PRESENT: Neal, D'Antonio, Ploch, Johnson, Barker, Brewer, Nelsen, Roozen, Seidler, Wood, Wallace, Wuthnow, Hammond, Capps, Carroll, Roof, Gilkes, Hadden, Crumrine

Sister Neal called the Council Meeting to order at 7:30 P.M.

1. Minutes: The minutes of the 1981 Council Meeting were distributed. Motion for approval carried with one minor change.

2. Announcements: The Executive Secretary announced that the hotel was completely full and that perhaps as many as 50 members were without any hotel space. He indicated that the Society had negotiated for 225 rooms, but that our turnout had exceeded that number. He indicated that we had the best preregistration ever for an annual meeting--over 260 people. He also said that we expect to register 75 to 100 tomorrow. He also indicated that four different societies are meeting together and that the schedules were very tight.

3. Obituaries: It was announced that one member of the Society, William Shephard, had died during the year.

4. Election Results and Welcome of New Council Members: The new members on the Council are Bennetta Jules-Rosette and Ralph Hood. The new Secretary is Stan Gaede and the new Treasurer is David Roozen. Earl Brewer and Meredith McGuire are leaving the Council this year, and R. Crumrine and R. Wallace are leaving as Secretary and Treasurer.

5. Executive Secretary's Report: Clark Roof gave the Executive Secretary's report. He indicated that the Society was in good shape, that finances were very strong, and that the Society is working in a strong and positive way.

He indicated that our membership was stable. The losses in members, he noted, are coming mainly from oldtime regular members who haven't renewed. Student memberships and library memberships are holding up quite well. He indicated perhaps we should explore how to get new members, and he invited anyone that had any ideas to please suggest them. He wondered if maybe we should not have a membership committee.

The Executive Secretary observed that we had tried to spend our last year's surplus curing' the past year. Finances are good; in fact we could increase our programs to spend more.

He indicated that APPRE was meeting with us but that they were doing their own registration. SSSR does not charge them for making hotel arrangements. He thanked Steven Glazier for his work at local arrangements and he also noticed that Roozen had worked very hard in getting media exposure for the Society.

Concerning the journal, Roof indicated the transition from Hammond to Capps was well under way and going very well. He also noted that Hammond had produced a journal index and that Jim Wood was looking for good monographs to publish. He noted that we had funded several research awards during the year. He also mentioned COSSA as a worthy project, and recommended that we support it more fully. Clark also indicated that he was beginning the last year of a five-year term of office, and that the Society should select a new Executive Secretary.

Discussion Followed -- D'Antonio said that all organizations were having considerable problems with their membership, and that we were losing at a smaller rate than some of the other professional societies. He said that in the future if we can keep a thousand membership renewals going, that would be very good. Hammond asked Clark about his replacement. Neal answered saying that she has contacted Johnson and D'Antonio to work with her on a listof persons to be considered for the position of Executive Secretary. Wallace, regarding membership, wondered if we should not announce our research awards more generally to the membership. There was some discussion about how to increase the membership. Seidler suggested that we find an individual who would be enthusiastic about chairing a membership committee.

6. Treasurer's Report: Ruth Wallace pointed out that on page 3 of the Auditor's Report regarding contributions that contributions to the Society are at $463. She said this wasn't very much, but was more than for the preceding year. She recommended that the Council increase the Secretary's salary and the research awards. She suggested that we find a way for members to contribute along with their dues each year.

D'Antonio pointed out that last year we tried to reduce our income, and that we were unsuccessful. He said that the IRS did not like to see non-profit societies making profit. Wallace pointed out-that we had not paid for the membership index which will be about $2,500. Wallace said that the Executive Secretary, in the future, may need monies for his or her office staff, that in the past universities had provided a secretary for the Executive Secretary but that now we can no longer count on that. She also mentioned the telephone monies for chairmen of committees might be a good way also to invest or at least to use up some of our surplus.

7. Program Chair Report: Bob Wuthnow said that Dave Roozen had worked very well with him. He indicated that 275 papers approximately had been submitted, about 50 percent more than last year. He said they had solicited 50 from people that likely would not have come to the meetings but were coming. He indicated that there were perhaps half-a-dozen papers from political scientists and historians, and that there were several historical comparative sessions. He went on to indicate that the relations with the hotel had been a little difficult. He also noted that the student paper competition was successful. He said 18 students had submitted papers and all the papers were on the program. They were all very good, and the top five were excellent. He said that the one they had selected by Cook and Wimberly was a very good paper. Neal commented that it was a splendid program and she thanked the program chairman.

