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A NOTICE TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF CRSA
For over thirty years, the Canadian Regional Science Association
has provided a forum on urban and regional research and policy
for members of the academic, government and business sectors.
Its two main activities have been publication of the Canadian
Journal of Regional Science and the annual CRSA meetings. This
year, the executive board of CRSA has decided to institute some
significant changes that will take advantage of new
communications technologies.
First, the Canadian Journal of Regional Science is moving
to an online, open access format. This will make papers
published in CJRS freely available to the global community of
urban and regional researchers. We are confident that under this
new, more contemporary means of delivery, the CJRS will continue
to advance as one of the best outlets for regional science
research findings.
Second, the low attendance of the past few years indicates that
the annual meetings are no longer serving the needs of our
membership. In large part this is because Canadian regional
scientists are spread over such a huge geographic area that only
a small proportion can attend annual meetings conveniently and
affordably in any given year. Starting in 2010, there will be no
conventional annual meeting. Instead there will be a "virtual
conference" comprising a set of web based presentations on an
important policy issue. Members will be able to view the papers
at their leisure over a two week period during which they can
submit questions to the authors via an open Q&A page and
participate in live web discussions. (The virtual conference
will take place in the Fall - look for further details in the
near future.) CRSA will still run conventional conferences from
time to time, such as when we hold the NARSC meetings in 2012,
but not on a regular annual cycle.
CRSA's commitment to exploiting new media technologies will
extend further to new "members only" web site features that will
provide up to date information in a variety of electronic
formats, including early access to CJRS journal articles.
Details will be coming soon. In the meantime, suggestions and
comments are most welcome.
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