SOCIETY FOR UTOPIAN STUDIES
25th Annual Meeting
Vancouver, B.C.
October 21, 2000
MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING
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Welcome
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 by Naomi Jacobs, chair
of the Steering Committee.
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Vancouver Report
Naomi thanked and congratulated Andrea Anderson and Nancy Goldberg
on their work as co-chairs of the meeting. A potential profit
of $1000 was estimated for this meeting.
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Awards
There was no Distinguished Scholar Award this year. Conference
packets include a call for nominating letters. The Arthur O.
Lewis Award for the best essay delivered by an untenured scholar
at the 24th annual meeting of the Society (San Antonio, 1999)
was awarded to Gib Prettyman, for "Incorporation in the
Gilded Age Utopian Imagination." The Battisti Award for
best essay(s) in Volume 10 of Utopian Studies was awarded to
Nicholas M. Williams for "The Limits of Spatialized Form:
Visibility and Obscurity in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward"
and Matthew Hartman for "Utopian Evolution: The Sentimental
Critique of Social Darwinism in Bellamy and Pierce." The
Distinguished Service Award was given posthumously to Larry
E. Hough, for whom the award will also be named. This new award
was approved at last year's meeting. Naomi read Art Lewis' moving
tribute to Larry, which will be published in a future issue
of Utopus Discovered.
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By-laws Change
It was moved and seconded that the Distinguished Service Award
be re-named in Larry's honor. Current language in section 3D
of the Bylaws: "The Distinguished Service Award is given
for substantial achievement in support of utopian studies, broadly
defined. . . ." Revised language: "The Larry E. Hough
Distinguished Service Award is given for substantial achievement
in support of utopian studies, broadly defined. . . . "
This motion passed unanimously.
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Report of the Nominating Committee
As the Nominating Committee had forwarded no recommendations
this year, the Steering Committee served as an ad hoc nominating
committee. Naomi Jacobs was asked to serve another term as Chair
of the Steering Committee. Ana Acosta and Erika Gottlieb were
nominated as at-large members of the Steering Committee. Annette
Gomis and Dan Sabia were nominated for three-year terms on the
Awards Committee. Ken Roemer has agreed to serve an additional
one-year term on the Awards Committee and to chair the committee
for this year. This is a little irregular, but it would prevent
our having three members cycling out in 2003 and having to ask
a new member to chair. Tom Moylan was nominated as chair of
the Nominating Committee. There were no nominations from the
floor, and these individuals were elected by acclamation.
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Treasurer's Report
Naomi reported for Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor that our balance as
of the date of the conference was $31, 000. With the projected
revenue from the conference, it should grow to about $32, 500.
After additions and deductions for the conference income / costs,
the balance should be around $27, 000. The typesetting of Utopian
Studies 11.1 has been paid for, but not the printing. The print
run has been cut by 100 this time; it is a smaller issue.
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Membership report
Lyman Tower Sargent reported that there are 315 members of the
sociery, of which 69 are student and 65 institutions. At $45.00/member,
we would generate $14, 175. The student memberships are subsidized
by the regular memberships, which costs us $1, 575. If we increase
institutional memberships to $75 (still inexpensive for an institution),
that will off-set the loss from subsidizing the student and
underemployed memberships by an additional $1, 950. The Steering
Committee presented a motion to raise the institutional memberships
to $75, starting with 2002. This motion was approved.
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Future Meetings
The 2001 meeting of the SUS will be held in Buffalo, N.Y. from
October 4-7. The Local Chair is Lynda Schneekloth, Dept. of
Architecture, SUNY-Buffalo. The Program Chair is Phillip Wegner,
Department of English, University of Florida. The conference
hotel is conveniently located downtown, and there is subway
access downtown. Buffalo will be a good site for SUS in 2001
because of the anniversary of the Pan-American Exhibition. Discussions
are under way for a 2003 conference in San Diego.
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Utopian Studies
Lyman Tower Sargent reported that nothing much has changed this
year in the publication of Utopian Studies. We are receiving
about $1000 a year in royalties from our on-line services. Some
referees and reviewers have been slow. Issue 11.1 has been sent
out. Issue 11.2 will be typeset on schedule. Lyman will be on
leave in New Zealand from December 2000-May 2001.
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Utopus Discovered
Carrie Hintz, Nicole Pohl and Toby Widdicombe will continue
as co-editors. Brenda Tooley is doing the web site for Utopus
Discovered. The co-editors welcome suggestions from the membership,
and are continuing to look for submissions. The newsletter will
now include a special page devoted to international news, including
the news of the British Society for Utopian Studies, which does
not yet have its own newsletter. Utopus Discovered will now
also include a segment devoted to exhibition reviews.
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SUS Internet Presence
The formation of an SUS H-Net is underway, organized by Peter
Sands and Bryan Alexander. H-Net is a more scholarly forum and
our SUS listserve there will be moderated, unlike Utopia-L,
which is an unmoderated list including many non-members of the
society. We will be hiring someone to update the website. Suggestions
for revisions should go to Peter Fitting.
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Directory
Information has been collected from the on-line form for the
Directory of Utopian Scholars, and Lynn Williams left us a great
deal of information in other forms. We welcome volunteers willing
to take on this task of compiling and updating this information.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:45.
Respectfully submitted,Naomi Jacobs
Chair of the Steering Committee
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