Beverly Oswalt, ABIS President (2005-2006)

Change of Venue Due to Hurricane Katrina and Rita

I became president of ABIS at the end of the 2005 meeting held in Dallas, TX, at the Hyatt Regency hotel. As the incoming president for the upcoming 2006 meeting, I was responsible for working with the new ABIS officers as we traversed the course of helping each other prepare for the 2006 meeting in New Orleans, LA. The officers for the upcoming year were Julie McDonald – Vice President/Program Chair; Chynette Nealy – Secretary/Treasurer; Vanessa Ritchie – Past President; Betty Kleen – Historian/Parliamentarian; and – Jere Hatcher, Proceedings Editor.

Five months after the meeting in Dallas an unexpected event put a giant question mark on the 2006 meeting venue in New Orleans. A powerful duo of storms named Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita hit New Orleans in August. The damage was so devastating that the hotel and city could not recover in time to host our 2006 meeting. The FBD board voted to select Oklahoma City, OK, as the host city for the 2006 meeting. As it turned out, everyone seemed to enjoy the meeting being held in Oklahoma City for the first time. The city has remained on the list of possible locations since that time.

One of the most notable achievements of the 2006 ABIS meeting was the approval to start the Journal of Research in Business Information Systems (JRBIS). The journal was first published as an online journal in spring 2008. There were 21 papers accepted for the proceedings. ABIS award recipients were: Distinguished paper – Daniel Friesen & Ryan Krietsch and Outstanding Educator – Vanessa Ritchie.

During my time as ABIS VP/Program Chair and President I attended the FBD board meetings held on the last day of the conference. I really enjoyed those meetings because it gave me a glimpse of the inner workings of FBD and an opportunity to vote on behalf of the ABIS members on some very important decisions.

I began my history with ABIS in spring 1983 when the association was known as SASA and the organization was known as SWFAD. I have been recognized as a Distinguished Paper award winner and an Outstanding Educator award winner. I have thoroughly enjoyed being active in the organization and making many friends over the last 33 years. I retired from teaching in May 2015 but hope to be able to stay in contact with my colleagues!