Business Meeting Minutes WiG 2005

The meeting was convened at 11.10 am.

Announcements: Christina Gerhardt will show films during the afternoon free time. Beth Muellner has posted a list to gather a group for ongoing discussion of the Motherhood in Academia topic. Maria-Luisa reminded people that there will be no new panel proposal suggestions from the floor today. SWIG meeting will occur at lunch today. It was suggested that everyone stay for the reports.

The President’s Report was delivered by Jeanette Clausen: She and Jeannine Blackwell co-organized the conference, in addition to fielding applications for the Zantop Travel award. Jeanette responded to many miscellaneous queries. Finally, she helped identify a new Yearbook co-editor (see below).

Julie Klassen will become new President in 2006. In the spring of 2006, WiG will be running a search for a new WiG Vice President, so please think about nominations or self-nominations for that job.

Laura McGee reported on the Governance Review she had conducted during the prior month. The task was to assess whether the President and VP model in addition to Steering Committee is useful. A survey of SC members of the last 3 years revealed that this model has been helpful and useful. The SC continues to make policy and leadership for this organization, which will continue. But the President is useful when the press or other organizations want to contact WiG. The President has also enhanced internal coordination and efficiency.

Vibs Petersen delivered the Treasurer’s Report: We have a balance now of $2,100 in our general account. In addition, Memorial and Zantop Travel funds amount to about $10,000. The down payment for the coming year’s conference has to come out of the Memorial/Travel funds. The Yearbook is our largest expense. Printing and mailing amount to about $2,200. We also have to pay for the Website, as well as postage and office supplies.

Claudia Breger and Jeanette Clausen reported for the Yearbook Task Force. 98 people responded to a survey they conducted, with a good spread of participants in terms of rank, representative of WiG membership as a whole. The aim was to assess whether the WiG yearbook should go to electronic publication only. Results revealed that everybody uses electronic resources in their research, but nobody has submitted their writing to an electronic journal. Members either don’t know what their institution’s policy is regarding the value of electronic publication (does it count for merit, tenure, promotion?), or fear that it is of lower value, because the Humanities are apparently late in setting policy regarding electronic publication. The decisive factor, however, is whether a journal is peer-reviewed, not whether it is electronic.

Vibs Petersen reported that the budget for inviting guests to WiG is that we can pay them an honorarium of $500, in addition to $700 towards other expenses that are travel-related (not conference-related).

Julie Klassen announced that Maggie McCarthy is the new Yearbook co-editor, who will work with Helga Kraft. Maggie is affiliated with Davidson College. We had three good applications for the post.

Helga Kraft reported on the WiG yearbook, on which she worked with Marjorie Gelus last year. Helga had an editorial assistant at UIC. She enjoyed the positive working experience with reviewers, who helped mentor the primarily junior people who submitted articles for publication. The Yearbook had a special section about transnational feminism that grew out of last year’s conference. The next deadline for submitting an article to the WiG Yearbook is January 15.

The WiG Website Report was delivered by Lisa Hock, the new web mistress along with Beverly Weber. They ran a demonstration of the new WiG website on screen, to display some of its continuing and new functions. One new feature is the section where winners of the Dissertation and Best Article Prizes are posted, along with abstracts of their work. Portions of the website are password protected; password is a benefit of membership, and is included in the email that goes out to members every time they receive the Newsletter. Beverly called attention to the Syllabus Archive feature, and appealed to the membership for continuing willingness to share ideas and materials, and send them along to the web mistresses. The web mistresses also pointed out that they do not administer the WiG-List, which is run out of UC Berkeley. They reminded members to keep their email addresses up to date with Vibs Peterson, so that they can continue to receive the Newsletter and the password that grants them access to the website. They also solicit comments and suggestions regarding the website.

The Newsletter Report was delivered by co-editors Rachel Freudenburg and Maria Stehle. They have been responsible for the last two issues of the Newsletter. The major change to this publication is that it is now sent out four times a year, instead of three times annually. The Newsletter is all-electronic, and is made available via PDF attachment that can also be downloaded from the WiG website. There is no more paper mailing containing conference information, except for a postcard alerting members to the upcoming registration deadline that is mailed during the summer. As many of the postcards were returned, Rachel and Maria appealed to the members to keep their postal addresses up to date with Vibs Peterson.

Selection of WiG special guest for next conference:
Sara Lennox proposed Esther Dischereit, a younger generation German-Jewish writer who is lively, performative, and would love to come as she’ll be in Vancouver next Fall anyway. The membership unanimously agreed to this proposal.
There will be a guest-related panel, and Marjanne Gooze proposed that the topic for it should be German-language Jewish writers in Europe. Sonja Fritzsche and Jennifer Good will be the organizers of this panel.

The membership discussed the suggestion to propose guest speakers two years in advance, and voted against choosing a guest for 2007 at this conference. However, members voted for a change in policy that, starting next year, guests will be selected two years in advance. In 2006, guests will be selected for 2007 and 2008 to put us on schedule.

Selection of panel topics at the next WiG conference, and for WiG sponsored panels at the MLA and GSA conferences:
Thursday night panel, called “Overworked, underpaid, and Full of Joy?” will be organized by Beret Norman and Heike Henderson

Pre-20th Century Panel on “Women, Health, and Medicine“ will be organized by Lisa Hock and Tracie Matysik

Professional Praxis WiG Panel “Electronic Media for Research, publishing, Teaching and Collaboration” will be organized by Jennifer Askey and Rachel Freudenburg. This will be run not as a panel, but as a teach-in/workshop led by Jennifer Askey’s husband Dale, who is an expert in this area.

Two WiG Open Topic panels:
(1) “New Generation of German Women Writers“ will be organized by Pat Herminghouse and Monika Fischer
(2) “Gendered Cities“ will be organized by Beret Norman and Karen Eng

The WiG Poster Session will be coordinated by Derek Miller, Brenda Bethman, and Barbara Lechleiter

Christina Gerhardt will make available for screening some of the films that panelists discuss in their presentations. Screenings will take place late at night and during the Saturday afternoon free time.

WiG-sponsored panel at 2006 GSA conference on “Early Women Filmmakers“ will be organized by Sara Hall and Elizabeth Frye. Deadline for submitting panels to GSA is February 15, 2006

(1) WiG-sponsored panel at 2006 MLA conference on “Contemporary Genre Fiction by Women “ will be organized by Elizabeth Bridges and Faye Stewart
(2) WiG-sponsored panel at 2006 MLA conference on “Domestic Violence in Literature“ will be organized by Helga Kraft and Vera Kauder

The WiG-sponsored panel at 2007 AATG conference will be chosen at next year’s WiG conference.

The two new members elected to the WiG Steering Committee are Jill Suzanne Smith and Amy Young.

Marjanne Gooze proposed that we form a Task Force on compiling glosses for texts by German women writers, and called for 3 volunteers. Dara Bryant, Christine Rinne, and Beth Muellner volunteered.

The business meeting adjourned at 1:15.

Respectfully submitted by Laura McGee and Katrin Sieg