The past year was highlighted with numerous activities and meetings of the System Dynamics Society Chapters in the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Korea, China, and the Australasian group. I have written to each Chapter requesting a written annual report. A representative from each Chapter has been invited to attend and speak briefly at the Policy Council meeting in Atlanta. Therefore, I will not focus in this report on our current six chapters but write, instead, about what inquires have come through my office this year.
One sad moment to remember. With the encouragement at the Winter PC Council meeting, I contacted via e-mail Professor Pratap K. J. Mohapatra of India mentioning that "Unfortunately, for the past few years, the actual number of "dues paying members" to the System Dynamics Society from India has fallen below the required 10 minimum members. For example, this year there appears to be four of you. Therefore, at this time, the Policy Council of the Society would like to temporarily withdraw official chapter status from India." I explained in my message about the reduced fee memberships that might be available to help boost membership. I heard back briefly from Professor Mohapatra saying he was aware of the low membership problem and would seek new potential members.
And, on a happier note, as the general membership in the Society continues to increase, so does the interest in forming interest groups and new chapters. Roberta and I have had a noticeable increase in the number of members writing us interested in forming chapters. One example is Professor Dr. Raomeu R. Telma from the University of Paran in Brazil. Prof. Telma is actively working on their letter of application to the PC Council with signatures and the Constitution for a Brazil Chapter.
As one of the largest system dynamics "interest groups," the National Capital System Dynamics Group (NCSDG) in Ottawa, Canada has had an excellent year of group activities and special events. In April, 2000, I wrote a long note to four of the leaders asking them to please consider forming an official SD Society Chapter. The reply back was, "Not yet." You can see more details about NCSDG activity at http://www.customerexpressions.com/custex/ncsdig.nsf
Late in March, from Austria came this enthusiastic announcement of a newly formed System Dynamics Group. "SD Group Austria has been formed! At the 2000 International System Dynamics Conference a group of young Austrian SDers from different scientific institutions met for the first time. Stefan Berchtold and Stephan Gueldenburg (WU Vienna), Guenter Emberger (TU Vienna), Ernst Gebetsroither (ARC Seibersdorf) and Guenther Ossimitz (University of Klagenfurt) decided to cooperate in SD-related work. The first highlight was a jointly organized beer-game, played by students of four different Universities in the Winter 2000 term at the Economic University of Vienna (see http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/~gossimit/lv/usw00/w/g4/beer.html). The members of the group can be reached via netzwerk@systemdenken. We are planning a common web site and closer cooperation in the dissemination of system dynamics and systems thinking ideas in Austria. Any SDer / STer in Austria is welcome to join the group! For further information please contact Guenther Ossimitz at ossimitz@bigfoot.com." I wrote to Guenther Ossimitz to ask if they were interested in forming a Society chapter at this time, and his reply was, "Not yet."
I hope that a Society student chapter can be formed. In January, 2001, Ozge Pala wrote to me, "We started collecting signatures and wrote a preliminary constitution (after the Bergen conference)." She admitted that activity then stopped. Shortly after the Winter PC Meeting, I wrote to encourage Ozge: "First, and most important, the PC Council wishes you to know that they consider young people such as yourself the future life blood of the field of system dynamics! They want to encourage you and others to continue to your efforts toward figuring out what kind of world group you might form and how to accomplish the goal." Unfortunately, I have not heard from Ozge or any of the other students since about continuing interest or effort in forming a Society student chapter. Let's all give our own local students a pep talk! I'm certain the student chapter idea will continue to be discussed.
The following countries currently meet (and exceed) the 10 member requirement and could quickly go through the Society paperwork when members are ready to form a chapter: Norway, Germany, Spain, and The Netherlands. Other countries from which people have written to me in the past two years expressing interest in forming a chapter but lack the required membership count are: Poland, Yugoslavia, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, Chile, Mexico, Australia, Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina. I keep files on each of these countries, and the files are getting thicker!
Finally, some of my goals as V.P. for Chapters for 2001-2002 are as follows:
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Lux
Vice President for Chapters
Ms. Nan S. Lux, Program Manager
MIT System Dynamics Group
E60-375, 30 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617) 253-1574 Fax: (617) 258-9405 Email: nlux@mit.edu
Web sites: http://sysdyn.mit.edu or http://web.mit.edu/sdg/www