8. Publicity and Media: Roozen said there were various media persons in attendance. He said that NBC news would be present as well as a lot more people this year. He did have a number of recommendations to make. He said he would like 125 copies of meeting pro-grams rather than the 100 for next year. He asked about the surplus copies of the journal to be sent to the press. There was some interest in doing that last year and he also mentioned that North Carolina has a journalism program, and since we're going to be meeting near there next year, they could perhaps be asked to organize a session. Hammond said regarding the journals that we had sent gift subscriptions and he asked to whom. Roof said that we'd sent a gift subscription to the New York Times and also one to the L.A. Times. Roof said that perhaps we might want to go up to 25 really well-placed gift subscriptions to media contacts. Hadden suggested that it was best just to keep working with a few people and try to intensify our contacts with those that were obviously interested in science and in social sciences.

9. Program in 1983: Cheryl Gilkes presented her plans for next year. Ploch asked about some side trips to be associated with the meeting next year. Seidler said that the advertisement for-next year's meeting should include a phrase which perhaps indicated that all kinds of papers would be suggested. Neal suggested that in the newsletter and also on the bulletin board we can add a line or two to the initial statement saying that other topics might be accepted.

The question of honoraria for guest speakers was brought up. D'Antonio said he was strongly opposed to it, and that the Society had only done it once and it was a failure. Seidler said that during his year as Program Chairman we left it open to a committee of the Program Chair, Executive Secretary, and President. Council decided to let it remain this way. The program chairman asked specifically about what kinds of scholars we wanted to attract, whether theologians would be welcome even though they were not scientists.

10. Advertising- Agent: Horowitz indicated there was an upswing in exhibiting; that we had a larger book exhibit this year than the year before. He said that having APPRE with us was very good as far as book displays go. The Program Chair, he said, was excellent this year in providing lists of people who are coming to the meetings, and lists of volumes that these people either had recently published or ones that were in press. He also indicated that more authors were sending leads to him for advertising. He mentioned program advertising and said he'll try and drop the cost a little on that, and hopefully get more advertising. He indicated that we have more editors and more press representatives than ever coming to the meetings. He also mentioned that free coffee would be available in the book exhibit area. There are fewer ads he said in the program and in the journal, but there are more exhibits and hopefully, therefore, there will be more book sales. Roof then asked specifically about journal ads. However, he said that it's very hard to sell ads in the journals, that publishers would rather go to direct mailing to people. Neal then thanked him for the report.

11. Nominations Committee: Johnson indicated that the nominating committee had nominated individuals for Council and for Secretary and Treasurer. Johnson asked for any suggestions for the year ahead Clark responded on procedures. Clark indicated that the ballots were sent out in May or June with a September deadline, and he indicated he received about 400 backfrom 1300 people. He also noted that many people don't understand the ranking method for selection, and that their ballots have to be rejected. There was considerable discussion, but no recommendations for change.

12. Reports of Journal Editor and Book Review Editor: Hammond, the old Journal Editor, indicated that he had nothing to report. Capps, the new Journal Editor, presented his report. He said that he has requested a few more of the articles submitted to be rewritten, and he has a few less rejections than Hammond did. He also indicated that he required more re-submissions in terms of the articles he had intended to publish, but that he wanted the authors to make sure they had made the corrections before he accepted them. Thus, in total, his number of re submissions are higher than Hammonds but it's because he is asking for more rewriting. He indicated in one summer month he had 19 submissions which comes to about 4 papers per week. He indicated that he sometimes found it difficult to get readers. Clark asked about the transition, and both editors said there were no problems. Ploch asked about having a set of key words with each submission asking the authors to present several key words. Seidler supported this idea. The Book Review Editor also mentioned that the transition is going well, but at this point there was really nothing specific to report. [10:30 p.m. the-meeting adjourned. Reconvened at 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning.]

13. The Book Review Editor: Wuthnow indicated that there had been an excellent transition and that Capps had been extremely efficient and very helpful. Capps had last year indicated a concern about the quality of books that he had received. Wuthnow felt that this year the quality seemed somewhat better. He did indicate that members' publications do receive priority as far as book reviews are concerned, and that it would be helpful to have a few more anthropology reviewers.

