September 2007 Newsletter

NAPA has a new look! After many years of not having an official logo we have selected the design at the top of this newsletter. In a similar genre as that of the AAA logo, it radiates a sense of vibrancy and movement. Matt Suhr, a graphic design student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, won the logo design contest which is described in greater detail below.

Elections and Nominations
Congratulations to Christine Miller, Kendall Thus and Laurie Price, the newly elected Governing Council members who will take their positions during the NAPA Business meeting at the AAA meetings in Washington.  Christine Miller will be taking the role of Secretary; she is a former Student Representative on the Governing Council. Kendall Thu and Laurie J Price will serve in the member-at–large positions.

Candidates for the 2008 AAA elections are now being recruited. Delegate-at large seats on all of the major AAA committees are open.  If you have an interest in serving in any of these positions, and would like a NAPA support letter, please contact Mary Butler Odell, Nominations Committee chair. Nominations Committee members are also inviting people to run, so if you are called, please consider it.

NAPA Student Achievement Award – October 1 deadline
The Seventh Annual NAPA Student Achievement Award recognizes student contributions in the area of practicing and applied anthropology. The winning student paper is published by NAPA and the student is recognized with a certificate and a cash award at the NAPA business meeting at the AAA meetings in Washington. Papers should be submitted by email to napastudentrep@gmail.com. See the NAPA Student Achievement Award page for more details. 

EPIC Conference. Oct 3-6, 2007
Less than a month away, the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference is meeting for its third annual meeting October 3-6 in beautiful Keystone, CO. With a theme of “Being Heard,” this premier international forum brings together artists, computer scientists, designers, social scientists, marketers, academics and advertisers.  Co-sponsored by NAPA and the AAA the presentations will be published in AnthroSource. For more information see: http://www.epic2007.com/

New NAPA Web Administrator Being Sought
NAPA is currently seeking a Web Administrator who will oversee the maintenance and development of NAPA Web sites and electronic resources. We thank Eliot Lee for serving in this capacity since the initial design and construction of www.practinganthropology.org.

This could be a very creative role for the new webmaster as we refine current features and add functions to better serve our members. Qualified individuals from all professional backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We encourage NAPA members, or practitioner organizations who would like to have a major influence on the profession.

Proposals will be accepted until the position is filled. Applicants will be reviewed beginning October 1, 2007. Proposals should be a formatted document and sent as an email attachment to jobs@practicinganthropology.org. For more information read the job description at www.napa.ucbcptudlq-zng4pxjo76dp.p.temp-site.linkdocs/rfps/NAPA_Web_Admin_RFP_2007.pdf or contact Jim Mullhooly, Chair of the NAPA Communications Committee, at jmullooly@csufresno.edu.

SfAA Session and Paper Proposals
We invite our membership to submit proposals for sessions to be presented at the 2008 Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in Memphis, TN, March 25-29. The theme of the meetings is The Public Sphere and Engaged Scholarship: Opportunities and Challenges for Applied Anthropology.  This promises to be an exciting examination of the specific contributions of applied anthropologists to public spheres and public discourse.  It presents us with an opportunity to discuss the ways in which we address human needs and issues, particularly in inter-disciplinary and collaborative settings.

The deadline for registration and abstracts is Monday, October 15, 2007.  However, for NAPA to gain co-sponsorship of the meetings with the SfAA, we will need to submit abstracts of key sessions by September 15th. We want to particularly encourage NAPA members who are not SfAA members to submit session proposals. We also encourage collaborative and interdisciplinary sessions.  The SfAA meetings are a welcoming place for non-anthropologists to talk about their work.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for your session, please contact Kate Gillogly (NAPA Section Program Editor) at kagillogly@comcast.net for further information.  For further information about the 2007 SfAA meetings, go to http://www.sfaa.net/sfaa2008.html.

AAA Workshops at the 2007 AAA meetings
NAPA members also have a strong presence in the workshop presentations: http://www.aaanet.org/mtgs/2007/workshops.pdf. Their continued popularity confirms their service to the trade and is a good barometer of NAPA‘s relevance. http://www.aaanet.org/mtgs/2007/workshops.pdf

LPO Events at the 2007 AAA Meetings. By Terry Redding.
At this year‘s meetings, along with the traditional luncheon for Local Practitioner Organizations (LPOs), NAPA will sponsor a workshop on “Creating Practitioner Networks.” The workshop is designed for LPO members to share information and lessons learned with those interested in creating practitioner networks in their own areas. The workshop is free and open to everyone, and is scheduled Thursday morning, November 29 from 10 a.m. to noon.

Employer Exposition at the 2007 AAA Meetings
Employer organizations are being invited to exhibit at the AAA Annual meetings during the Employer Exposition on Friday, November 30. Each organization would display for one half day, morning or afternoon. If your organization would like to be considered please contact Kathleen Crain, Chair of the NAPA Organizational Relations Committee at Partners@ltgassociates.com

The Employer Expo provides an opportunity for organization representatives to present the mission, goals, services, and products of their organizations and to discuss the role and contributions that anthropologists make in the organization. Organizations with employment opportunities are one of our priorities.

NAPA’s New Logo News Announcement. By Mary Butler-Odell.
At their November 2006 meeting in San Jose, the NAPA Governing Council agreed to hold a competition to develop a new logo for NAPA.  Dori Tunstall put us in touch with Sharon Oiga, an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sharon agreed to hold a competition for students in her Graphics Design class in the spring, 2007. 

Mary Odell Butler attended a meeting of this class in February, 2007 to describe NAPA, our mission, the group of anthropologists that we serve and NAPA’s role as the organization within the AAA serving practicing anthropologists both outside of and within academia.  Following this meeting, fifteen students in the class developed preliminary ideas for the NAPA logo and submitted them to NAPA for comment. Several members of the NAPA Governing Council reviewed these designs and submitted their comments to the designers.  Members of the class then finalized their designs.

Mary Odell Butler, Micki Iris and Eve Pinsker attended the final class meeting on May 11, 2007 at which members of the class presented their designs.  The NAPA members attending this meeting conferred and selected four finalists. The designs of these finalists were submitted to the NAPA Communications Committee, chaired by James Mullooly, for judging and selection of the winner.  The NAPA Governing Council concurred to award the $50 prize to Matt Suhr whose winning design is shown above.  The other three finalists were Arriana Lucio Vanegas (runner-up), Erin Fitzgerals and Paul Wikowski.