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