November 1, 2011

Dear Clinical and Applied Sociologists,

What a wonderful annual meeting we enjoyed in New Orleans in October 2011!  Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of those days, especially Mike Hirsch and Augie Diana.

A strong point of this past year’s conference was outreach.  Students were welcomed and included, and the mentoring sessions were great!  We also did well toward our aim of reaching out to retired clinical and applied sociologists.  We enjoyed the expertise of a great hotel staff at Le Pavilon who took care of every little detail.  We had good support overall; specifically, we saved money on technology and equipment, with much of it supplied by local sources.

Now that we’ve experienced New Orleans, we begin preparations for another year.  Save the dates for next year’s conference:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 4, 5, and 6, 2012
Hyatt Regency Downtown

Our keynote speaker will be none other than

William Julius Wilson

and we’ve already booked fantastic, dynamic speakers for the morning plenaries.

Start thinking now of what you would like present at the 2012 conference and watch for the call for papers!

Best,

Libby Larsen
AACS President

As part of my duties as Chair of the AACS Elections Committee, I am pleased to announce the results of our recent election for AACS Leadership, as well as the adoption of changes in the AACS Bylaws.  We had an excellent Slate for the elections, with all races proving to be very competitive.  I want to thank all of you who were willing and able to run for office this year.   To that end, the following colleagues will represent the membership on the AACS Board: (drum roll please)

AACS President Elect:                                    Tina Quartaroli

AACS Vice President Elect:                           Sandra Jones

AACS At Large Board Members (3):         Audwin Anderson, DeMond Miller and Lubomir Popov

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!!!

In addition, the AACS Membership voted overwhelmingly (98.4% support) to APPROVE the changes in the AACS Bylaws.

I also would like to remind you that the 2011 AACS Annual Conference is scheduled for October 13-15 in New Orleans!  A preliminary program will be coming out very soon, so please go to the AACS Web Site (www.aacsnet.net) to register for the conference and reserve your rooms at Le Pavillon.  It is important that we fill the room bloc for the conference!

I look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!!!

J. Steve Picou, Past President AACS and Chair, Election Committee

To join, go to http://lists.unf.edu/mailman/listinfo/aacsnet

Jeff Will, Fonda, and I are populating the new list with former list members. But don’t wait for us. Join the list now.

The new list remains moderated: Jeff, Jammie, and Fonda. Suggestions: Email any of us, or any AACS representative of your choice.

Our 2010 conference sessions reflect the growing diversity within our organization.  In addition to staple sessions on methodology, technology, evaluation and teaching, our 2010 sessions included research on family violence, cross-cultural work, applied gerontology, applied criminology and futuring.  The role clinical and applied sociologists play in social movements, energy work, community development and civic engagement were also explored.  Translational work continues to be an area of growing interest among our members.  In 2010 we were pleased to once again be joined by members of Sociologists without Borders.

Growth and diversification are keys to the dynamism of our organization.  We are working to include more formal mentorship sessions at the 2011 conference in New Orleans and to nurture other applied and clinical concentrations at the meetings and within our membership including, but not limited to, epidemiology and convict criminology.   Joyce Miller (President of KeyStone Research Corporation) will present a plenary session on being an applied sociology entrepreneur and Joan Ferrante (Professor of Sociology at Northern Kentucky) will present a plenary session on the use of social networks to effect change.

While I’m delighted that these two dynamic researchers will share their work with us in New Orleans, I’m especially excited by what you might bring to the conference.  I encourage all of you to help us push the limits of what it means to do clinical and applied work.  I also encourage you to bring your most innovative work and ideas to New Orleans to share with us.  Let New Orleans be a forum where we share our best practices with our colleagues.

We are currently soliciting nominees for the Lester F. Ward, Alex Boros, Robert Ezra Park, Paul Wellstone and Judith Little awards.  We are also soliciting a nominee for the William Julius Wilson Award which we are inaugurating at the 2011 meetings.  Information about the awards can be found elsewhere on this website. As always, we continue to invite the submission of work to our journal Applied Social Science.

I hope to see you in New Orleans in October!  Please touch base with me about any questions or comments you may have.

Here’s to a great 2011!

Michael L. Hirsch
President, Association of Applied and Clinical Sociology 2010 – 2011
Huston-Tillotson University
Austin, Texas
mlhirsch@htu.edu
512.505.3125

The Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology

2011 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Applied and Clinical Sociology: Making a Difference and Loving It!

October 13-15

New Orleans, LA

Le Pavillon Hotel

AACS_Conference_Submission_Form (to submit a paper or session) Deadline May 15

AACS Conference Registration (to electronically register for conference, or click ConferenceRegForm11 to register via land)

To Reserve a Conference Hotel room, call 1-800- 535-9095 Monday-Friday 9–5; identify AACS