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New Year Message from the APA President

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Dear APA members,

A belated Happy New Year and best wishes to you all for 2012!

On behalf of the council of the APA, I am pleased to brief you on the activities of the Association during 2011 and our plans for 2012.

1.       2nd APA Conference: Our major activity during 2011 has been the planning and organization of the 2nd APA conference to be held in Bangkok during 26-29 August.  I am delighted to report to you that by the end of the deadline we received exactly 1500 abstract submissions for our conference. This is a major increase as compared to our 1st conference when we received nearly 700 abstracts.  This great success is no doubt  due to the enthusiasm from our members as well as other population experts who are active in the population field in the Asian region and beyond.  Thanks also to the APA Secretariat who, despite the devastating and disrupting floods in Bangkok, kept the activities of the APA running. 

While we are very pleased and proud about the large number of submissions, there is a great responsibility on our shoulders to organize a stimulating, high quality, and successful conference.  There is a high expectation from all of us to select high quality papers, and to raise funds and bring not only distinguished scholars but population experts, junior demographers, and students as well as policy makers to the conference so that experiences are shared at the time of the conference.

For your information, the theme leaders have already started the review process and we are expecting to receive their results by mid-February. We have already made arrangements for a council meeting that will be held in Bangkok during 18-21 February to make the arrangements and discuss the program for our conference. 

2.       Scientific Groups:  Based on our constitution, in order to promote population research, we have set up three Scientific Groups: Data quality and accessibility (chaired by Terence Hull); Marriage Transition in Asia (chaired by Gavin Jones); & Population and Poverty (Chaired by Abbas Bhuiya). The fourth group will be on Spatial Demography (chaired by Peter Xenos). These groups are planning to have some activities including workshops and seminars in the future.  However, lack of funding for such activities has hindered their plans.

3.       Fundraising: We have made some fundraising efforts but as you can imagine, scientific activities and conferences are not usually on the priority list of funding agencies particularly during the economic crisis in many countries.  Despite these challenges, however, I am pleased to announce that we have received some funds from the Asia regional office of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bangkok as well as the Centre of Excellence for Population and Ageing Research in Australia. The UNFPA Regional Office in Bangkok as well as the Population Association of America (PAA) have also kindly expressed their support for the APA and its conference. We will be seeking support from other donor agencies, but these funds will not be enough to cover all costs of the conference. We are, therefore, requesting all our members to both make payments for their membership fees and conference registration fees, and also try their best to raise funds for attending the conference.

2         Membership Drive: APA membership has increased from around 1100 in January 2011 to 1236 members by 15 January 2012. There is a regional disparity and imbalance as some regions in Asia are under-represented, and we will plan to increase our membership from those regions.

4.       Communication: As you may have noted, the APA website has improved and the APA Secretariat has  been in contact with you over the last year updating you all on the activities of the APA.  We are also grateful to the IUSSP, European Association for Population Studies, PAA and other national and regional associations and institutions that shared our information and news with their members.  Purchasing and adopting the Oxford Package for our conference has also eased the process of submissions and will be useful for the review process.  The next issue of the APA Newsletter will be available by late February with some more information about the association and its conference.

3         Future plans. We shall concentrate our efforts on the organization of the 2nd conference over the next seven months.  As the election of the third Council of the Association will be held this year, a Nomination Committee will be established to prepare the list of candidates for the election which will be held during September –October 2012.  As we reported in the minutes of our March 2011 meeting, there will be an amendment to the APA constitution to increase the term of each council to 3 years instead of the current 2-year period. We shall discuss this in our AGM in Bangkok.  Finally, a call for proposals for the 3rd conference will be announced and we hope to be able to finalise the venue of  the next conference in Bangkok.

With this, I wish you once again a happy and productive 2012, and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in Bangkok.

Best wishes,

Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi
President, Asian Population Association