S-USIH ExCom Minutes 11.21.2014

S-USIH ExCom meeting: conference call

November 21, 2014, 12:00pm

Dan Wickberg, President

Andrew Hartman, Conf Chair 2015 (Washington, DC)

Kevin Schutz, Treasurer

Ray Haberski, Secretary

Tim Lacy, Chair of Publications Committee

Need to contact Jennifer Burns to set up a time to speak about the 2016 conference

Treasurer’s Report

Work at IAT

Young’s work show as in-kind on the balance sheet

Come up with a realistic estimate for his time

SUSIH needs to figure out how much Young’s time actually costs

Some of the expense is minor maintenance

Building out features is a separate expense

Vote: on contributing a certain amount to the maintenance of the site

Kevin reminded that the operating budget is around $4500 a year at this point

The idea is not to budget more than 25-30% of the annual operating budget to the maintenance

The figure right now is around $1500-$2000

All agreed with this figure

Memo of agreement between IAT and IUPUI

PO Box should be maintained until something

Midwest Pragmatist Group meeting in third week of September 2015

Approve sending out a message to members to participate in the weekend group

2015 Conference Chair Report

Andrew briefed the group on an email conversation he engaged in with Lisa Szefel over the configuration of a plenary at the conference. Seemed to reach an amicable conclusion regarding the conference. Lisa did explain that she will not attend the conference because of this issue, no small matter considering the role she has played in the society and with the conference.

Dan wanted to know if this situation had implications for conference going forward. Andrew said he might do things differently in the future but finds it difficult to address conflicts without offending someone.

Dan raised the issue of how Tim Goeglin fits in among a scholarly community. Do we need to figure out criteria for including people in the conference?

Draft of CFP has been circulated and will be published within the next few weeks—anticipated deadline for conference is mid-April.

Committee has agreed to accept only complete panels—committee debated this issue at length. Graduate students in particular advocated for complete panels because it helps graduate students to reach out and connect with scholars.

Beginning process of presses committing to the conference—program ads, panel sponsorship, and table

Sponsored panel: SAAP, will contact Erin McKenna who is president at this time

Treasurer’s Report

Not much new to report from the email on the last budget report

Up $413 on the conference

Need sponsorship at the conferences to produce a little bit of profit

Need to increase the funding for graduate students

$20,248 in the bank

Not many outstanding expenses in any way

Will be moving forward on the membership database management

Will send out a progress report mid-January

Need to make sure that the membership system is operational by the rush of next year

Pub Chair report

Tim proposes a small budget for buying books to send out to reviewers

Generate emails that will be attached to membership renewal that allows people to volunteer for book reviewing

Budget for book purchases for reviewing: discussion covered issues that spoke to the reasons why books are not reaching our reviewers in a timely matter.

The ability to get these books reviewed is significant but we might need to consider how much funding would be needed to actually get the books we want

$200 budget line for the book review editors to get books out to reviewers in a timely manner

President’s Report

Book prize schedule is set and will be swinging into action early in the new year

Need to get people and presses to send books

Candidates for executive committee for next year

Discussion over creating a nominating committee

Ray suggested using that committee for former excom members to rotate off

Dan suggested using the nominating committee to introduce new officers to the way the society works

If we wish to create a nominating committee how would the society go about creating the committee?

Discussion over having an ad hoc committee on nominations

Dan introduced the need to discuss the length of terms and committee members who can learn how the organization is run while not participating directly in the society’s business

Dan introduced the need to create an archive for the society and to advance that this year before his term is up.

Next meeting in January.

Meeting concluded at 13:45.