Summary 

Through the spring of 1987, not including the events that preceded the New Orleans meeting in 1975, the members of COPIS have assembled for purposes of professional sharing, socializing, getting acquainted, and conducting organization affairs a total of twenty-two times.The membership roster has changed up and down over the years, and at least 200 persons have participated in COPIS events as members, non-member presenters and/or guests.There is a relatively stable nucleus of about 35 persons who have provided continuity.Most, but unfortunately not all, of the scholars whose research, publications and teaching have graced and enlarged the field of instructional supervision are COPIS-connected, and probably no other forum has ever yielded as much thought about the field as has the COPIS forum.Without question the goal of "community" has been achieved to a significant extent.Less clear is the COPIS impact upon ASCD and its orientation to the dimension, although the annual ASCD program since 1975 has featured, as a "best guess," at least one hundred events prompted by COPIS and involving COPIS contributors.

The minutes of an organization such as COPIS rarely report the full substance of discussions, or summarize the ideas, debates, and other exchanges that grow out of the program preceding the business meetings.Therefore an historian reading the minutes gets an insufficient, and sometimes distorted, view of matters the members considered.Examples of problems that the minutes probably exaggerate are:discomfort over membership criteria; awkwardness of enforcing the attendance rule; uneasiness about the COPIS / ASCD relationship; and concern about finances.On the other hand, the minutes probably understate the intensity of discussions about supervision as an ill-defined field, or about the role advocacy should play in COPIS's agenda.

Since COPIS is essentially an informal organization, with responsibilities frequently shifting and the maintenance of records a sometimes neglected matter, it is difficult to trace the involvement of everyone whose name appears on lists or in correspondence, especially in the early years.The Roster, therefore, represents a "best guess" at best.This will probably trouble very few persons, but all the same it is hoped that old-timers in particular will help to identify errors or omissions.

No effort was made to prepare a Bibliography of publications authored by COPIS members, or a listing of ASCD and other program presentations prompted in some way by COPIS.Perhaps one should be produced in the future.The Fall Conference proceedings from Kent State, University of Georgia, and University of South Florida have been highlighted, and those publications are in fact a significant contribution to the field.Along with other official records of COPIS, these belong in a permanent archive over which a designated person should preside.