14. Monograph Series: Wood presented his report. He noted that the Fenn book is sold out, and he wondered if we were going to reprint the volume. Wood also suggested that perhaps Fenn could revise the book and publish it as a revision. He indicated that very few manuscripts have come in. He said that most people look to major presses if they have a book to publish. He indicated that there are a couple of manuscripts that might be nearly ready for review. Blizzard's manuscript is now nearly in hand. His widow has revised it and organized it for publication so that one should be available for review. Wood suggested that re Blizzard's manuscript, perhaps we could have someone write an introduction to it, bringing it up to date. D'Antonio was positive for reworking Fenn's volume and then having it reprinted. Nelson was positive in terms of the Blizzard volume, and he also continued to ask who bought these volumes. Roof indicated that the Fenn volume was purchased by libraries. Ploch then suggested that the society should ask for submissions, but should certainly not promise to publish any of these submissions. Ploch also wondered about taking Blizzard's data and re-analyzing it and reworking it. Neal asked whether we should attempt to provide some kind of initiative for these sorts of projects, or whether we should just simply wait for the manuscripts to come in. Neal then asked the Editor to look into these possibilities.

15. Research Awards: Hadden reported that there were 17 proposals, and that we had awarded 4 grants. One was held over for this coming year, and he indicated that he had $1500 left over. Hadden indicated that there is a good spread of disciplines and different kinds of persons that receive the research awards. He indicated it would be nice to have more monies if Council wanted to devote more monies to the research awards. Seidler then moved that we spend more money on the research awards. He asked what would be a good amount, and suggested maybe around $10,000 for the research awards.

MOTION: Seidler moved that we budget $10,000 for research awards. D'Antonio seconded this motion.

Discussion. D'Antonio is still wondering about the IRS and our general fund, and he still argues that we do have money. Since the research awards are encouraging excellent research, he feels that this is a very important thing for the society to spend money on. Roof noted that Hadden carries over almost $2000 for the Roozen indexing project from the past year, so thisreally means that it would be $8000, not $10,000.

MOTION PASSED.

Roof then brought up the question of Shephard's grant. We never really gave it to Shephard before he died. AAR was planning to publish Shephard's book.

MOTION: D'Antonio moved that we give the award as a subvention for the book. Seconded.

CARRIED.

16. Affiliations: Ploch reported that we continue to maintain our AAAS affiliations. He indicated that the next meeting will be in Detroit this Fall. He said that they have changed their meeting date from the Winter to the Fall so there will be, by this Fall, an 18 month period that they haven't met. He indicated that there were no submissions for this Fall. He indicated that we do belong to four different sections of the AAAS, and it is too much for him to attend all these four sessions of the Detroit meetings. He asked that we find a local person or two from the Detroit area that might attend. There was a long discussion about individuals who might be available in this general region, but no conclusion was reached. Neal suggested then that we look at the membership list for someone to attend. Neal reported on CSR. He said they've considerably reduced their scope and do have a newsletter in which SSSR activities are listed. We contribute $500 to CSR. Roof thought that it was worth $500 to be included, but he does not suggest we subscribe to their full service.

D'Antonio mentioned other societies - ACLS, the American Council of Learned Societies. He argued it would be interesting for us. To the best of his knowledge, ACLS does not have a charge to affiliate, and if no one objected, he would like to see SSSR consider it. Neal asked that D'Antonio look into the possibility of affiliating with ACLS, and that he report backnext year to the Council in this regard.

COSSA - D'Antonio also indicated that COSSA is a social science group, a lobby group in Washington. SSSR contributed $500 last year. D'Antonio recommended that we continue contributing to them, and that we consider increasing the amount.

17. Future Meeting Sites: Roof reported that the Bismarck Hotel in Chicago has very good 1984 rates which they would guarantee for us. Singles would be $38, doubles would be $40. He said that we would draw well in the Chicago area. He asked about the ERA issue regarding the Chicago Hotels, and noted that the Women's Caucus from ASA voted that this was really no longer a consideration.

MOTION: After some considerable discussion, Johnson moved, and Capps seconded, that we ask Clark to check on the Bismarck and if acceptable, we line it up. MOTION CARRIED.

For the future, D'Antonio said he would like to look around in Washington. He thought we could find some suitable-hotels in Washington. Ploch asked about St. Louis, and felt that St. Louis would be a nice city and a different one. D'Antonio mentioned Kansas City, indicating that would be a good mid-western city.

