat-e-Khuda (BANGLADESH)
? ? ?Bhakta Gubhaju (NEPAL)
? ? ?Mui Teng Yap (SINGAPORE)
? ? ?Purushottam Kulkarni (INDIA)
? ? ?Ryuichi Kaneko (JAPAN)

Future activities: Professor Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, the new elected President, thanked Professor Visaria and the members of the First Council for their efforts during the two year term of the first council of the APA. He also highlighted the main activities that the new council will address. He mentioned that the first meeting of the new council is scheduled for early March in Bangkok to discuss the future activities of the APA. Professor Abbasi called for proposals from members to host the second conference of the APA in late 2012. The council will decide on the venue for the next conference on the basis of proposals received before 1 March 2011. Groups interested in submitting a proposal should contact the incoming Executive Secretary Professor Sureeporn.

Discussion from the Floor: At the end of the meeting members were invited to comment. A number of members praised the organization and quality of the APA conference. Other members stressed the need to recruit more members from places that are currently underrepresented in the Association. In particular it was apparent that there were very few members from countries in West Asia. This was evident in the conference also; population issues of that important region were not well covered either in presentations or in discussions. A suggestion was made that as in IUSSP, APA could also consider regional representation on the council. Other members noted the need to contact national population research professional organizations to encourage their members to consider joining the APA. Professor Abbasi assured the members that the new Council will take up these suggestions.

On behalf of the members of the first council, Professor Abbasi presented a bouquet of flowers to Leela and Shireen for their tireless efforts on APA activities during the last two years.

The meeting ended at 19:00.