Minutes

Midwest Archaeological Conference
October 17, 2008
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

President Styles called the meeting to order: 12:10 PM

Attendees: President Bonnie Styles, President-Elect William Lovis, Treasurer Tim Baumann, Treasurer-Elect Katie Egan-Bruhy, Editor Jan Brashler, Editor-Elect Mark Schurr, At Large Executive Committee members John Doershuk and James Brown, Conference Organizer Robert Jeske, and Interim Secretary Ernie Boszhardt.

President Styles reported that main issues for 2008 were the creation and implementation of the Distinguished Service Awards, the proposed bylaws revisions, and the discussions concerning the situation with SPORG.

Styles called for the approval of the minutes of the 2007 Executive Committee Meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Styles called for the approval of the minutes of the 2007 Business Meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Secretary Report:
Boszhardt handed out the 2007 report summarizing major tasks for the year, which included submitting the minutes, drafting correspondence, archiving MAC e-mail exchanges, and conducting the election for a new At Large Executive Committee member (Sissel Schroeder) and Secretary (Boszhardt). The report was accepted by the committee.

Treasurers Report:
Baumann distributed summary and detailed budget sheets reflecting income and expenses for the past year. As of October 15, MAC has a healthy $64,072 in total assets. This reflects approximately $3,000 income from the 2007 conference, but does not include the cost or income of the 2008 conference. There are approximately 450 current members.

Jim Brown raised the issue of the current national and global economic crisis and potential reduction in memberships while facing increased costs. He suggested that MAC ensure a healthy financial cushion.

Discussion included questions regarding the timing of the renewal of the contract with AltaMira. Tim thinks this renewal will be in about 3 years, but will check before the Business Meeting.

The Treasurer’s report was accepted.

Editors’ Report:
Brashler distributed a report along with a copy of a new cover design with color illustrations for the fall 2008 issue.

The Fall 2008 issue is at the printer, and the Spring 2009 issue is nearing completion, although there are outstanding tasks that will need to be addressed by incoming editor Schurr. It is hoped that these issues can be resolved before the end of the year in order to get the Spring issue to the printer by February.

Some discussion followed regarding thoughts on the cover and potential for including more attractive images.

Jan Brashler raised the idea of on-line submissions and discussion followed. Numerous questions were raised. Can on-line submission be done with large size of digital images? What server can we use? What server is the MAC Web site based on? These are issues that incoming Editor Schurr will consider.
Jan suggested that MAC sponsor a special issue to publish a major CRM project and offered the “S-Curve” project in Michigan as an example. Boszhardt pointed out the advantage of sponsoring agencies cost-sharing publication expenses.

Brown and Lovis raised the dilemma of low quality manuscript submissions requiring major editing. The high frequency of non-resubmissions and the relatively low original submission volume were also discussed. Jan listed major reasons for initial rejection of articles: lack of regional context, technical problems, and too narrow a focus (more appropriate for state journals). There are also the ongoing issues of lack of reviewers and delayed reviewer response time.

Jan thanked the 50+ authors and nearly 120 reviewers who contributed during her tenure, and thanked her editorial assistant Stacey Giroux Wells and AltaMira design and production editor Bernadette Penna.

Outgoing Editor Brashler conducted the “passing of the red pen” to incoming editor Schurr. The Editors report was approved.

2008 Conference Report:
Robert Jeske reported that there were 230 pre-registrants (including 8 late) and approximately 85 walk-in registrations, bring the conference attendance to nearly 315. The room block filled, and Jeske estimated the conference would break even or be slightly in the black. He thanked Treasurer Baumann for his assistance in budget issues and setting up SPORG for on-line submissions, etc., particularly in light of the short (less than one year) time frame during which this conference was set up. He stated that the Hyatt Hotel was very good to work with.

Jeske reported approximately 115 papers and posters, down from approximately 150 at the 2007 conference at Notre Dame. There were 110 on-line tickets sold for the banquet, and Bob had increased the dinner totals to 120 and then 130 dinners given the heavy walk-in numbers. There were currently 5 people on the waiting list.