18. Endowment Report: Richardson brought in an extensive report as well as a brochure describing the establishment of an endowment. He said he had been asked to bring recommendations, and indeed he had talked to some legal counsel and to some of the university counsel for help in establishing a foundation. He submitted his report and the brochure, SSSR foundations. Roof asked just exactly what kind of action he wished from the Council. He indicated that he wanted an approval in principle so that he could write up the formal papers for a legal establishment of a foundation. He would like to indicate to the business meeting that a recommendation had come from Council that we draw up the papers and see about incorporation. D'Antonio was strongly in favor, but he said we needed a specific proposal entailing fiscal aspects. He said that the IRS took a very dim outlook of foundations or of money schemes unless the Society was clearly a non-profit organization. Thus we should have something very specific in mind for the foundation, but on the other hand he felt that monies being donated should be donated for a general kind of fund. Neal indicated that maybe we should name a committee. Richardson specifically indicated that he would like several hundred dollars to be able to continue. Wallace asked how much money would be involved and Richardson said he'd like $5,000. Other members of the Council felt that $500 would be more than adequate. Richardson then indicated that $1.000 might be a reasonable amount of money.

MOTION: D'Antonio moved that the Council authorize up to $1,000 to facilitate this project, and bring to Council as soon as possible a proposal. Richardson then spoke of the committee -- he indicated that he always enjoyed working on it, and he feels it is crucial. But the law in Nevada was quite different from Eastern law, and it really didn't make sense for him to continue as a member of the Committee. He then suggested that D'Antonio, Fichter, and Hadden, be the members of the Committee.

MOTION CARRIED.

19. The 'handbook" Proposal: Hammond said that last year Council had asked him to look into a volume. This volume would be along the lines of "Beyond the Classics" but it would bring it more or less up to date. He contacted some 33 people to see if they would be interested in writing general articles that would develop this theme. He also contacted the University of California Press, and the Press indicated they needed a subvention, $2,500 for publication, $1,500 to advertise the publication. Hammond indicated that he really needed authorization to go on with the volume.

MOTION: Moved and seconded that Hammond go to $4,000 if needed for the subvention. He was instructed to reduce the subvention cost, if possible, or at least to try to negotiate a reduced cost for the book. D'Antonio also encouraged Hammond to contact another press, and mentioned Sage might be interested.

MOTION CARRIED.

20. Budget Motion: Wallace presented the revised budget. She indicated that on the budget form there were several changes on page 2: the office help for the Executive Secretary should go from $1,050 to $2,050. This $1,000 goes this year to Roof, as the University of Massachusetts has now withdrawn its financial help for the Secretary. She also increased the Executive-Secretary's monies to $2,500. She indicated that there was an automatic salary increase of 8% to all the staff, and Lorraine's increase was included under benefits. She indicated that for special awards we add $4,000 making the special awards $10,000. The COSSA donation, she noted, was increased to $1,300 for active membership. The Research Committee: she indicated that Hadden might get out a one-page flyer and send it to people indicating which awards were available and so forth. She added $50 for the cost of the flyer to make the Research Committee's special cost $200. She pointed to total expenses of $96,750, projected income of $78,050, and thus, a $18,700 deficit.

MOTION: Johnson moved to accept the budget and D'Antonio seconded.

MOTION CARRIED.

21. Other Business/Resolutions: D 'Antonio mentioned the Membership Committee that had been suggested earlier. He suggested Bill Silverman would be a good candidate to head the Committee. He indicated there would be $750 in the budget for the membership drive, and that this Committee would probably have up to 20 members.

MOTION: D'Antonio then moved, seconded by Nelsen, that Bill Silverman chair the Committee, and that Silverman also should consult with Clark Roof. MOTION CARRIED. John Seidler indicated that it might be nice to consider a career research award as an annual award for a book or perhaps a series of papers that had been published in the last year or last couple of years, a book or papers that forwarded the purpose of the society. He suggested that this could be an honorary award, at least at this point, without monies.

MOTION: D'Antonio moved, seconded by Seidler, that a Special Awards Committee be established to consider honors to senior persons.

MOTION CARRIED.

Neal asked Seidler to chair the committee, and requested that next year he bring a proposal for awards to the Council. Neal gave thanks to Bob Wuthnow on behalf of the Council, to Dave Roozen for the media publication, to Glazier for local arrangements, etc. Roof indicated that it was the responsibility of the President to write letters to these individuals.

22. Adjournment:

MOTION: Johnson moved and D'Antonio seconded that the meeting adjourn, 12:00 o'clock noon.

MOTION CARRIED.