Transition Team Held a Town-Hall Meeting

The first informal TASSA Transition Team (TT) town-hall meeting was held on February 26, 2011 in Van Munching Hall Room #1330 at the University of Maryland Robert M. Smith School of Business, with around 30 participants from various professional and academic institutions in Washington DC and neighboring areas. Among the participants were: six TASSA TT members (one joining via phone from CA), four TASSA founding members, and a number of former and current TASSA members.

Participants also included people who have not heard about TASSA before they received the meeting invitation. Post-docs and doctoral students were also represented in the meeting.

Participants introduced themselves and their contact information including names, email addresses, and phone numbers were collected. Haluk Unal, chair of the Transition Team in charge of revitalization of the organization, made a presentation starting with TASSA’s history, past objectives and activities. He emphasized that the flagship activity of TASSA was the annual conference which was held very successfully between 2005 and 2008. He then summarized the difficult situation TASSA fell into as evidenced by failing to hold the flagship activity in 2009 and 2010. The 2009 TASSA Peer Review Panel described the situation as “State of Paralysis” and recommended revitalization of TASSA through a TT. In 2010, TASSA held a Special General Assembly where the power was completely transferred to a TT. The TT was charged to carry out reform activities and hold a General Assembly to approve the reform package and elect the next TASSA officials. The General Assembly also appointed Murat Tarimcilar of George Washington University to organize the next TASSA conference. Haluk Unal outlined the TT activities and the work plan. He then opened the issues to discussion.

February 26, 2011 Town Hall Meeting Notes

Attachments: Transition Team Meeting Minutes and Notes (PDF files):

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