ReportsIABA Business Meeting Minutes
Notes by Manuela Costantino (UBC)
In attendance:
Craig Howes
Margaretta Jolly
Zhao Baisheng
Alfred Hornung
Philippe Lejeune
Paul John Eakin
Julia Watson
Susanna Egan
Tom Smith
Jeremy Popkins
Roger Porter
Philip Holden
Azila Reisenberg
Laurie McNeill
Eugene Stelzig
Julie Rak
Kylie Cardell
Kate Douglas
Julie Codell
Monika Boehringer
Meg Jensen
Elisabeth Hanscombe
Manuela Costantino
Zhao Baisheng called the meeting to order and opened the discussion by thanking Craig Howes for organizing the 2008 conference and Alfred Hornung for donating 500 Euros to the IABA website. He also thanked Tom Smith for designing the logo of the 2008 conference programme, updating the yearbook of the organization, and taking the minutes of the business meetings. He offered thanks to Margaretta Jolly for volunteering to organize the 2010 IABA conference.
Zhao Baisheng suggested the IABA website as the first item of discussion, explained his role in updating the website monthly, and outlined some of the problems that he encounters.
Resources: Zhao Baisheng suggested that we use the website to share resources and exchange bibliographies and syllabi, emphasizing the need for collaboration and support from the community.
ACTION: ALL TO SEND IN MATERIAL FOR RESOURCES SECTION
News Section: Zhao Baisheng suggested adding a news section to the website and asked for suggestions in deciding how to select materials to be included.
àAlfred Hornung reminded us that the listserv announces new books and that we should be careful not to duplicate information. The website might be used as a way of compiling all new materials introduced in the listserv at the end of the year.
àCraig Howes emphasized the popularity of the “no chatter, no crowding” listserv and suggested that we work out a way of archiving on the website material presented on the listserv. Craig noted there are approximately 600 members currently.
àTom Smith suggested adding a link from the website to the listserv.
àCraig Howes said that we needed to be careful that non-list members could access the archive.
àJulia Watson indicated that an annual list of publications on the website might not in fact be necessary since Biography offers an annual bibliography.
àCraig Howes indicated that a website list would not duplicate Biography’s annual bibliography and would be available throughout the year.
ACTION: CRAIG TO PUT LISTSERVE ARCHIVE ON THE WEBSITE
ACTION: ALL TO SEND IN MATERIAL FOR RESOURCES SECTION
Conference Section: Zhao Baisheng suggested keeping past conferences’ websites and Craig Howes emphasized the usefulness of such material when organizing a conference. Jeremy Popkin emphasized the importance of highlighting conference dates properly as people googling the IABA conference could land on the wrong website. Zhao Baisheng thanked all former conference organizers (Susanna Egan, Richard Freadman, David Parker, and Alfred Hornung) for contributing to the conference section of the website.
Finances: Zhao Baisheng reported on the costs of operating the website (2007 + 2008 cost 590 Euros with 50 Euros/per year going to the Domain Name and about 10 Euros /per month going to monthly maintenance, for the total costs of the IABA website, see the table below). Zhao Baisheng indicated that there was plenty of space to be used on the website (up to 2000 pages of available space), but that developing new features such as blogs and archives could be expensive. Zhao Baisheng asked for other members’ involvement in raising funds.
à Azila Reisenberger shared her concerns in attracting too many people if we promised free advertising on the website.
à Paul John Eakin suggested we establish a ‘Friends of IABA’ and ask for friends’ contributions so that we don’t end up collecting money.
à Tom Smith supported Eakin’s suggestion of asking friends of IABA to donate money for the maintenance of the website.
à Roger Porter asked how the donations could be made.
à Laurie McNeill suggested a tip jar or a pay pal account to allow for online donations.
à Zhao Baisheng said that he would see if this could be set up on the website.
à Philip Holden suggested an announcement on the next day.
à Craig Howes said that he was not in favour of simply opening donations but rather evaluating how much was needed and then raising money until the required amount was reached. He suggested that the conference organizer be in charge of the process.
à Paul John Eakin asked if there could be a tax deduction attached to the donation.
à Craig Howes said that he would check.
à Eugene Stelzig asked about surplus money in the conference budget and wondered if this surplus could be used for the website.
ACTION: CRAIG TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER HE CAN USE HIS NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION TO ALLOW TAX RELIEF ON DONATIONS.
Zhao Baisheng introduced the IABA conference as the second item of discussion and asked two key questions:
How can we become more international?
How can we make the conference more interdisciplinary?
