Minutes of the 2010 Executive Committee Meeting

The Executive Committee meeting at the Annual Convention was held on Friday, November 5, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Plack, Chicago, IL. President Richard Glejzer called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. The following report has been filed by the Executive Director on behalf of the Executive Committee:

1. 1. The minutes of the 13 November 2009 Meeting of the Executive Committee (St. Louis Union Station Marriott, St. Louis, MO) were approved unanimously.

2. 2. Report on Elections. Craig Dionne nominated as candidates for the Executive Committee Prof. Hillary Nunn (U. of Akron) and Prof. Andrea Kaston Tange (Eastern Michigan U). Prof. Dionne also indicated his willingness to serve as President for 2012. Craig Owens indicated his willingness to serve on the EC once his term as President is over. It was observed that we should recruit at least one Germanist to serve on the EC. Elections will be held in September.

3. 3. Report on Membership. M/MLA membership for the calendar year 2010 was reported as 563 individual or joint memberships, as well as 13 departmental memberships. While this represents an increase over 2009, the need to increase membership numbers, especially among younger scholars, was once again energetically discussed.

4. 4. Report on Convention. Official registration at the 52nd annual Convention held 4-7 November 2010 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, IL was approximately 570. This is an increase over 2009, but the Executive Director and EC all agreed on the need to increase conference attendance.

5. 5. Report on Publication. Total income in fiscal year 2010 from subscription sales, sales of individual copies, and advertising in the M/MLA Journal was reported as $6876.66, nearly identical to 2009. Several issues relative to publication were discussed:

   1. a. How can we better differentiate between the two yearly issues of the Journal, for our authors and readers? Confusion arises because the Fall issue is linked to the conference theme, but the Spring (working papers) issue welcomes papers from the conference as well. It was suggested that we may wish to divorce the Fall (thematic) issue from the conference theme. Another suggestion was to divorce both issues from the conference theme, while retaining the structure, so that the Spring issue would be open-topic working papers, while the Fall issue would be longer papers organized around a theme.

   2. b. It was felt that we need to cast our net more broadly, to attract a greater range of submissions, whether geographically, thematically, linguistically, or in terms of career stages. It was agreed that the EC generally, and the President and Executive Director in particular, would work to solicit more submissions.

   3. c. The question of moving to an electronic journal format was discussed. It was agreed that this was both inevitable and desireable, but there were several questions about how to approach it, as follows:

      • • What are our current printing costs, and how would they change as we move to an electronic format?

      • • How would the electronic format affect our relationships with JSTOR and Project Muse?

      • • How would the electronic format serve the tenure and promotion needs of our members?

      • • How would we make available/sell our electronic archive?

      • • Should we have supplemental web content in addition to the Journal, whether print or electronic?

      • • How long would the shift take, and how would we orchestrate the relative percentages of print and electronic over the course of the shift?

6. 6. Future Conventions. The date of the 53rd annual convention was announced as follows: 3-6 November 2011, St. Louis Union Station Marriott, St. Louis, MO.

7. 7. Financial report. For fiscal year 1 July 2009-30 June 2010, a report prepared by Bernadette Steele was received unanimously. [2009:] [Support and revenue totaled $39,194, while expenses totaled $95,616 for FY 2009, which created an unfortunate deficit of -$56,422. The report showed net assets of $44,728 at year’s end.]

   The severe economic downturn of 2009 created a very difficult financial situation for the MMLA, largely because of the shortfall with room pickup at the convention hotel in St. Louis, which cost the MMLA several tens of thousands...