{^ sist NEWSLETTER vol.1, no. 2 CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT On February 1977, a North American lASSIST meeting was held in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The primary objective of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for the US and Canadian participants to assemble in AGs and debate the commonality and differences of the AG mandates. Alice Robbin of Wisconsin presented a most comprehensive outline for a Guide to Providing Social Science Data Services which served as a catalytic influence for the AGs as they reviewed their activities in terms of contributions to the Guide . Establishing technical standards or guide- lines would also seem a legitimate contribution of lASSIST. The Workshop format was extremely successful and productive. The results are reported in detail by the US Secretariat, Judith Rowe, who handled the arrangements for the meeting, the Canadian Secretariat, Sharon Chappie Henry, and the chairpersons of the AG in the body of this issue of the Newsletter . In late April or early May 1977, the European AGs will convene at a workshop to review their progress and activities. This workshop is being organized by Per Nielsen, the West European Secretariat. During May 1977, the Canadian Secretariat is organizing a North American lASSIST meeting to be held in Toronto. This meeting will build on the achieve- ments of the AGs at the February 1977 meeting. An international lASSIST meeting was originally planned for August 1977. Due to the given schedule of workshops and conflicts in other conference dates during August, this meeting has been slated for February 1978, in Chicago. The theme will be "State of the Art: Perspectives." It will be a three day meeting, with one day devoted to symposia focusing on the AG activities and objectives. There will be three symposia during the morning and four during the afternoon. Each symposia will represent one AG and eight papers will be presented at each. Topics for papers should be sent to either Carolyn Geda of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research or Tony Falsetto of the Canadian Machine-readable Archives, Public Archives of Canada [see details in section, "Upcoming Meetings"]. The remainder of the conference will be devoted to AG workshops. The program committee is composed of Tony Falsetto, Public Archives of Canada, Richard Roistacher of the Center for Advanced Computation, University of Illinois, Sheldon Laube of CM. Leinwond and Carolyn Geda of ICPSR. A North American program committee has been established for the lASSIST program to be held in conjunction with the International Sociological Associa- tion in August 1978, in Uppsala, Sweden. The members of this committee are Elliot Avedon of University of Waterloo, Don Harrison of National Archives, and John DeVries of Carleton University. The proposed scheme is the international interchange of data. Details of this conference will be reported in the News - letter as they are confirmed. The treasurer of lASSIST is Ed Hanis of University of Western Ontario. lASSIST accounts have been opened in both US and Canadian currencies. Member- ship fees should be remitted in one of these currencies. If this is not pos- sible, contact Ed Hanis. The treasurer will forv;ard the names and addresses of lASSIST members to John Kolp of S S Data and members should be receiving S S Data in the very near future. sist NEWSLETTER vol.1, no. 2 The Newsletter will again be distributed to the full mailing list. Sub- sequent issues will be circulated only to members. A French translation is being done by the Canadian secretariat, should anyone be interested in the French version of the Newsletter . Kenneth Brewer of Australian National Universities has offered to act as the distributor of lASSIST information throughout Australia. Given the dis- tances in Australia, AG groups will probably not be formed at this time. The distribution of lASSIST information however is perceived as most desirable. The steering committee list has been reproduced again in this Newsletter . Please note the following revisions: Sharon Chappie now is Sharon Chappie Henry; Ed Hanis has been appointed treasurer; the address of the East European Secretariat has changed. SECRETARIAT REPORTS Canadian Secretariat Report Sharon Chappie Henry Data Clearing House for the Social Sciences The Data Clearinghouse for the Social Sciences [DCHSS] is continuing to publicize lASSIST activities in the DCHSS Bulletin and other Canadian profes- sional journals. The campaign for lASSIST members is continuing. Ten Canadians actively participated in the conference of Canadian and Amer- ican Action Groups in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Plans are underway for lASSIST [Canada] to host another working conference to be held in Toronto in May [See "Upcoming Meetings" in Newsletter ]. All members of lASSIST including those in other countries are welcome to attend. Further details are available from Sharon C. Henry, Canadian Secretary for lASSIST. West European Secretariat Report Per Nielsen Danish Data Archives Per Nielsen has recommended that action groups organize a series of work- shops in their respective areas of interest. Paul Muller, chairperson of the Process-Produced Data AG, has suggested that a conference devoted to the data law issue would be relevant at the present stage of development within his AG area. A call for papers concerning the data law issue will be made in advance of the conference and workshops. 5.