Scandinavian Politics: new group leadership

There is also news about the Scandinavian Political Specialist Group
that needs to be conveyed.

* As some will remember, a few months ago I asked for a volunteer to
take over from me as convenor of our group. As it happens, the
development that triggered my request - the PSA's insistence that all
its affiliated specialist groups charge membership fees - has now been
rendered obsolete, as the association has recently withdrawn this
demand. Still, our specialist group needs more time and energy that
I've been able to give it, especially over the last couple of years.
So, in my view, we still need a new convenor. And, as it happens, we
have just the man. And the woman.

Effectively immediately, then, the new joint convenors of the group
are Professor Lee Miles and Dr Malin Stegmann-MacCallion of Karlstad
University, Sweden. Lee is on leave from his professorship at
Liverpool University, so the group will now have more of an anchor in
Britain, which is a plus. Lee has long been very active in our
community of British political scientists working on Nordic-related
topics; for many of you, he will need no introduction. Anyway, there
is more information about Lee and Malin on the homepage of political
science at Karlstad (www.sam.kau.se/stv, click on "Personal").

I still plan to contribute to our group. But Lee and Malin will give
the group more dynamism. Control of all the group's resources - our
money in the bank, our entries on the PSA website, our own archive of
newsletters - will be passed from me to them in due course.

* One new PSA demand of its specialist groups does still apply: we
must have a formal constitution. Lee and I have been conferring about
what it should contain, and we have produced a draft that can be
viewed at the following address:

http://tinyurl.com/spsgconstitution

Do please have a look, and let Lee (lee.miles@kau.se) have any
suggestions for revisions or changes - really, anything you think
relevant - by January 22nd.

* The final thing to mention is that our group will have an annual
general meeting this spring. The two main items on the agenda will be
(a) confirmation of Lee and Malin as co-convenors and (b) formal
adoption of the group's constitution. It looks likely that this
meeting will be internet-based rather than a physical gathering. I
have my own ideas for exactly how we could do this, but additional
ideas are more than welcome.

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be
interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a
message to the convenor (lee.miles@kau.se). If you want to send
something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these
occasional messages, just let him know. See also
www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/scandinavia.aspx