S-USIH Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, July 22, 2013

S-USIH ExCom Meeting, July 22, 2013, 12:00pm EST

Present: Cara Burnidge, co-chair 2014; Mark Edwards, co-chair 2014; Michel Rosen, chair of pub com; Lisa Szefel, treasurer; Allison Perlman, 2013 conference chair; Dan Wickberg, president; Ray Haberski, secretary; Paul Murphy, president 2013

Dan: introductions and thank you

  1. Paul Murphy

Paul: finding an institution that might support the society and its infrastructure; perhaps something like a patron

Public Intellectual Group: Harvard based conference, three years running; Lisa has attended this conference; not specifically intellectual history but a group that would be good to collaborate with.  There are plans for a meeting in Lisbon this year.  We agreed with John Linz to cross-publicity and create panels in both groups’ conferences.

2015 conference will have a plenary sponsored by Larry’s group

Society for the Advancement of Philosophy sponsored a panel with Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Digitization of Intellectual History Newsletter–Charles Capper and his editors hold the copyright for the IHN and will decide this fall whether they want S-USIH to digitize and post the IHN.

Lisa: agree that we should continue to pursue such collaborations as we are nimble and able to do this.

Dan: would like to contact Capper.  Paul agreed that Dan should take this up now that he is president (and on the board on MIH)

Lisa: Public Intellectuals and Controversy at the next Public Intellectuals Group at Harvard

Paul Murphy left conference call at 12:21pm

  1. 2013 Conference Report: Allison Perlman

June 15 was deadline and accepted almost everyone, including six panels from last year

Four roundtables, 16 panels, 53 papers

39 panels on the schedule for three days

Ready to send out acceptances when the registration page is ready to go

David Hollinger has deferred the honorarium to the excom to do something with the money, just as Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen had for the book prize money for graduate student travel

How will the money be dispersed to graduate students?

Spot on the registration page will submit a statement explaining why the support and the conference are necessary to them.

Conference committee will make the determination based on need

Ask students to include whether or not they are receiving aid from their institutions

Checks will be distributed at the conference to reimburse the cost

How many people could be helped?

The greatest number would be 10 students

Registration cost is $85 so perhaps we could waive the registration fee for students (covered by the $500 given to the society)

Decided to waive registration fee for those students who are eligible and can be covered under the $500

Scheduled the annual meeting for 8:30 Friday morning

Four to five to six concurrent panels to maximize the audience size and give people a chance to see panels they want

155 total acceptances, including lunch session on book prize

Plenary on Friday night and plenary on Saturday night

A total of 160-165 participants

Schedule for the conference up in August?

Posted once notification has gone out to everyone

Allison would like the conference program up on the website by the first week of August

Reserved Radisson Hotel for conference, with transportation to and from the hotel—shuttles to and from airport to hotel–$129/night breakfast included

Fly into Orange County airport

  1. 2014 Conference, Cara and Mark

Mark: some discussions on place, dates, themes

Dan: so religion and intellectual history as possible theme

Cara: material and the immaterial as a theme for plenaries—plays upon the blog discussions

Mark: have not talked much about the title of the conference, but leaving religion out of the title is probably a good thing

Dan: call for papers, just stress the inclusiveness of the conference and would accept those subjects that fall outside of the title. Would like to increase the range of disciplines and eras much more strongly.

Ray: by September we should have a good idea of the calendar for the 2014 conference

Dan: we should have a meeting around that time to discuss this calendar

Mark: conference for History and Education Society would like us to collaborate because they are holding their conference in Indy as well November 5-8.

Mark: Kathryn Lofton would be willing to keynote the conference

  1. Pub Com, Michele Rosen

Not much to report formally but has gotten up to speed on issues that the pub com was dealing with at the end of the last term

The facebook moderation is an issue: not under the Pub Com officially

Set up by Tim, Ben, and Mike

Ben has the blog under control and Mary Ellen has the book review area under control

Dan: does the facebook site speak for the society?

