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2002 Business Meeting |
Minutes |
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The meeting commenced about 5:15 p.m. with a welcome by Bill Dancey (Program Chair) and Martha Otto (Local Arrangements Chair), who comprised the conference organizing Committee for 2002. Dancey thanked the Department of Anthropology at Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society, and the Ramada Inn Conference Center for their help.. Dancey announced that Conference had: 158 submissions by 252 authors and co-authors in 9 symposia, 2 plenary sessions, 1 poster session, 2 workshops, 10 general sessions, and 1 video premier. Attendance included 285 pre-registered attendees and 50-60 walk-ins, with additional walk-ins expected the following day. Bill Green introduced himself as the President of the newly formed Midwest Archaeological Conference, Incorporated, and the others at the head table: Lynne Goldstein, President-Elect; and Bill Lovis, Editor-Elect. Green provided historical context by explaining that there was no agenda distributed to people attending the Business Meeting, because “after all, this is the Midwest Archaeological Conference.” To be covered
at the Meeting: 1. Vergil Noble reported that the 10-person MAC steering committee met on June 8 in Evanston, IL to prepare by-laws for the new organization. He missed that meeting and was appointed Chair of the Nominations Committee. He promptly put together a Committee with Mike Nassaney, Sissel Schroeder, Leslie Eisenberg, and Bill Dancey serving as Committee Members to develop an excellent slate of candidates. Ballots were mailed out to 283 MCJA subscribers with 110 valid ballots returned. This is a 39% return rate, which is a good rate for any archaeological organization or any membership-based organization. The election
results: We appreciate their willingness to run and serve the new organization, but also we appreciate others who stood for election and were not selected: Mark Seeman, Michael Wiant, Mark Dudzick, and Katherine Egan-Bruhy, Shaunne Skinner, and Ernie Bozhardt. 2. Green reported on Executive Committee actions. He announced that at the 2001 MAC meeting in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, the by-laws of the MAC were approved, and then posted on the web. The Steering Committee for the MAC was made up of volunteers at the 2001 MAC Business Meeting. Since that time we have registered the MAC, Inc. as a charitable organization in Wisconsin, obtained a federal employer identification number which is needed to do business (even if the organization does not have employees), and applied to the IRS for a federal 501(c)3 designation as a not-for-profit, tax-deductible charitable organization. The latter application required a $500 filing-fee. One of the important steps by members of the Steering Committee was providing substantial donations to meet that filing fee and other business expenses. A program account for MAC business was set up at Beloit College which has disbursed monies for expenses and is still accepting contributions for the organization. We will ask the IRS for an expedited preliminary decision on our 501(c)3 status, which we expect soon, but that should not inhibit your interest or ability to provide donations to the organization, because as we will point out soon one our immediate short-term needs is cash to help get MAC, Inc. off the ground. In the near term, the elected Executive Committee will be setting the dues structure for the organization, which is important because the MCJA subscription-year will expire soon. The end of the MCJA subscription-year will coincide with the beginning of the MAC membership year and correspond with the end of the calendar year. So those of you who are MCJA subscribers will be getting a MAC annual membership form, and those of you who are Conference attendees will be getting a similar or identical form. The dues structure has yet to be worked out but will be similar to that of other regional archaeological organizations. For example, the Southeast Archaeological Conference has annual membership of: student = $15, individual = $15, family = $30, institution (library) = $50, lifetime-individual = $300, and lifetime-family = $350. SEAC has other sources of income beyond dues to boost their revenue, while MAC will for the immediate future will need to rely on dues revenue. Therefore, the SEAC structure provides a ballpark for MAC dues structures. Anyone having questions or comments, please let us know. The MAC by-laws provide that dues from Life memberships are deposited in a special account from which only interests is used as revenue. Life memberships thereby constitute an endowment for the organization. Question: Will membership in MAC include the journal subscription. Green: Yes, it will include the journal subscription and benefits of participating in the annual meeting. It remains to be worked out how non-member participation in the conference will be handled. Will it be like the SAA where it is difficult for non-members to give papers, or do we institute a system where non-members could register for the conference at a higher rate and members at a reduced rate? The principal benefit of membership and the principal reason for promoting this organization in the first place is to promote the long-term stability of the journal,. Also in the short-term, the Executive Committee will be working out a transfer agreement for the publication of the journal itself. Since 1995, it has been published at the University of Iowa after it had been transferred from Kent State University. A similar transfer needs to be affected now between Iowa and the new organization. A third thing to be done in the near-term is promoting memberships, journal sales, institutional subscriptions, and other development activities to insure that the organization is strong from the start. One of the ways of doing this to do this is through a committee structure. A broad participation of members is essential to learn what you would like to see, what your institutions would like to see, what your colleagues and students would like to see instituted. 