2006
Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference
Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference
March 2006
Liz Crowell
Recording Secretary
President Cara Blume opened the meeting.
Reports:
Secretary’s Report: Secretary,
Liz Crowell began to read the 2005 minutes.
Dennis Pogue made a motion to waive the reading of the minutes.
The motion was seconded by Doug Sanford.
Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer,
Carol Ebright read the treasurers report. Finances
were $18,335 not including expenses or income from the conference.
A motion was made by Dave Mudge to accept the treasurer’s report;
seconded by Mike Barber. Motion
carried.
Membership Report: Membership
Chair, Faye Stocum made the membership report.
As of the meeting, two members of the Board were not members.
As of March 7, 52 members were delinquent.
This is a continuing problem. For
2005, at the time of the meeting, there were 184 members.
This increased to 224 by the end of the year.
This included 163 individual members, 34 institutional members, 19
students and 8 joint members. This
equates to $592.50 in profit.
In past years, 205 members were needed for Roger Moeller to
break even with the journal. President
Cara Blume indicated that we need more memberships.
Roger Moeller was asked to revise his estimates.
Roger owns the journal.
As of March 2006, there were 226 members.
We were projecting 250 members by the end of the year.
There have not been this many members since 1998.
Seventeen members were already paid for 2007, including 14 institutional
and 1 student. As of the meeting,
the mailing list was 371 names for 3 years.
Seventy-five (75) names were dropped.
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Program Committee: There
are 283 people registered and more than 100 members presenting papers.
We need to thank Virginia Department of Historic Resources for $1500 for
program.
Local Arrangements: Mike
Madden indicated that there will be a need for the next president to appoint an
equipment manager. Hotel no longer
will provide slide or overhead projectors. Seventeen
tables were being used, 4 for non-profits. The
field trip was not profitable. Thirty
to thirty-five participants were needed to make it profitable.
We had 18. We collected $562
and $892 was needed. We took a loss
of $330. Next year, there will be no
field trip. Carol Ebright noted that
the field trip was successful in terms of content.
Mike Madden indicated that since there was a poor turn-out, it was not
worth doing. Mike Barber proposed
that a letter of thanks should be written to Tom David.
Faye Stocum made a motion to thank Mike Madden and Mike
Barber. Liz Crowell seconded the
motion.
Mike Barber and Dennis
Pogue indicated that 106 papers necessitated three concurrent sessions.
Cara Blume indicated that inclusiveness was an important part of MAAC.
To decrease the size of the conference, contributed papers would have to
be cut. In the past, some of the
“old guard” wanted to limit the conference to professionals.
Others argued against, particularly with regard to the participation of
students, which is one of the great strengths of MAAC.
This is important.
It was discussed to give program chairs the direction to
have 3 concurrent sessions. Wayne
Clark indicated that MAAC has grown. Steve
Bilicki indicated that the conference now includes prehistoric and historical
archaeology, underwater archaeology, and conservation.
It is interdisciplinary. People
expect to participate and we should encourage contribution.
Mike Barber credited Dennis Pogue with having done most of the work with
the program. He also credited the
work of George Tolley. Folks want to
give papers at MAAC. It is a
regional conference. With the
increase of costs for SHA and SAA,
many now prefer to attend regional conferences.
This year we were fortunate. With
MAAC, history has shown us that we need to “go with the flow’.
How do we handle people who do not hand in memberships?
There was a discussion of the difficulty for session organizers/program
chairs. In addition, there were 17
contributed papers where there was no organizer.
The rules say, if you do not pay, there is no paper.
We should establish that if we are not paid by X date, then delinquents
are not in the program. There will
be no mailing of the preliminary program. We
need to follow through. It should
not be Faye’s responsibility to send emails to deadbeats.
Mike Barber indicated that people who do not join should not register.
It was discussed to have the checks go to one location.
Everyone is frustrated with the process.
There are problems with having membership and registration online.
Activa – problems. Some
organizations, like the World Archaeological Congress are using Pay Pal. George
Tolley indicated that MAAC would have to join Pay Pal.
Pay Pal would send information to the Treasurer.
Carole indicated that Activa provided just a listing of the number of
individuals. George Tolley indicated
that Pay Pal provides information. Lisa
Young indicated that credit card payments through Pay Pal are simple.
Cara Blume indicated that an organization can sign up for multiple years.
Carole Nash and Cara Blume discussed asking the new treasurer to look
into this and come up with a method. We
need a solution.
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Bernard Means indicated that the website was the way to go.
He does not remember if they are members.
Why not use the listserv? There
could be a general message. It was
reiterated that there cannot be one check because of the IRS.
Mike Barber said that it does not have to be 2 checks.
