This message provides an update of recent and upcoming IARIW activities.

Annual Membership Meeting

The annual meeting of the IARIW membership took place by conference call on October 9, 2007. The Association is in doing very well, both from the point of view of its activities and finances. The draft minutes of the meeting are posted at http://www.iariw.org/Minutes.php, as is the report of the Executive Director (www.iariw.org/edr.php), the Report of the Editors of the Review of Income and Wealth (www.iariw.org/Editor.php) and the 2006 audited financial statement (www.iariw.org/fin.php). The latter was also published in the December 2007 issue of the Review of Income and Wealth.

2008 General Conference

The 2008 General Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW) will take place in Portoroz, Slovenia August 24-30, 2008. The preliminary conference program is posted at http://www.iariw.org/c2008.php and was included in the December 2007 issue of the Review of Income and Wealth. Details on the accommodation packages will be posted on the conference website in February (http://www.stat.si/Iariw2008/). There is now no registration fee for the conference. However, all persons registering are required to be IARIW members in good standing, that is either a paid-up individual member for 2008 or an employee of an institutional member (for a list of institutional members, see http://www.iariw.org/member.php )

2007 Regional Conference

On September 18-21, 2007, in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the IARIW held an international conference entitled "Experiences and Challenges in Measuring Income and Wealth in Transition Economies." Around 120 persons attended, roughly divided equally between Chinese and non-Chinese delegates. By all accounts, the conference was a major success. The quality of the papers presented was excellent and there were many opportunities for informal exchanges between delegates. The conference papers are posted at http://www.iariw.org/chinaconference.php. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Review of Income and Wealth, edited by Peter Saunders and Harry Wu, to be published in the first half of 2009.

Conferences in Non-General Conference Years

The IARIW plans to organize at least one regional or specialized conference in non-General Conference years (2009, 2011, 2013, etc.). These conferences are smaller and and more tightly focused than our General Conferences. Normally, the conference will be co-organized with a national statistical agency, as was the case for the 2007 conference with the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Suggestions on possible themes and partners for future conferences are welcome. Please email any ideas to me at andrew.sharpe@csls.ca.

New Institutional Members

The IARIW has three new institutional members: the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the Asian Development Bank, and the Korean Statistical Research Institute. The IARIW Council would like to extend a warm welcome to these organizations.

Membership Renewals

Invoices for individual members who have not prepaid the 2008 membership year will be emailed out this week. Invoices for institutional members will be mailed out the first week of February.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the General Conference.

Sincerely,

Andrew Sharpe
Executive Director
International Association for Research in Income and Wealth
500-111 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 5B5
613-233-8891