2014 Minutes, Women’s Caucus Business Meeting, ASECS, Williamsburg, VA
March 22, 7:00 a.m.
Attendance. Present: Misty Anderson, Alison Conway, Lisa Freeman, Peggy Elliott, Kristina Straub, Nicole Wright, Miriam Wallace, Emily Kugler, Shawn Maurer, Nush Powell. Meeting chaired by Lisa Freeman.
Minutes from 2013 Business Meeting in Cleveland were approved.
Officers: There was discussion about the importance of having someone to take minutes at the annual breakfast, but also to coordinate the growing number of programs sponsored by the Women’s Caucus. Emily Kugler volunteered to take the position of secretary; she will begin after this meeting.
Financial Report: Misty Anderson, Treasurer. Misty reported primarily on the results of the Masquerade Ball Fundraiser. We cleared $2,000 at the ball in ball tickets, lottery tickets, and the sale of costume accessories. Before expenses, over $19,000 was raised. Expenses appear to have stayed below $5,000, so we are hoping to clear over $14,000. Contributions were almost $11,000. Caucus members, journals, and publishers were approached in advance of the event to donate money as sponsors; this effort was enthusiastically received! The $25 price of the ticket didn’t cover expenses. Dessert was biggest expense, the photo booth was neutral, and the DJ was free (and fantastic!)!
The balance in the two Women’s Caucus accounts before the meeting are approximately $3,000 in the Temporary Unrestricted Fund, and $20k in the Restricted Fund. Questions about how this money is allocated continue.
Masquerade Ball recap: There were many requests for a repeat (but no volunteers to organize it!). The Ball raised awareness of our prizes, the biggest objective of the fundraising.
Women’s Caucus Prizes & Awards: There were no submissions this year for the Du Chatelet, and only one for the Editing and Translation award. The Macaulay Prize received a good field of applicants with a winner and two honorary mentions.
There is ongoing concern regarding the awards and the lack of applications for them. The first idea raised was to increase the Macaulay award from $350 to $500; this was approved. There were other suggestions: to abolish awards and add $$ to graduate student funds, to rewrite the awards with new names, to make people aware of the descriptions for each prize.
It was confirmed that the Du Châtelet Award was amended to cover independent and non-tenure track scholars; we must make sure that is on website listing. Someone asked if we could make it for travel to ASECS and not just research? That would require us to change the application criteria. Miriam Wallace offered to head a subcommittee to determine if a new prize should be created and how it should be determined. She will ask one other person (Jill Campbell, Sue Lanser?) and Katharine Kittredge to serve on the committee. Next year they will report back and we will determine what to do with the prizes. Meanwhile, it was decided to give the prizes one more year to see if more diverse and aggressive advertising will help get responses. They can be announced through 18th-century seminar list-serves, and on the 18th-century Facebook page.
Report on Survey/Newsletter/Website/Listserv. Nicole Wright reported on the new site!
www.asecswomenscaucus.com
Current categories include : about, announcements, etc. Nicole commented on the ongoing research that she and Jennifer have done beyond just creating our site.
Someone suggested that we look into setting up an “auto-manager” for some of the sections (like the library listings) that people could manage directly. Nicole and Jennifer will continue managing the site and creating the format for the year ahead, and during that time they can develop a job description for the grad student site manager. Everyone agreed that we should create a 3-year term for the chairs/directors of the site, with staggered terms. We would be especially interested in having people with electronic skills take on those positions. To accomplish this selection, the Women’s Caucus will continue to collect member skills and interests on the member list, so that new people can be rotated in.
Many thanks to Nicole Wright and Jennifer Golightly for their continued work on the Website and survey.
WC Mentorship Initiative. Kristina Straub reported on behalf of herself and Marilyn Francus (Marilyn was not able to attend ASECS this year) on progress on this initiative. They followed up with WC members who had indicated an interest in participating on the sheet circulated at last year’s annual meeting; they received a fair number of positive responses.
