S-USIH Minutes December 2017

Executive Committee Meeting

7 December 2017, Noon EST

Attending

Kevin Schultz, Leah Gordon, Ray Haberski, Richard Candida Smith, Natalia Petrzela, Tim Lacy, Rebecca Brenner

Agenda

Welcome

Secretary’s Report
Treasurer’s Report

Conference Chairs’ Reports

Publications Chair’s Report

President’s Report

Welcome

Unanimous approval of conference minutes

Secretary’s Report

Rebecca Brenner:

Planning to update bios on the website- thank you all for sending them to me

509 total members but only 186 are active, which just went down

Treasurer’s Report

Leah Gordon:

Financially, the conference was better than we feared

2017 Dallas conference costs ~$22k, including hotel fee and paying Annette Gordon-Reed

We took in $28,700, hence profit of $8k

Currently $31k in the bank

Ray: $125 was a high registration fee

Natalia: We should send out an email using holiday season to ask for donations to support graduate students at future conferences

Richard: Generally should be financially conscious while planning conferences

2018 Conference Update

Tim Lacy:

Things are going well

Jonathan Holloway enthusiastically committed to be our keynote speaker

One plenary will be about populism, with Sophie Rosenfeld from Penn; another one will cover Christianity and anti-intellectualism, led by Molly Worthen; we are also working on a Latinx plenary panel for Saturday night

The Call For Papers becomes available on Monday, December 11, 2017

Seeking Lora’s 2017 insights

Kevin: Good job Tim explaining perks of Chicago in the CFP

2019 Conference Update

Natalia Petrzela:

Discusses what needs to happen for the 2019 conference in New York City

Seeking suggestions of what people want

Rebecca: Live Past Present podcast would be ideal

Natalia: Likely a live podcast and also History Channel involvement

Editing a new magazine, which will launch at American Historical Association in January

Ray: CSPAN attended S-USIH when it was in DC

Publication Chair’s Report

Richard Candida-Smith:

Discusses the question of book reviews

8 book reviews in 2017, including the Stamped from the Beginning salon

Rob Greene contributes many valuable book reviews, including classics revisited

Book reviews and podcasts should be more visible on the website

Ray: Book reviews are central to US intellectual history

Leah: Who chooses the books to review?
Richard: Rob Greene, and we should have 2-4 books per month, plus round tables ideally

Richard will email Ben Alpers and Rob Greene about this

Book review is 750 well-considered words

Natalia: Podcasts are an aggregator

Leah: Advertise members’ books, podcasts, and other work on our website

Ray: Website must be a carefully curated aggregator, not just free-for-all

Rebecca: I currently don’t have access to the website

President’s Report
Kevin Schultz:

Terms should be 2-3 years, which will require a vote among members

Richard: Past President should sit on executive committee for the sake of continuity

Rebecca: Terms should be staggered

Meeting adjourned 1:26