Minutes

2009 Midwest Archaeological Conference, Inc.
Friday October 16, 2009
12:00 Noon -1:30 PM
Lucas Room (Across from Poster Room)
Sheraton Hotel
Iowa City, IA

Call to Order (Lovis) 12:12 PM

Attendance: William Lovis (President) , George Milner (President Elect), Katie Egan-Bruhy (Treasurer), James Brown (outgoing Officer), Sissel Schroeder (Officer), James Skibo (incoming Officer), Robert “Ernie” Boszhardt (Secretary)

Excused: Mark Schurr (Editor)

Guests: John Doershuk (Iowa City Conference Organizer), Bill Monaghan and Tim Baumann (Glenn Black Laboratory, 2010 Conference Organizers)

Approval of 2008 minutes. Distributed by Boszhardt who noted they have been posted on the web since last fall. (Motion: Schroeder, Second: Boszhardt, Passed unanimously)

President’s Report: (Lovis)
Three Primary activities:

1. Overcoming bureaucratic difficulties to facilitate transfer of the MAC, Inc. bank account for incoming Treasurer Egan-Bruhy.
2. Setting up the Nomination Committee of Mark Seeman and Michael Wiant for the 2009 elections. Lovis noted issues in scheduling Nomination Committee organization and nominations for timely elections, and proposes initiating the nomination process at the annual conference, with a goal of having candidates identified by the end of winter and elections conducted before the summer field season begins. Lovis then appointed incoming President Elect Milner with the task of identifying a Nomination Committee for 2010.
3. Overseeing the Executive Committee balloting for the Distinguished Career award, including distribution of nomination packets via e-mail. Lovis then congratulated the 2009 award winner Dr. James Brown. Lovis noted that three candidate nominations remain active for one more year and that he will solicit additional nominations for 2010.

Lovis offered a summary assessment of MAC stating that it is running well, is on solid financial footing, noting that Regonline worked well, and that the Iowa City Conference was a success. He noted that the organization needs to create business activity deadlines to fine tune the operations.

Secretary’s Report:
Boszhardt had distributed a report via e-mail on 10-12-09 and passed out copies at the meeting. Boszhardt walked through the report contents, emphasizing the attached schedule of elections that list four officer positions that are open for election in 2010.

Active discussion was spurred during the report on the Student Paper Award process. Questions arose on the degree of Board guidance for this and other regular activities. Questions arose about whether the Board should undertake the development of a formal Conference Manual (as is done by Plains and SEAC) or at least create a check-off list of tasks and those responsible? The Board authorized the conference organizers to oversee the process with Board backup for potential conflicts.

Doershuk reported that 30 students had expressed an interest during the Regonline registration but only four ultimately submitted papers for the competition, and suggested that this reflected the short timeframe between registration and the conference. Skibo recommended doing competition for posters only. The Board agreed to encourage faculty mentors to involve students, and authorized the Secretary to work with the 2010 Indiana MAC Conference organizers to develop a solicitation template for distribution well in advance of the conference.

Treasurer’s Report:
Egan-Bruhy distributed the Treasurer’s report, which was accepted. Discussion ensued about potential avenues for expenditure of excess funds, which carried over into the Editor’s report

Editor’s Report:
Schurr was not able to attend but had distributed the Editor’s report via e-mail, and hard copies were distributed at the meeting. Lovis provided a summary. Discussion followed about the potential to publish four issues of MCJA per year, but that the editor currently receives relatively few submissions, and many have substantial editorial and formatting issues. The Board considered the potential for establishing an occasional publication series, and Lovis appointed Skibo to lead research into the costs and potential content of such a series.

2009 Conference Report: Doershuk provided preliminary numbers on the Iowa City Conference with nearly 300 registrants including 132 regular MAC members, 87 students, 52 non-members, and 33 daily registrants. There were 153 presentations, and 19 sessions. He noted that the Iowa Archaeological Society was scheduled to meet in conjunction with the conference on Saturday and anticipated additional walk-in registrations. There were 144 registrations for the banquet. Most had registered through Regonline. One Regonline issue was credit cards vs. checks. John anticipated the conference would make a slight “profit”. He expressed satisfaction with the Sheraton noting that the contract carried through a change of ownership with only one small understanding not detailed.

The Board thanked John for his effort in organizing the conference.

Old Business
By-laws revisions: Boszhardt reported that the proposed by-laws amendments were overwhelmingly approved by the membership during the recent election.

Election Results: Boszhardt reported that Milner won the President Elect position and Skibo won the open Officer position. Lovis thanked outgoing officer Jim Brown for his service.

Distinguished Service Award: (See president report)

Promotion of Annual Conference and scheduling conflicts: Boszhardt reported that he and Doershuk had distributed MAC conference announcements to numerous print and digital distribution outlets last spring. Lovis noted that MAC had established the Iowa City conference dates several years ago and that the unfortunate overlap with the 2009 Plains Conference was due to subsequent scheduling by the Plains organizers.

New Business
2010 MAC, Inc. Annual Meeting planning, Bloomington, IN: Monaghan and Baumann reported that the original dates for the 2010 conference needed to be changed due to a change in the Indiana University football schedule. The new conference dates are October 20-24, 2010. The schedule will follow the Thursday to Saturday format of the Iowa City conference with a field trip added to Angel Mounds on Sunday. There will be Thursday and Friday receptions and a Saturday evening banquet. They anticipate 300 attendees and associated anticipated costs. Monaghan asked Board approval to increase professional registration fees up to a cap of $85. The actual registration fee could be less, depending on sponsorships, which he and Tim have already begun to solicit. The room rates will be $109-$119, and a block of 161 rooms have been reserved at the Indiana Union, with available parking. Another 15 rooms have been reserved at a nearby B&B and another 75 at a nearby Hilton ($125/night).

Non-Member Participation at Conferences: The Board considered whether to add a $10 surcharge to non-members for attending the conference. Brown noted that this would be detrimental to co-presenters and Native Americans. No action was taken. Discussion also considered whether this should be a MAC, Inc. policy decision or left to the discretion of the conference organizer. The Board agreed to have the conference organizer coordinate this issue with the Treasurer.

JSTOR Opportunity: This was initiated by AltaMira. Boszhardt is tracking down the original contract. Discussion tabled.

Membership List solicitations: Lovis recommended that the Board establish a policy to not share the MAC, Inc. membership list with solicitors. Motion: Schroeder. Second: Brown. Passed unanimously.

MAC, Inc. web domain and maintenance: The Treasurer has paid for the MAC web domain. The Board agreed to compensate the MAC, Inc. webmaster (Jamie Kelly), but tabled further discussion due to lack of time.

MAC, Inc. archives: Tabled

Nomination Committee schedule for future elections: Milner will lead on the formation of a Nomination Committee and report to the President on progress. The goal is to have a nomination committee formed, and nominations in progress, by January 2010.

Future Conferences: 2010 at Indiana, 2011 at La Crosse. Lovis will solicit 2012 offers at Business Meeting.

Two-Year Memberships: Egan-Bruhy pointed out accounting confusion with two-year membership dues, especially given the constraints of Regonline, and recommended eliminating this option. The Board concurred to go to one-year renewal options only. Current two-year memberships will be honored.

Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at 1:50 PM.

©2010 Midwest Archaeological Conference • Comments? Email Jamie Kelly.