Becoming more interdisciplinary:
à Julie Rak suggested that keynote addresses and panels could include other disciplines.
à Craig Howes suggested that keynotes were also a good option to ensure international presence.
Becoming more international:
à Paul John Eakin reminded us that funding is a key difficulty in becoming more international, emphasizing the fact that not all countries can afford to send scholars around the world.
à Craig Howes agreed with Eakin, explaining that his organizing committee had made travel funding a priority. They subsidized about half of conference attendees this time. Every IABA conference since Mainz has fully funded 7 people from China and people from Sierra Leone had to pull out of the conference because they couldn’t afford to come in spite of offer of $750 funding. (He was able to offer these subsidies in part because could use funds from Project Muse under heading of ‘advertising for Biography’.) Same for many Europeans. Craig asked if a conference is the best place to get diverse representation.
à Zhao Baisheng thanked Howes for the funding effort.
à Azila Reisenberger emphasized the importance of funding for people coming from South Africa where the exchange rate is clearly to their disadvantage.
à Craig Howes suggested reducing the size of the conference in order to allow more people to be fully funded. He also suggested that the conference might not in fact be where our international quality is the most prominent.
à Susanna Egan suggested that maybe the location of the conference was crucial to facilitating international presence.
à Zhao Baisheng agreed with Egan, emphasizing the fact that the organizer might be able to raise funds to bring people in from places like India, Morocco, or Vietnam. He also suggested that people in these countries might not be in a position of organizing an IABA conference. He pointed out that the Chinese government will fund foreigners to go to Chinese conferences more readily than vice versa. Suggests University of Bangalore as good location.
à Azila Reisenberger said that she would check to see what kind of funds were available in South Africa and explore the possibility of organizing a conference there in the future.
à Margaretta Jolly intervened as the organizer of the next IABA conference and promised us all awful weather and food in Sussex J! She emphasized the idea that the organizer had to want to take on such a task.
à Roger Porter asked how much it cost to organize a conference.
à Craig Howes answered that Alfred Hornung would probably have a better answer than his, because his organizing committee were particularly focused on funding travel. Howes explained that they raised $100,000 and spent about 40-45% of that amount funding people, paying for buses and food, renting the conference center.
à Margaretta Jolly pointed out that Sam Tlhalo.Raditlhalo, Stephan Meyer and Judith Coullie had been interested in hosting one in S. Africa and Azila Reisenberg said she might look into hosting one in Israel. Margaretta suggested that we move on to the next item of discussion in order to make efficient use of the remaining time.
ACTION: MARGARETTA TO TALK WITH PREVIOUS CONFERENCE ORGANISERS ABOUT FUND RAISING FOR IABA 2010.
Zhao Baisheng introduced the formalization of the IABA organizing team as the third item of discussion.
à Susanna Egan emphasized the loose and collegial structure of the organization and suggested we keep it. She also announced her desire to retire from the organization and to pass on the baton to Julie Rak.
à Margaretta Jolly and Tom Smith both seconded Egan’s suggestion.
à Margaretta Jolly asked Zhao Baisheng to explain what he meant by formalizing the organizing committee.
à Zhao Baisheng explained that being a formal organization could help the organization raise money.
à Julia Watson suggested that this was not the right moment to address this issue as we were running out of time.
à Tom Smith said that he was not sure that a different organization would help solve problems other than making money.
à Craig Howes reminded us that we needed to go and should wrap up, but that we could continue the discussion on the IABA administrative listserve (separate to the general listserve)
à Susanna Egan thanked Zhao Baisheng for chairing the meeting.
à Alfred Hornung set the next meeting for 2010 at the next conference.
à Craig Howes indicated that the current “crisis” for IABA was that we did not know what would happen for the 2012 conference.
à Roger Porter concluded the discussion by congratulating Howes on the organization of the 2008 conference and said that he hoped that the Olympic Games would be as well organized.
ACTION: ORGANISING COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS AS NECESSARY ON ADMINISTRATIVE LISTSERVE
The Total Costs of the IABA Website
2003 Design 1500
2005 Domain name & Main server 480
Maintenance 1200
2006 Domain name & Main server 480
Maintenance 1200
2007 Redesign 2500
Domain name & Main server 500
Maintenance 1200
2008 Domain name & Main server 500
Maintenance 1200
--------------
10,760 yuan (RMB)
Note: In 2006, Alfred Hornung contributed 500 Euros to the website. So we still have a deficit of 5760 yuan in RMB (10,760 – 5000 = 5760; roughly 576 euros).
