SOUTH-CENTRAL RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE
MINUTES OF THE GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING

MARCH 22, 1997, Austin, Texas

1. SCRC secretary-treasurer John Mercer called the meeting to order at 8:05 a.m. in the Omni Hotel in Austin. He read the minutes of the 1996 general business meeting, and they were approved. He reported that SCRC had 168 duespaid members in 1996, up from 125 in the two previous years. He also reported that SCRC has $3184.02 in a checking account and $8051.31 in a certificate of deposit.

2. Mercer announced that the executive committee has named three Members Emeritus: Robert Collmer, Albert Fields, and Herbert Turrentine. All are retiring after long service to the profession and to SCRC. This honor confers lifetime membership.

3. Phoebe Spinrad, editor of Discoveries, asked members to send books to the book review editor and to submit articles and other items, especially for the spring 1998 issue, which will be a retrospective of SCRC meetings.

4. Tita French Baumlin, editor of Explorations in Renaissance Culture, announced that the journal has a site on the World Wide Web. She also explained her policies for submitting manuscripts for publication. She asked anyone who received a defective copy of volume 22, with some pages lighter than others, to contact her for a replacement copy.

5. SCRC president Elizabeth Skerpan expressed appreciation to Liana De Girolami Cheney, program chair, and George Klawitter, local arrangements chair, for their outstanding work on this year's meeting in Austin.
5. Skerpan announced the appointment of John Ford as program chair for the 1998 meeting and asked that special-session topics be sent him by May 1.

6. Craig Kallendorf, chair of the nominating committee, nominated James Baumlin for president, Liana De Girolami Cheney for vice president (both for one-year terms), and Raymond-Jean Frontain, Nabil Matar, and Donald Stump for the executive committee (two-year terms). All were elected by acclamation.

7. Newly elected president James Baumlin asked for volunteers to serve on a recruitment committee to consider means to increase SCRC membership, especially among scholars from disciplines other than literature.

8. Skerpan said that the meeting site for 1998 would be announced soon and that SCRC needs meeting sites for future years.

9. Fred Wharton asked for volunteers to help him establish SCRC's Web site.

10. The meeting was adjourned by 8:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

John M. Mercer
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
South-Central Renaissance Conference