REPLY Investing in the field (SD6357)

[SDMAIL John Sterman]

Posted by  John Sterman <jsterman at MIT.EDU>

Bob Cavana asks excellent questions about the need for additional  
financial resources and the ways in which such resources might be  
used by the System Dynamics Society.

The financial position of the society is as healthy as it is through  
the hard work of many members, who volunteer countless hours, and of  
the Society home office staff, especially Roberta Spencer.  Roberta  
and the other staff keep expenses low and generate revenue through  
activities such as sales of the beer game.  We are also fortunate to  
have the support of a number of sponsors, including a large number of  
companies in the system dynamics field, some universities, and some  
individuals.  We are very grateful to them for their support.

Nevertheless, the Society is financially constrained in a number of  
ways.

First, we cannot afford to run the conferences at a loss.  Because  
the majority of the members are in Europe and North America,  
conferences run outside these locations have historically attracted  
much lower attendance and generated much less revenue.  Despite this  
we have run our conferences in China, Thailand, and New Zealand.  It  
would be highly beneficial for the field if we could run conferences  
outside NA and Europe more often, or in addition to the regular  
conferences, but at present we cannot afford to do so.

Second, the Society is growing.  As it does, the load on the home  
office grows as well.  However, at present financial resources do not  
permit us to add the staff needed to keep service high or respond to  
the requests of members for additional services.  Given the  
substantial research in system dynamics on the dynamics of  
organizational growth and service quality, it would be ironic indeed  
if the growth of the field was limited due to staff shortages,  
particularly in light of the long discussion on this list regarding  
the growth of the field.

Third, greater financial resources would allow the Society to expand  
our existing programs to offer student discounts for the conferences  
and subsidized conference attendance and membership dues for those  
with limited financial means.

We run a tight fiscal ship, with high efficiency.  But the growth of  
the field and our ability to reduce the cost of participation in  
Society activities is constrained by our limited financial  
resources.  Donations to the Society are a high leverage point to  
increase the growth of the field.

John Sterman 
Posted by  John Sterman <jsterman at MIT.EDU>
posting date  Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:14:43 -0400