FROM THE EXSEC’S NOTEBOOK

What should we call this last decade of the millennium? In my time I’ve lived through the Ozzie and Harriet generation, the beat generation, the sexual- revolution generation, the greed-is-good generation. From what some of you have said, and certainly from what is going on here at your headquarters, perhaps we should call this the incredibly-overworked-and-understaffed gen- eration. This is an exciting period for the Association, and for many in our profession.

A Nobel Autumn

The big news in October, of course, was the announcement that two of our past presidents have been awarded the Nobel Laureate Prize in Economics. Robert C. Merton is currently on the faculty at Harvard University. He served us as President in 1986. Myron S. Scholes is currently with Long-Term Capital Management Corporation and is a professor emeritus at Stanford University, which was his academic base for a number of years. Scholes served us as President in 1990. The Nobel Prize citation emphasizes their pioneering work in developing the theory and empirical formulae that became the foundation for whole new market instruments and strategies in the area of futures and options. Those who know them know that in each case their contributions to the profession extend far beyond this area of work, as important as it has been. One of my real rewards as your Executive Secretary has been the pleasure of working with individuals like Merton and Scholes, who are truly scholars and gentlemen in the best sense of those words. From all of our membership, congratulations to both of them!

Progress at Blackwell Publishers

The transition to Blackwell Publishers continues on schedule. The produc- tion team is hard at work preparing the February 1998 issue (remember there will be six issues next year). Editor Stulz is trying to puzzle out the right number of articles and notes to run in each issue, so our list of “forthcoming” articles may not be just the next issue’s articles. The subscription service team has begun to process new orders, and to take care of the renewal notices coming from the commercial vendors who send us batched library renewals on tape. By the time this issue reaches you, Blackwell may have already started to send out individual renewal notices for next year. If you do not get one by the middle of January, you may want to give them a call.

The Blackwell team will be handling all requests for advertising, list rental, permission to reprint or photocopy, and back issue purchase. All of these activities should be operational by the first of the year. There will be some delay during this period for those trying to order back issues, since inventories must be transferred and logged into a new system. We are beginning the design work on our expanded web site. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along to me or to our editor, Ren6 Stulz. To simplify matters, starting in January 1998 you can find the current location of the Association’s web site

simply by typing the URL (http://www.afajof.org). We are also registering two other names: JournalofFinance.org and AmericanFinanceAssoc.org.

A Special Thank You to Cadmus

For the past several years Cadmus Journal Services has served as our printer and more. When they acquired part of the journal's activities of our previous publisher Waverly Press, we had serious reservations. As those of you who have had to deal with financial institution mergers know, in too many cases things do not go well for the customer. Our concerns were very quickly abated. Cadmus is one of the premier printers in the United States, is a pioneer in many innovations in modern publishing, and put together a first- class team to help us. They decided even before the acquisition that their specialty was printing and not full-line publishing for outside journals, so we had to make alternative arrangements for things like fulfillment and adver- tising. Even so, they provided major assistance in facilitating these activities.

The Cadmus team from the beginning was headed by Harold Shores. He has kept us informed about new changes at Cadmus, and pointed us to the right people to solve whatever problem we might have. The person most directly responsible for each issue of the journal is Andrea Clemente. It is my pleasure to have known her since her days at Waverly Press. I only wish all of you could have the experience of working with such a warm, professionally caring per- son. She has worked with a number of redactors, the most recent of which is Steve Hanson. Redacting a journal as technical as the Journal of Finance (and with authors who sometimes need more than a little help), takes some learn- ing. The staff assistants at the journal office at.Ohio State are swift teachers if you don't do it right, but Cadmus almost always has given us redactors who do do it right. Donna Wilson has been handling special projects for us from year to year. So to Cadmus and Harold and Andrea and all the rest, we say thank you! Professionalism and quality work are still alive and well in their part of America.

Michael Keenan Executive Secretary and Treasurer