1999 Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference
Minutes of the 4/10/99 Business Meeting at The Pennsylvania
State Museum
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Approximately 40 people in attendance.
Pres. Chris Bergman called the meeting to order at 7:12 PM. The first order
of business was the approval of the minutes from last year’s Board meeting. No
discussion ensued. Roger Moeller moved the minutes be approved; seconded by
David Mudge. Motion approved by voice vote from the floor.
OLD BUSINESS:
1. Treasurer’s Report: Alice Guerrant respectively
submitted the following report: beginning balance as of July 1,
1998: $8,591.69. Expenses to date:
Journal #14, $5,670.00; agent’s fee, $75.00; State franchise tax, $20.00;
Federal tax, $811.13; CPA $1,350.00; non-profit status filing fee, $500.00;
postage and mailing, $8.74; Webpage, $200.00; total $8,634.87. Income in
memberships, $5,830.00. Conference expenses: printing, $428.60; postage,
$500.00; hotel, $2,000.00 (est.); awards, $279.85; Misc. (party), $250.00;
security, $450.00; total expenses: $3908.35. Income from registration:
$6,6l0.00. Ending balance: $8,488.37.
Roger Moeller moved that the Treasurer’s
report be approved; seconded by Dave Mudge. No discussion. Motion approved by
voice vote from the floor.
2. Membership Committee: Faye Stocum reported that
for Memberships in 1998: as of January 4, 1999, there were
250 total: with 176 individual;
44 institutional; 16 student; and 14 joint memberships. This count reflects
the decline in membership since 1997 (of 20 less members), does not include 5
gratis and exchange memberships.
As of April 7, 1999, Memberships for 1999 as follows: 205 total, with 153
individual, 27 institutional, 10 student, and 15 joint. Faye stated that she
expected more memberships in the various categories and that categorical and
total memberships should equal and/or be slightly above those for 1998. Faye did
note some membership problems, such as the decline in institutional (libraries)
memberships and loss of some individual memberships due to joint memberships
(which are cheaper) and student memberships (which are cheaper). Faye encourages
other MAAC members associated with institutions to have those institutions join.
Roger Moeller moved that the Membership report be approved; Dave Mudge
seconded the motion. Motion approved by voice vote from the floor.
3. Report on MAAC logo: Pres. Bergman stated that he
would digitize the organization’s logo in the next month.
4. Archive Committee: Pres. Bergman reminded past
presidents and officers to submit their past materials and that
he would archive both his e-mail and letter
correspondence at the end of his term in 2000.
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5. Awards Committee: Pres. Bergman expressed his pleasure
with this year’s awards and extended MAAC’s thanks to Varna
Boyd and the Awards Committee
for their work to date, including last night’s ceremony. Varna admitted
that the Committee needs to better promote and advertise the awards, and to date
there had been a lack of nominations. Varna suggested putting out a notice with
the call for conference papers, along with the listing of the award criteria.
Alice Guerrant suggested that the award criteria be added to MAAC’s webpage,
and Pres. Bergman followed this suggestion by stating that the current award
recipients should be added to MAAC’s webpage as well.
6. Program Chair’s Report: Liz Crowell stated the
conference’s program had turned out well and noted the
number of good papers and sessions. Liz
thanked the participants for their efforts. Pres. Bergman expressed the
organization’s appreciation to Liz and Kurt Carr for their work (“a terrific
job”) and contributions, with applause by the audience following.
7. Arrangements Chair’s Report: Kurt Carr reported
that a total of 240 people had registered (as compared to
253 last year). In the ensuing discussion,
Roger Moeller brought up the issue of this year’s new venue, and whether
members’ unfamiliarity with the this year’s location had caused attendance
problems. Roger also stated his preference for consistency in location, such as
that formerly associated with Ocean City, Md. Carr responded that he agreed with
Roger and also prefers the beach - but unless satisfactory arrangements could be
made there, he would offer to help arrange next year’s meeting in Harrisonburg
again, if MAAC so desired. George Miller asked if there was any boost in
membership with this year’s new location. Faye Stocum replied she would have
to check to see if new memberships occurred at this meeting, but that only three
renewals had occurred so far. Liz Crowell complimented Kurt on a job well done,
with applause from the audience following. Discussion continued with Roger
Moeller stating another variable affecting attendance was whether new
memberships would increase from “local” paper presenters at a new location,
but that MAAC needed to look at registrants as to whether they’re the “old
guard” or new attendees.
Mike Barber offered to host the following year’s meeting at a beach side
location in Virginia (deferred to new business). On another matter, Faye Stocum
stated there’s still a problem with procedures for pre-registration and
membership (have to do both before submitting an abstract to give a paper), and
that the Program Chair was having problems with “police enforcement” of the
requirement for membership prior to the conference, with these problems still
occurring in March. Kurt Carr agrees with MAAC’s rules in this regard, but
stated there’s still a problem with getting people to pay large amounts of
money in November and still having them agree to be part of a session or
symposium. Faye agreed about this burden of responsibilities, but reiterated
that MAAC’s rules had changed and that better procedures were needed. June
Miller asked if people within a session can pay memberships to the session
chair, and Faye stated that this practice was encouraged to consolidate
financial arrangements within symposia. Pres. Bergman terminated the discussion
by stating that this issue would be further discussed in new business.
