Notes from the President

David J. Webber
University of Missouri

The most important news from the recent APSA meeting is that Policy Currents has found a new home. Beginning with Volume 5 (February 1995) Charles Barrilleaux and Richard Feiock will co-edit the section newsletter from the Policy Sciences Center at Florida State University. They envision retaining the current format of the newsletter, but hope to include more essays and a "data watch" section briefly describing data and empirical relationships that would be of interests to a broader research community. Please direct your suggestions and comments to Charles, at (904) 644- 3848 or CBARRILE@GARNET.ACNS.FSU.EDU, or Rich, at (904) 644-7615 or RFEIOCK@GARNET.ACNS.FSU.EDU.

Executive Council Size Increased

In other business of the annual business meeting of the Section, the proposed change in the Section by-laws to increase the number of council members from six to twelve was adopted. The reason for the change is to increase representation on the Council and to spread the workload of the Section to more members. The names of the new and continuing Council members are printed on the last page of Policy Currents.

The Internet and Electronic Distribution of Policy Currents

The APSA gopher now has a "public policy and public administration" menu entry which can be used as an electronic library for appropriate material. One possibility is, given the interest of the new Policy Currents editors' in making the newsletter available electronically to those readers who prefer it, that back issues of Policy Currents can be archived on this gopher. For those of you with internet access, point your gopher at APSA.TRENTON.EDU to explore a wide range of information of interest to political scientists. Suggestions for, submission of, material for the APSA gopher should be directed to Bill Ball at Ball@TSCLION.TRENTON.EDU.

Next Year's APSA Program

I am beginning to plan the public policy portion of next year's APSA annual meeting program. In addition to our allocation of panels, the actual number of panels yet to be determined, I expect that the Section will sponsor a workshop on the Wednesday before the meeting and a panel and reception to honor the contribution of a distinguished policy scholar. While the Wednesday workshop (on Policy- Oriented Grantsmanship) did not attract as many registrants as the previous year's workshop (on writing for non-academic audience), interest and interaction among the participants was quite high.

For next year's meeting, I welcome suggestions for a workshop topic and format, poster sessions, roundtables, and innovative improvements to the traditional panel format.

Thank You

Finally, the Section expresses its gratitude to Helen Ingram for her leadership in launching the Public Policy Section four years ago and in developing and editing Policy Currents. May she enjoy the satisfaction of watching her efforts succeed under new leadership. While serving the Section for a shorter period of time, but with no less distinction, we are grateful to Ken Meier for the continuity growth he provided as Section president during the last year. Please contact me with your ideas, comments, reactions concerning the Section or next year's APSA meeting. I can be reached at (314) 882- 7931, or fax (314) 884- 5131, but I am most easily contacted by email at POLIDJW@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU.

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