Minutes of the Executive Board Meeting of
The South-Central Renaissance Conference, 9 March 2006
Present: Christine Getz, President; Norman Land, Vice President; Maurice Hunt, Program Chair; David Reinheimer, Editor, Discoveries; Frances Malpezzi, Editor, EIRC; Scott Howard, Marina della Putta Johnston, Megan Conway Donald Dickson, Thomas Herron, Members at Large; Arlen Nydam, Webmaster; Sean Benson, Secretary-Treasurer.
Absent: Raymond Frontain, Past President; Patricia Marie Garcia, Member-at-Large.
The following minutes are keyed to the agenda as brought forward by President Getz. Given the wide-ranging discussions that occurred throughout this meeting, some of the ensuing materials are presented out of their actual order.
1. Approval of Minutes. President Getz called the meeting to order at 7:53 p.m. A motion to approve last year's minutes was made, seconded, and passed.
Reports:
2. Secretary-Treasurer's Report. Sean Benson reported on the organization's finances, noting that our current net worth, which is $29,316, is slightly down from that of last year, though final numbers have not yet come in from Irving Kelter. He suggested that the $3800 subvention to EIRC is something to watch, as revenues generated by EIRC are approximately $1,000 less than that amount. Interest income doubled this year to over $800, an encouraging sign. Sean also reported that money in CD's will mature and be available for a proposed expansion in the publication and distribution of EIRC. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and passed.
3. Report of the 2006 Program Chair. After noting the number and variety of papers submitted to this year's conference (109 papers, 30 panels), Maurice Hunt reported that this year we were able to offer a dynamic set of papers, two plenary sessions, and our annual keynote lecture. He mentioned that QEIS sponsored three panels, SRAH three, and the Marvell Society one. Three special sessions were also organized this year as well. Shakespeare and English Renaissance drama accounted for an unusually large number of the remaining 20 panels. He also noted the names of the recipients of the 2006 graduate student travel awards. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved.
4. Explorations Editor's Report. Frances Malpezzi reported that this has been a time of transition for EIRC. Tita French Baumlin, the immediate past editor, has been transferring materials, including back issues of the journal, a process which should conclude by early summer 2006. Arkansas State now has an EIRC site on their website: http://engphil.astate.edu/EIRC
Reporting on behalf of Tita for 2005, Frances notes that some issues were delayed last year because of various technical problems. EIRC subscriptions were down slightly from 90+ in previous years to 81 in 2005. Special issues do seem to be attracting additional purchasers. Tita asked that Frances convey her gratitude to the board for entrusting the EIRC editorship to her for the past ten years. Frances also reported that the summer 2006 issues will feature essays on intentionality, guest edited by Paul Parrish, and that winter 2006 will be a special issue on art history, guest edited by Norman Land. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved.
5. Discoveries Editor's Report. Dave Reinheimer reported that the migration from hardcopy to electronic format took place without any major difficulties, and is now complete. He also noted that the back issues of Discoveries remain at The Ohio State University. Discussion ensued as to how to complete the transfer. Once he obtains them, Dave plans to convert them to PDF format for electronic distribution. Two issues were released in 2005, and two issues are planned for 2006 as well. He indicated that he will be issuing in the coming months a call for additional manuscripts. Finally, he noted that the Web site will receive some minor modifications this year, including a hit counter to track the number of visitors. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved.
6. Report of the Nominations Committee. Reporting for Past President and Chair of the nominations committee, President Getz brought forth the names of Martha Oberle (Frederick Community College) and Jacob Blevins (McNeese State) for three-year terms as board members. She also brought forward the name of Jill Carrington (Stephen F. Austin) as the 2008 Program Chair. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved, with the slate of candidates to be brought forward at the general business meeting.
Finally, on behalf of the nominations committee, President Getz brought as a motion the nomination of Margaret Flansburg for a life membership. Seconded, the motion was unanimously approved with acclamation.