8. Journal Editor’s Report: Roger Moeller stated
that JMAA, Volume #15 is now full and will go to the printer
in the near future. Roger thanked
Richard Veit for his past assistance and extra efforts with the collection of
papers addressing the late prehistoric and contact periods. Roger also commended
Dennis Curry for his efforts as Book Review editor in this volume. Roger then
stated that Volume #16 is about half full and that he was looking to Pres.
Bergman for help in filling the issue. Roger said he may include some papers
from the Upland Symposium in this volume.
Pres. Bergman asked for comments, and Faye Stocum asked about the sale of
back issues, to which Roger replied that they were very flat, and that the back
issues formed less than 10% of his inventory, and that many extras went to a
recycling location. Roger also noted that despite poor sales, the back issues
will continued to be listed on MAAC’s webpage and through his “siftings.com”
website, along with guidelines for submitting papers for publication. Pres.
Bergman moved that the editor’s report be accepted, which was seconded by Dave
Mudge. Motion approved by voice vote from the floor.
9. MAAC Archives: Faye Stocum inquired as to the status
of MAAC archives being placed with Liz Moore at the Smithsonian
Institution, noting that Ms. Moore
has not renewed her MAAC membership since 1997, and she has no address for
her. Varna Boyd replied that she knew Ms. Moore had reserved space for MAAC’s
materials and that she has Ms. Moore’s e-mail and mailing addresses. Dave
Mudge urged that MAAC officers should submit their records directly to the
Smithsonian on an annual basis, and then desired to know who was the direct
contact person there. Recording Secretary Doug Sanford was charged by Pres.
Bergman with determining that person’s identity. Doug Sanford then asked if
anyone had submitted material to date, and the audience replied that no one had.
10. IRS Status: Alice Guerrant summarized MAAC’s problems
in the past with respect to non-profit and Federal tax status. Alice
noted that she has submitted the
necessary forms for MAAC to obtain refunds for Federal taxes paid over the
last five years, and that she plans to submit the relevant forms for MAAC to
obtain non-profit status in the near future. Roger Moeller requested follow-up
reports on this issue within the next year, to which Alice agreed, saying she
hoped to hear something in the next six months. Pres. Bergman agreed with Roger,
encouraging Alice to keep pressing on this matter and have the money, which
represents a “tidy sum,” returned to MAAC.
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NEW BUSINESS:
1. 2000 Conference Meeting Site: For comparative
purposes Alice Guerrant noted past cost estimates for the
conference - $4800 at the Sheraton in Ocean
City, Md.; $3700 in Cape May, N.J.; and then $2000 for Harrisburg. Alice
reinforced that the latter cost was cheaper due to some generous contributions,
such as the free audiovisual costs, and that printing costs were less expensive
than previously. Dave Mudge stated his preference to return to Harrisburg next
year, whereas Kurt Carr preferred a beach location. Mike Barber stated that he
would offer to host the 2001 meeting in Virginia Beach, and would report to MAAC
at next year’s meeting. Kurt Carr stated he had called numerous (75) places
along the East Coast, many of which indicated problems with an April meeting
date due to the conflict with Easter. He suggested moving the MAAC meeting back
to February/March.
Faye Stocum noted that the Sheraton in Ocean City had contacted Ed Otter
(President-Elect) about MAAC’s return there, but she called for him to obtain
estimates due to past problems with high and escalating costs at that location.
She did note that attendance there often exceeded 300. George Miller stated that
we need to find the dates when high rates (around Easter) go into effect, so as
to avoid that problem. Wayne Clark moved that MAAC consider returning to Ocean
City, if we move back the meeting date to March and can obtain lower rates from
the Sheraton. He asked if Kurt would be willing to check on this possibility.
Dave Mudge again noted the value of staying with Harrisburg next year, while
other possibilities for future meetings are researched. George Miller warned
that MAAC may have light attendance because of the SAA meeting in Philadelphia
at about the same time. Faye Stocum agreed with this point, noting a past
history of such conflicts, and reinforced the need to factor in the SAA meeting
since most CRM archaeologists would give preference to that gathering, and since
most archaeologists cannot attend both.
Alice Guerrant asked for a vote on the matter. Roger Moeller moved that MAAC
meet in Harrisburg again next year. This motion was seconded by Pres. Bergman,
and was approved by a voice vote from the floor. The issues of Easter’s date
and the SAA meeting date arose again, and thus, Pres. Bergman noted, the MAAC
meeting should be on the weekend of March 23rd, or the weekend of April 13-16.
