S-USIH Business Meeting Minutes 2018
Business Meeting
9 November 2018, 12:45PM
Attending
Sarah Gardner, Lora Burnett, Andrew Klumpp, Rebecca Brenner, Richard Candida Smith, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Ben Alpers, Michelle Nickerson, Drew
Agenda
President’s Report
2018 Conference Chair’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Secretary’s Report
2019 Conference Update
Publications Report
2020 Conference Update
Addendum
President’s Report
Sarah Gardner:
Published a harassment policy, which is in the program and disseminated through social media
Currently we have an ad hoc committee on the harassment policy
Ad hoc committee will establish a standing committee
Central focus on professionalizing the organization
Professionalizing includes written procedures and protocols
Aiming to make the Society more inclusive
Post-conference survey included a question about what the climate of the conference was like
There will soon be a CFP for 2021 and 2022 conference directors. The proposal must come with a budget and fundraising plan and a strategy for the program
2021 and 2022 conferences should be in easily accessible yet feasible cities
Currently on target to reinstate our tax-exempt status
Lora: Need to remove the donate button while we wait to reinstate our tax-exempt status
Also need to notify people who have donated about this change
Andrew: If someone donates, it shows up on Wild Apricot, but that is not always quick
Lora: We should post a notice about this on our website
Ben: We Should take the tax-exempt status off of our blog
Conference Chair’s Report
Lora Burnett on behalf of Tim Lacy:
Surcharge on top of everything we spend, which added to all of our expenses for the hotel
Cut the coffee budget slightly
Tim’s plan was great because the venue and conference were great
Should be policy of no alcohol without food
Cancelled cash bar for Saturday
“Don’t let the conference run out of coffee because there will be mutiny” -Lora
Kevin Schultz and Susan Pearson donated goodie bags
Thanks to registrations, the deficit will be minimized
There are professional meeting planners that do this for a living
Next year will be at a university, which is logistically different from a hotel
We should tell a professional meeting planner what we have done
As much of the committee as possible should know about the decisions made
Everyone: THANK YOU SO MUCH LORA FOR EVERYTHING
Michelle: Do we have universities in Chicago that are sponsoring?
Brief discussion about the meaning of sponsorship from local universities, which we did not have this year but hope to have in future years
Ben: Conferences have run on institutional memory, but there should be information to give to future conference chairs
Sarah: This year the institutional memory did not work as well
Treasurer’s Report
Andrew Klumpp:
Distributed paper with an estimated budget
- Website fees: $2890
- Attorney fees: $2000
- Awards expenses: $2150
- Printing and PNC: $1374.93
- Conference income: $26445
- Total donations: $1900
- Membership income: $8212
So as of Friday, of our conference, total expenses were $37,564.42, total income was $36,557, and the difference is $1,008.58.
Budget will be finalized within the next few weeks
Many donations for Henry May this year, totaling $1400
Hotel total was higher than expected due to the unanticipated surcharge
We made it work
Natalia and Sara: Membership renewal reminder once a year, which should happen
Society is in the negative by $1000, and conference remains in the red, as of the business meeting
More registrations will improve the status
Everyone: Andrew did an excellent job. Profound congratulations
Secretary’s Report
Rebecca Brenner
585 total members in our system, but only 195 members are active
This year we added membership levels for conference registration
38 new members in past 30 days
Conference total registrations so far were 174
SUSIH Twitter reaches 1328 followers, which are more numerous than the email list’s reach
Ben: Who does the website
Rebecca: Ray and me
Rebecca will update website soon
Drew: Website should include future conferences to save the dates, which are November 7-10 next year
2019 Conference Update
Natalia Petrzela:
Conference will be at the New School, where she is faculty
Big program committee of 9 or 10 scholars
Intention of connecting to relevant societies to diversify
Martha S. Jones is a confirmed keynote
We will have student workers during the conference days
The university & department will likely run a 2-credit undergraduate course with the conference
Will be a panel about publishing intellectual history
AAIHS will be involved
New School turns 100 in 2019 – Hannah Arendt, Frankfurt School, John Dewey, etc.
Will be on events on campus, such as New School design students depicting history of ideas
Will have a podcast stage at the conference
Want something about the state of social justice on campus
We have a room block at Washington Square Hotel, but they are over $200 per night
Concerned about the rates because they are expensive
Natalia might add a local arrangements committee
Sarah: Will have a protocol about press conferences
Michelle: Idea of undergraduate posters
Publications Report
Richard Candida Smith:
As of October 7, new book reviews every Sunday
Over 30 reviews have been committed and will be in process
The next step is reviews for books that are coming out this fall
Robert Greene will talk with Andy Seal about collaborating on book reviews
The blog is blogging – the blog is going well
The newsletter looks great, but Richard is not convinced that we still need a print newsletter
Next year maybe push beyond one review per week
With most societies your membership comes with a subscription. Our energy is on our blog, which is great, except we sacrifice major initiative for joining
Brief discussion about potential relationships with other journals
Ben: Perhaps a pay wall with bonus content
Richard: Committed to issue of open access, though we are dependent on philanthropy
Natalia: Roundup; email list with USIH podcasts and articles related to something
Curated or aggregated site or email, or even a syllabus collection of some sort
Sarah: Likes Richard’s idea about open access
Andrew: Curated collection could just be an email
Ben: Thanks Richard for making the blog transition easy
Everyone: Thank you Ben for longtime service
Ben: It was a labor of love.
2020 Conference Update
Sara Georgini:
Hotel-shopping for our 2020 conference in Boston
Will assemble the team and fundraising options
The 2020 conference will be just over a week after the 2020 presidential election
Want to boost Thursday attendance
Will be thinking creatively about alternative formats for sessions
Plenaries are great, but sometimes there are too many plenaries
Interactive workshop styles for collaboration are important
Another aim of the conference will be to be ecofriendly
Brief discussion of how many people might attend 2019 conference in New York, which might be in the 200s
Meeting adjourned 1:45PM
Addendum
At 3:20pm, Andrew, Sarah, Sara, Ray, Richard, and Rebecca met in the lobby for an executive board meeting.
Discussed the need to transfer funds to a sponsor, with a modest fee.
Only transferring the money from donations because of tax-exempt status
Voted unanimously to transfer funds to a sponsor temporarily while we renew our tax-exempt status.
Reinstatement in spring or summer
Also discussed process for conference chairs going forward, regarding a possible constitutional amendment, on which all members would need to vote