2013 EC Minutes - 1
Minutes of the 2013 Meeting of the Executive Committee
University of Los Angeles, California
June 20, 2013
Members present: Alejandra del Carmen, Marta Fülöp, Bill Gabrenya, Judith Gibbons, Sharon
Glazer, Patricia Greenfield, Steven Heine, Yoshi Kashima (presiding), Christine Roland-Lévy.
Members joining by Skype: Gabriel Horenczyk, Chris Sibley
Guest: Ben Voyer from UK is potential representative of the next generation group
The meeting was held in Franz Hall in the afternoon of June 20 and later in the faculty
dining room.
Action items are underlined.
Review minutes of Stellenbosch EC meeting (Bill Gabrenya)
The minutes of the 2012 Stellenbosch EC meeting had been circulated by email prior to the
present EC meeting. No issues with the minutes were raised, so they were accepted as
written. The minutes will be posted on the EC-accessible portion of the IACCP website.
Assistant Treasurer Position (Sharon Glazer)
Per the EC’s decision at the 2012 meeting, a new position, Assistant Treasurer, will be
added effective 2014. It is expected that the person who takes this position will acquire
sufficient knowledge and experience to assume the Treasurer position in 2016. A discussion
ensued concerning how to find the Assistant Treasurer. Sharon will write up a statement of
the appropriate criteria for this position and set up a selection method. She will conduct
interviews at the Reims Congress. Sharon will investigate the bank signatory rules for NonU.S. citizens.
Nationality and Residence of the Treasurer
Continuing a discussion that began several years ago, the EC addressed the question of
whether or not the Treasurer still needs to be located in the U.S. and be a U.S. citizen. This
requirement may be less important now that we have a U.S. based bookkeeping service and
accountant, and doing so would greatly expand the pool of potential Treasurers. The
Bookkeeper could be granted permission to sign checks and perform other financial affairs.
Concern was raised that a non-American would not have enough knowledge of the U.S.
banking and tax systems to effectively carry out the duties of the Treasurer. The general
consensus concerning this issue was that the Treasurer should either be a U.S. resident or
should have had extensive experience living in the U.S.
Wikipedia Article for IACCP (Bill Gabrenya)
This issue was on the Stellenbosch agenda but time did not permit addressing it. Bill
contends that we need to write a Wikipedia entry for “cross-cultural psychology” now,
before someone else does so in a manner that we would not accept. It was also pointed out
that there is an entry for IACCP that is currently empty, and we should create that one as
well. The EC should approve the content.
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Patricia Greenfield pointed out that the relationship between “cross-cultural psychology”
and “cultural psychology” is in a state of rapid change, so it may be premature to write the
entry. She also pointed out the ongoing terminological problem, and raised the question of
whether we should also write an entry for “cultural psychology.” Bill expressed his concern
that we need to act quickly and the relationships among the differently-titled subfields
could take a long time to stabilize. He suggested we write entries under both titles in such a
way that they reference and link to each other.
Some people were suggested as potential writers, such as Walt Lonner, Steve Heine, and
Daphna Oyserman. The project should be undertaken quietly so that another party does not
learn of it and preempt us. Those present generally agreed with this strategy. The EC
resolved to discuss it on the EC discussion list.
Communication and Publications Committee Report (Bill)
CPC chair Fons van de Vijver had a competing commitment and was not able to attend the
conference, so he asked Bill to deliver a CPC report.
ORPC
Wolfgang Friedlmeier’ ORPC report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
JCCP
Negotiations to revise and continue the JCCP contract with the publisher, Sage and our
editor there, Will Schweitzer, are underway. The current 10 year contract ends in 2014.
Sage attempted to buy out Western Washington University’s 50% share of the JCCP
royalties but was not successful. Instead, Sage now provides the Journal to all IACCP
members for free and gives us $2500 per year to cover editorial costs. The JCCP impact
factor has risen recently. Following the conference, Fons provided impact factor
information. A publication lag problem persists, so Sage has suggested moving to 10 issues
per year.
