SOCIETY

FOR

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES

OF

BEHAVIOR

DEVELOPMENTS
Volume 9, Number 1, Issue 1, May 22, 2002
The Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior (SQAB) was founded in 1978 to present symposia and publish material that

Business Meeting Notes: 54:47:12;26-05-01-20 (Saturday, May 26, 2001; 12:47:54 pm) 10:30 Present: Peter Killeen, John Staddon, Alliston Reid, Greg Galbicka, Jim Mazur, Tim Hackenburg, Anthony McLean, Mike Ehlert, Howard Rachlin, Bill Baum, Bill Palya, Len Green, John Kraft, Scott Lane, Armando Machado, Mark Cleaveland, Darlene Crone-Todd, Tony Nevin, Carrie Kirk, Matthew Bowers, Robert Bailey The Board The meeting began with notifying the membership about changes in the Board. Peter Killeen informed the membership that some individuals had terms that were ending (specifically, Howie Rachlin, Edmund Fantino and Jack Marr). The following individuals have agreed to join the board: Len Green, Tim Hackenburg, and Jim Mazur. The officers and others have all agreed to stay on at this point: Peter Killeen and Armando Machado have agreed to continue as president and as Program Chair. Michael Commons has agreed to stay on as treasurer and Darlene Crone-Todd has agreed to stay on as Local Arrangements coordinator. The membership present voted for the changes in the board and for continuing the terms of the officers by acclamation. Peter Killeen informed the membership that, as always, he and Armando were interested in maintaining a dialogue and were available via e-mail to receive the memberships comments and suggestions. If, for some reason, you are not able to get a hold of either Peter or Armando, the entire board is available via e-mail. Please contact any of them if there is something you wish to say or contribute. Treasurer and Secretarys Report: The Secretarys Report (last years Business Meeting minutes) was contained in the SQAB newsletter, Developments, which was passed out to all those present

on Friday and passed out again to those attending the current meeting. There was a motion to accept the minutes from last year and all members present voted to accept them. The Treasurers Report was also included in the SQAB newsletter. Michael Commons pointed out that the crucial information was that the Society continued to run in the black, and that this was so mainly due to sales of the videos from the tutorials. Both SQABs income and SQABs expenses have grown in the past few years. The major reason that expenses have grown is that it costs a great deal to run the meetings in these hotels; the major expenses are generally for the equipment used and for the coffee and other refreshments. Selling videos: Peter wanted to encourage all members to ask their departments or the libraries at their institutions to consider purchasing one or more of the videos. The major costs of producing these videos has been paid, so any sales at this point really help support SQAB. When SQABs treasury is doing well, then it is more likely that we can support students by waiving registration fees and other such actions. Proceedings As those present are now aware, members get a chance to sign on to the website and have electronic access to last years SQAB proceedings. The list with all the names for this year should be ready within a week or so of this meeting. Hopefully this will also encourage people to maintain their memberships even if they are not attending during a particular year. Meetings Killeen informed the members that for next year we will most likely tweak the logistics of the meetings in a few small ways. This will include increasing the amount of time for talks, and asking people to use the extra five minutes or so to give more of a front end to their talk. In this front end, people will attempt to enlighten the general audience a bit more about the subject they will

be addressing. The general discussion periods will be dispensed with, because most of the discussion during those periods has been about only the last talk, and this extra time will be used for extending the individual talks. One comment from Bill Palya was that at $20.00, it was getting rather expensive for students to attend. SQAB did subsidize students who presented at SQAB or who presented a data-based paper at ABA this year (as in the past). But there are some students who are not presenting. There is not much of an idea of how many students this may effect, but the President promised to have the issue of rates for students considered in setting next years rates.

