Return to Home Page

***This is a "text only" version of the Spring 2000 newsletter.*** 

Record Attendance at Meeting

The 31st Meeting of the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association was held on Thursday and Friday, February 17 and 18 at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. One hundred and fifty three people registered for the 2000 meeting. An estimated additional fifty people came to the meeting, but did not pay. Only five of that number were guests who are exempt from paying.

Special highlights of the meeting were the addresses given by Dolphus Weary, Executive Director of Mission Mississippi, Marsha Meeks Kelly, Executive Director of The Mississippi Commision for Volunteer Service and Larry Hall, President of our Association.

The 2000 annual meeting focused on the theme "Sociology and Service: the New Millennium." Three invited presenters: Randee Williams, Wayne Robinson and Thomas Schnaubelt of the Institute of Higher Learning lead a seminar, workshop and capstone address Friday morning.

All together participants could choose from fourteen sessions, ranging from the traditional paper sessions to panel discussions and open forums. The Banquet was well attended with 74 plates being served during the outstanding vocals by Faith Gilmore and the awesome performance by the Mississippi College Naturals!

Two Selected for Distinguished Service Awards
By Don Bogie

This years meeting provided the backdrop to recognize two long time members of our association. These two members have "promoted and supported the A-MSA through the sharing of their time and talents."

Drs. Danny E. Harrison and Billy T. Lindsey each received the Distinguished Service Award at the 2000 annual meeting in Clinton for their many years of service to the A-MSA. Both have served as Presidents of the A-MSA (Dr. Lindsey in 1987 and Dr. Harrison in 1991) and have held membership on a variety of A-MSA committees. In addition, both have been virtual fixtures at the annual meetings over the years, contributing to many paper sessions, panel discussions and other meeting activities. Danny Harrison participated in the first meeting of the A-MSA (held in 1969 at Mississippi State) and Dr. Lindsey joined the Association soon thereafter.

Dr. Harrison is a native of Mississippi and received his Ph.D. degree from Mississippi State University. He taught at Delta State University for two years before accepting a position in 1972 with Auburn University Montgomery. Dr. Harrison served as head of the Department of Sociology at AUM from the mid-1970s to 1998. Dr. Lindsey received the Ph.D. degree from Mississippi State University in 1979 and was named head of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Alabama in 1984. He is a native of Tuscumbia Alabama.

Our congratulations and appreciation to Drs. Harrison and Lindsey for their outstanding service to the A-MSA and for their excellent contributions to the field of sociology. Both of the awardees have retired recently from their respective universities and we wish them much success in future endeavors.

This year we had seven publishers represented at our meeting. Three representives attended our meeting. Joyce Nilsen of Allyn and Bacon Publishers came from far away Boston! This is Allyn and Bacon’s second year in a row to support our association financially and by displaying their books. The plan for achieving the high number of publisher displays for our meeting originated with Tiffany Francis of Thomson Learning. Thompson Learning also made a donation to our association. Darlene Wilhelm with McGraw-Hill bought over $75.00 worth of food for our meeting. Harcourt College Publishers through Rob Thornton furnished the refreshments before the opening session. These and the other publishers that sent displays should be thanked not only in word, but also by using their books in our courses.

Special Thanks

Harcourt College Publishers and Rob Thornton

Officers Elected

The Nomination Committee presented a full slate of candidates during the Annual Business Meeting. Some positions had two candidates nominated. This has been unheard of in recent associational history. Characteristic of our membership, all the nominees were of good spirts and jovial about the process. We all knew whoever was elected our association would be in good hands!

When the counting was done the President-Elect was Albert B. Nylander III; Xiaohe Xu (MS) and Kim Brackett (AL) won the three year terms to expire in 2003. Janice Duncan (MS) and Fred Myers (AL) will fill the one year unexpired term (2001) of Albert Nylander and Claudia Hall-Elston.

We wish the new President-Elect and Executive Committee members congratulations and a fulfilling term of office. We also know that our association would not be what it is without the people who have lead our association in the past few years and whose terms have concluded. Our special thanks and admiration go to Hussain Al-Fadhli (Executive Committee Member 2000; Tougaloo College, Ms), Albert Woolbright (Executive Committee Member 2000; Center for Health Statistics, Al), Albert Nylander (Executive Committee Member 2001; Delta State University, Ms) and Claudia Hall-Elston (Executive Committee Member 2001; Auburn University Montgomery, Al). Thank you!

Call for Program Participation

A theme of "Social Justice" has been chosen for our 2001 program in Mobile. Thus, we take this early opportunity to solicit your participation in the program as a thematic session organizer or in some other manner which you feel will contribute to our annual meeting. Let me have your thoughts and suggestions relative to the program at your earliest convenience.

In addition to sessions around the social justice theme, these sessions have been given tentative consideration for inclusion: Legacy of A-MSA; Service Learning; Undergraduate and Graduate Paper Sessions; Teaching Sociology at the Community College, and Race, Ethnicity and Gender Equality.

I may be reached by mail at: Sociology-Anthropology Department, 307 University Boulevard, N. HUMB 34, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688 or by fax: (334/460-7925 or email at dsouth@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.

Albert B. Nylander, III, Ph.D., has been elected president of our association for the year 2002. Albert has been an active participant in the AL/MS Sociology meetings since 1994. He was elected to the executive committee in 1998 and has served as the chair of the nomination committee for the past two years. He was nominated by several people from both states. He is the Chair of the Division of Social Sciences and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Delta State in Cleveland, Mississippi. Along with the responsibilities as the administrative manager of the Division of Social Sciences, he continues to research and publish in the areas of Community Leadership and Sociology of Community.

He has two recent publications:

Ralph B. and Albert B. Nylander, III. 1998. Community Leadership Structure: Differences Between Rural Community Leaders’ and Residents’ Informational Networks. Journal of the Community Development Society 29(1): 71-89.

Brown, Ralph, Xiaohe Xu, John F. Toth Jr. and Albert B. Nylander, III. 1998. Historical Decline of Community Satisfaction in U.S. Rural Communities: A Multi-Regional Analysis of Synthetic Cohorts. Research in Community Sociology 8:183-199.

The association had over a dozen student paper submissions. Few submissions were for the undergraduate or graduate competition. One of the possible reasons is that fewer students from Milsaps participated. Yet a Milsaps student did win the undergraduate award: Rachel Cook with her "Inequalities Between Men & Women in the Labor Force and in the Household." Perry T. Barrett of Delta State University won the graduate award with "Mississippi's Final Surge of Racial Violence in the Post-Brown Years."

Congratulations to these two fine students and to all the students that presented.

Return to Home Page