JCCP Impact Factors:
2008: 1.528
2009: 1.387
2010: 1.857
2011: 1.418
2012: 1.547
Bulletin
Bill reported that he has nearly finished the final issue of the printed, magazine-style
Bulletin. Based on advice from some of his relatives, who are in the print and online
publication businesses, he suggested that the Bulletin be replaced with an “advanced blog.”
Such a blog could include some magazine-like features such as text formatting and
photography. Such a blog needs an editor and possibly some associate editors. It might be
necessary to hire professional help for formatting. The idea of getting the youth group
involved and possibly Nathalie van Meurs was discussed. It was proposed in Stellenbosch
that a committee be formed to discuss the successor to the Bulletin, so he will work with
Fons to get it activated.
2013 EC Minutes - 3
eBooks of Congress Papers
Bill forgot to bring this information to the EC meeting. Congress eBooks have been
produced through the 2010 Melbourne Congress and are on the website. The books were
produced by Bill and his assistants in two formats: PDF and ePub. ePub format is used by
ebook readers. The Stellenbosch eBook is still in the editorial stage.
Status of Special North Africa and Middle East Region (MENA) Representative (Bill)
Bill reviewed the background to the EC’s decision at the 2010 Melbourne Congress to add a
second MENA representative to the EC with observer status. The primary reason for the
arrangement was difficulty in communication between several Middle Eastern countries
and Israel and potential legal ramifications for regional representatives who are Arab
nation citizens. The arrangement sunsets (expires) in 2014. The EC now needs to decide
whether or not to change, eliminate, or continue this practice.
Sharon corroborated the communication problem. Only citizens of Egypt and Jordan can
freely communicate with Israelis. Gabriel Horenczyk noted that there are no restrictions
from the Israel side.
Gabriel posed the question of whether or not having an extra representative actually
increases membership in the region. Sharon noted no increase in MENA membership.
Yoshi proposed that we conduct the EC election in the normal manner, then if a
circumstance arises such that the full representation of the region from which a regional
representative is elected cannot be achieved for any reason, the Executive Council shall
appoint a member from the region as an observer to facilitate the full representation. This
means that if the winner of the election lives in a country that cannot communicate with
other nations in the MENA region, an observer representative would be selected. He
proposed we drop the sunset provision with the expectation that we can change the policy
again if necessary. Gabriel supported this solution. The proposal was accepted unanimously
by the EC.
Visa Rejections by U.S. Government (Patricia Greenfield)
Patricia described the background to the visa problems that were encountered. Two
participants were not able to get visas to enter the U.S., resulting in three people not
attending. She is involved in a collaborative project with Michael Weinstock that is
supported by UCLA, Ben Gurion University and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science
Foundation. Two ethnic Arab students who live in Israel have written theses based on the
project research data and had planned to present their findings at the conference. One was
granted a visa, but the other was not, despite being told at the interview that she would be
given one. (The visa was not denied; it was not received.) The Israel consulate in LA was
contacted and they in turn contacted the U.S. government. Her understanding is that the
visa decision was eventually handled in D.C.
Another participant, from Nigeria, was also unable to get a visa (it was denied twice).
It was pointed out that the most common method for many nations to deny visas is to
simply delay their award until it is too late to travel.
The seriousness of this event was discussed in light of the IACCP Constitution’s statement
about free movement: “3.5.5. The Association shall approve conferences only in countries
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which, at the time of the award, permit free access to all IACCP Members regardless of
national origin.”
Judith Gibbons mentioned that SIP (Interamerican Society of Psychology) avoids meetings
in the USA because of difficulties with members receiving visas. Bill commented that his
wife, when she was still a Taiwanese citizen, had the same experience trying to attend the
1984 Congress in Acapulco, Mexico.
The EC discussed at length how to respond. Michael will write a letter of protest to Patricia
and Michael’s funder, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation. Patricia has
written an op-ed piece, which was submitted first to the APS Observer (who rejected it); she
has just submitted it to the Washington Post. Michael Weinstock plans to adapt it for the
Jerusalem Post. The EC discussed how the Association should respond.