3. MAC priorities for the future. Short-term. Already pointed out is that MAC needs money. That is why developing a dues structure is so important, but we also need contributions, and to expand membership and institutional participation. ii. Simultaneously, we need to develop an organizational plan, and we will need input from all the members to get this underway. We will be soliciting interest in a number of ways: (1) through the web and e-mail. two, through MCJA which Bill will talk about. Three, we want to do what the bylaws say, to increase the breadth and depth, wherever possible, of communication among archaeologists with Midwestern interests. The journal is the principal way of doing that, but there are a host of additional ways and we look forward to your assistance in helping us meet that mission. We’ve mentioned the web and electronic communication, but one our most important committees to begin with will be Planning and Development, that will be concerned with budget issues, and assisting our treasurer Bob Jeske in getting our revenue stream off to a good start. We are going to be develop a Meetings Committee for long-term planning to help local organizers set-up meetings, a Nominations Committee which will need to be reconstituted every year in the spring, and the Editor will maintain and modify the Editorial Advisory Committee for MCJA. Those are a few of the committee ideas we will be pursuing. Again, your input and ideas and interest are going to be extremely valuable. The interest of attending members in serving on committees (editorial, website, finance) was solicited by passing around sign-up sheets. Current status of MCJA. We are on time and will be publishing the fall issue of 02 in fall 02. We have a backlog of manuscripts ready for the spring 03 issue. I will be handing over the editor’s duties to Bill Lovis. Beginning now, all manuscript submissions should be sent to Bill. Bill Lovis, Editor: I (who ran unopposed) overcame a formidable list of opposition candidates to win this position. I think you all will agree that Bill Green has done a wonderful job of maintaining an exceptional high quality journal during his tenure as Editor of MCJA. It is an organ we all can be proud of and we owe him a round of thanks for that. I intend to make an already excellent journal better. To do that , of course, I will rely on the membership as well to referee journal article submissions. As Bill pointed out, I will be reconstituting the Editorial Advisory Board hopefully to achieve broad regional balance. I’ve also been thinking about several other changes to the journal, not so much visual changes, but more in the line of topical issues and the introduction of review essays, as well as keeping up the mix of general issues. To get the journal you can become a member of MAC, or become an institutional subscriber – I leave that up to you. From now on, any article submissions -- and I hope many of the people presenting papers here will rework their 15-minute presentations into publishable manuscripts -- should be sent to me (Bill/William/Dr./Curator/Herr Professor Lovis, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824). Thank you. Bill Green: Any questions about the journal? I want to thank all the referees over the past six years who have reviewed articles for the journal, who will probably be the basis for Bill will be hitting up for reviews. One you’ve say yes to MCJA. Bill L. Now, there’s a bumper sticker…. Just say yes to MCJA…. I’d like to throw open the meeting and ask if there are questions about the organization in general, and about the priorities outlined. What do you think we ought to be doing, now that you know what we think we will be doing? Michael Nassaney: I’ve been a long-time subscriber and am concerned that the $25 fee structure may be unrealistically low. This may also be the case for the institutional membership at $50. I think we need to be realistic in our financial planning. If we end up generating a surplus, then I think as SEAC does things can be give back to the membership which makes for a fine, collegial, and successful organization. Bob Mainfort: I think it is critical to have a strong group of financial advisors, like SEAC, for sound investment strategies. We need people with real expertise in financial matters because it is critical to build capitol for the organization. The finance committee is the key committee, and we should follow the SEAC model in this regard. Bob Jeske: I would like to point out that we need funds before we can invest them. Given the current state of at he account, I as Treasurer have nothing to do. I would like to take this moment to reiterate the importance of donations. I would like to follow the model of the late Chuck Bareis who continually hammered home the need to give funds to the Illinois Archaeological Survey, not just the regular dues – which he hounded people for – but in any other way possible. He raised a considerable sum for the IAS. At this point we have a very limited amount of money in the MAC account at Beloit College so donations are critical. Give till it hurts…. Question: How should the check be made out? Green: Beloit College -- Midwest Archaeological Conference, and sent to me. I’ll send you a receipt. When we get our IRS approval we will set up a separate account. Question: Would you say a little more about how the committees should be formed, or should we talk with you in private? Green: We will assign Executive Committee Members to form those committees. We will pass around Tom Emerson: Has there been any thought given to a newsletter? Or an electronic newsletter? Or will the web site provide an electronic newsletter? Green: The web site or a list serve will satisfy our short-term communication needs. It didn’t seem feasible to print and mail a newsletter. Bob Salzer: Will the chair entertain a motion to express our collective gratitude to Bill Dancey and Martha Otto and their associates for this year’s meeting? Moved, seconded, and approved by consensus with applause. Green: Meetings in 2003 will be in Milwaukee, and in 2004 in St. Louis and held jointly with SEAC. Bob Jeske: Next year’s meeting will be held on the weekend of October 16, at the Hyatt in Downtown Milwaukee. And it will be a lot of fun. Check the SAA Archaeological Record which has a nice write-up on Milwaukee, because the SAA meeting will be held there in the spring. John Kelly: I approached SEAC about holding a joint meeting in 2004, which would be nine years since our previous joint meeting. They have agreed to take the lead because we are a fledgling organization at this point. We have tentatively selected the Mariott-Spanish Pavilion, in downtown St. Louis. The meeting will be October 20-24, 2004, if the proposal is approved at SEAC’s executive committee or business meeting in November. Bill Green: Anything else? We are going to have a lot of fun with this group. It will be a challenge to get some of the mundane paperwork taken care of, but we should not lose sight of the big picture – to keep the journal going and growing, and to make sure that our various means of communication are enhanced. We all know the rich archaeological resources and heritage of the region, and by more intensively and effectively communicating this among ourselves the word will also communicate this to others throughout the country. A motion to adjourn would probably be in order at this point. Motion offered and accepted. Adjourned about 5:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cheryl Ann
Munson
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