The Western Regional Science Association will be “staying home” for its 42nd Annual Meeting, scheduled to be held outside of Tucson, Arizona at the Rio Rico Resort, February 26 – March 2, 2003.  Guided tours of the headquarters office are not planned, however the usual receptions and luncheon banquet will be on tap for entertainment.  The conference will begin with registration and an Opening Session and Reception on Wednesday, February 26, and will be followed by three full days of sessions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Get working now on a paper for submittal by our traditional October 15 deadline.  Remember, abstracts are not accepted.  Papers on any regional science topic are welcome.  Possible paper topics include resource utilization, impact analysis, regional and urban planning, local public finance, migration and demographic analysis, and transportation.  As per longstanding WRSA custom, all offers will be screened by the Program Committee prior to invitations being issued for presentation.  Abstracts are not accepted, but at the time of the October 15 submittal deadline papers may be in draft form.  Those wishing to organize a special session are encouraged to contact David Plane, WRSA Executive Secretary, as soon as possible.

This year we will continue our policy of encouraging the electronic submission of papers.  We hope to facilitate distribution of papers to discussants and chairs by having most papers centrally available at the Association office in electronic form.  Manuscripts in Word, Word Perfect, or PDF format may be e-mailed as attachments to incoming WRSA Assistant, Chris Henrie (chenrie@email.arizona.edu) or directly to Dave Plane (plane@u.arizona.edu).  Electronic submission is by far the preferred option, although we will accept paper copies this year.  These may be mailed or expressed, and should include three copies of the paper.  For multiple-authored papers, please be sure to indicate which author(s) plan to attend the meeting.  See the “Call for Papers” accompanying this Newsletter or visit the Association’s website for full details.

Watch the WRSA website, reachable at http://geog.arizona.edu/wrsa for full conference information as it is posted in the months ahead.  A link to the Rio Rico Resort is already available on the website, and preregistration and hotel reservation forms will soon be posted.

For those unfamiliar with Arizona in the winter months, a pleasurable surprise is in store for you!  Located about 45 minutes from Tucson, the locale of the Rio Rico Resort showcases the best that the Southern Arizona climate and landscape have to offer.  The temperatures promise to be delightful, especially for those hoping to escape the winter blues afflicting many other areas of the world in February.  And, as always, the Annual Meeting itself is shaping up to provide three days of intellectual stimulation, a chance to catch up with old friends, and the opportunity to unwind in a comfortable environment.  See you in February!

WRSA’s 41st Annual Meeting was held in Monterey, California, February 17 – 20.  The conference got underway with Roger Stough’s Presidential Address, “Place Management and Policy.”  Ed Bergman, Art Getis, and Bob Stimson served as discussants for the Address, which was followed by an opening reception.

Total registration for the meeting was just over 200, including 20 students.  This year, ten percent of the participants were female.  Participants came from a wide variety of countries, including Portugal, Korea, Belgium, and Japan.  The weather in Monterey this time around could hardly have been better.  The conference featured 31 sessions in total, including several organized for members of W-133.  Tuesday’s Annual Luncheon Banquet featured the presentations of the Tiebout and Springer-Verlag Prizes (see articles elsewhere in this Newsletter), along with a moving presentation by Charlie Leven, former WRSA President (1973-1974), on his memories of Charles Tiebout.  For everyone in attendance at the Luncheon, this was a speech that will be remembered for years to come.

Together, the quality of the meeting participants, the papers presented, and the location made the Monterey meeting a solid success.

Tracy Gordon of the Public Policy Institute of California was awarded the 16th Annual Tiebout Prize in a ceremony at the Annual Luncheon Banquet at the 41st WRSA Annual Meeting.  Gordon’s winning paper was titled “Crowd Out or Crowd In?: The Effects of Common Interest Developments on Political Participation in California.”  This research was completed while Gordon was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.  She was advised in her studies by John Quigley.  WRSA Past President, Arthur Getis, presented the winner’s certificate and a check for the $1000 prize money.

