ALLC AGM 240700

Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing

Annual General Meeting, 27 July 2002

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, held in Tubingen, Germany, July 27th at 13.10

1.   Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from Antonio Zampolli, Elisabeth Burr, Marilyn Deegan and Espen Ore. The meeting extended its best wishes to Antonio Zampolli for a speedy recovery and its condolences to Elisabeth Burr regarding her recent family tragedy.

2.   Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as an accurate record of the meeting.

3.   Matters arising

There were no matters arising from the minutes.

4. Officers' Reports

Chair: The Chair noted that a copy of his report was available at the meeting and will also be published on the Association website.

The Chair reported that the journal continues to flourish and is a source of benefit to the Association. Marilyn Deegan is doing an excellent job. The Association archives are in the process of moving to new premises and thus work on the archives has been at a standstill for a while, but is due to resume shortly. The Chair also reported on the Road Map meeting held in Pisa earlier this year to discuss the new directions in our field. The Round Table session on the last day of the conference is a follow-up of that meeting. The meeting expressed its thanks to David Robey and the Programme Committee for the excellent programme of the conference. It also extended its thanks to Wilhelm Ott, Thomas Rommel and all their colleagues for the excellent conference arrangements. The Chair also noted that while the association initiatives are to some extent launched, some of them do need more concentrated publicity. The Chair and the Secretary will send the members of the Association information on these.

The Chair also reported that he had spoken to John Unsworth regarding exploring ideas on how the two associations, ALLC and ACH, could work more closely together.

The Chair had been asked to make two announcements, namely that the ACH lunchtime meeting and the TEI meeting would both be held in this same auditorium.

The Chair invited Bill Kretzschmar to present conference arrangements for 2003. Kretzschmar invited the members to attend the next ACH-ALLC conference at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, from May 29 to June 22. The conference will be held in a residential conference centre, where the hotel facilities and meeting rooms are within the same complex. He also distributed flyers announcing the conference. The meeting thanked Bill Kretzschmar for his presentation and his efforts to date.

Treasurer: The Treasurer was pleased to report yet again that the finances are in a healthy state. All documents are available at the meeting. The Association has a balance of 79 000 and a net income of GBP 5 000. The main expenses were the ALLC leaflet, journal editorial expenses, including the set-up of a database and the 5 bursaries. The Treasurer pointed out that these are unaudited accounts, but she will place the audited version of these accounts on the website and in the journal.

The Treasurer reported that the Committee had decided to apply for a VISA card for the Treasurer in order to facilitate payments at Committee meetings and conferences. The Treasurer will be the cardholder but the card itself will be kept by the Chair. The meeting agreed that this was a good idea and the Treasurer was told to proceed with the application.

The Officers were re-elected, as were the three Committee members whose term of office had come to an end, namely John Dawson, Espen Ore and Thomas Rommel.

Secretary: The Secretary reported on the state of the Association website. It has been updated, but there are still some gaps and she called for help from members to fill in some them, in particular the information relating to Honorary Members. She also invited members to comment on the website and suggest additions or revisions.

The Secretary then reported on the membership. It seems that approximately 60 per cent of the membership comes from Europe, with the UK and Germany accounting for 16 and 13 per cent, respectively. The Association has surprisingly few members in countries such as Norway and the Netherlands, where there are quite a number of people involved in some aspect of humanities computing. The Association also has a surprisingly large contingency of members in Japan (nearly 10%). It seems that a membership drive should aim at most European countries.

5.   Communications of the Association

Journal: Edward Vanhoutte reported on behalf of Marilyn Deegan that the journal has done well. The Editor responsible for the journal at OUP has changed, and this has caused some minor problems. authors are now being sent pdf files as proofs and most submissions are by email. The journal continues to receive a helathy amount of submissions. There are, in fact, several special issues coming up, including a young scholars issue. The book reviews have also been in a healthy state. The Chair pointed out that volume 16.1 was delayed due to delays at OUP. Submissions for the conference issue should be sent to Marilyn Deegan by the end of the month.

Humanist: Willard McCarty reported that Humanist, which has been going since 1987, continues to grow slowly and steadily; it now has 1300 distribution points. The number of messages received per year continues to be fairly stable. One problem has been the dramatic increase in spam. Another problem has been a character set one, only English and Latin are without distortion; this problem is being looked into.

