October 2010 • Anthropology News

17

A S S O C I A T I O N B U S I N E S S

Lindsay Bell U Toronto

My name is Lindsay Bell and I am an advice addict. I seek it constantly. One piece leaves me hungry for the next. It has been an ongoing lesson for me to understand that the “how to” happens in the “doing of.” In the first year of my PhD, I was very concerned with the “how to” of conference paper writing. My advisor, Monica Heller, told me “always start with a story.” Four years later, I am still taking this advice.

When I arrived at the Hilton San Francisco in 2008, I was immediately struck by a deep sense of panic. In the lobby, a sea of arm chairs was occupied by polished professionals, their ensem-bles casting a monochromatic haze of sensible-chic tones. New to the AAA, and trained as a sociolinguist, I had spent the morning agonizing over what might constitute the local costume among “The Anthropologists.” Now, standing in the lobby, I realized I had made a dreadful homogenizing assumption about academic fashion. These weren’t the “I am so busy running morphemes through my super computer I can’t brush my hair” types that I knew well. These were snappy folks wearing dress shirts that defied gendered borders. The subtle yet sleek pieces I had carefully selected for my foray into the field would not suffice in this regime. If my mother has taught me anything, it is how to find the nearest Macy’s in any US city. I checked in, dashed to the department store and cruised the sale racks to find something to help me navigate among the locals. Fortunately, my anxiety had brought me down to San Francisco a day early, giving me ample time to fix this near disaster.

The next morning, I went down to the lobby to do some observation of the locals. The snappy folks from the night before were now standing in line to check out of the hotel. Sharp and chic was

2 0 1 0 A A A A N N U A L M E E T I N G : C I R C U L A T I O N

November 17–21, 2010, AAA will meet in New Orleans, LA, under the theme “Circulation.” Check this space for news about the meeting venue, issues and concerns, planned events and other discussion related to the meeting and its theme.

Confessions of an Advice AddictOn Being a Student at the AAA Meeting

slowly replaced with worldly and whimsical as the day went on. As it turns out, I had observed the wrong tribe.

My other advisor, Gavin Smith, always reminds me that “anthropology is a labor process and should be studied as such.” The AAA meeting has always been my chance to do the anthropology of anthropologists as a means of better under-standing the labor process of which I am a part. The fashion debacle of ‘08 was the first step in negotiating my participation in the larger process. How was I planning to “do” anthropology, and what would be the uniform for my doing? For me, these issues are resolved dialectically.

Attending conferences, giving papers and gener-ally staying in the conversation are all key pieces of the labor process of anthropology. The conditions for performing and participating in these aspects of the process have changed significantly over the past decades. Given that tenure stream positions and adequate conference funds are increasingly scarce resources, why might students continue to attend the AAA meeting? I offer two reasons.

First, this year’s conference theme invites us to think about how anthropological knowledge is produced and circulated. With a specific focus on those circulations beyond the traditional bound-aries of the discipline, the 2010 meeting will give students the opportunity to search for new ways of doing anthropology (and thus reproducing ourselves) under changing conditions. Next, the meetings are a key site for us to negotiate our participation in an anthropological commu-nity. For me, that has meant seeking out other Marxists who think sarcasm is an acceptable form of argumentation and who have exceptional taste in wine and/or shoes. I imagine for you it might be something different. As much as I love receiving unsolicited advice, I am in no position to advise you of the specific possibilities. That will be for you to discover in New Orleans.

The auditors reviewed the statement of financial position. AAA assets increased by $1,400,000 during 2009, primarily due to the net investment appreciation. Liabilities increased by $150,000, primarily due to an increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses. Operating revenue decreased by approximately $850,000, primarily due to a decrease of grants, contributions and other income. Net assets increased by $1,241,000 primarily due to net investment appreciation. The sources of oper-ating revenues were reviewed as well as an expense comparison between 2008 and 2009.

During the call, attention was drawn to several notes from the audit: note 1 summarizes the association’s accounting policies, note 3 breaks down investments by type, note 4 explains fair value measurements, note 6 includes a worst case scenario on hotel contract liability in the event of cancellation, note 7 breaks down temporarily restricted net assets, note 8 covers the endowment, note 10 covers income taxes and indicates there will be no accrual for unre-lated business income tax in 2009 as AAA has no material net unrelated business income, note 13 was identified as new this year and related to subsequent events.

The auditors reported that there was one adjustment provided by management, which was the product of more timely and accu-rate information received from Wiley-Blackwell (AAA publisher) during the fieldwork phase of the audit. This information allowed a previous estimate to be replaced with an accurate figure and the subsequent adjustment reduced initially reported publications revenue and related accounts receivable income by approximately $49,000. The auditors characterized this kind of adjustment as welcome and routine. There was one proposed but waived adjustment related to the same issue—2008 income received in April 2009 after the audit was complete. It was noted that because of the timing of year-end

reports from Wiley-Blackwell (as determined by contract), this issue will likely arise again.

Auditors also reviewed the management letter with the committee. This brought up one item of note regarding wire transfers: the risk of allowing wire transfers by the same person who is authorized to reconcile bank statements. Staff reported that a new wire agreement had already been filed with the association’s bank so this item has been resolved. No problems had ever been identified with the previous practice, but the new policy closes a loophole that hypotheti-cally could be exploited for fraud.

On March 31, 2010, the AAA Audit Committee recommended by email that the audit be accepted.

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONStatement of Activities

YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2009 (With Comparable Totals for 2008)

2009 Total 2008 Total

REVENUE

Publications $1,070,024 $1,054,033

Membership dues 1,906,326 1,960,289

Annual Meeting 1,049,307 1,132,973

Grants/Contributions 369,896 963,523

Other Income 271,416 415,926

Section Meetings 125,752 118,825

Total Revenue 4,792,721 5,645,569

EXPENSE

Publications $1,014,630 $1,098,871

Public Education 378,658 240,392

Sections 355,937 401,524

Annual Meeting 441,792 426,835

Membership 413,973 371,779

Academic Services 291,991 249,377

Gov’t Relations 197,815 183,340

Total Expense $3,094,796 $2,972,118

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS

1,241,347 -$387,930

Net assets, beginning of year

7,316,511 $7,704,441

Net assets, end of year 8,557,858 $7,316,511