Board Room, St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco
Thursday, April 5, 2007

Present: Joan MacGregor (Chair), Janet Levin, Sharon Lloyd, Calvin Normore, Fred Schueler, Anita Silvers, Nick Smith, Allen Wood
Guests: Dom Lopes, Mark Wrathall

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Secretary Silvers requested the addition of a new item to the previously distributed agenda. An APA member had just brought a complaint to the Pacific Division Executive Committee regarding discrimination on the basis of sex by an institution on the Pacific Coast that was using APA facilities. The question was not to address the complaint directly, as doing so involved an investigatory process inappropriate for a divisional Executive Committee, but rather to determine how the Executive Committee could be properly responsive to members raising issues of this sort, and then to respond properly. The Executive Committee agreed to address this matter as the first action item on the agenda.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MARCH 22, 2006: The Minutes were approved as printed.

REPORT OF SECRETARY-TREASURER: The Secretary-Treasurer made a brief report on the financial state of the Division.

DISCRIMINATORY HIRING PRACTICE AND JFP: An APA member asked the Executive Committee to address what he believes to be a discriminatory practice by a Pacific Coast institution advertising its position in the APA’s JFP. He was offered the position but also asked as a pre-employment condition to sign a statement agreeing not to engage in certain practices. Although these were not practices he engaged in, he believed the previously undisclosed pre-employment condition violated APA anti-discrimination policy.
Executive Committee discussion focused on the APA requirement regarding publication of potentially discriminatory pre-employment conditions. While institutions with religious affiliations may decide that they will hire only members who accept their faith, this condition must be published so that people who don’t meet the condition will not waste time and resources applying. The Executive Committee decided that there was reason to exercise its ability to place items on the agenda of the APA Board of Officers. The Executive Committee thereupon requested that the APA Board of Officers consider whether to refer the complaint to its investigatory committee, the APA Committee on Defense of Professional Rights, to determine whether the APA policy on advertising in JFP had been violated. (See the Board of Officers’ 2007 Meeting Minutes in the forthcoming May 2008 Proceedings for the outcome of the referral.)

APPOINTMENTS TO 2008 PROGRAM COMMITTEE: The Executive Committee discussed fields that needed to be covered by new appointments to the Program Committee. Proposals for members to be appointed were made. 2008 Program Committee Chair Wrathall will contact candidates and come back to the Executive Committee for more recommendations if the necessary coverage of fields is not achieved.

2009 PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIR: The Executive Committee decided to invite Paul Hurley to chair the 2009 program committee.

APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE: The proposed revision of the Pacific Division bylaws at the upcoming business meeting provides for the divisional nominating committee to be elected. To identify candidates for this election, however, calls for one last appointed nominating committee to select candidates for the first election to the nominating committee. To reflect the proposed revisions in the bylaws as closely as possible, the Executive Committee adopted the idea that the division’s immediate past president chair the nominating committee. Calvin Normore will chair the 2007-08 nominating committee. Robert Pasnau and James van Cleve will be the committee’s members. They will nominate candidates of the number and kind designated in the revised bylaws.

REPORT OF 2007 PROGRAM CHAIR: 2007 Program Committee Chair Fred Schueler gave the Executive Committee some comparative statistics about the 2008 and 2007 programs. 457 papers were submitted for the 2007 program, compared to 386 for 2006. The rate of acceptance remained steady, but the standard for accepting colloquium and symposium papers went up by half a grade. The number of colloquium papers accepted therefore went up, but the number of accepted symposium papers went down. Thirty-six graduate students had their papers accepted. The number of invited sessions was the same as the previous year.
Program Committee Chair Schueler worried that, if the number of submissions continued to rise according to the trend line from 2006 to 2007, no hotel would have sufficient meeting rooms to house the meeting. Silvers assured the Executive Committee that the number of submissions always rises precipitously when the meeting is in San Francisco, and drops the next year when the meeting is elsewhere. Nevertheless, she said, finding hotels with enough meeting space that are willing to provide the space at no charge in return for a sleeping room guarantee is increasingly difficult.

PIKSI SUPPORT REQUEST: The Executive Committee responded positively to the APA Board of Officers’ request that the Division contribute $3,250 to support the Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute for Undergraduates at Penn State.

MEETING SITES for 2009: The 2008 meeting is in Pasadena, and the division will return to San Francisco for the 2010 meeting. A site in the Northwest for the 2009 meeting is needed. The Executive Committee decided to invite proposals from hotels in Seattle and Vancouver. In regard to the prospect of meeting in Vancouver, special attention will be paid to border crossing issues that might impede some members’ ability to attend the meeting.

BUSINESS MEETING AGENDA: The Executive Committee approved the agenda for the upcoming business meeting. The-Secretary Treasurer reported on conversations with the Chair of the Division’s Ad Hoc Committee on Bylaw Revision about approaches to present and act on the Committee’s recommendation. It was agreed that President Normore, who would chair the business meeting, initially would call on the Chair of the Bylaw Revision Committee to present the issues, and that the proposed revisions needed no second as they were being made by a committee. The proposal would be moved and acted on in sections (the sections delineated by its authors).

ADJOURNMENT: Having completed the agenda, the Executive Committee adjourned the meeting at 10:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Anita Silvers
Secretary-Treasurer