Cara Blume indicated that this should be the mandate for a new treasurer
to figure out. Some people are not
joining because of the amount of effort it requires.
There is the same discussion every year.
Membership wants to try. Carole
Nash proposed a motion to have the Executive Board meet and find a solution.
Wayne Clark seconded the motion. Carol
Ebright indicated that it is easier for institutions to pay by credit card.
Do we need to set up a donation process for student memberships?
Might we want to put this on the website, as well?
Add a page for student papers. Indicate
that registration awards are not given until papers are submitted for
publication.
Roger Moeller indicated that 1 manuscript accepted; one
other submitted. There was a
discussion about digital vs. hard copy publishing. Younger members prefer the
pdf version; geezers want a book. It
was suggested that we try a few back issues in pdf.
Roger indicated that back issues might not be the best test.
What about the current issue? Bernard
Means said he would get rid of his paper copies and use the pdfs.
It was suggested that the listserv could be used to see if they want the
CD? It was suggested that either
could be economically feasible. Would
institutional members want book or CD? Steve
Bilicki questioned if folks would want a CD of the Power Point presentations?
Bernard Means indicated that we should be looking at the web.
Roger indicated that might be a cost savings if printer would accept
alternative computer program. There
is a problem with graphic quality. Is
there enough money? Cara indicated
that the current fee is in place until the end of 2007.
Money Spending Committee:
No report. No money spent.
It was discussed that we have to be careful about how much money we
accumulate. Accumulated money gives
us the opportunity to pay for students, Native American discussions; allows us
flexibility.
Elections:
Voting for:
President Elect: Chris
Espenshade
Treasurer: Laura
Galke
There were no other nominations.
Dave Mudge moved that the nominations be closed.
Mike Barber seconded the motion. Motion
carried.
Chris Espenshade was elected president elect and Laura
Galke was elected treasurer.
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New Business
Cara Blume thanked all of the people who helped her through
the last 2 years. When MAAC started,
there were no officers; just the program chair.
In
Dover
, Mel Thurman said we needed officers. Then
there was program chair/local arrangements chair. The president runs the
business meeting. Almost everything
else is done by members. Local
arrangements have made the meeting an enjoyable experience.
Thank you to the treasurer, Carol Ebright, who is stepping down.
Carol was treasurer since 2000. Carol’s
service is really appreciated. Now
the meeting is handed over to the new president, Carole Nash.
New President Carole Nash thanked Cara Blume for her
service to MAAC.
Carole indicated that the first order of business was
whether we need to raise the dues. MAAC
dues are very inexpensive. We made
$3000 for 2005. Faye Stocum
indicated that we purchase the journal from Roger Moeller.
$22.50 of the $25.00 membership fee is for the journal.
For student memberships, we lose $2.50 per student.
Are we just going to be about meetings?
There has been difficulty filling the journal.
Do we want the journal to be digital or paper?
Roger indicated that we do not want half digital and half paper.
There is a need to survey the membership.
Next year we could make a decision on the basis of the survey.
We discussed the possibility of a newsletter.
There was the discussion that the listserv should be in place of the
newsletter. Back on the subject of dues, Lisa Young agreed that we should raise
dues, but not for students. If we
subtract the conference, we never make more than $4000 or lose more than $2000.
We made more than $500 on membership.
MAAC should contribute to organizations like the Archaeological
Conservancy. We can create a need
for more money. More money could
mean more publications, grants, scholarships, avocational support.
This will make MAAC a strong presence.
We will have to do more. We
know we have more of a nest egg. We
should talk to a good tax accountant beforehand.
There was a discussion of Institutional membership vs. Corporate.
The membership category is not current.
Wayne Clark made a motion to raise individual membership to $30;
institutional membership to $40; student membership to be $20 and $40 for the
journal. It was recommended that the
money be devoted to meaningful stuff. This
motion was seconded by Liz Crowell and others.
Dennis Pogue recommended that we wait until we know if the membership
wants this. It could be put to a
vote in 2007.
Wayne
withdrew the motion. There was
discussion of a web survey. Roger
moved that one be taken. Dave Mudge
seconded the motion.
The location of the 2007 meeting was discussed.
It was recommended to bring the meetings back to Virginia
in 2007. It was reiterated that
there needed to be a 3rd presentation room with curtains.
The room without curtains made the viewing of slides impossible.
Mike Barber and Dennis Pogue volunteered to be program chairs again.
Mike Madden volunteered to be local arrangements chair again.
Concern was raised because a couple of groups of relic
hunters are active in Prince Georges and
Culpeper
Counties
and advertising for folks to have relic hunting opportunities.
There was discussion of a letter writing campaign.
APVA, ASV, DHR and the National Trust have all written letters of
support. There was a motion by
Barbara Heath, seconded by several others.
With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
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