7. Archivist's Report. On behalf of David Hart, Christine Getz mentioned that we still have a continuing problem re-locating the archives to another location. Arlen Nydam expressed an interest in taking the archive and possibly digitizing it as well. Thomas Herron suggested a future plenary talk, perhaps on the 60th anniversary of SCRC (2011), on the contents of the archive. David Reinheimer suggested the possibility of interviewing longstanding members and perhaps combining this with a study of the archives. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved.
8. Report of the Publications Committee. Christine Getz reported that progress this year has been slow, though negotiations for a hardcover volume of the Queen Elizabeth special edition are underway. Scott Howard volunteered to be part of the discussion, and he suggested that the Board contact Jim Baumlin, since he has been instrumental to this task, that we ask him for suggestions as to how to proceed at this point. Motion to approve the report was made, seconded, and approved.
Old Business
9. Alliances with other organizations. Christine Getz reported that the Arms and Armory Society has yet to bring forward a proposal. At this time no other organization has come forward with a proposal to align itself with SCRC.
New Business
10. Funding for invited speakers. David Reinheimer moved to implement a two-tiered funding structure for both the Hunter and Martz lectures, the exact dollar amount to be determined by the availability of funds as determined by the SCRC treasurer. Scott Howard offered a subsidiary motion that, beginning in 2008, $750 would be allocated for speakers from North America, and up to $1250 for invited speakers from outside North America, the exact amount dependent on the availability of funds as determined by the SCRC treasurer. The motions were seconded and approved.
Maurice Hunt suggested that if affiliates invite speakers and want additional funds to support their coming, we ought to ask the affiliates, as a matter of first recourse, to attempt to secure funding from their membership or from a school, perhaps the host institution. SCRC would then be willing to identify on our promotional materials the institution as a sponsor of the plenary address or keynote lecture.
11. Planning for 2008 and beyond. Christine Getz reported that Les Brothers (University of Central Missouri) has expressed interest in hosting us for 2008. Donald Dickson recommended Kansas City and suggested that going to smaller cities has historically had an adverse effect on attendance. Chapman University and New Orleans do not appear to be viable sites in the near future. Marina della Putta Johnston reported on her preliminary talks with the administrations at Rosemount College and Bryn Mawr for a future conference (no sooner than 2009) in the Philadelphia area. Since both Rosemount and Bryn Mawr are both women's colleges, Marina suggested that we might want to explore a women's theme.
12. Website issues. Thomas Herron made a motion that we put a box on the registration form asking for permission to use conference participants' pictures on the website. The motion was seconded and passed. Arlen Nydam and Sean Benson also mentioned the important transition SCRC is making to electronic delivery of most SCRC materials, including subscription renewal and conference registration materials. (The notable exception is EIRC.) Arlen has been instrumental in organizing and facilitating our collection of members' email addresses into a centralized list to which officers and board members will have access.
13. Accommodation policies and waiver of registration fees for invited speakers. Christine Getz noted that we have no formal policy concerning such fees. Motion was made to waive the registration fee and one-year dues for speakers. Seconded, the potion passed.
Megan Conway moved to give first priority on a complimentary room to the plenary speaker as chosen by the local arrangements chair; if there is a second complimentary room, then it will go to the Martz lecturer; and if a third, to the Hunter lecture. Seconded, the motion passed.
14. Adjudication of graduate travel awards. After noting that it was previously the Vice President's duty to determine the winner of the Louis Martz essay prize, Sean Benson made a motion that the Vice President be in charge of judging the graduate travel awards on the basis of full paper submissions. (This was previously the job of the program chair, and Sean suggested that the new arrangement would lessen the program chair's responsibility and create a more equitable distribution of duties.) Scott Howard offered a subsidiary motion to require the submission of graduate student papers by February 1st. A second subsidiary motion was made to award a maximum of four awards per year in four equal amounts not to exceed $250 per award. Seconded, the motions carried.
At 10:20 p.m., President Getz moved to adjourn. Seconded, the motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Sean Benson
SCRC Secretary-Treasurer