Report of Meeting of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Ottawa, November 22 and 23, 2003

 Submitted by Margaret Coderre-Williams

A Plenary Session on Advocacy and the Human Sciences was held in the morning of Saturday, November 22. Sean Moore, a Public Policy Advisor with Growling, Lafleur, Henderson, gave a detailed presentation entitled The Art and Science of Public-Policy Advocacy.  He stressed the importance for groups to learn how the people that they are lobbying think, and how they “decide”. A text copy of his power-point presentation is available.

Michael Owen reported on the on-going work of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Integrity, the two primary issues being: scholarly integrity and the ethical review of research involving human subjects.

During his Luncheon Address the President of the Federation, Douglas Owram emphasized the importance of insuring that the needs of the Federation and its members were “on the agenda” for the Paul Martin government. He believes that this government will be open to our cause -that “our time has come.” In that respect, Mr. Owram stressed how important it was that the Associations and Universities present a common front. He also stressed that if we were given additional money, it would be extremely important to use the money well and to have visible results so that the government would be pleased with their investment and would be more likely to continue supporting our endeavours in the future.

Workshop #1: “Strengthening Scholarly Infrastructure: Learned Societies and New Scholars.”
For the past year, the Federation has led work on scholarly infrastructure through separate Task Forces on scholarly associations and on new scholars. The workshop provided the opportunity for members to hear the results of the considerations of the Task Forces and to help to form an action plan for the Federation.
   The first part of the workshop concerned the preparation of A Manual of Best Practices for Meeting the Needs of New Scholars. The second part of the workshop involved the presentation of the results of the Survey of Canadian Learned Societies.

Workshop #2: SSHRC Transformation: Issues to be addressed
Douglas Owram discussed the proposed SSHRC transformation. Members were provided with a flyer provided by SSHRC called From Granting Council to Knowledge Council outlining why SSHRC feels that it needs to change. The time-line for the proposal for change was also discussed. On December 12, SSHRC will be soliciting formal approval and will then kick-off consultations which will take place over the next three months. SSHRC will consult the universities directly. Each university is asked to name one individual who will then consult with all interested parties. The Federation, at SSHRC’s request, will consult members organizations and disciplines.
   Mr. Owram read off a list of what he terms, questions deliberately designed to provoke debate. Needless to say, a debate ensued and many, major concerns were expressed. Much of the concern centred on the perception that the emphasis which the changes place on multi-disciplinarity will likely result in loss of funding for individual researchers.

N.B. Mr. Owram stressed that, since the time-line is very short, organizations must mobilize quickly if they wish to have their members’ opinions counted.
                                        
On Sunday, November 23 at the meeting of the Electoral Colleges - Small Organizations the following issues were discussed:
     Funding - discussion of SSHRC Funding for Occasional Scholarly Conferences.
     SSHRC transformation - would the small organizations which presently do not receive funding for Congress now be able to be accommodated?
     Size - is size the best way to determine groupings?
     Shared program - could this program be reinstated?
     Time Release: Should editors of Journals not receive time-release. If time-release is not an option, should editors receive recognition (by way of a letter from the Federation to be sent to the members University by the Federation)
     On-Line Journals vs Print Journals - each has its merits, however On-line Journals should not signal the end of Print journals.
                
Please note: members of the group discussed the items noted above; however, no resolutions came out of the meeting.

The major focus of the Federation over the next several months will be on the changes to SSHRC. Much of the discussion centred on this. Every member organization is encouraged to involve itself in the consultation process.

For copies of the documents cited above, please contact Anne Nothof (annen@athabascau.ca).