Sharon recalled that six Africans were not able to get visas to South Africa in 2012 and
wondered if we should object to South Africa as well.
The primary discussion concerned details of a letter that would be written to the U.S. State
Department. Several EC members expressed concerns that EC members, who were
associated with the letter, either directly by signing it or indirectly due to their EC
membership, may jeopardize their entries into the USA in the future. Judy volunteered to
sign the letter in her role as U.S. North American regional representative, with Patricia cosigning; the letter would go to the State department and on the IACCP website. A quorum
was not present when this agenda item was addressed so no formal decision was made.
Early Career Members Engagement (Yoshi)
Yoshi updated the EC on two initiatives, the student and early career EC representatives and
the Early Career Award.
Early Career Award
In accordance with the guidelines for the early career award, the Past-President (Kwok
Leung) will chair the selection committee. The award needs to be advertised one year
before the Congress, i.e., now.
Alejandra del Carmen pointed out the problem faced by members in non-English-speaking
nations with regards to the criteria for the award. First, they find it difficult to publish in
English journals, which are highly visible. Second, there are no cross-cultural journals in
their regions, for example, there is no Spanish language cross-cultural journal. Third, people
in these countries and in some non-first-world countries make qualitatively different
contributions to the field, which need to be recognized. Yoshi pointed out that the criteria
for the award were developed with these issues in mind and the process should be fair.
Procedure for Choosing The Student And Early Career EC Representatives
Six and eight people have responded to the call for student and early career representatives
to the EC, respectively, so an election is needed. Yoshi noted that there are two ways to do
this: (1) let the EC make the selection this time; or (2) wait until the 2014 general election.
For option (2), we can either limit the vote to certain people (students; early career), or
employ the honor system and ask people to only vote if they are in the category. Some
demographics could be collected in the election system that would branch the voter to
appropriate elections. Year of degree is needs to be collected in the dues form in the future.
The EC suggested that the honor system be adopted but a formal vote could not be taken
due to lack of a quorum at this point in the meeting.
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Information and winners of the early career award will be added to the website.
2016 Congress (Yoshi)
Masaki Yuki, representing the congress organizer, Minoru Karasawa, made a presentation
to the EC. Paper copies of the pre-proposal were distributed at the meeting. He discussed
the rationale behind the Congress theme and the choice of dates. The dates were set based
on the International Congress of Psychology meeting in Yokohama, which ends on July 29. It
was not possible to hold the Congress prior to ICP. The organizing committee is located at
Nagoya University, while the scientific committee is more diverse. It is 2 hours by bullet
train from Yokohama to Nagoya.
Citizens of all nations except North Korea are able to get visa to enter Japan.
They have high expectations of getting support from several sources in Japan. Nagoya city
has recently adopted internationalization goals, which correspond well with the Congress
goals, thereby increasing the chances of support from the city.
Due to exams being held at the same time at all Japanese universities, Nagoya University
will not be available. Therefore, the conference will be held at the WINC conference center,
which is owned by the city. They expect the city to give IACCP a good deal. Japanese
universities now charge rates that are comparable to conference centers. Registration fees
will be adjusted for participants from low-income countries, students,
members/nonmembers, etc. Dorms and hostels will be available to students.
It was suggested that we try to set up some virtual sessions using Internet conferencing
technology for those who cannot attend.
Patricia pointed out that we would need to vote in the EC before accepting the Nagoya
organizers’ bid to host the conference.
Procedures for Soliciting and Choosing Conference Proposals (Yoshi)
Bill reviewed the history of how we selected conference venues in the past and noted that
for several years we have not been making open calls, as had been the custom previously,
leading in part to John Berry’s complaint.