Bob expressed generous appreciation to other UW-Milwaukee faculty and graduate students for the hard work of putting the conference together and making it run, noting some glitches such as in the program, which was due to problems in transferring the data from SPORG to an Excel file to Word.
Boszhardt asked about sponsors and Jeske responded that letters of thanks should be sent to his Dean at UW-M and the Wisconsin Archeological Society, which sponsored the Friday reception. Boszhardt will draft letters of thanks and transmit to outgoing President Styles for sending.

President Styles thanked Jeske for all his efforts in organizing the conference.

Old Business:
Baumann reported that SPORG has been purchased and was discontinued in the weeks just before the conference. Incoming Treasurer Egan-Bruhy researched a number of options for future online membership and conference registration/submission needs. These included “Reg-on Line” and Pay Pal. Reg-on-Line was found to be much more suitable and user friendly.

Egan-Bruhy recommended that MAC go with Reg-on-Line, and this motion was approved.

Distinguished Career Awards:
President Styles reported on the establishment of the process for submission of nominations and selection of recipients in which the Executive Committee makes the selection. There were five nominations and the Executive Committee agreed to present a special Distinguished Career Award to recently deceased Melvin L. Fowler. The 2008 Award will be awarded to Robert L. Hall. Bonnie described the attractive etched glass awards produced by Spinner Plastics, Inc. in Springfield, Illinois and their nominal costs, $87.50 for each award and an additional $50 set up fee. Executive Committee members suggested that it would be prudent to stay with that award company because they provided a quality product in a short time, and it would save having to pay new set up costs.

The remaining nominations will remain active for three years, and the President will solicit new nominations for 2009, including an announcement in the Spring MCJA.

By-Laws Revisions:
President Styles reported that the proposed amendments to facilitate electronic communications and elections have been posted on the MAC Web site.

These proposed changes will be mentioned at the Business Meeting, and a page with information and instructions will be posted on the MAC Web site and included in the Spring issue of MCJA. Hard copies will be sent to members upon request. Member comments will be sent to the Secretary, who will share these with the Executive Committee. The Secretary will devise a paper ballot and mail it to the membership to vote on the proposed amendments next spring or early summer. It would be efficient to do this in conjunction with officer elections.

New Business:
Promotion of the annual conference:
The issue of annual conference promotion was raised because the 2008 MAC conference was not listed in the SAA Archaeological Record. In order to ensure continuity in having the annual conference mentioned in professional outlets, this task was officially delegated to the Secretary.

A list of potential places includes: SAA Archaeological Record, The Archaeological Conservancy magazine, SEAC Newsletter, Plains Anthropological Society newsletter, Archaeological Institute of America, state organizations, and the MAC Web site. Boszhardt will confer with 2009 Conference organizer John Doershuk to obtain and ensure that appropriate information is sent to these and other pertinent organizations in a timely fashion.

Future Conferences:
John Doershuk reported that next years’ MAC conference will be held in Iowa City from Thursday to Sunday (October 15-18, 2009).

Bonnie reported that Madison has formally withdrawn their exploratory offer to host the 2010 conference.

Tim Baumann reported that the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Indiana University in Bloomington has agreed to host the 2010 conference.

Incoming President Lovis agreed to solicit a location for the 2011 conference, recognizing the importance of regional coverage. He will delegate an At Large Executive Committee member to initiate exploration of potential locations/venues, who will report back to the President. The President will then confer with the Treasurer before making an offer to lock in on the 2011 and future conferences.

Other New Business:
There was a brief discussion of the ability of MAC to “profit share” with hosting organizations, but the general thrust of the discussion suggested that this is likely not feasible given our non-profit status.

Adjournment:
President Styles called for a motion to adjourn the meeting, and the meeting was adjourned at 1:28 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Robert “Ernie” Boszhardt
Interim Secretary