News: you can view photos and webcasts of the General Meeting in Stockholm 2011 on: http://w3.psychology.su.se/easp2011/

Open call for offers to host the next General Meeting (2014)

The Executive Committee calls for offers to organize and host the next General Meeting in three years time (2014). We are particularly interested in offers form countries (and parts of Europe more generally) that have not staged our most important meeting before. However the most important concern for us is to host a successful meeting so offers from members of the Association form all parts of Europe are very welcome and will be given full consideration at our next committee meeting.

We expect 1000+ people (there were over 1,300 at the last meeting in Stockholm), and will therefore need the necessary hotel capacity (bear in mind that demand as well as prices may also be high in the months we typically hold the meeting), and a conference centre with one big room of about 800 seats and 10 rooms for between 25 and 200 people in each case. The conference is typically held sometime in July or August but flexibility is also possible here (e.g., the meeting was once held in April).

These are the basic requirements but it is also important not to underestimate the work involved in planning and hosting event of this magnitude. Although some of the more mundane tasks (e.g. hotel reservations and registration) can be devolved to a professional conference organizing company, the executive committee consider it essential for the host organizers to take the initiative in organizing other aspects of the conference. Experience has shown that this is important not only to keep costs down but also to stamp the identity of the organizing team on the conference. Although the task can seem onerous, the executive committee is of course willing to help in any way it can, particularly in terms of advice and experience derived from previous organizers. A program committee will be responsible for the scientific program but this will also include representation of the local organizers. Despite the
work involved, the benefits can also be enormous, not only in terms of our gratitude, but more importantly in terms of raising the profile of the social psychology in the university, region and country of the host organizers, and stimulating social psychology in this area.

Deadline: In view of the date of the next committee meeting please send letters of interest, detailing the basic facilities and feasibility of your offer in line with the requirements outlined above to our Executive Officer, Sibylle Classen (sibylle@easp.eu) as soon as possible but in any case by end of September, 2011.

General information
The General Meeting of the Association takes place every three years. It is the largest and most important of the meetings sponsored by the Association, and is the only occasion on which members are able to meet and discuss their work with a large proportion of the membership. It is also the occasion on which the Business Meeting (or 'members' meeting,' as it is called in the Articles) takes place. Among other matters, this is when new members of the Executive Committee are elected, and the roles of President, Secretary, and Treasurer change hands.

Organisation
The philosophy of the General Meeting is that all members should be able to present their research. With the increasing size of the Association, it is no longer possible to ensure that all members are able to make oral presentations. In recent meetings the role played by poster sessions has therefore gained in importance. A typical General Meeting consists of a number of symposia, a number of individual paper sessions, and two or more poster sessions. An attempt is made to strike a good balance between, on the one hand, offering a broad choice of presentations, and, on the other, keeping the number of parallel sessions to a minimum.

Whereas the task of running a General Meeting used to be one that was taken on by a local organiser, who made local arrangements, and the Secretary of the Association, who looked after the scientific programme, the scope and complexity of the current General Meetings means that local arrangements are dealt with by the Local Organising Committee, and the setting up of the programme is handled by a specially appointed Scientific Programme Committee.

The Association supports each General Meeting financially.

Past General Meetings

1963 December 12 - 16 Sorrento, Italy [before foundation]

1964 December 11 - 15 Frascati, Italy [before foundation]

1966 March 27 - April 1 Royaumont, France [1st official plenary meeting]

1969 April 8 - 12 Leuven, Belgium 1972 April 12 - 15 Leuven, Belgium 1975 April 8 - 12 Bielefeld, (West) Germany 1978 March 28 - April 1 Weimar, (East) Germany 1981 April 5 -9 Sussex, England 1984 May 8 - 12 Tilburg, Netherlands 1987 May 19 - 24 Varna, Bulgaria 1990 June 19 - 24 Budapest, Hungary 1993 September 15 - 20 Lisbon, Portugal 1996 July 13 - 18 Gmunden, Austria 1999 July 6-11 Oxford, UK 2002 June 26-29 San Sebastian, Spain 2005 July 19 - 23 Wuerzburg, Germany 2008 June 10 - 14 Opatija, Croatia 2011 July 12 - 16 Stockholm, Sweden