Steve Daniels, IASNR Executive Director
Utah State University
Interim Executive Director April – December 2020
The Executive Officers and members of Council have been aware that there is confusion between the name of our flagship conference—the International Symposium for Society and Resource Management (ISSRM)—and the name of the association and our journal, Society & Natural Resources. Some people who attend ISSRM are not aware that it is sponsored by IASNR. In order to create tighter brand identity, Council has embarked on a process to rename the ISSRM to more closely resemble the other names. Pursuant to that, a membership survey question was distributed in late 2019 that generated the following results*:
*221 people answered the survey question
The survey clearly shows membership support for a name change of some kind, given that less than 10% prefer the status quo. There is less unanimity regarding the new name however. Council held a meeting to review both the quantitative survey results shown above as well as qualitative comments provided by the survey respondents. Two issues led the Council to vote to recommend the name be changed to the IASNR Conference (i.e., the International Association for Society and Natural Resources Conference). The first of these was a desire to keep “international” in the title; that was important to a number of commenters and is certainly something the Association has worked to maintain over the years. The second was to create strong alignment between the name of the conference and the name of the organization in order to strengthen and streamline our overall brand.
Consistent with the IASNR bylaws that require members be notified of voting items at least 60 days prior to the vote, a vote on this name change will occur among the current members of IASNR during the virtual conference held in July.
Directly following the all-members meeting in late July, all current members will have the opportunity to participate in an electronic vote on this issue. An email will be sent to members with instructions.
Voting Item:
Do you approve changing the name of the conference historically referred to as the International Symposium for Society and Resource Management (ISSRM) to the International Association for Society and Natural Resources Conference (IASNR Conference)?
- Yes
- No
- Abstain