APSA eJobs Editor and Professional Programs Manager Joyce Williams Retires
Someone was absent from the 2007 Annual Meeting. Following 34 years of service to the profession, Joyce Williams retired from APSA at the end of August. Many knew Joyce Williams as the mainstay of the Association's professional placement services. And so she was.
Before the days of In Design and the Web, Joyce gathered job notices from departments and meticulously put together the APSA's monthly Personnel Service Newsletter. In subsequent years the Newsletter would evolve into E-jobs, but Joyce knew its infancy when she type-set notices, carefully composed each page of the Newsletter by adhering columns of paper with hot wax, and sent errant copies to grateful job seekers. Seemingly a neverending assignment, as soon as Joyce completed one issue she began work on the next. In her remaining time Joyce also served as the Association's Credential Referral Service, responding to job-seekers' requests by copying CVs and letters of recommendation and sending them off to long lists of departments with open positions. Joyce's most visible contribution to the profession, however, was the Annual Meeting's Placement Service where she brought job candidates and hiring departments together with a minimum of drama and a good deal of caring.
Joyce facilitated many other programs during her tenure with the Association including, Departmental Services, Publications, Small Research Grants, the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, and the Minority Identification Program.
Unbeknownst to most, Joyce played a pivotal role in the selection and implementation of the Association's first computer network and the development of its membership and departmental databases. She learned by doing and for many years was the technician people went to when confounded by the new system. She worked tirelessly to provide answers to questions and solutions to problems that her colleagues visited upon her.
Gifted with an ample sense of fun, Joyce looked forward to the annual Committee on the Status of Blacks reception and offered up a song or two at staff gatherings. Her friends and colleagues wish her well in retirement.
Southern Political Science Association Seeks Executive Director and Journal Editor
The Southern Political Science Association (SPSA) invites applications for executive director. The executive director helps lead SPSA by providing administrative services; supervising the annual meeting; interacting with members, officers, and partners ; anticipating needs of the Association and alerting the Executive Council of them; providing creative options to meet those needs; hiring, evaluating, and motivating a small local staff; overseeing communications , including the web site; providing expense and revenue reports and projected budgets; keeping permanent records; and alerting officers and Council of deadlines and their tasks.
President Catherine Rudder has appointed a Search Committee to select a new editor for the Journal of Politics. The incoming editor will succeed John Geer, whose editorial term ends December 31, 2008. The new editor will serve an initial four year term. Nominations should be sent to William G. Jacoby by November 15, 2007 (jacoby@msu.edu).
The SPSA was established in 1929 to further the scholarly purposes of its members who today hail from throughout the U.S. and abroad. The Association believes in the principle of diversity and thus minorities and women are encouraged to apply. It also encourages qualified applicants, irrespective of region. For more information on both positions, please visit the SPSA web site at: www.spsa.net.
