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Here are answers to various questions about APPAM, organized by topic. Inquiries on other issues not addressed here or elsewhere on this site always are welcome at the APPAM office. Additional information on other topics also may be available under the menu items on this website.
General Questions about APPAM
Questions about APPAM’s Governance
Questions about the Fall Research Conference
General Questions about APPAM Q: How do you pronounce “APPAM”? A: From the beginning, the majority of members in the Association have pronounced its acronym “ay-paam” with a hard “a” at the front and a soft “a” at the end. In 1999, several of the more literary members of the Association (and you know who you are) observed that the proper rules of English pronunciation mandate that the acronym be said, “aah-paam” with a soft “a” in the front and at the end. This reflects the double “p” in the acronym that should soften a preceding vowel. Staff at the APPAM office have been known to say it both ways ever since, mostly out of confusion rather than any desire to fuel the debate. (This answer will leave aside the subcontroversy over whether the stress should be placed on the first or the second syllable!) APPAM recommends that all concerned about this vital issue continue to pronounce as they please. Return to Top Q: What is the significance of the APPAM logo? A: The logo was designed by Janice Mauroschadt Design in Washington, DC, and became official in 1994. According to an announcement drafted by former executive director Dante Noto, the elements of the logo are meant to capture both the nature of the APPAM membership and the nature of APPAM activities.
Return to Top Q: Why does APPAM have both individual and institutional members? A: At the time APPAM was founded in the late 1970s, the plan was for APPAM predominately to be an institutional membership association that brought together the resources of public policy schools and policy research organizations to support a new conference and a new journal. These activities were seen as important professional opportunities for an emerging field of policy and management research. At that time, institutional membership offered a way for the fledgling association to raise the financial resources necessary to launch itself. Within a few years, however, the growing body of individual members asked for and achieved a voice in APPAM’s governance by gaining the right to directly elect the Policy Council. In 2007, APPAM received 37% of its operating revenue from conferences, 19% from institutional memberships, 14% from individual memberships, 20% from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and the remainder from a variety of other sources. Today APPAM continues to attract new institutional members who appreciate the conferences and the journal, and want to lend their support to both. Return to Top Q: Does APPAM engage in lobbying on behalf of its members? A: The historical information available in the APPAM office does not contain any records of APPAM engaging in lobbying. As a recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, APPAM only is permitted to engage in very limited lobbying, and cannot make lobbying one of its central missions. However, APPAM is an affiliated member of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), which represents the views of the social science research community to the federal government to encourage public support for research. (Full members of COSSA include the American Economic Association, the American Sociological Association, and the American Political Science Association.) COSSA publishes a biweekly newsletter that reports on the federal government’s annual policy process as it pertains to support for, and regulation of, social science research, and individuals can subscribe to the newsletter by contacting COSSA directly. Return to Top Q: What is the history of the APPAM office? Why was it once located within the Urban Institute? A: In its earliest days APPAM was managed by the Association’s president and treasurer (both volunteers). In the early 1980s APPAM received a large grant from the Sloan Foundation to administer the Sloan Fellowships Program (now the Public Policy and International Affairs Program). Dante Noto (then at Duke University) became the part-time Sloan Fellowships administrator. Within a few years APPAM found funds to pay Dante to be the part-time manager of APPAM’s business affairs. In the early 1990s APPAM had sufficient financial resources to hire a full-time executive director, and the Association’s leadership decided to relocate the APPAM office to Washington, DC. Because APPAM did not have the resources to pay rent, the Association appealed to its institutional members in Washington to donate office space on an interim basis. The Urban Institute graciously responded to that appeal. In 1993 Dante Noto was hired as the first executive director and established the APPAM office at 2100 M Street, NW inside of the Urban Institute. Dale Robinson-Anglin succeeded Dante in 1995 and expanded the office eventually to include a second full-time employee. Erik Devereux became the third executive director in January 1999 and in 2002 the Association opened a separate office in the same building by leasing space from the Urban Institute. In 2005, APPAM expanded its staff to include a third full-time employee. In May 2007, APPAM moved its offices to the current location on Vermont Avenue NW to share a newly renovated office suite with the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). APPAM and NASPAA have a lease that runs until 2017 at the new location. Return to Top Q: What is the PPIA Program? Why is it affiliated with APPAM? A: In 1978 the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation helped to convene a conference of public policy schools that resulted in the formation of APPAM. That same conference resulted in a discussion of how public policy schools could help increase diversity in the public service professions. The outcome of that discussion was the creation