As in previous EC meetings, a discussion ensued about whether or not we should break
away from following the two big international conferences. Arguments in favor of breaking
away include that it can be too expensive to attend both our Congress and another large
conference; we are seeing relatively little overlap in attendance, perhaps only 40+ people;
there are other organizations we could pair up with, such as ISSBD (International Society
for the Study of Behavioural Development). Arguments against breaking away include the
greater efficiency of paying one airfare to attend two conferences; losing visibility and
potential new members; becoming isolated. A statement to this effect by Jim Georgas was
presented. The issue was not resolved.
Steve Heine suggested that we make open calls, but specify that the conference needs to be
in a certain region. Yoshi asked for an exception for 2016, since we asked the researchers in
Japan, including Masaki Yuki, over 1 year ago to submit a proposal. Patricia suggested an
open call for 2015 but she has a backup possibility in Costa Rica. A table of years and due
dates is needed on the website to clarify deadlines for potential organizers. Patricia
suggested the deadlines should include the EC meeting at which potential organizers must
make a presentation.
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The EC decision was to make open calls immediately for 2015, 2017 and 2018, but set a
deadline of Oct-Nov for the 2015 bid. The calls should include a note as to the desirability of
coordinating with another conference.
2014 Congress Progress Report (Christine Roland-Lévy)
Christine reported on the progress being made to organize the 2014 Congress and raised
several specific issues and questions during the dinner portion of the EC meeting and in a
subsequent meeting with Yoshi, Bill and Sharon.
Christine reported that Reims City is more involved in cultural issues now and is supportive
of the congress. She is preparing a small local organizing committee (see below) and is
adding some new members to the scientific committee (see below). She is working with the
PCO to set up abstract submission, registration, etc.
Local organizing committee:
Congress President: Christine
Congress Vice-President
Prof. Patrick Denoux (France)
Mouni Kouidri (Psychologist , France)
Dr. Maja Becker (France)
Dr. Annamaria Lammel (France)
New members of Scientific Committee:
Prof. Patrick Denoux (France)
Prof. Christine Roland-Lévy (France)
Prof. Colette Sabatier (France)
Prof. Lucy Baugnet (France)
Prof. Vassilis Saroglou (Belgium)
Prof. Abdeslam Dachmi (Morocco)
Prof. Jean-William Wallet (France)
Adjunct Assistant Prof. Hyisung Hwang
(United States)
Dr. Saba Safdar (Canada)
Dr. Nicolas Geeraert (United Kingdom)
Dr. Benjamin Voyer (United Kingdom)
Some EC members expressed the opinion that requiring abstract submitters to choose a
topic category from a static list would reduce attendance and lead to miscategorization.
Christine stated that they will not use a list of topics at abstract submission but will present
a set of ideas on the abstract submission page. Final categories used for organizing sessions
will be generated inductively.
The Congress will include 3 keynotes over 3 days, including the Lonner Lecture and the
Presidential Address (Yoshi). There was some discussion about allowing long symposia, and
of the number of presentations allowed for each person. (This discussion continued on the
EC discussion list following the conference.)
The procedures for giving travel awards were discussed. Yoshi will approach the Jacobs
Foundation for support. The American Psychological Assn often gives $1000 to
international conferences.
The question of whether or not to print a book of abstracts was raised. The consensus at
this point was that a printed schedule was needed but the abstracts could be made available
in electronic form, such as a CD and/or on the website.
Summer School at Reims
Bill related Ron Fischer’s intention to organize the Summer School and raised the question
of whether or not the pedagogical organizing activities should be separated from the
logistics organizing activities. He suggested that Ron be the “pedagogical chair” and that
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another person, or a hired person, take care of logistics and interaction with the Congress
organizers, PCO, etc.
The schedule for the Summer School was discussed in relation to the Bastille Day holiday
(July 14) and the Congress opening. Tentative agreement was that the Summer School
would begin at 2pm on Saturday, July 12 and run through the 14th, with a half day on the
15th. The Summer School cannot be held at the University of Reims due to the Bastille Day
holiday, so Christine has booked rooms for 30 people at another venue in the city. Bill and
Sharon noted that about 45 students have participated in the past. The absolute deadline for
making changes to the Summer School schedule and number of students is September 1,
2013.