Also recognized at the luncheon were two finalists, Chokri Dridi and Jungyul Sohn, both students at the University of Illinois, Urbana.  The finalists received a certificate, as well as $250 in travel support to attend the conference.  The Reading Committee also awarded Honorable Mentions to Zhou Yu, University of Southern California, Aparna Solanki, Iowa State University, and Qingshu Xie, George Mason University.

Johan Klaesson and Lars Pettersson, both from Jönköping International Business School in Sweden, shared the 7th Annual Springer-Verlag Prize awarded at the Annual Meeting in Monterey for their paper, “Regional Dynamics of Service Markets in Sweden.”

Annals coeditor and WRSA President, Roger Stough, presented them with a certificate for $500 worth of Springer-Verlag books at Tuesday’s Banquet Luncheon.

Jung Won Song, doctoral student in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been selected the winner of the competition for the third annual Benjamin H. Stevens Graduate Fellowship in Regional Science. The title of his dissertation proposal is "The Historical Geography of Innovation and Localized Spillovers of Technological Knowledge." He will receive a sum of $20,500 (US) for one year of progress on this topic.

The Fellowship is awarded in memory of Dr. Benjamin H. Stevens, an intellectual leader whose selfless devotion to graduate students as teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend had a profound impact on the field of regional science.

Faculty at all North American Ph.D. programs are asked to encourage their brightest students to apply for the fourth annual Stevens Fellowship, which will support the winning student’s dissertation research for the 2003-2004 year.  The application deadline is February 15, 2003.  Full submission guidelines may be found on the Ben Stevens memorial website  http://web.bryant.edu/~pnorton/resources/memorial.html.

At the 2001 WRSA Annual Meeting in Palm Springs the Board agreed that, beginning in 2002, non-U.S. members will receive electronic rather than paper copies of the Annals of Regional Science.  This new policy will begin with the second issue of this year’s volume of the Annals.  U.S. members will continue to be sent paper copies via special permit mailing rates.  For electronic subscribers, Springer-Verlag will supply detailed directions on how to access their state-of-the-art website from which articles may be easily accessed, read and printed.

The cost savings on mailing expenses, coupled with a modest boost in dues and registration fees approved by the Board, will allow the Association to continue to be headquartered at the University of Arizona.  The post of WRSA Assistant, filled by a graduate student, is mainly funded through Association funds.  This position has been filled for almost three years by Rachel Franklin, and will be filled by Chris Henrie beginning this summer.

July 1 – 4, 2003, breathtaking Acapulco city will be the location of the 18th PRSCO General Conference.  Several features will make this meeting an unforgettable experience: (1) for the first time the Conference will go to Latin American lands, (2) a large delegation of scholars from South and Central American countries will be on hand to share their views with regional scientists from abroad, (3) the theme will be “The Potential of Regions in the Pacific Rim” and will look at such potentials as those from the economic and social as well as the cultural and political dimensions, (4) the APEC Summit in México, taking place just a few months before the PRSCO meeting, will offer an opportunity to incorporate into our discussions rather “fresh” materials, (5) the daily schedule is being designed in such a way that you will have a lot of free time, (6) hotel arrangements will range from the most luxurious to rather modest charges, (7) post-conference programs can be arranged with reliable tourist agencies to enjoy such internationally well known places as Can Cun, Mazatlan, or Guanajuato and Mexico City on the high plateau.

All in all, an academic as well as a relaxing tourist treat is being prepared for you – can you ignore such a unique opportunity?
For more information, contact Dr. Jorge Serrano, Chairman LOC and President of the AMECIDER, via e-mail at jrsm@servidor.unam.mx, by telephone at (52-777) 317-5299, or by fax at (52-777) 317-5981.  Dr. Rosalio Wences, Acapulco Commissions Coordinator, University of Guerrero can be contacted via e-mail at wences-reza@hotmail.com, or by Telephone and fax at (52-744) 487-6694 or 487-6624.

