2005 AGM Minutes
Date: 19.7.05
Time: 1:30 – 2:15pm
Place: ISFC Annual International Conference, Eastern Avenue Lecture Complex, USYD, Sydney
Chair: Kristina Love
Committee: David Butt, Marie Quinn, Susan Hoadley
Present: quorum present
Apologies: none recorded
Welcome and distribution of Agenda: Kristina Love
Motion to accept last years Minutes: Kristina Love
Amendment: Apologies for last years meeting to be recorded from Frances Christie
Motion carried subject to amendment
Note of thanks: Kristina Love – Many thanks to Rebekah Wegener for taking the minutes of the annual meetings. ASFLA has always had a history of being public and accessible and the minutes help to make this possible.
Discussion of agenda items & call for further items: Kristina Love
Action: no further items
President’s Report: Kristina Love
Since last year’s meeting, we now have institutional membership available for ASFLA and it has been taken up as an option. We also continue to use Carl Polias for the web services, and we are very pleased that he continues to help us in this area. We would like to thank Carl for the great work that he does. We are still looking for people to organise the ASFLA newsletter.
David Butt: Apologies for the lack of a paid appointment for the newsletter position. I did have someone lined up, but this is no longer viable
Motion: That we allocate a sum of $200/edition to be paid to a PhD student for editorial services of 2 editions each year.
Discussion from the floor:
Frances Christie: I suggest that the sum be $500/edition.
Geoff Williams: I agree that the sum should be higher than $200.
Louise Ravelli: Since we have the web site, what do you see the function of the newsletter as being?
Kristina Love: The newsletter has a much less formal role as a venue to celebrate work being done across the states; new theses; family information, and as an elastic resource for disseminating information twice a year. The website also has space for publishing as was proposed by Maria Herke Couchman some years ago. We would like to propose that this be a more formal space.
John Polias: There are no web constraints, but you do need someone in control to manage things. This can be an ongoing and dynamic kind of letter. There is the issue of what could be on the site and it opens you up for criticism when you make a choice, and it needs to be very clear. There will need to be a lot of support given to this person and that is something to think about.
David Butt: One of the issues was what someone gets out of being a member, and the newsletter might be one of these things. If it is on the web, we need to emphasise the employment value of this and also the publication value. It might be possible to provide editing services for ASFLA papers to be turned into publications.
Louise Ravelli: Are we talking about hard copy or soft copy? Either way it needs to be someone with institutional status, and a PhD student might not have this, and they might not have the connections.
Kristina Love: There is also the issue of time and motivation. Academic staff have contacts and status, but they have constraints that PhD’s don’t necessarily have. The logic of 2 issues a year was a bounding issue.
Motion: Funds to be allocated for a newsletter totalling $1000 per year, or $500 per issue.
Motion carried
Action: The executive committee will take comments on the function and purpose and exact nature of the website and newsletter. The executive committee will consider space for publications for new researchers, and the proposal will be developed by David Butt in consultation with Frances and Maria, who will put the proposal forward to the executive. Funds are given by universities for conference attendance on the basis of paper presentation, and having a publication service would be a draw card (David Butt). We would have to get academic staff to referee (Kristina Love), and we would have to get advice about the form of the publication because some forms count and others don’t, so this would need to be considered (Louise Ravelli).
Motion: that these points be considered by the executive
Motion carried
Election of Office Bearers: Kristina Love
President: Bev Derewianka (nominated, nomination accepted) Kristina Love Standing down
Note of Thanks: Many thanks to Kristina Love for all her hard work and dedication to the running of ASFLA over the past years. She has made a wonderful contribution and we would like to take this opportunity to thank her formally for the wonderful job. Thanks also for the recent ARAL edition which was a real benefit. David Butt and Frances Christie.
Vice President: David Butt (nominated, nomination accepted)
Treasurer: Susan Hoadley (nominated, nomination accepted)
Membership Secretary: Marie Quinn (nominated, nomination accepted)
Motion: all nominations be accepted – motion carried
Election of State Representatives: Kristina Love
NSW – Claire Painter and Frances Christie (nominated, nomination accepted)
ACT – Mary Macken-Horarik (nominated, nomination accepted)
WA – Anne Thwaites (nominated, nomination accepted)
NT – Peter (nominated, nomination accepted)
SA – Peter White (nominated, nomination accepted). Brian Dare and John Polias standing down.
Note of Thanks: Many thanks to Brian Dare and John Polias for their work and the great ASFLA conference in 2003.
VIC – Kristina Love (nominated, nomination accepted)
QLD – Gary (nominated, nomination accepted). Lenore Ferguson standing down.
Note of Thanks: Many thanks to Lenore Ferguson for her dedication and the fine handling of the last ASFLA conference in 2004.
TAS – None
Note of Thanks: Thank you to all the state representatives for the wonderful work that you do.
Motion: all nominations be accepted – motion carried
Membership Report: Marie Quinn
Membership is at a steady level. At the moment we have 55 fully paid members, but many more on the lists. We need people to update there membership, and we are looking for ways to remind people. Institutional membership is now available at a cost of $50 and we have had 1 institution take up this offer: Ferngrove School. We have had 5 student memberships. Although we have credit card as an option, this has not been fully taken up. Despite this it is a very quick and effective means of payment.
Discussion from the floor: suggest used by date on form for next year to remind people when their membership runs out and when they have to pay.
Action: used by date be trialled on next years form
Motion: carried
Note of Thanks: Marie Quinn – Thank you to Susan Hoadley and the University language department for their support.
Note of Thanks: Kristina Love - Thank you to Marie Quinn for her work as the membership secretary. She has streamlined the whole process and made it very professional.
Treasurer’s Report: Susan Hoadley (please see financial report attached)
At the moment, we have $31 000 in the bank. We plan to transfer some of that money to a high interest account. Online banking and credit card payments are at a cost of $35. We have set aside $2000 to send someone to Indonesia possibly the year after next. We have had several requests for funding including $3000 to send Marie to Pakistan. This hasn’t taken place yet, but the money has been allocated. There is also $600 for David Rose which is still outstanding. The Reclaiming Knowledge Conference was very successful and the money from that conference was used to fund a visiting scholar to attend the ISFC. This has been very well received.
Action:
Kristina Love: We would like the executive committee to take up the issue of not only being responsive to requests, but being proactive in seeking ways to offer support. We would like to come up with a principled plan.
Susan Hoadley: the idea is that we might want to develop guidelines about how we might want to spend the money and what projects we might like to support.
Frances Christie: it would be good to formally note that as an issue because there are a lot of things that we could do.
Kristina Love: there is also the issue of intra national consolidation of funds.
Motion: that all of these issues be considered by the executive for the formulation of a formal proposal
Motion carried
Motion: Accept Financial Report
Motion carried
Note of Thanks: Kristina Love - On behalf of the association I would like to thank Susan Hoadley for the difficult work that she carries out with regularity and reliability. She does a wonderful job and we really appreciate her report and continued hard work.
Report on future conferences: Kristina Love
Kristina Love: The 2006 conference is continuing and everyone is encouraged to attend.
Geoff Williams: Internationally, SFL is being actively taken up and is expanding transdisciplinarily. We may want to consider this when we consider how we plan to spend our funds. Taking the risk of running conferences and funding scholarships from Nigeria is a profound initiative and affirms the proactive issue. On behalf of ISFLA many thanks to Susan Hoadley and to David Butt for their huge efforts on the ISFLA conference.
Close of meeting
Next meeting: 2006
RW