The Board of Directors of the American Philological Association met at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel, San Antonio, TX, on January 6, 2011. Those present were Profs. Dee L. Clayman, President, Ronnie Ancona, and Roger S. Bagnall, Dr. Adam D. Blistein, Profs. Barbara Weiden Boyd, Kathleen Mary Coleman, Bruce W. Frier, Alain M. Gowing, Judith P. Hallett, Robert A. Kaster, John Marincola, James M. May, Carole E. Newlands, Josiah Ober, James J. O’Donnell, and Ann Vasaly. Also present by invitation were the following Directors who would take office on January 9, 2011: Profs. Joseph Farrell, Jonathan M. Hall, Jeffrey Henderson, and Kathryn Morgan. Profs. Peter Bing and S. Georgia Nugent were absent.
Prof. Clayman called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. She welcomed the newly elected directors and officers whose terms would begin on January 9 and she thanked the following members of the Board whose terms were concluding at the annual meeting: Prof. Ober (President, 2009), Prof. Kaster (Vice President for Program, 2007-2011), and Profs. Boyd and Gowing (Directors, 2008-2011).
The Board had received an agenda for the meeting as well as minutes of its meeting on October 1-2, 2010.
Action: The Board approved the agenda for the meeting.
Action: After adopting one correction offered by Prof. May, the Board approved the minutes of its meeting on October 1-2, 2010.
Report of Outgoing Vice President
Prof. Kaster thanked the Board, the members, and APA staff for their support during his four-year term. He noted that three of the five members of the Program Committee would be new in the coming year (the Vice President and two ordinary members). All members of the Committee (incoming, outgoing, and continuing) would meet on the following day to review several issues before the Committee and to give the new members an overview of the Committee's work.
Report of Subcommittee on Professional Ethics
In October the Board had imposed disciplinary actions against a party involved in an Ethics Subcommittee case and had asked Prof. May to notify parties involved in this case of its action. Prof. May reported on events that had taken place in the course of carrying out the Board's instructions and noted that the disciplined person's institution was aware of the complaint.
Action: The Board asked Prof. May to write to the disciplined person's institution, explain the Association's involvement in the case, ask what action the institution intended to take, and offer to share information gathered by the APA with the institution.
Proposal to Modify Structure of Advisory Board to American Office of l'Année philologique
The Directors had received a proposal from Prof. Bagnall to create a new position on the Advisory Board to the American Office of l’Année philologique (APh), an appointed chair who would serve a five-year term and represent the Association at meetings of SIBC and the directors of APh offices. The Vice President for Reseach, who currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Board would continue to be an ex officio member.
Action: The Board approved the modification of the Regulation concerning the Advisory Board to the American Office of l’Année philologique to create the position of Chair appointed by the President for a five-year term and to make the Vice President for Research an ex officio member.
Financial Matters
Dr. Blistein had distributed to Directors a statement comparing the Association’s income and expenses to budgeted numbers for the 2010 fiscal year as well as a revised budget for the current (2011) fiscal year that reflected changes in assumptions or experience during the first six months of the year. The budget for 2010 had anticipated that the APA would break even financially during the year by retaining $80,000 from the NEH challenge grant to offset fund-raising expenses. Because of the extension of deadlines for the challenge grant, this sum had not been received, and Dr. Blistein expected the resulting deficit to be slightly below $50,000 as a result of other savings.
The significant changes in assumptions in the 2011 budget were estimating registration fees based on 2,000 paid registrants instead of 2,100 and increased exhibit income. When the Finance Committee met, it would also review a proposal from the Ad Hoc Committee on Archives to fund expenses for its work in the APA Office during the Winter. If this proposal were accepted, the budget anticipated a year-end deficit of about $17,000, provided that the $80,000 in challenge grant funds were claimed.
The Directors had also received a summary of the Association’s investments from July 1 to December 31, 2010. The four funds had appreciated by 15% to 17% in that period, net of withdrawals and additions. Dr. Blistein briefly described the Association’s portfolio and the work of its investment manager. He noted that the Research and Teaching Fund, which had previously been invested more aggressively than the other three funds, now had the same guideline, i.e., 60% in equities and 40% in fixed income securities, because the first disbursements from the fund would take place this summer. He also reviewed a document showing gifts to the Research and Teaching Fund for purposes other than supporting the American Office of l’Année. During the annual meeting, the Finance Committee would discuss the procedures for calculating withdrawals from the Fund, and the Education Committee and the Joint Committee (with ACL) on Classics in American Education would consider appropriate uses for gifts made to support teaching awards and teacher development.
Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Archives
The Committee on Archives had met by conference call on several occasions during the year, and the Board had received summaries of their meetings. Dr. Blistein reviewed Committee recommendations that required Board action.
Action: The Board approved the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Archives to retain files in the format in which they were produced, to modify its document retention policy to place into archives information relevant to the history of the discipline that might not have to be retained for legal reasons, to set up rules for access to the archives, and to establish policies for retention of peer-reviewed materials.
Annual Meetings
Dr. Blistein reported that he expected the San Antonio meeting to attract between 2,000 and 2,100 paid registrants. The exhibit manager, AIA’s meeting planner, was having some success in finding exhibitors from fields other than academic publishing, and this had made it possible to sell all available booths in the exhibit hall.
Staff was working with the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) to determine whether SSRN could again host abstract submissions for the 2012 annual meeting in Philadelphia, but staff was also seeking proposals from other firms. Dr. Blistein had signed contracts for several additional meetings in the past few months. Future meetings would take place in Seattle (2013), Chicago (2014), New Orleans (2015), and San Diego (2016).
Executive Director’s Report
The Directors had received summaries of receipts to date in both annual giving and the Gateway campaign. Solicitation for the latter campaign had reduced member participation in annual giving, but response to the Fall 2010 appeal was projected to be at about the same level as in the past few years. Efforts in the Gateway campaign would focus on obtaining a number of larger gifts.
About 40 institutions, the same number as in the previous year, were conducting interviews with the help of the Placement Service. While further automation of the Service’s process was clearly necessary, staff still believed that it needed to oversee the actual scheduling of interviews.
Staff was now settled into its new offices. The additional space there made work easier.
Other Business
Action: The Board voted its congratulations to a member, Dr. Constance Carroll, who had been named to the National Humanities Council. Prof. Hallett agreed to write a letter conveying the Board’s good wishes.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.