S-USIH Annual Meeting Minutes 10.12.2014
Call to Order: 8:04 am, Indianapolis, Omni Severin Hotel
Present: Daniel Wickberg, President
Kevin Schultz, Treasurer
Ray Haberski, Secretary
Tim Lacy, Chair of Publications Committee
Andrew Hartman, Chair of 2015 Conference Committee
Introductions from secretary
President’s report:
- Collaborations
- Sending panel to OAH in St. Louis in May
- SAAP—exchange panels each year. Paul Murphy has put together a panel for the SAAP in Grand Rapids, MI
- Henry F. May fund for graduate students
- Original gift from David Hollinger
- Intend to focus on increasing that fund for graduate students attending the conference
- Book award 2013
- Panel at the 2013 conference featuring the winner Ajay Mehrortra
- 40 submissions for the award, up from 2012.
- Call for award has gone out earlier, committee consists of Brick (chair), Westbrook, Ratner-Rosenhagen are the committee
- Archive of S-USIH
- Need to systematize and formalize the permanent records of the group
- Call will go out to all active participants from the beginning of the society’s founding
- Pointed to this project as a significant one and something that needs to be addressed
- Conference 2014
- Successful and the highlight of the year
Treasurer’s Report
- Need 25 people to pay conference fee in order to meet the budget
- Amazon Smile: every time a person makes a purchase at Amazon, people can designate the society as the charitable organization that can be designated for a percetange of the sale
- Membership system will be Kevin’s top priority in order to better manage fees for memberships and conferences and anything else
Secretary’s Report
- Collaboration with IUPUI and the Institute for American Thought, in particular
- The society’s website will be maintained and updated by a employee of IUPUI and the IAT
- There are grant opportunities available through the IU system and on the IUPUI campus that Haberski will apply for on behalf on the society with the hope of running a summer institute
- Haberski has scheduled a meeting between Wickberg and Marianne Wokeck (director of the IAT) to discuss formalizing the collaboration between IAT and the SUSIH
- Haberski noted that the website can become something for the membership as well as a public space
- Membership total: as of October 2014, membership was 197—a combination of members who joined in order to attend the 2013 conference and members who jointed to attend the 2014 conference.
Publication Chair’s Report:
- Update on subcommittees
- Book Reviews: Lillian Barger provided update on recruiting more people to review for the society
- Relationship with publishers
- Problem with getting books to reviewers
- Robert is updating the book review section of the website, in particular soliciting reviewers for certain areas
- Ben asked if we should require membership among reviewers
- Building a prompt to join on the same form that asks for interests in books to be reviewed
- Blog editing
- Goal of having two bloggers a day is still the target
- Collaborating with other blogs especially those who do periods or areas that S-USIH do not cover
- Increasing the magazine quality of the website
- Need clearer idea about the webtraffic
- Could tag the books that we refer to on the blog and send people to Amazon
- Andy Seal updated about the feasibility of a journal
- Need to undertake a desirability study
2015 Conference Chair report:
- 2015 conference: Hamilton Crowne Plaza
- Prices are similar
- 25, 50, 50 rooms each night
- Located near White House
- Keynote and plenaries already set up
- Publics and their Problems
- Corey Robin as keynote
- Committee: Michael Kimmage, Claire Rydell (Stanford grad), Jonathan Wilson (early American)
- Junto blog: sponsoring two panels
- AAIH: sponsoring two panels
- SAAP: sponsor at least one panel
- Starting with Thursday plenary—on little magazines with Jackson Lears, Sara Leonard, Dan McCarthy, Rachel Rosenthal, Chloe Schama, Baskar at Jacobin
- Friday night: Public Intellectuals—Russell Jacoby and his book commented on by Claire Potter, Leo Ribuffo, Jonathan Halloway, Tim Goghlin
- Saturday: museums and the idea of the national
Questions and comments
Good idea collaboration with IUPUI
Could we create a digital magazine through the offices at IUPUI for the blog and the society
Collecting digital documents in intellectual history
Meeting adjourned 9am