Possible textbook Michael Commons would like to see the Society move forward with a textbook on QAB. This is envisioned as a combination textbook/handbook, designed so people can learn how to do QAB. It might be very helpful to the Society and to the whole enterprise. Peter Killeen and others brought up the idea that there had been some volumes in EAB like this in the past, for example there were the volumes in what was called the Handbook of Operant Behavior, and more recently the Lattal and Eberson pair, but these are all out of print now. Commons envisions these as being appropriate for the advanced undergraduate/elementary graduate school level. This book could be based on the tutorials. People who have done tutorials could write up a section. This book may not be a big seller but it could be a steady seller - wants everyone to contribute - will have the best editors. Peter Killeen has a correlated idea to this. He would like to try to use the web to also further the enterprise of QAB. The idea is to try and have a Model bank on the web. See if we can make it easy to put each others models in each others hands. While there are some technical problems with doing this, he thinks it would make both a substantive and a sociological contribution. Michael Commons other idea has to do with students and helping students to get jobs. In the past 2-3 years it seems that more QAB people have been getting jobs. He would like to see SQAB have more of an organized effort to help students move into academic and research world. If they get more support they will do better. This would be good because we want the field to compete. 31:50:15;25-05-01-20 (Friday, May 25, 2001; 3:50:31 pm) Meeting of SQAB Board of Directors Present: William Baum, Michael Commons, Darlene Crone-Todd, Peter Killeen, Armando Machado, Tony Nevin, Howard Rachlin, Patrice Miller, William Palya. Absent: Edmund Fantino, Jack Marr The following individuals are currently on the SQAB Board:

Fantino Marr Palya Nevin SQAB was founded in 1978. It is 23 years old now. AGENDA: How is the meeting going; Nomination of new Board members; Replacement of officers; Publishing at SQAB; the Web; what should take place at the Business Meeting? How is the meeting going Baum: We would like to see 30 minute talks Palya: Have an explicit instructions to presenter because they need to lay groundwork Try making group discussion longer or after each talk have a longer discussion. Nevin: Allow for interruptions, especially for clarifications. We could have people w/ related papers all stay on stage so questions might go to all. Killeen: Ben Williams is suggested taking a major theory and focusing on it Baum: Do not make your job too hard. The consensus was to lengthen the talks slightly, get rid of the group discussion and accept interruptions of understanding but not argument. But to also consider some techniques to generate more discussion about the interrelationships between papers. One technique to promote that is to have a person whose job it is to bring forward those kinds of questions. Another is symposia. Elections Howard Rachlin, Edmund Fantino, Jack Marr may all be on the Board past the limit. Killeen suggests having Fantino, Marr, Rachlin step down and electing new Board members. Another goal would be to try and include people from a variety of backgrounds and institutions, so the Board is broader. Past presidents remain on the Board. William Palya and William Baum were elected to the Board in 2000. Nominations Len Green, Tim Hackenburg, James E. Mazur Board has asked Killeen, Machado and Darlene to serve another term. President, Program Chair, and Program Coordinator agreed to stay on. The Board has agreed to support Machados travel Publication

Goal of the Society is to publish. There was a discussion of Behavior Processes versus JEAB. William Baum will negotiate and discuss this with JEAB. He is Associate Editor. There are a number of advantages of Behavioral Processes: SQAB is able to purchase them for a good price. They do it in a year We are the editorial board The option chosen for next year is poster presenters may submit two pages each for possible publication in the volume. Website People who are members will get access. Since most people did not register until the meeting, the final members list will not be generated until a week or two after SQAB is over. Then that list can be used to set up the members entry to the website. Peter: Link to peoples programs that run models. There will be an email discussion on the specifications and procedures Business Meeting Election Video tapes Text Book Support for students looking for jobs

Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior Treasurer's Report for 2001
May 21, 2002 Balance brought forward $6,459.28 Income Interest Earned Membership only $60.00 Registration $3,028.00 $51.60

Registration and Membership Sale of Videos TOTAL INCOME $9,447.99 Expenses Paypal charges Fees $485.00 Behavioral Processes, $1,600.00 Videos 3 issues

$5,129.50 $1,178.89

Symposium expenses Tax preparation $350.00 TOTAL EXPENSES $7,910.71 Ending Balance $7996.55

$2994.70

$7.00

(Elsevier) $2,474.01

Prepared by Margaret Miller for Michael Lamport Commons

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