Sanford Goldberg, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University, writes:
I just came back from a meeting with one of the Chairs of a dept here at Northwestern who mentioned to me that in his field (physics) the chairs of midwestern physics departments get together once a year, by themselves, to talk about issues facing their departments. They use this meeting as an occasion to share best practices, talk about common challenges (how to promote physics at their respective universities), discuss trends in the field relevant to the administration of physics departments, and so forth. I think it would be worth asking whether chairs of philosophy departments might be interested in doing something similar. Such annual discussions might be most fruitful if we disaggregated departments by type (research university vs. 4-yr college), geography (east, south, midwest, west), etc. If there is enough interest I would be happy to try to organize this and get it going.
I've opened comments for other Chairs to indicate their interest in doing this with colleagues in their areas.
