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Southwestern Women’s and Gender Studies Association
General Business Meeting – Friday, March 16, 2007
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Diane Bates, President, called the meeting to order and asked for additions or changes to the minutes from the last meeting. They were approved and accepted.
In attendance: Diane Bates, President; Susan Strickland, Program Chair; Paulina Ruf, Acting Treasurer; Beth Wright, Acting Secretary; Henry Sirgo; Gina Petonito; Bailey; Jillian Duqaine-Watson; Rosemary Keefe; Carols Posadas.
Welcome to new attendees and welcome to older members.
Minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s report – 4,874.74 balance; deposits 760 dollars from last year and withdrawals of 150 dollars for paper competitions. We’re doing pretty good. One thing to emphasize is to list Women and Gender Studies as an affiliate, even if it is not your first affiliation. About 10 of us list Women and G studies as first affiliate and we are the largest second affiliate listing. We’re stable and okay.
Program Chair report and Executive Council Meeting report:
This year, the overall program chair was in his first year. There have been some comments on the overall quality of the program. Please be patient. Last year, we had an integrated program separated by date and time versus by affiliation. Much more fruitful. This year, our affiliate had 13 panels scheduled and 39 participants which is up from last year. Susan “owns” a mistake in that we have 14 time slots and tried to fill them all. She now sees that she will make a smaller number of panels with more individuals involved in each. This will draw more audience and also keep panels from “failing” when someone cancels. We will strive for 6-8 panels next year with full attendance. Again, please register as an affiliate, even if we are not your primary. There are 34 registered with us as secondary affiliates which are the highest of all affiliation.
The treasurer reported that the association has over ½ million dollars in the bank – in the blank and doing well. The Social Sciences Quarterly Journal is going to an online only process. Hopes are to have a more international focus to broaden the journal. This is the first year that there has been audiovisual equipment available. This is a 100 percent increase. Next year’s conference is going t be in Las Vegas. Please register early and please stay at the conference hotel. We agree to have our conference at a specific hotel and engage in a contract concerning rooms and presentation/meeting rooms. The executive committee is concerned with Las Vegas since the impression is that you can get a cheap room and food. There is a good rate of 125 dollars per night and this is a good rate in comparison. The hotel is recently renovated and there is rail transit that runs up and down the strip which will make going to “play” very easy and accessible. There is a possibility that you can be charged a fee if you choose to stay at a hotel other than the conference one. It will not be huge, but a slight penalty for staying elsewhere.
The following year, we are scheduled to be in New Orleans but the hotel is not operating at this time. What to do is still unresolved.
The AV budget is being increased.
You can register for the conference and for membership online.
Two paper awards – the Janet Saltzman Chafetz Paper Award and the Elizabeth Esterchild Professional Paper Award. The amounts were formally 200 and 100 dollars respectively. The idea is to perhaps lessen the awards next year. Paulina Ruf will be chair and Diane Bates will serve as well as Carols Posadas who is from New Mexico. This is the first year that the competition is not blind. This option increased the number of submissions. There was no paper award last year as there was only one submission – we have already received several submissions this year. These awards are only for people who have presented in the Women and Gender Studies sessions. Submissions after today can be e-mailed. Winners will be announced in the newsletter.
Diane – We have been thru a two year cycle in the past for stability in the organization. We are going thru changes which mirror a larger trend for professional meetings to decline in attendance. The incoming president is dynamic and has committed to increasing interest and attendance.
There has been a nomination for the Program Chair for next year. This is Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson. She will co-chair with Susan next year and then take over for the following two year cycle.
Diane moves that we accept Jillian as the chair – Susan seconds the motion. The vote is unanimous from the floor.
New Business:
Increasing membership – a real problem. There has been talk about increasing the award for papers from 100 and 200 to 150 and 250 respectively. Another idea has been to consider reimbursing faculty and students who are coming from W and G studies programs and list us as affiliate and present at our panels.
Jillian makes the point that perhaps the reimbursements would be most useful for students versus faculty. Paulina Ruf agrees and also states that the impact on our organization would be lessened as well since students pay a lesser fee. Diane suggests that we could possibly cover perhaps the entire costs for students.
Carlos – is there a list of schools with W and G studies? This would be a way to recruit. For next year, we should contact UNLV – Gina Petonito comments that the contact is Lois Humbolt. She is extremely busy – contact her secretary by e-mail. They do have graduate students who are literally “down the street”. We can also contact the women’s center where w and g students are working.
