2004 Annual Report of the Secretary

Midwest Archaeological Conference
October 23, 2004
St. Louis, Missouri

Elections: All the candidates who stood for office—Vergil Noble and Bonnie Styles for President-Elect, Janet Brashler for Editor-Elect, Tim Baumann for Treasurer-Elect, Susan Martin for Secretary, and George Milner, Robert Sasso, and Russell Stafford for Executive Officer 2. Well qualified candidates are essential for our organization. It has been very gratifying to look at the slate of nominees and know the officers will do a good job regardless of who wins the vote.

Ballots were sent to 373 MAC members-a 75% increase over 2003, with 161 ballots returned-approximately the same return rate as last year. The 43% return rate is a very high rate for a professional organization and speaks well for our membership and organizational success. Nine ballots lacked signatures on the envelope and so were not eligible for tally; this is a nearly 200% increase over last year in archaeologists not reading or following instructions (which does not bode well for the continued success of our members).

Three candidates were elected without opposition: Brashler as Editor-Elect, Baumann and Treasurer-Elect, and Martin as Secretary. Members elected Styles as President-elect and Milner as Executive Officer 2, and the successful candidates were reported to the current President. Any member wishing more information about the election may contact the Secretary.

In spring 2005, the President will form a Nominating Committee to solicit candidates for Secretary-Elect and Executive Officer 1 (position currently held by Mark Seeman).

Logo and Letterhead: At the annual meeting in 2003, members voted to select the MAC logo from several options. Special thanks to Jamie Kelly for providing us with design options to choose from. After the logo was selected, the design was incorporated into our web site and letterhead for the organization. The letterhead includes the logo and the addresses of all the officers, so it can be widely used. Instead of printed stationary, the letterhead design was incorporated into a Word file. When officers change, it should be a simple task to update the letterhead.

Correspondence and records: The correspondence records of MAC, Inc. have been placed in a notebook, and reflect formal correspondence and contracts, rather than informal emails or notes from phone calls. Other records should include reports written by elected officers and the organizers of the annual meeting, plus copies of contracts with hotels or other facilities used for the meeting.

Cost of correspondence for the year involved costs for printing and mailing (photocopy costs, envelopes, labels, postage): $373.18 for annual meeting announcements; and $202.86 for election ballots. The cost was very low because of mailing support provided by Indiana University graduate students: Dru McGill, Alicia Ebbitt, and Susan Spencer.

Web site: MAC obtained its own web domain (www.midwestarchaeology.org) and hosting was transferred from the institutional support provided by Indiana University (www.indiana.edu/~mwarch) to a commercial server, ION Hosting, at a cost of $57.66 per year. Scott Brish, also an Indiana University graduate student, continued to contribute immensely to our website with updating and transfer to our new ".org." I would like to extend the organization's appreciation to Scott for his outstanding work and to Indiana University for providing web site hosting during our start-up period. Once a new webmaster is identified, we will transfer files.

One of the most popular features of our web site continues to be the posting of new abstracts of theses and dissertations. Communicating the achievements of our younger colleagues not only helps their work become better known, but also better informs all researchers (thesis subject, key words, and authors can be picked up by Google search, etc.).

MAC members should continue to keep the web site current by sending in: news features; links to websites providing news about their research; announcements of meetings, workshops, publications, museum exhibits, etc., of interest to members; news of transitions of our colleagues; and abstracts of dissertations and theses in Midwestern archaeology. Members and the public will hopefully log in periodically to check news and announcements, get information from MCJA indexes and abstracts from MAC meetings (beginning in 2002); and learn plans for future meetings.

Cheryl Ann Munson
MAC Secretary (2002-2004)