AAPT Governance Retreat May 23-25

Preliminary Synthesis Report

On May 23-25 more than 65 active members of AAPT met at the American Center for Physics for a Governance Planning Retreat.  The unprecedented gathering consisted of the 18 area chairs, close to 40 section representatives or designees, and a number of board members and officers of the AAPT.  They explored and discussed more effective ways for the central organization to support its sections and area committees, and for the sections and the area committees to be more engaged in advancing AAPT's mission.  The synthesized model from these discussions, which the retreat participants will have a chance to review, will be shared with the Governance Review Committee. The Committee will discuss the model and adopt it into a workable format that it will propose to the Board for action. Eventually the Council and the full membership, considering that constitutional changes are deemed necessary, will weigh in on the proposed governance changes.

The need to enhance section relations and the role of area committees was discussed at the June 2006 leadership retreat and during the deliberations of the Planning Action Group. This governance planning retreat, which was initiated at the October 2006 meeting of the Board, follows an April planning session led by a group of 12 representing the area chairs and section representatives.

What follows below documents what was said at the meeting.  If you want everything in one file, click here for download.

All AAPT Members are invited to review the content from the Governance Retreat.  Please send suggestions and comments to: Future@aapt.org.