of a national program for students of color with two components: summer public policy institutes for college juniors, and fellowships to support public policy master’s education. The institutes feature intensive courses in economics, quantitative methods, and policy issues, all designed to increase students’ preparation for graduate school. The fellowships help students to afford graduate education. Funded by the Sloan Foundation from 1981 to 1988, and by the Ford Foundation from 1989 to 1999, the program in turn has been known as the Sloan Fellowship Program, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program, and the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Program. The program currently has received operating and program funding from the Foundation for Child Development, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Kellogg Foundation. In many ways, PPIA is APPAM’s “sibling” and one of the Association’s most important legacies. Return to Top Q: How important is the Kershaw Award in the world of social science-related research? A: The APPAM office recently gathered data on major awards bestowed by other social science-related associations. The data suggests that the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize of $10,000 is among the largest in the social sciences. Only a few other associations currently offer a prize in the amount of $10,000 to recognize distinguished achievement. The prize amount for the Kershaw is determined by the return on its endowment, and could change in future years. Return to Top Q: How diverse is APPAM’s membership? A: APPAM has data on several aspects of diversity as of June 2005. Its membership is about 70% academic (including students), and 30% non-academic (most of these are employed at policy research organizations and the public sector). About 45% of the members are female. Nearly half of the membership is located in the northeast of the U.S. and about 5% of the members live in countries other than the U.S. In terms of race/ethnicity, APPAM relies on its members to volunteer that information at the time they join. Only about 70% of the members provide the data. If the data is representative of all the members, then about 20% of the membership is racial/ethnic minorities (including 6.6% African-American, 5.6% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 2.8% Hispanic/Latino). Return to Top
Questions about APPAM’s Governance Q: Who has served as chair of the APPAM Institutional Representatives? How are they selected? A: In 1985, APPAM created the Committee of Institutional Representatives and asked each member institution to appoint a representative to the committee. To date, the chairs of the Institutional Representatives have been the following: Anita Summers, Univ. of Pennsylvania (1985-1989) Irwin Feller, Penn State Univ. (1989-1991) Charles Metcalf, Mathematica Policy Research (1991-1993) Glen Hahn Cope, Univ. of Illinois-Springfield (1993-1995) Jack Krauskopf, New School Univ. (1995-1996) Mark Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon Univ. (1997-1999) Susan Schwab, Univ. of Maryland-College Park (1999-2001) Eugenia Toma, Univ. of Kentucky (2001-2003) Michael Luger, Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2003-2005) Michael O’Hare, Univ. of California-Berkeley (2005-2007) Sandra Archibald, Univ. of Washington (2007-2009) Note: Affiliations listed were at time of service as chair. The new chair is nominated by a three-person committee appointed by the outgoing chair from among the Institutional Representatives. The nominee is presented to the Institutional Representatives at their annual spring meeting, and, if approved, serves for two years as chair and as a member of the Executive Committee of the APPAM Policy Council. A person can serve multiple terms as chair. Sandra Archibald's current term as chair will end at the spring 2009 meeting. Return to Top Q: What is the Annual Membership Meeting at the APPAM Fall Conference? Why attend the meeting? A: APPAM is a membership association. Accordingly, once a year APPAM provides an opportunity for the entire body of the membership to meet in person and act on issues of importance to the membership. For example, increases in membership dues must be approved by the membership during this meeting, and the meeting ratifies the recommendations of the Nominating Committee regarding the election of new officers and Policy Council members. The Annual Membership Meeting also is devoted to honoring the winners of APPAM’s various awards. Beginning in 2004, APPAM moved the meeting from lunchtime to breakfast on the Friday of the Fall Conference. If you are a member who has never attended the meeting, please consider doing so – it is free and open to all interested persons (a ticket may be required to enjoy a meal served during the meeting). Return to Top Q: Who votes in the APPAM Policy Council election? Why participate? A: All APPAM individual members are eligible to vote in the Council election. Since 2004, the election is held on-line for one month beginning in the middle of November. Voting is as easy as clicking a few items on a web page. Generally, leadership elections in associations do not attract a high turnout; historically less than 50% of APPAM members vote to elect the Council each year. However, APPAM is relatively unique for having a large Council (currently 41 elected members) relative to the size of its membership (1800 - 2000 persons). Furthermore, members of the Council often serve on the Fall Conference Program Committee. This means that APPAM members have significant representation on the Council, and the Council itself is involved in APPAM’s most important activities. For these reasons, participation in the Council election is a substantive opportunity for members to determine what APPAM does. Return to Top
