Dear AIS Members;

As promised, I wanted to provide some highlights from the July AIS Council Meeting.

Additionally, I would like to invite AIS members to join me for an AIS President Town Hall meeting. In this meeting I will share highlights from the last year as well as some of our current initiatives. I’ll also give some ‘behind the scenes insights into how AIS works.’ I look forward to hearing your issues and learning what we can do to serve you better. If you interested in learning about AIS, want to get involved, or just have questions, please feel free to join me for during the Town Hall that is convenient for you. The Town Hall will have two dates / times with hopes of accommodating various time zones.

To accommodate members in all regions, we’re offering two Town Hall times. Join the session that works best for you.

AIS Council met on July 5-6, 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia just prior to the start of PACIS 2025. The AIS Council wishes to thank and congratulate PACIS 2025 and the Region 3 board on another successful conference and for being such wonderful and gracious hosts.

This AIS Council meeting kicked off the start of the Association's 31st year on July 1, 2025.Several updates and decisions were made during the meeting and highlights are provided below.

Key Voting Agenda Points:

• Expansion of the Bocconi Travel Scholarship Awards due to the number of applicants, interest, and popularity of the award program.

• Creation and integration of Transactions on Replication Research as a new department within CAIS, with further announcements to come from the Editors of the respective journals.

• Council voted to expand the VP DEI position on Council to include Ethics. The newly expanded position will have the title AIS VP Core (Community, Openness, Responsibility, and Ethics) reflecting core values of the association. The VP Core will continue to be supported by the DEIB Standing Committee and a new Associate VP Ethics will be recruited to support the expanded role.

Status Updates and Discussion Items:

As is customary at each quarterly council meeting, all AIS vice presidents and presidents shared status updates on the various projects within their respective areas. The newly elected vice presidents, chosen earlier this year, also attended this portion of the meeting to facilitate the transition to their successors, effective September 1, 2025.

• AIS President Andrew Burton-Jones provided updates regarding geopolitical issues facing AIS, collaboration with the AACSB on defining research impact, the recruitment of new Associate VPs for Sustainability, and two strategic initiatives applying Gen AI to the AIS eLibrary.

• AIS President‑Elect Dorothy Leidner provided updates on creating a new CAIS department for the TRR journal, delivering a keynote at ECIS 2025, and submitting materials for AIS’s application for United Nations status.

• AIS VP Education Christoph Rosenkranz provided updates regarding the recent launch of the AIS book podcast and call for AIS education awards.

• AIS VP Member Services and Chapters Isabel Ramos provided updates regarding membership levels in the 5300 range, announcements of the Outstanding Chapters, new recognitions in the Distinguished Member's Program, selections of the Bocconi Travel Grant scholarship recipients, and much more.

• AIS VP Region 1 Kevin Scheibe provided updates regarding the upcoming AMCIS 2025 in Montreal, AMCIS 2026 in Reno, AMCIS 2027 in Sao Paulo, Brazil and bids for AMCIS 2028.

• AIS VP SIGs and Colleges Julia Kotlarsky provided updates regarding the SIG Leadership Orientation Sessions, the additional roll-outs of SIG micro-sites on the Higher-Logic platform provided by AIS, SIG best practices to enhance community engagement series, and recent announcements of Outstanding SIG community designations.

• AIS Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee Scott Boss provided updates regarding the annual audit results, last Fiscal Year's AIS financial reports, and the budget for next fiscal year.

• The AIS staff provided updates about the new AIS Membership Director (Amanda Decker), the status of the new AISWorld platform migration, and to summarize the findings of the recent systems evaluation effort that was conducted for selecting a new Association Management System (AMS) platform for the Association beginning in 2^ndquarter 2026.

The above list is just a small snapshot of what Council is working on. Important work was also reported at Council by the AIS Past President (regarding awards processes), VP Conferences (regarding upcoming conferences), VP Strategic Partnerships (regarding new initiatives to link IS academics and industry leaders), VP Publications (regarding AI policy formulation and indexing efforts), the VPs of Regions 2 and 3 (regarding important events and initiatives in their regions), VP DEI (regarding efforts to foster inclusion across the community), VP Communications (regarding initiatives to improve AIS communications), and the ICIS representative (regarding upcoming ICIS conferences).So much is being done by Council on behalf of the field.