From Presidential letter of September 1973
The main task of the Association should be to become an active international forum to the very best in mass communication research; international exchange and dialogue being the main function. The Association needs to be more representative than it has been in the past, particularly with regard to the developing countries. The organization and structure of the Association inhibits the sort of development that the present situation demands. It is too cumbersome, too out of date - it needs streamlining. There should be more stress on national committees and organization should be nationally or regionally focused. There needs to be wider participation and more activity - too much is left to a few of the officers. Even the permanent bureau does not meet frequently enough. Sections sponsored by the Association should be active, with planned programmes. It might be better not to have permanent sections but to call sections or task forces into being only when there is a specific project or programme to carry out. The statutes need redrafting with the above and other factors in mind. The question of documentation and information retrieval is extremely important and we ought to give more attention to this. With regard to the above, but also on many other matters, we ought to explore the possibilities of a closer working relationship with UNESCO, particularly with regard to the policy outlined in the document COM/MD/20. For an International Association of Mass Communication Research we are not very good at communication. We need to disseminate the news of our activities - make it clear what we are doing. We ought to have our own publication/s. We need more members and we need more money. But what do we have to offer members? To attract new members we need to be seen as an active, dynamic organisation. What are we doing at present? What have we to offer? Why should people wish to become members? The problem is that to become really active, to spread the news of our activities to attract new members, we need a sounder financial base than we have at present. But are we likely to get more money unless we are seen to be active? A classic double bind situation.
From report of the Leicester conference in 1976
It was suggested, quite rightly, a year or two ago that the Association needed to become more international, particularly with regard to membership from the developing countries, and we are now pleased to report considerable progress in this connection as well. Currently there are members in 15 developing countries, and ten of these are represented on the newly-elected International Board. Before the Leicester meeting only six such countries were represented on the somewhat differently structured governing bodies of the Association, and four of these representatives – elected many years ago – had been completely inactive for some time. The 43 newly-elected officers and members of the International Council come from 32 different countries. Countries supplying more than one officer or member include: USA and FRG (3 each); and France, Italy, Poland, DDR and Yugoslavia (2 each). The situation before the Leicester meeting was that 24 different countries were represented on the governing bodies of the Association by 45 different members. Obviously, the newly elected Board is much more internationally representative and democratic in structure.
Apart from the aforementioned increase in third word representation, the increasing interest and activity in Scandinavia is reflected in the Board membership. The socialist countries, including Yugoslavia, now have ten representatives - whereas under the old system they had eleven. The position with regard to USA, Canada, most Western European countries (other than France), and the UK (UK probably under-represented in terms of membership and research activity) shows only marginal changes. Prior to the Leicester meeting, France had seven members on the various governing bodies, but this was more a reflection of our foundation and early history than of current interest and activity.