33rd Annual Conference of the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, May 30 – June 1, 2002, Kansas City, Missouri
The Mid-Continent Regional Science Association's 33rd Annual Conference will be held
May 30 – June 1, 2002 in Kansas City, Missouri.  The meeting will take place at the Westin Crown Center.  Early registrants will enjoy a reduced meeting registration fee of $50.00. In addition, a special reduced fee for students will once again be in effect. The full student registration fee is $25.00 including both the meeting and 2002 membership.

Visit the MCRSA website for additional conference information.  For other information, contact John Leatherman, Associate Professor and Director, Office of Local Government, Kansas State University-Extension, Department of Agricultural Economics, 331 Waters Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-4026.  He can also be reached by phone at 785-532-4492 or by fax at 785-532-6925.

7th Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization Summer Institute, June 20 – 21, 2002, Bali, Indonesia
The 7th Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization Summer Institute will be held in Bali, Indonesia June 20 – 21, 2002.  This will also be the 4th International Conference of the Indonesian Regional Science Association.  The theme of the Institute is “Decentralization, Natural Resources, and Regional Development in the Pacific Rim.”

For information, please contact Budy P. Resosudarmo or Bambang Brodjonegoro at the Graduate Program in Economics, Gedung B 2nd Floor, Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia, Depok 16424 Indonesia.  They can also be reached via phone/fax at 62-21-787-5865 or via e-mail at paueui@indosat.net.id and pradnja@indo.net.id.

Further information about the Institute/Conference is available at http://www.irsa.naraindra.or.id.

42nd Congress of the European Regional Science Association, August 27 – 31, 2002, Dortmund, Germany
The 42nd Congress of the European Regional Science Association will be held at the University of Dortmund, Germany, August 27 – 31, 2002.

For further information, contact Franz-Josef Bade or Tanja Mikeleit at the University of Dortmund, Faculty of Spatial Planning, Department of Economics, D-44227 Dortmund, Germany.  They can also be reached by telephone at 49-231-755-6440, by fax at 49-231-755-6439, and by e-mail at info@ersa2002.org.  The official website for the 2002 Congress is http://www.ersa2002.org.

14th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, October 10 – 15, 2002, Montreal, Canada
The 14th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques will be held in Montreal, Canada, October 10 – 15, 2002.  The goal of the conference is to promote and stimulate the exchange of ideas in the field of input-output analysis as defined in its broadest sense.  Authors are invited to submit papers on any aspect of input-output analysis, including theoretical background, policy issues, analytical frameworks, technical focus, units and levels of analysis, and objects of analysis.  Papers related to the general theme, “Ecological and Economic Sustainability in the New Economy,” are of particular interest to the organizing committee.

The deadline for paper submissions or parallel sessions is November 1, 2001.  Acceptance of papers will be confirmed by February, 2002.  The Organizing Committee has limited funds for five travel grants to be given to young scholars coming from non-OECD countries.  For more information on the travel grants or on submitting an abstract, contact Erik Dietzenbacher at e.dietzenbacher@eco.rug.nl or Christian de Bresson at christian.debresson@uqam.ca.  More information on the conference is also available at the International Input-Output Association’s website, http://www.iioa.at.

49th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 14 – 16, 2002, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The 49th Annual North American Meetings of the RSAI will be held November 14 – 16, 2002 at the Condado Plaza Hotel and Casino in historic San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Abstracts can be submitted at the NARSC website at http://www.narsc.org./Abstract_Submission_Form.html.  Abstracts should be no longer than 200 words and must include the address, phone number, fax, and e-mail of each author.  Be sure to indicate which author(s) will attend the meeting.  Abstracts should be submitted by June 15, 2002.
 
Anyone interested in organizing a session or in acting as a session Chair or Discussant is encouraged to contact Michael Lahr as soon as possible.  Michael Lahr can be reached via e-mail at lahr@rci.rutgers.edu or by phone at 732-932-3133, ext. 546.  Information on the conference hotel can be found at http://www.narsc.org./prhotel.html.