Having the website will help move things forward. One idea (by Rachel Sullivan) was to create a “doctor-is-in” type setup for future, with specific areas of expertise advertised during specific times. Several mentoring sessions have been held that brought up similar ideas, rather like a “speed dating” for mentors! One room with specialists in a room, set up after a mentoring panel session. This could be a thought for the professional panel: hold the session first, then have an open forum for one-on-one mentoring. Nush volunteered to coordinate the ideas with the Grad Student Caucus: are they interested and what would they like on the agenda? Several people added that we should provide mentoring to grad students, but also should not forget the ongoing need for and interest in early and mid-career mentoring.
Review of WC Teaching Panel. Panel seems to be working with round table following directly afterward this year. It was agreed to let Vidhya and Heather continue if they are willing to run it.
The 40th Anniversary of the Women’s Caucus: This will occur in 2015 at the conference in Los Angeles. A celebration of “First-Wave WC members” (i.e., those active or identified with the WC between 1975 and 1985) should be planned for that conference. Alison’s history of the WC can be drawn on and further circulated. Ruth Perry, Sue Lanser and Rusty Shteir should be notified and invited. We need to ask for a separate facility for the WC Cash Bar at this meeting—perhaps on a patio. Tickets for the cash bar of the “First-Wave WC Members” should be free. We need to invite and involve them in advance. A panel to be planned—perhaps an intergenerational one, in which WC members speak of the influence (scholarly as well as professional) of the earlier generation-members. Alison will continue to head this planning, which she wants to keep simple. There will be no direct solicitation given the money raised this year by the caucus for the Masquerade Ball. The only fundraising will be through a book sale as in the past; bring your books!
Ruth Perry’s proposal of a WC book exchange. No real discussion, except to mention that the Website technologies should facilitate this important exchange.
Adjournment.
March 22, 7:00 a.m.
Attendance. Present: Misty Anderson, Alison Conway, Lisa Freeman, Peggy Elliott, Kristina Straub, Nicole Wright, Miriam Wallace, Emily Kugler, Shawn Maurer, Nush Powell. Meeting chaired by Lisa Freeman.
Minutes from 2013 Business Meeting in Cleveland were approved.
Officers: There was discussion about the importance of having someone to take minutes at the annual breakfast, but also to coordinate the growing number of programs sponsored by the Women’s Caucus. Emily Kugler volunteered to take the position of secretary; she will begin after this meeting.
Financial Report: Misty Anderson, Treasurer. Misty reported primarily on the results of the Masquerade Ball Fundraiser. We cleared $2,000 at the ball in ball tickets, lottery tickets, and the sale of costume accessories. Before expenses, over $19,000 was raised. Expenses appear to have stayed below $5,000, so we are hoping to clear over $14,000. Contributions were almost $11,000. Caucus members, journals, and publishers were approached in advance of the event to donate money as sponsors; this effort was enthusiastically received! The $25 price of the ticket didn’t cover expenses. Dessert was biggest expense, the photo booth was neutral, and the DJ was free (and fantastic!)!
The balance in the two Women’s Caucus accounts before the meeting are approximately $3,000 in the Temporary Unrestricted Fund, and $20k in the Restricted Fund. Questions about how this money is allocated continue.
Masquerade Ball recap: There were many requests for a repeat (but no volunteers to organize it!). The Ball raised awareness of our prizes, the biggest objective of the fundraising.
Women’s Caucus Prizes & Awards: There were no submissions this year for the Du Chatelet, and only one for the Editing and Translation award. The Macaulay Prize received a good field of applicants with a winner and two honorary mentions.
There is ongoing concern regarding the awards and the lack of applications for them. The first idea raised was to increase the Macaulay award from $350 to $500; this was approved. There were other suggestions: to abolish awards and add $$ to graduate student funds, to rewrite the awards with new names, to make people aware of the descriptions for each prize.
