Executive Meeting (1997)

Present: Alex Sokalski, Ray Stephanson, Paul Rice, Rosena Davison, Peter Sabor, Eleanor Ty, Christa Fell, Thierry Belleguic, Marie Laure Swiderski, Benoît Melançon, Robert Merrett.

Regrets: James Moore, Roger Emerson

1. President's Report:

Peter Sabor welcomed the members of the Executive and thanked Thierry for organizing the conference. He was happy to report that we have an increase of members with the membership drive. Peter Sabor and Eleanor Ty had sent out approximately 250 letters to people who were members of ASECS, ISECS, and ACCUTE, and about 35 new or lapsed members joined or rejoined our society this year. Our application for Charitable status has been sent to Revenue Canada. Eleanor Ty handled the forms and will inform the executive when this application is approved.

2. Conference President's Report:

Thierry Belleguic is confident that the conference will break even, but he commented that his funding came very late from the Vice-President Provost. He suggested that a written agreement would be better from administrators in the future. His budget is around $12,000. There were some late proposals, and cancellations, consequently, the program had some last minute changes. But he has a full program with approximately 120 people registered, and four plenary speakers. The French and German governments have paid the travel expenses of the international speakers, and the costs for Christie McDonald (Harvard) were shared by the University of Western Ontario's Theory Centre. For once, there are a number of concurrent sessions in French.

He has arranged for free accommodation for graduate students by pairing them up with students at his university. This effort is much appreciated by all concerned. Thierry commented that e-mail has facilitated the organizing process, and that he is grateful to his university secretary for all her help.

3. Secretary-Treasurer's Report:

Eleanor Ty reported that there were currently some 207 members paid up, but that there were still about a dozen people presenting papers who had not paid dues. Even with the increase in membership, our income for the year exceeded our expenses only by a small margin, approximately $90. The Madoff Prize has yet to be paid. She noted that the Bulletin expenses has increased considerably, from about $300 to almost $1400. She was concerned that after this coming year, there would no longer be a SSHRC subsidy for our travel funds as the government is abolishing the Grant for Scholarly Associations. She acknowledged the generous support of Wilfrid Laurier University which has paid for all the postage in our society mailings.

Our chequing account still has a healthy balance, and we have $15,000 invested in mutual funds. Robert Merrett volunteered to give her some advice on more profitable financial investments, and he looked forward to the day the society receives charitable status. He suggested that we could do much with more creative fund-raising tactics such as endowments in the future.

4. Lumen -- Executive Editor's Report:

Alex Sokalski reported that there was $10, 141.17 in total held for Lumen. The sales for the volume have been quite good-- 108 volumes sold last year which resulted in a net income of $1706.41 this year. Saskatoon Volume 15 has appeared, Windsor Volume 16 is set to go to the printer by the end of the month. Carol Gibson-Wood is experiencing some trouble in getting readers' reports for Victoria Volume 17. Alex suggested that perhaps we might do a 30th anniversary issue for the year 2001 as we have some funds available.

5. Bulletin -- Editors' Reports:

According to Ray Stephanson, there has been three issues of the bulletin so far. The costs for these have been shared by CSECS and the Eighteenth-Century Studies Group at the University of Saskatchewan. Around 300 copies of the bulletin are printed per issue, with approximately 225 going to members, and the rest for PR such as McMaster Library, Clark Library, ASECS, ISECS, etc. What makes the bulletin expensive is the length rather than the number of copies. Ray has found a way to decrease the costs, and sets the budget for next year at $700 for the CSECS share.

According to Benoît Melançon, the number of people subscribing to the electronic version of the Bulletin has increased to 90. The old issues of the Bulletin are available in the Web. He stressed the advantages of continuing to send out free copies of the Bulletin to maintain our profile. Benoît has received a number of compliments and many letters from other Eighteenth-Century Newsletter editors, and people who read the Bulletin. Our bulletin is one of the nicest ones produced among 18th century societies.

6. Future Conferences:

1998: Robert Merrett announced the dates of the Alberta conference to be 17 - 20 September 1998. 17 people from his university have offered to help, and he will be asking for help from people from University of Calgary and U of Saskatchewan. The theme of "Material Productions and Cultural Construction" has been sent out via e-mail, in English and in a French translation provided by Benoît. Robert will raise a substantial amount of money for the conference and promises a mediatic event. He asks the executive to help with the organization of sessions as he is busy with administrative work.

1999: Benoît Melançon is thinking of two ideas for the Montreal conference: one on literary societies-- salons, coffee houses, etc., and the other on the image of the 18th century. He is not hopeful about financial aid from his university.

7. New Executive:

i.) President: Peter Sabor said that members of the executive had considered Monique Moser Verrey from Laval for the position. Alex Sokalski nominated Marie Laure Girou-Swiderski who has been a long-time active member of the society. Marie Laure asked to have some time to reflect on the nomination, and the discussion was postponed until the end of the meeting. After much discussion by members about the two candidates who were both highly qualified, it was agreed that Marie Laure Swiderski would be the candidate proposed by the executive.

ii.) French representative: Thierry Belleguic, U of Western Ontario.

iii) Fine Arts: Ursula Rempel, U of Manitoba

8. Madoff Prize:

The decision for the Madoff Prize has not yet been made. The papers are still being read by readers.

9. ISECS / ASECS / CFH:

ISECS:

i.) Marie Laure Swiderski encouraged members to submit applications to the East/West Seminar. She showed her copy of sessions proposed for the Dublin conference, and said that a circular was forthcoming. There was an appeal from Andrew Carpenter to raise money for fellowships ( to pay for accommodation and registration of members from countries with weak currencies, graduate students, and retired staff) for the next ISECS conference. ISECS Executive committee is willing to match contributions raised. Robert Merrett proposed that each member of the executive donate $25 and that we encouraged our members to give $10 each. There was a unanimous vote in agreement.

ii.) Marie Laure proposed to nominate Benoît Melançon to the Executive of ISECS to have Canadian representation. The executive agreed and a nomination form with 20 signatures would be circulated in the next three days.

ASECS: no report.

CFH: David Raynor attended a meeting last year and filed a report via e-mail to P. Sabor & E. Ty.

10. Other Business:

i.) Website: Benoît is trying to get his university to pay for a Website counter which does not entail advertisement on the site.

ii.) Fees: Eleanor Ty proposed to raise the Student dues from $13 to $18 because of the rising costs of Bulletins, etc. There was a long discussion about fees for all members, as they have not been raised for over 12 years. However, E. Ty was concerned that higher rates might discourage members from renewing their fees. Ray Stephanson moved that the fee structure would be: $45 for regular members, $35 for part-time members with proceedings, and $20 for graduate students. This was accepted by the executive.

Meeting Adjourned: 11:20 p.m.

Submitted by: Eleanor Ty

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