——Annual Report—— |
| to the Association of College Honor Societies |
| 2010-2011 Academic Year |
| Society | Phi Sigma Tau |
| 1. Key contacts |
a) Official ACHS Representative for fiscal year October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011
(the official representative who is appointed by the governance body of the organization)
| i. Name | Dr. David E. Gibson |
| Title | Executive Secretary |
| ii. Address | Humanities Division, Pepperdine University |
| 24255 Pacific Coast Highway | |
| Malibu | |
| CA 90263-4225 | |
| iii. Telephone | (805)-482-0138 |
| iv. Fax | (310)-506-7307 |
| v. E-mail address | gibson@pepperdine.edu |
| b) National Headquarters | |
| i. Headquarters executive | Dr. David E. Gibson |
| Title | Executive Secretary |
| ii. Mailing address | Humanities Division, Pepperdine University |
| 24255 Pacific Coast Highway | |
| Malibu | |
| CA 90263-4225 | |
| iii. UPS Address | Humanities Division, Pepperdine University |
| 24255 Pacific Coast Highway | |
| Malibu | |
| CA 90263-4225 | |
| iv. Phone | (805)-482-0138 |
| v. Fax | (310)-506-7307 |
| vi. E-mail | gibson@pepperdine.edu |
| vii. National web site | http://phi-sigma-tau.org |
| c) President/Board Chair | |
| i. Name | Dr. Lee C. Rice |
| Title | President |
| ii. Address | Philosophy Department |
| Marquette University | |
| P.O. Box 1881 | |
| Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881 | |
| iii. Phone | |
| iv. Fax | (414)-288-3010 |
| v. E-mail | lee.rice@marquette.edu |
2. Internal performance and key concerns
| a) Membership | |
| i. Annual | 1193 |
| ii. Grand Total | 35648 |
| b) Membership trends | |
| Our 2010-2011 school year was our second best year ever. Our new member total for the year was up 17% over the preceding year, though the preceding year had been down quite a bit. We had been in a slight downward trend for our new members, but the last year was very good. | |
| c) Number of chapters | |
| i. Total | 239 |
| ii. New in last academic year | 9 |
d) National has an IRS Group Exemption Number (GEN).
| No. | |
| e) 990-N IRS Form | |
| Chapter | |
| f) Benefits to members | |
| Our main activity is the publication of Dialogue, our journal dedicated to student publications of works in philosophy. We also publish a Newsletter three times per year describing the activity of individual chapters. |
g) Benefits to profession and society at large
| One of our main goals is to encourage philosophical inquiry and discussion on college campuses by making students aware of the importance of philosophy. Our chapters often do that by holding conferences on their campuses, participating in local conferences, holding meetings that are open to the campus community, and engaging in other activities. During the past year, we changed the binding on our journal, and this has allowed us to increase the number of articles we are able to publish. | |
| h) Accomplishments | |
| i) Challenges to your society | |
| One main challenge is to encourage chapters to remain active. Since chapters are often small (philosophy programs are often small), a committed advisor is essential to keeping the chapter active and operating. Advisors are essential to encouraging students to plan and execute various activities. Usually a junior faculty member is assigned the role of advisor; this means that there is quite a lot of advisor turnover, and the advisors often have heavy demands placed upon them for publication and tenure. | |
| j) Renewal efforts of your society | |
| Since all of our staff work on a voluntary basis, time is limited. We need to work to encourage chapters that are inactive to become active again. Sometimes inactivity is because an advisor has left, and often it is difficult to find out that an advisor has left a school. We are also looking to get some younger members onto our Executive Council to replace some members who are retiring. |
k) Trends in higher education with potential impact.
| Rising costs may impact membership, both because of possible lower enrollments and because students may have difficulty with the membership fee (though we have kept our membership fee quite low). The costs may have affected our membership requests this year. Alternatively, in some years, when job possibilities are limited, philosophy programs have seen increases in enrollment. |
3. Summary of revenue and expenditures
| a) Fees | |
| i. Initial membership fee | $25.00 |
| ii. Annual dues | None |
| b) Total revenue | |
| Percentage from | |
| i. Initial member fees | 95% |
| ii.Dues | 0% |
| iii. Other sources | 5% |
| c) Total expenditures | |
| Percentage for | |
| i. Administration | 30% (postage, supplies, website, etc.) |
| ii. Governance | 0% (all staff are volunteers) |
| iii. Publication | 69% |
| iv. Scholarships/awards | 1% |
| v. Conventions | 0% |
d) Retirement benefits for employees? None.
| e) Audits | |
| i. Official audit | No |
| ii. Compilation | No |
| iii. Member/Committee | No |
| review | No |
| f) Staff | |
| Number full time | 0 |
| Number part time | 0 |
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| Association of College Honor Societies |
| 4990 Northwind Drive, Suite 140, East Lansing, MI 48823-5031 |
| Telephone: (517)-351-8335 * Facsimile (517)-351-8335 * E-mail: dmitstifer@achsnatl.org |
Appendix: PST Constitution.
