Minutes 2001

ASEH Executive Committee Meeting

Minutes

March 30, 2001

Durham, North Carolina

Participants:  Jeffrey Stine, Carolyn Merchant, Douglas Weiner, Lisa Mighetto, Sarah Elkind, Susan Flader, Mark Harvey, John McNeill, Martin Melosi, Elinor Melville, Char Miller, Donald Pisani, Christine Rosen, Hal Rothman, Bill Rowley, and Christopher Sellers

Guests:  Steven Anderson, Jacqueline Corn, Linda Lear, James McCann, Mark Madison, Martin Reuss, and Adam Rome

President Jeffrey Stine called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

1.                  Approval of Minutes.  Char moved to approve the minutes from 2000.  Susan seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

2.                  Awards Committee Report.  Marty Reuss summarized the recommendations of  his committee (which also included Susan Flader and Douglas Weiner; see attached report).  Items addressed included the period of eligibility for awards.  Marty recommended that ASEH evaluate submissions that appear between November 1, 2000 and October 31, 2001, for the next set of awards.  Marty Melosi moved to approve the recommendations in the report.  Elinor seconded the motion.  Motion carried.  Discussion ensued regarding Item #5 in the report, which recommended awarding one annual prize for the best article in Environmental History – a joint award on behalf of ASEH and the Forest History Society.  Susan moved to approve the idea of a single annual award for best article in Environmental History – pending agreement between the two presidents of ASEH and the Forest History Society.  Elinor seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

3.                  Election Results.  Lisa Mighetto reported the following election results:  Jackie Corn, Linda Lear, and James McCann would become the new Executive Committee members, while the Nominating Committee would include Kate Christen, Paul Hirt, Andrew Hurley, and Verena Winiwarter.  Char Miller resigned as treasurer and Mark Madison was approved as the new treasurer.  Mark will stand for election among the general membership in two years.

4.                  Resolutions of Appreciation.  Jeffrey Stine offered a Resolution of Sincere Thanks to Char Miller for his service as Treasurer.  Jeffrey then offered a second resolution thanking outgoing Executive Committee members:  Elinor, Christine, and Chris.

5.                  Membership Dues.  Steven Anderson proposed an increase in basic membership dues from $40 to $45; for joint membership from $55 to $65; for libraries from $80 to $90.  Explanation:  inflationary increase.  Student joint membership would be $27.50.  Discussion ensued about desirability of keeping student rates low; some committee members favored freezing student rates.  Several motions to freeze student rates failed.  Mark Harvey moved to approve the rates as listed above.  Don seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

6.                  Additional Resolution of Appreciation.  Lisa Mighetto offered a Resolution of Appreciation to Steven Anderson, Local Arrangements Chair for the Durham conference.

7.                  Joint ASEH/FHS Activities.  Carolyn led a discussion focusing on the Biblioscope and what will happen when the grant runs out.  Several members suggested that ASEH should not be sharing the expense of the biblioscope; we need to be careful that this expense does not affect the journal.  Some members suggested that ASEH needs more oversight of the Biblioscope if ASEH decides to pay for it.  Other suggestions included offering the Biblioscope online, printing it once every few years, and hiring graduate students to review historical abstracts online, to provide supplemental bibliographies.  The discussion then turned to future joint meetings between ASEH and FHS.  We agreed to continue to hold joint meetings periodically, but not to commit to a regular cycle of joint meetings.

8.                  Conference Site Selection Committee Report.  Jacqueline Corn reported that the committee approved Knoxville as the location for 2005.  Several possibilities emerged for 2004, including Santa Barbara, California; Victoria, British Columbia; and Winter Haven, Florida.  The possibility of a joint meeting with the National Council on Public History was mentioned briefly.   Jackie said her committee would solicit proposals for the 2004 and other conferences.

9.                  Conference Fees for Students.  Christopher Sellers discussed the importance of holding down conference costs for students and lower-income scholars.   Jeffrey asked Chris to turn his report over the Local Arrangements Committee Chair, and Sarah, as graduate student liaison, would pursue the topic further with Chris.

10.              Editor’s Report.  Marty Melosi offered a Resolution of Thanks to Hal Rothman for his service as editor of Environmental History.  Jeffrey suggested a second resolution thanking Mark Harvey for his service as Book Review Editor.  Hal reported that the journal is making money (see attached report).   Hal’s discussion turned to strategies for fund-raising.  He suggested that at some future point ASEH invest in a development person.  He also mentioned the important of organizing a structure of planned giving and the need to fund minority scholars and students.  Hal suggested a two-stage process:  1.  Asking individuals for donations and 2.  Approaching foundations.  Hal then pointed out that ASEH should develop a policy regarding who ASEH will accept money from.  Some members mentioned it is easier for people to donate if ASEH had a specific list of projects.   Carolyn agreed to pursue the recommendation for a two-stage fund-raising process.  The objective is first to raise $25,000  from within membership to increase total endowment funds to $100,000 (will be used to fund scholarships, travel, biblioscope) – then to move to the second stage.

11.       Journal Budget (see attached report).   The meeting concluded with a discussion of the journal budget.  The budget as proposed included money for Steve under the “salary” category.  Char moved to accept the budget with the exception of moving that item from “salary” to fee.  Don seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

12.            Unfinished Business included television proposal and oral history proposal; there was also brief discussion about the value of creating a Membership Directory.  it was decided that Carolyn would follow up on these issues, perhaps polling the members of the Executive Committee.

Meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.