Michele: it uses the logo of the society and does have the society’s business there at times

Lisa: on facebook, no more posting anything that is related to official business of the society

Michele: 12 different people posted in the facebook newsfeed for S-USIH; 20 out of 43 went to locations other than the blog

Lisa: the problem comes when people speak in the name of the society without getting the society’s permission or official approval

Michele: did not see anything that caused any problems on the facebook page however there other options, such as closing off all posting to facebook to only authorized users—but that is one option, not the only option.

Dan: problem is that everything is “okay” until it is “not.”

Dan would like Michele to write up a report of those options.

Michele: will speak to Ben about controlling the page and then report on that discussion at the next meeting

Dan: seems odd that the pub com chair would not have direct access to the facebook page control

Dan: issue of the journal has come up consistently, perhaps is best left for another meeting.

Michele: speaking with Ben about the blog and posting.  As for the journal, at the very least we should consider a board of editors or advisors who would meet at the conference.

Dan: needs to be convinced that there is a need for a journal; need a separate meeting on that issue which is very large.

  1. Treasurer, Lisa

Good shape in regard to the budget—in part because of the conference that never happened

The next conference will be good for the budget as well and she is in the process of setting up a paypal account that will enable the fees for the conference and membership to be organized in a useful way

Need to raise more funds outside the normal channels of membership and conference fees

Send out a message for contributions

Affiliation with OAH in Atlanta, put on a joint event in Washington DC

Informal OAH affiliation, but much easier than with the AHA.  The contact at the OAH is in discussion with Lisa and the board there regarding sessions with the OAH

OAH could make room for S-USIH at the Atlanta conference in April on any topic that comes under the umbrella of intellectual history

The OAH is interested in cultivating a relationship with us

The panel needs to be built and there are a few different ways to go about doing this: contact David Sehat to see if would like to put something together

Cara is also close to Atlanta and has Amanda Porterfield and Neil Jummonville at Florida State

Dan: perhaps a roundtable on Angus Burgin’s book or Andy Jewett’s book.  He will contact David Sehat and Angus Burgin regarding the panel at OAH.  And will contact Lisa directly about what he finds out.

Dan: we can apply for grants, what is the status for looking grants—Ray will get a list of granting agencies that provide possible planning grants for the society

Lisa: public event with the OAH for a DC event co-sponsored on an interesting topic.  Sometime in 2014 there is an opportunity for this sort of idea

Dan: let’s think about this and discuss ideas at the next meeting

Dan: affiliation with the AHA—a three year period is required for a society to be in existence before we are allowed to apply for affiliation.  Then we are eligible to host multiple sections.

Lisa: OAH would like us to hold our annual meeting with the OAH and they would help us collect fees and run the conference

Cara: advises us to stay outside the OAH for a while so we can establish the society in its own right and so that the conference that we hold can have the number of panels it wants rather than be beholden to the organizational issues of the OAH

  1. Secretary, Ray

I have a major issue with memberships because everyone is technically up for renewal on July 31

Lisa has some ideas about how to manage memberships on a rolling basis, especially using excel.

Dan: if we need to amend the bylaws to change membership rules, we can do so after a proposal from Lisa and me.

The website will change as conference information comes on line

Pub com chair relationship to the website is that Curtis does the design but the pub com does all content for the blog and book reviews, which can include plug-ins and apps

Dan: should we try to foreground what appears on the blog in different ways?

  1. Status of ad hoc committees

Dan will contact the chairs of the ad hoc committees to see if they have interest in continuing the work they had set out to do

MOOC committee was established in May and it will have a report in November, Lora Burnett is chairing that.

  1. Membership Outreach

We have around 175 members, of which about 80 have been in the society for more than one year

Dan would like to see people from other fields in the membership of the society, but also understands that these people have their own fields represented by other societies.

But how do we expand membership?

Is 170 or so the right number for the society?

Are there things that the society can do to offer members?

***Lisa suggested in order to orient new members to the society’s administration, officers could create a monthly log of the duties that each officer has.  The log would be guide to what the society does as a whole and what each person’s responsibilities might be.

Michele added that we need a solid calendar of things that need to get done consistently throughout the year.