Questions about the Fall Research Conference Q: How are the members of the Fall Conference Program Committee selected? Do the same people serve on the committee from year to year? A: The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 25 to 30 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and two persons often are placed on the committee to review proposals in a large area like education or welfare. On average, 30% of the members of one year’s committee will serve in the next year. This overlap increases institutional memory and management experience to the proposal review process. Since 1999 very few persons have served for three consecutive years on the committee. The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM’s most important annual event. Return to Top Q: Why does APPAM announce the names of the Fall Conference Program Committee members only after the review of proposals is complete? A: The members of the Program Committee have to work under very tight deadlines and make difficult decisions about accepting and rejecting proposals for the conference. APPAM believes that minimizing contact between the committee and the authors of proposals during the review process results in a higher quality result than might be achieved if the identities of the committee members were public at the time proposals are submitted. APPAM also does not identify who on the committee was responsible for reviewing proposals in a specific topic area. Many years of experience with this approach has shown that it helps the association to recruit excellent members for the committee given the considerable responsibilities of participation. The chair of the committee – the APPAM president-elect – is known to all throughout the process, and is the person who receives all comments and complaints about the proposal reviews on behalf of the committee. Return to Top Q: How does APPAM determine how many sessions to schedule for each topic area in the Fall Research Conference? A: The APPAM president-elect makes the final determination of how many sessions there will be in each area based on recommendations from the Program Committee. Quality of the sessions always is the first and foremost criterion. That said, on the low side APPAM prefers that each area have a minimum number of sessions (approximately five to six) each year. Otherwise, the conference will not offer a worthwhile professional meeting to persons interested in those topics. On the high side, APPAM prefers that any area with more sessions than there are unique time slots (current 11 total across three days) have sufficiently diverse panels to allow two be scheduled opposite each other at one time without diluting their audience. The Program Committee often seeks to combine similar panels into a single session given the time constraints and high demand for participation. Return to Top Q: Why does APPAM hold the Fall Conferences in Washington, DC every other year? A: Beginning in 1985, APPAM has held every conference in an odd-numbered year in Washington, DC. This pattern emerged because of the interest of practitioners in the Washington area (and especially federal government officials) in the research presented at the Fall Conference. The conferences held in Washington, DC in recent years have been strongly attended by non-academics. In 2003, APPAM surveyed several leadership groups and the individual membership regarding whether to continue the every-other-year pattern in Washington, DC, and found that all were in support of that arrangement. APPAM essentially holds two different types of research conferences — those in DC have 200 to 300 more attendees and are much more diverse in terms of non-academic participation, and those outside of DC connect the APPAM community to other areas of the U.S. and tend to be more academic in attendance. Return to Top Q: How does APPAM decide where to hold Fall Conferences outside of Washington, DC? A: Unlike many associations that select their host cities on the basis of hotel availability, APPAM traditionally has selected cities based on bids submitted by its institutional members. Every two years, APPAM asks its institutional members to compete to be the host for the next available conference, and the Policy Council picks the site from among the bids received. The local host institution then is responsible for organizing the opening night reception. (When APPAM holds the conference in Washington, D.C. there is no opening night event.) Among the criteria used by the Council for selecting a conference site is balance among regions. After 2012, APPAM will have held the following number of onferences in each U.S. region: 5 in the West, 5 in the Midwest, 4 in the South and 5 in the Northeast (not counting those held in Washington, DC, every other year). Return to Top Q: How does APPAM select a hotel for the Fall Conference? A: After the Policy Council decides on a host city for the conference, APPAM invites hotels in that city to submit bids for the meetings. This process normally occurs five years in advance. Often, no more than two or three hotels respond because the conference requires as much as 30,000 square feet of meeting space to hold the many concurrent sessions and receptions. Many hotels lack sufficient space or else are reluctant to give so much meeting space to a conference that attracts 800 to 1100 attendees. APPAM prefers to use a midsize downtown hotel that can contain the entire conference, but occasionally makes use of several hotels located near each other. Return to Top
Questions about the Spring Conference Q: Why does APPAM have a Spring Conference? What is its purpose? A: The regular spring meeting of APPAM’s Committee of Institutional Representatives – the body that brings together leaders of the association’s institutional members – provides an opportunity to hold an annual conference on issues of interest to the institutions. The first such conference occurred in 1986 at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Most of the conferences have focused on educational issues in the public policy and management field. In recent years, the spring conferences mostly have been held on one day in Washington, DC. The 2006 Spring Conference was a noteworthy exception for occurring over multiple days in Park City, Utah. Return to Top |
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