Minutes

General Assembly in Warsaw

1. Chairman opens the meeting

2. The minutes of the second assembly (2007) are accepted without changes.

3. Overview of activities.
The chairman gives an overview of different activities:

ESRA was legally registered as an official association in Catalonia, Spain, which required some changes in the original constitution. All changes were approved by the General Assembly besides one: in case the president and the vice-president cannot chair the General Assembly it shall be the longest serving member and not the oldest as the new constitution states. This change will be incorporated.

Two miniconferences took place.

The majority of the time and energy was dedicated to organize the ESRA conference 2009 in Warsaw.

Daniel Oberski developed a computer programme which facilitates the organization of ESRA conferences.

4. Survey Research Methods (SRM).

Rainer Schnell presents the report about SRM (link). The publication of a Special Issue is considered and Rainer Schnell will send an email to all session coordinators of the Warsaw conference to ask for suggestions.

4. Financial report over 2007-2009.

Daniel Oberski gave an overview of the revenues and expenses of the ESRA over the years 2007 to 2009 (link), and concludes that ESRA can survive until the next conference in 2011.

5. Changes in the committee.

In agreement with the constitution the ESRA committee shall rotate and the following new committee was accepted:

Chairman	Willem Saris
Vice Chairman	Jaak Bilpet
Chair of the scientific committee	Patrick Sturgis
General Secretary	Wiebke Weber
Treasurer	Daniel Oberski
Internet officer	Daniel Oberski
Members of the committee	Vasja Vehovar, Han Oud, Joan Manuel Batista-Foguet, and Peter Lynn
Representative of SRM	Rainer Schnell

6. Preparation of the next ESRA conference in 2011.

The next ESRA conference in 2011 will be organized by Patrick Sturgis and as discussed with Austrian ESRA members the venue could be Vienna. However, Patrick Sturgis will consider further possibipties before taking a final decision. His main criteria are the price of the venue, the interest and support of the local committee, and also a location which is cultural, historical and/or architectural interesting for the participants.

7. ESRA courses.

Rainer Schnell and Jaak Bilpet will prepare an inventory of survey methodology courses in Europe which shall be pubpshed on the ESRA website. In this way ESRA will encourage the exchange of survey methodology students.

8. Communication with substantive researchers

Hanspeter Kriesi suggests inviting substantive research groups which use surveys such as those of electoral studies, communication, responsibles for ESS modules, and others to the next conference. The Board and General Assembly approves this and agrees on using informal contacts rather than sending out official invitations.

9.ESRA website

Daniel Oberski presents the ESRA website.

10. There are no other issues to discuss

11. The chairman closes the meeting.