Speaking before an audience at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) declared: “Funds currently spent by the government on social science–including on politics of all things–would be better spent helping find cures to diseases.”

In addition to the awards presented at the APSA Awards Ceremony on Thursday, August 29, 2013, (see full listing and citations in the Gazette, this issue) the following recognitions were announced at the business meetings and receptions of the APSA Organized Sections.

I am happy to report that Perspectives on Politics continues to thrive. In the roughly three-and-a-half years since we assumed editorial control of the journal, in June 2009, we have succeeded in strengthening journal operations and procedures and in projecting a new and growing excitement about Perspectives and the role it can play in contributing to the invigoration of the discipline.

On Tuesday, May 7, 2013, APSA participated in the 19th Annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) Exhibition and Reception on Capitol Hill, showcasing the National Science Foundation funded research of Professors Martha Kropf (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) and David Kimball (University of Missouri, St. Louis) on “Better Ballot Design.”

For the APSA 2014 Annual Meeting, we ask political scientists to consider politics and the study of politics in an age now long characterized by the widespread use of digital technologies.

Founded in 1953, the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program is the nation's oldest and most prestigious congressional fellowship. More than fifty years later, the program remains devoted to its original objective of expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. For nine months, select political scientists, journalists, doctors, federal executives and international scholars gain “hands on” understanding of the legislative process by serving on congressional staffs. Through this unique opportunity, the Association enhances public understanding of policy-making and improves the quality of scholarship, teaching and reporting on American national politics. For more information about the program visit https://www.apsanet.org/cfp. The assignments for 2012–13 are listed below.

109th APSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 29–Sept. 1, 2013

The APSA returns to Chicago, Illinois, and its roots, for the 2013 APSA Annual Meeting and Exhibition. In 1904, the association held its first Annual Meeting at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Home to these and other top colleges and universities, Chicago is again a fitting host for this leading intellectual gathering of political scientists.

2014 APSA Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, August 28–31, 2014

A new report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences offers recommendations for academia, government agencies, and the private sector to help maintain America's leadership in science, technology, and medicine.

I had seen once before, halfway around the world, what a new bridge could do to a border region. However, despite having worked in border towns and on border issues for more than a decade, I had never given much thought to the border in my own backyard. I remember crossing the Detroit River to visit the casinos in Windsor, Ontario, before Detroit had her own and seeing the lines of trucks waiting to cross the bridge and being unaware of the border's economic importance to the region and the country. I had studied the economic benefits of European integration, but never thought about how those lessons could be applied to the North American continent. However, last year as a 2011–2012 APSA congressional fellow working with my hometown congressman US Representative Gary Peters I had the opportunity to apply these overseas experiences to a border that mattered to my town, state, and country. The US-Canadian border is not only the world's longest nonmilitarized border, but is also the line separating my hometown Detroit, Michigan, from Windsor, Ontario; and it is the line preventing the region and the two countries from fully realizing their economic potential.

After a competitive application process, the APSA Africa Project Steering Committee is pleased to announce that the 6th annual Africa Workshop will take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, hosted by the Institute for Governance and Development (IGD). The US-based workshop leaders are Leonardo Villalón and Kenneth Wald (both University of Florida). Their Africa-based colleagues are Einas Ahmed (Centre d'Études et Documentation Économiques, Juridiques et Sociales, Sudan), Augustin Loada (University of Ouagadougou and IGD, Burkina Faso), and Mahaman Tidjani-Alou (University of Abdou Moumouni, Niger). The theme of this year's workshop is “Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective,” and will be held from July 1 to July 12 at the IGD's Center for Democratic Governance.

Please adhere to the following guidelines and submission rules as established by the APSA Council and Committee on the Annual Meeting. Electronic submissions will be accepted beginning September 15 at www.apsanet.org/2014. Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2013.

The Southern Political Science Association (SPSA) is now accepting submissions for the 2014 Conference. SPSA invites anyone interested in attending the 2014 Conference in New Orleans to look at the 2014 Call for Proposals. Conference dates are January 9–11, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Although APSA's program year for 2012 ended in a whirlwind, with Hurricane Isaac compelling the cancellation of the APSA Annual Meeting, certainly strong winds of activity carried on throughout the year.

The administrative committee consists of the president, president-elect, treasurer, and four other council members whose main duties include preparing agendas for council meetings and annual business meetings and acting on behalf of the council to dispose of policy issues deemed of insufficient weight to require decisions by the council.

Based on a generous future bequest by the 2013 APSA Gaus Lecturer Beryl A. Radin, APSA announced the creation of the APSA Pracademic Program supported by the Beryl Radin Fund. Professor Radin described herself as a “pracademic” because she has moved back and forth between the world of the practitioner and that of the academic. Beryl A. Radin's government service included an assignment as a special advisor to the assistant secretary for management and budget of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as well as other experiences in the Office of Management and Budget and HHS. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, editor of the book series “Public Management and Change” at Georgetown University Press, past president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, former head of the APSA public administration section, and has held faculty positions at the University of Southern California, the University of Albany, and American and Georgetown universities. As the title suggests, this will be a fellowship aimed at providing APSA member academics in the fields of public policy and public administration with practical, hands-on experience that the recipients can take back to their institutions and classrooms to help build bridges between the worlds of academe and applied politics.

The purpose of this report is to inform APSA's membership about the association's financial health for the 2011–2012 fiscal year. This report provides an overview of APSA's assets and current financial operations.