S-USIH Minutes 11.7.2012
S-USIH EX COM MEETING NOVEMBER 7, 2012, 2pm
Paul: David will start us off
David: CUNY very slow to work with, Ana was supposed to get back to David regarding the conference reschedule
Took 3-4 months to get a date first time
Give to the end of November to come up with a date
Paul: Martin Burke intervene?
David: Marty would sit down with some of the people in charge or at least speak to Ana
Building people want one thing/the Center wants something else
There is some resentment toward us because of the deal we have had thus far.
Not optimistic for another date in the spring
Lisa: why resentment?
David: building people resent the fact the people who own or run the building do not get paid for a conference like ours and they have not gotten paid
Lora: could we pay them
David: no, too much money
We have approval of president to get free rooms—the administrative operation of graduate center is chaotic and so just trying organize a date and reservation of rooms take so long
Lora: if we offer to pay them some sum, could those relations improve
David: Center of the Humanities sponsors the conference and wants it to be free
Proposal—try to get dates for reschedule but place a limit on the time we give them
Paul: would it be possible to reassemble the plenary speakes?
David: Hollinger is willing before April
Allison: probably three of four would be possible
Paul: if we cannot reschedule the conference at CUNY, do we try another configuration?
David: would not want to create an electronic or virtual conference
We are a conference delivery organization and not having a conference is a problem
Allison: moving the conference CA will do things differently but could set aside the panels accepted in 2012 at the 2013 conference.
Lisa: share papers before the conference
David: all conference fees with credited
Ray: conference somewhere else?
David: need free rooms, that depends on institutional affiliation, and to reschedule it for another place, the conference would not work out
So we try reschedule it at CUNY and either that happens or not.
Lisa: OAH is in April and Public Intellectuals conf in April
David: general cost of conference is set by beverages and food services—so brownbags, coffee and tea service, wine and cheese, and Brendans
Dropped the cost this year in an effort to run a surplus
CUNY puts on the conference and we provide the people
Lisa: we are talking about different categories for conference fees
David: the costs are institution specific, we don’t have the capacity to charge different fees because CUNY
Allison: SUSIH is putting on the Irvine conference
David: conference organizer sets the fees
Feedback from conferencegoers are disappointed
Nobody has asked for their money back but many have said they would like to attend the conference
Lora: is it feasible to announce the conference in November that will be held in February
David: the money will still be available for conference after being refunded
Hopefully we will know quickly enough and people can set dates for the spring
Could see the benefit of the conference not running
But we need this conference as an organization
Allison: we draw heavily from the northeast for the conference and we can expect people to come
Ray: I’d like us to keep the hope alive if there is any chance from CUNY that it is considering rescheduling
David: we have nothing to announce yet
Lisa: we do have something to say about what we are doing
Lora: lay out the plan that we are using for consideration of rescheduling the conference
Should we let the members know we are working on it?
David: difference sense of this, and would prefer to wait
Lisa: what is the specific harm?
David: risk in sending out too many process emails—we are in communication with CUNY and we have to work with them to figure out the outcome
Does not think it is a good idea
Ray: minutes are for the members and these include the discussion about the CUNY reschedule
David: will update the conferencegoers once he knows something from CUNY
Paul: let us know if there is any need for the ex com to help out.
David left the call
Paul: annual business meeting?
Ray: I think we need some sort of meeting for the membership
Allison: we need to circulate a document on what we’ve done and what we want to do
Lisa: draw up some sort of document that people can look at
Lora: Newsletter did do something to this effect—but Paul should give shape to that
Paul: prepare a more detailed document for comment from the membership
Paul: Book award—pushing to get authors to submit
Roundtable of Jennifer R-R’s book at the Philosophical Conference in March—panel discussion
Cornel West was sort of contacted to chair roundtable
Bill McClay contacted Paul: we could plan a conference on Haskell
We might advertise the conference through the blog and perhaps dedicate time on the blog to Haskell and this conference
Paul: the issue of publication and how we do a journal and using the electronic site as a place for a journal
Lisa: what is the website doing? Nonprofit status she has submit
$12,253 and ~ $4700 left over, reserve $1500, $3300 set aside for conference; $5600 from membership
Ray: update on the website
Lora and Ben need to talk to Curtis about migration
The blog must become the main content to the website
Paul: it does cost something to do this sort of thing.
Ray: I apologize
Allison: CFP will be out in early 2013—all set for the conference
Lora: Publications committee is difficult
Putting out a call to get more contributors to the blog
ME Lennon will be the book review editor and is drafting the guidelines for book reviews
Lora inherited customs and now we need professional guidelines
Ben and Lora want more people involved in the pub committee
We need more people to do this job. And more bloggers
Need more help in general in the society
Paul: it is a hard road in this society
Lora: is there a way to enlarge the committees? Revisit the bylaws to expand the committees?
Need more involvement from members
Paul: we had to consider creating a new committee to look into the journal idea
Lora: did write up a report to consider a journal
Ben would like to have a hand in shaping the idea of a journal
Allison: circulate what the report from the ex com of last year was for a journal
Paul: we need a feasibility study on the options
Can we do something with no money soon?
There is a librarian at his school that is interested in helping run an e-journal—is this something that we should look into that kind of thing in general
Lora: we could do more with the newsletter, more contributions, more issues
Paul: we need institutional affiliation for whatever publication with consider
Ray: read part of Andrew’s report in which MIT press was mentioned as a possible place for the journal
Paul: also read the final report on the pub committee—do we want the academic industry to produce the journal
The online journal must be something to explore
Allison: membership will expand only if there is something to offer, such as a journal
Paul: do we need membership or do we want to focus on the journal
Allison: but we are a society that does thing for the community we are in the process of creating.
Ray: we need a summer meeting to hash this out
Lisa: could we hold a meeting where we set two goals for money and a journal and determine a hierarchy of priorities
Lora: under promise and over deliver
Allison: what degree do we honor the ex com we follow
Lisa: a three year revolving membership?
Allison: some kind of continuity at the president’s level?
Lora: ex com has a lot of power to make decisions—to whom is the ex com responding to when it say we don’t or do want a journal? Should we poll the membership
Even though we have the authority to make these decisions we might spare ourselves some labor by doing this.
Allison: what members want and how much are they willing to pay to do something about it
Paul: what is the membership? We should come face to face to discuss this society
Allison: there are people who would do things but have not yet been asked
Paul: we need to produce a document that will be sent to the membership
Allison: let’s assume we don’t hold the conference and let’s get a virtual discussion about the society any way.
Paul: find a group of people who will help the society explore the idea of the journal
Lora: we can get an ad hoc committee even through the blog to get this group
Lisa: would it be possible to have guest bloggers who work on a very different schedule and that would be a way to draw people in.
SHAFR has links to history of foreign relations in other venues
Paul: close the meeting with a committee to explore journal and plan for the virtual conference
Ended: 3:45pm