Jillian proposes that we use our monies to offset the fees of students. Second by Susan Strickland and the vote is unanimous.
Last year we received 760 dollars from the conference meetings. Diane suggests that we spend 700 dollars in recruitment. What are our priorities in terms of refunds for students and paper competitions?
Susan – if we have 5 to 6 student presenters so that the registration fee is less than 100 dollars. Therefore, we could possibly set a cap of 200 dollars and if we have more than 20 students to register, then we would take the number of students and divide by 200 dollars and distribute among students. At this point, we have no problem in covering the costs of student fees. Paulina suggests that we fully reimburse the first 10 students who register for a presentation. There is no difference in fees for member and non-member students.
Diane – to recap – we set a cap of 200 dollars of reimbursement for student fees. Paulina - 18 dollars for one affiliation or 23 dollars for registering with two affiliations. Do we want to stipulate between members and non-members for clarity? Diane – we will reimburse members since the goal is to generate new members.
Susan suggests that in addition to registration fees, we should also reimburse their membership if they join our organization with W and G as primary affiliate. Paulina – to make certain that the students actually present, reimbursements will be distributed after the conference.
The motion is for up to ten students and possibly more, we will refund membership costs to people who present at WGS next year provided they register with WGS as their primary affiliate. Susan makes the motion, Carlos seconds, the vote is unanimous.
Increasing paper awards? Existing awards are 200 and 150 – would increasing the award also increase memberships? Emma Bailey suggests that she would increase the student award to 250 dollars since students have the toughest time. Gina reflects the sentiment that a more substantial amount for students would make a difference. Jillian agrees especially at schools where there is no funding for students.
Gina doesn’t think the money is the most important factor for students. There is a 2000 dollar award for students at her institution and no students apply.
Diane suggests that we raise the student award to 200 dollars for parity. We are interested in professionalization of graduate students. Our budget can handle this since we are online.
Diane makes a motion to increase the student award to 200 dollars for parity. Paulina seconds. The vote is unanimous.
Other business – the executive director question. The organization as a whole has floated a proposal (not official) about hiring an executive director who will fill the roles currently filled by volunteers. Book exhibits, membership director, registration, workshop director and site director are all volunteer positions. The problem is that we do not know how much this will actually costs the organization. It is proposed that the salary would be between 20 and 50 thousand dollars and we do not bring that in each year. The idea is to increase membership by ten dollars and registration by ten dollars as well to generate revenue for this position.
Gina – will this position include benefits etc.? There is an idea that a trailing spouse could take on this position. This is offensive to those in attendance. There are many unknowns.
As an organization, we voted yesterday not to go ahead until we have more information – very close vote 10 to 9 not to go ahead until there is feedback from all the affiliates and more information is dispersed. Susan expressed a concern over the figure of 20 – 50 thousand dollars. This is unsubstantiated without any sort of research at this time.
Paulina comments that this is pretty much a clerical position versus a professional position. One suggestion is to have them be a contract person and they file their own taxes – they are a service provider to the organization. The assumption is that the person will be a service provider but the university will supplement all the other costs.
The problem is we are relying on volunteers and the volunteers are overworked. Something has to be done. We are cautious about proceeding until we get more information in writing. We want to know details before we empower the exec committee to go ahead. We support change or the idea of an executive director but are not ready to get behind something without details.
Jillian suggests that we contact the exec director of WSA (Alison) for information for the sake of comparison. Paulina comments that smaller organizations have exec directors that are normally held by perhaps retired members and student workers are paid aside from their regular work-study.
Diane suggests that we ask for some comparative data from similar organizations. Susan suggests that we will meet resistance since the vote was so close.
Diane – we, as an affiliate, support the idea of a director in theory, but we want more information on the selection process, the qualifications of the person etc. before we vote. We want transparency in the process.
Any new business?
Gina Petonito– President of Association for Humanist Sociology and Emma Bailey, Program Chair make an announcement and encourage participation in a conference that will be in Henderson, Nevada. The organization is not exclusively for sociologists but any activist, feminist, anyone interested is welcome.
Announcement – Henry Sirgo has received a Fulbright and will be in South Korea next year.
Dr. Carolos Posadas defended his dissertation two weeks ago. Congratulations to him.
Motion to adjourn and the meeting is called to a close at 12:46.