Kurt Carr responded that he would try to obtain the previously noted
arrangements in Ocean City, but if that proved impossible, then he would make
arrangements for Harrisburg. Upon further discussion, Kurt made this a formal
motion, which was approved by voice vote from the audience, with the intent to
override the previous vote. Roger Moeller amended the motion to include that
Kurt investigate the dates mentioned above so as not to conflict with Easter and
the SAA conference. Alice Guerrant seconded this motion, which was approved by
voice vote from the floor. Faye noted the need to vote on the meeting dates
mentioned above. Roger Moeller moved that the dates be associated with Kurt’s
above charge. This motion was seconded was Alice Guerrant and approved by voice
vote.
2. 2000 Conference Program and
Arrangements Chairs: Roger Moeller
volunteered to become the Program Chair,
and his offer was approved by audience acclamation. Kurt Carr agreed to be
the Conference Arrangements Chair, under the conditions discussed above for the
conference.
3. 2000 Conference Sessions topics: Roger Moeller
offered to circulate and encourage session topics, and
asked people to contact his web
site. Roger also noted he would establish a protocol for pre-registration and
membership fees. Ned Heite asked MAAC to re-issue people’s e-mail addresses,
but members noted possible legal or privacy issues with MAAC handing out e-mail
address lists without people’s permission.
4. Rules and Procedures for Conference
Presenters: The issue of the relationship
between conference participation and the
requirement of MAAC membership was raised again. Silas Hurry asked MAAC to
consider charging an extra $5 registration fee for non-members. Alice Guerrant
noted that most conferences do this. Roger Moeller wants presenters to send all
materials and payments to him - that is, forms and fees for conference
abstracts, pre-registration, and membership. Roger said he would coordinate
membership information with Faye Stocum, and that she would e-mail him a
membership voucher for extant members. He also requested that session chairs
handle all session participants as to forms and titles, fees, addresses, and
abstracts. Roger would transfer paper and session information from the forms to
MAAC’s website - for the preliminary conference program. Faye indicated she
preferred a fee schedule for membership rather than having people pay ahead of
time (for pre-registration; see discussion below), noting that she’s yet to
accept year 2000 memberships.
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5. Other Conference Issues: In a discussion from the
floor, audience members expressed their desire to have
keynote speakers at the conference. Pres.
Bergman considered that the three award recipients (speakers) were akin to
keynote speakers, and he hoped that such a practice would continue, and then
encouraged Kurt Carr to consider how to do so at future MAAC meetings. June
Miller suggested that Friday evening was a logical time for having keynote
speakers. Pres. Bergman clarified that he did not want awards to occur every
year, but every so often since they are special rather than routine, and that
such awards would alternate with keynote speakers. Ned Heite suggested that MAAC
not have a formal banquet with such an event, to which the audience agreed.
6. Other New Business: Faye Stocum returned discussion to
the issue of membership payments, and requested a policy
enforcing a time limit (fee schedule)
for payments and for membership categories to expire. Dave Mudge, in
contrast, noted that MAAC is not making much money on the holdover of funds.
Alice Guerrant clarified this point by reinforcing that MAAC does not have an
interest-bearing account, only a free checking account. Faye noted MAAC’s
tight finances with respect to its balance and its payment for the journal,
especially if there are conference problems. Dave Mudge then suggested a
biannual fee schedule. Silas Hurry suggested setting the fee schedule for the
year 2000 now, thereby preceding the calendar year. Faye noted that changing the
fees now meant changing various types of printed forms. Roger Moeller made the
motion that we hold the line on the existing membership fee schedule until 2001.
This motion was seconded by Kurt Carr, and approved by voice vote from the
floor.
Varna Boyd, from the Awards Committee, noted the need for new members and
assistance, since she is the only active member. She asked if a new committee
needed to be appointed, or just new members. Pres. Bergman asked MAAC members to
approach Varna with their assistance and then get in touch with the Board.
7. Other Old Business: Faye Stocum returned to members’
past-stated need for MAAC to supply extra projectors and bulbs,
a podium with lights, and laser
pointers. Such expenditures were approved at last year’s meeting and Alice
Guerrant indicated that MAAC had the necessary funds to obtain these items. Dave
Mudge indicated that he would donate two laser pointers. Silas Hurry suggested
not purchasing these items until next year’s conference arrangements were
complete and then determine if such purchases were necessary. Pres. Bergman
agreed and also repeated the matter of MAAC’s unsettled status with the IRS as
affecting the organization’s finances. Mike Barber underscored past problems
with slide and podium arrangements at Ocean City. Pres. Bergman stated he would
keep tabs on this matter with Alice Guerrant, Roger Moeller, and Kurt Carr;
making sure that we not endanger MAAC’s financial condition.
Dave Mudge moved that the meeting be closed. This motion was seconded by
Roger Moeller, and approved by voice vote from the audience.
Meeting adjourned.
Respectively submitted,
Douglas W. Sanford
Recording Secretary
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