The need to include additional details about conference/Congress details, in addition to the
existing conference guidelines document, was raised. Bill will begin adding material.
2015 regional conference (Yoshi and Patricia)
Patricia contacted a psychology faculty member at Catholic University in Chile to host the
2015 regional conference, but it did not work out. One of her mandates (as stated by Yoshi)
is to bring in more Latin American members. Heidi has a long term relationship with faculty
at a university in Costa Rica, Mariano Rosabal and Henning Jensen. Some discussion of other
Latin American locations ensued. Judy will look into Peru. It was decided to publish an
open call for the 2015 conference with a stated preference for Latin America, with a 3month deadline for response via a pre-proposal.
2013 Los Angeles Conference Report (Patricia)
Patricia summarized some of the statistics for the current conference. There are 348
registrants, a couint that includes about 30 volunteers who were given free registration.
Some volunteers are presented papers or posters. The volunteers include both graduate and
undergraduate students. 36 countries are represented.
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research has committed $2300 in order to sponsor the
cultural neuroscience symposium. Because UCLA did not charge for use of facilities, they
were able to give travel awards, and will be able to return a portion of the $5000 seed
money.
The Library of Social Science provided a book display. It featured books by IACCP LA 2013
presenters and IACCP members..
Never Enough Time: Four More Items
Four items were not discussed due to lack of time. Yoshi sent out an email to the EC list with
proposals regarding these items, and asked for an electronic EC vote.
Hofstede Film
A Dutch group is planning to make a documentary about Geert Hoftstede using material
they will acquire at his upcoming 85th birthday party. The film makers need about 25,000
euro to make the film. They have asked IACCP to contribute 1000 euro, and in exchange will
make the film available to members.
ACTION REQUIRED: would you approve the expenditure of 1000 euro for this purpose?
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Symposium for East Africa Regional Conference of Psychologists (EARCP) conference, 7-8
November 2013
EARCP is being sponsored by IUPsyS, IAAP, and IACCP. We have made a monetary donation.
In return, we will have a session at the conference. The question of who would do this and
how much we would pay to support the event was raised. David Sam has agreed to attend.
ACTION REQUIRED: would you approve an appropriate expenditure for economy return
airfare and one night accommodation for our representative to attend the EARCP?
Support and participation in SPSP cultural preconference
We have been donating $500 to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)
Cultural Psychology preconference for several years. In the past, due to organizational
problems in both the preconference and IACCP, we have not been able to present our own
session. In 2014, Michele Gelfand will attend to represent us.
From Yoshi’s email to the EC list: In return [for the donation, the preconference] would be
able to offer IACCP the following representation at the scientific meeting:
 Inclusion of the IACCP logo on the Cultural Psychology Preconference website
 Inclusion of IACCP logo in the Cultural Psychology Preconference printed program
 Oral acknowledgement of IACCP's support in the Introduction and Concluding
remarks of the meeting.
ACTION REQUIRED: would you approve the expenditure of $500 for this purpose?
Association for Psychological Science (APS) Proposal
From Yoshi’s email to the EC list: There has been an offer from the APS (Association for
Psychological Sciences) to give IACCP members free membership for a year, and put
together an IACCP sponsored event at their conference next year.
ACTION REQUIRED: would you approve the move to send out an attached email note and
*consider* putting together an IACCP sponsored event in 2014?
Postscript: All 4 proposals were approved by the EC in a subsequent online vote.
Other Discussions of Note at the Conference but outside the EC meeting
JCCP ancillary materials (Bill and Deborah)
Youth Group (Bill and Elena Halonen)
Abstracts online (Bill and Christina, Yolie’s assistant)
Bill Gabrenya, 6 July 2013