It was confirmed that the Du Châtelet Award was amended to cover independent and non-tenure track scholars; we must make sure that is on website listing. Someone asked if we could make it for travel to ASECS and not just research? That would require us to change the application criteria. Miriam Wallace offered to head a subcommittee to determine if a new prize should be created and how it should be determined. She will ask one other person (Jill Campbell, Sue Lanser?) and Katharine Kittredge to serve on the committee. Next year they will report back and we will determine what to do with the prizes. Meanwhile, it was decided to give the prizes one more year to see if more diverse and aggressive advertising will help get responses. They can be announced through 18th-century seminar list-serves, and on the 18th-century Facebook page.
Report on Survey/Newsletter/Website/Listserv. Nicole Wright reported on the new site!
www.asecswomenscaucus.com
Current categories include : about, announcements, etc. Nicole commented on the ongoing research that she and Jennifer have done beyond just creating our site.
- comparable sites: others are underdeveloped, but offer some good ideas that we can incorporate into ours;
- some of the new ideas that they are working on: click to join, click to donate; complete directory of members by topic; links to libraries and collections related to women authors; links to member publications
- from here, will add new elements above, but also will add info on mentoring; we need to be careful about photographs; do we want to exchange teaching ideas?
- The list of donors is out of date and has been pulled; it will be replaced by the list from the Masquerade Ball
- we could give them a title and a citation on the site that recognizes them, or
- we could fund their registration to the conference, and/or annual membership
Someone suggested that we look into setting up an “auto-manager” for some of the sections (like the library listings) that people could manage directly. Nicole and Jennifer will continue managing the site and creating the format for the year ahead, and during that time they can develop a job description for the grad student site manager. Everyone agreed that we should create a 3-year term for the chairs/directors of the site, with staggered terms. We would be especially interested in having people with electronic skills take on those positions. To accomplish this selection, the Women’s Caucus will continue to collect member skills and interests on the member list, so that new people can be rotated in.
Many thanks to Nicole Wright and Jennifer Golightly for their continued work on the Website and survey.
WC Mentorship Initiative. Kristina Straub reported on behalf of herself and Marilyn Francus (Marilyn was not able to attend ASECS this year) on progress on this initiative. They followed up with WC members who had indicated an interest in participating on the sheet circulated at last year’s annual meeting; they received a fair number of positive responses.
Having the website will help move things forward. One idea (by Rachel Sullivan) was to create a “doctor-is-in” type setup for future, with specific areas of expertise advertised during specific times. Several mentoring sessions have been held that brought up similar ideas, rather like a “speed dating” for mentors! One room with specialists in a room, set up after a mentoring panel session. This could be a thought for the professional panel: hold the session first, then have an open forum for one-on-one mentoring. Nush volunteered to coordinate the ideas with the Grad Student Caucus: are they interested and what would they like on the agenda? Several people added that we should provide mentoring to grad students, but also should not forget the ongoing need for and interest in early and mid-career mentoring.
Review of WC Teaching Panel. Panel seems to be working with round table following directly afterward this year. It was agreed to let Vidhya and Heather continue if they are willing to run it.
The 40th Anniversary of the Women’s Caucus: This will occur in 2015 at the conference in Los Angeles. A celebration of “First-Wave WC members” (i.e., those active or identified with the WC between 1975 and 1985) should be planned for that conference. Alison’s history of the WC can be drawn on and further circulated. Ruth Perry, Sue Lanser and Rusty Shteir should be notified and invited. We need to ask for a separate facility for the WC Cash Bar at this meeting—perhaps on a patio. Tickets for the cash bar of the “First-Wave WC Members” should be free. We need to invite and involve them in advance. A panel to be planned—perhaps an intergenerational one, in which WC members speak of the influence (scholarly as well as professional) of the earlier generation-members. Alison will continue to head this planning, which she wants to keep simple. There will be no direct solicitation given the money raised this year by the caucus for the Masquerade Ball. The only fundraising will be through a book sale as in the past; bring your books!
Ruth Perry’s proposal of a WC book exchange. No real discussion, except to mention that the Website technologies should facilitate this important exchange.
Adjournment.