Willard also reminded the meeting how ALLC could use Humanist: it could use Humanist to remind people of what ALLC does; it could use Humanist to distribute a TOC of Literary and Linguistic Computing; it could use Humanist to circulate a number of ideas for its activities. The meeting wished to record its appreciation of the work Willard McCarty does in running Humanist.

6.   Conferences

2001: A special issue of papers from this conference will appear in CHum in February 2003.

2002: Wilhelm Ott reported that everything seems to have gone fairly smoothly during the conference. He was also able to get some financila aid for the conference, which accounts for the reasonable prices. David Robey, the Programme Chair reported that the Programme Committee had been fairly rigorous in their distinction between papers and posters. They had suggested to a number of people who had submitted a paper that the submission was better suited to be a poster and the vast majority accepted the offer of resubmitting their work as a poster.

2004: This conference will be held in Gothenburg and hosted by Jan-Gunnar Tingsell.

7.   Initiatives

TEI: The Chair reported that the Consortium is now well established but needs new members. It is time to think of ways in which the Association could give its support to the TEI.

Lou Burnard reported that the latest version of the TEI guidelines is now available and it comprises 2 new volumes. The TEI is now in a development phase, the aim is to identify what P5 ought to contain.

The Chair said that the transition period has now been completed and John Unsworth explained how the TEI Board will change.

Busa Award: The Chair of the Busa Committee, Lisa Lena Opas-Hänninen reported that the Busa Committee had not received many nominations and thus encouraged the members to make nominations; the deadline is the beginning of September.

8.   Any Other Business

There was no other business. The meeting was adjourned at 2pm.

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Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing Annual General Meeting, 27 July 2002 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, held in Tubingen, Germany, July 27th at 13.10 1. Apologies Apologies for absence were received from Antonio Zampolli, Elisabeth Burr, Marilyn Deegan and Espen Ore. The meeting extended its best wishes to Antonio Zampolli for a speedy recovery and its condolences to Elisabeth Burr regarding her recent family tragedy. 2. Minutes The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as an accurate record of the meeting. 3. Matters arising There were no matters arising from the minutes. 4. Officers' Reports Chair: The Chair noted that a copy of his report was available at the meeting and will also be published on the Association website. The Chair reported that the journal continues to flourish and is a source of benefit to the Association. Marilyn Deegan is doing an excellent job. The Association archives are in the process of moving to new premises and thus work on the archives has been at a standstill for a while, but is due to resume shortly. The Chair also reported on the Road Map meeting held in Pisa earlier this year to discuss the new directions in our field. The Round Table session on the last day of the conference is a follow-up of that meeting. The meeting expressed its thanks to David Robey and the Programme Committee for the excellent programme of the conference. It also extended its thanks to Wilhelm Ott, Thomas Rommel and all their colleagues for the excellent conference arrangements. The Chair also noted that while the association initiatives are to some extent launched, some of them do need more concentrated publicity. The Chair and the Secretary will send the members of the Association information on these. The Chair also reported that he had spoken to John Unsworth regarding exploring ideas on how the two associations, ALLC and ACH, could work more closely together. The Chair had been asked to make two announcements, namely that the ACH lunchtime meeting and the TEI meeting would both be held in this same auditorium. The Chair invited Bill Kretzschmar to present conference arrangements for 2003. Kretzschmar invited the members to attend the next ACH-ALLC conference at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, from May 29 to June 22. The conference will be held in a residential conference centre, where the hotel facilities and meeting rooms are within the same complex. He also distributed flyers announcing the conference. The meeting thanked Bill Kretzschmar for his presentation and his efforts to date. Treasurer: The Treasurer was pleased to report yet again that the finances are in a healthy state. All documents are available at the meeting. The Association has a balance of 79 000 and a net income of GBP 5 000. The main expenses were the ALLC leaflet, journal editorial expenses, including the set-up of a database and the 5 bursaries. The Treasurer pointed out that these are unaudited accounts, but she will place the audited version of these accounts on the website and in the journal. The Treasurer reported that the Committee had decided to apply for a VISA card for the Treasurer in order to facilitate payments at Committee meetings and conferences. The Treasurer will be the cardholder but the card itself will be kept by the Chair. The meeting agreed that this was a good idea and the Treasurer was told to proceed with the application. The Officers were re-elected, as were the three Committee members whose term of office had come to an end, namely John Dawson, Espen Ore and Thomas Rommel. Secretary: The Secretary reported on the state of the Association website. It has been updated, but there are still some gaps and she called for help from members to fill in some them, in particular the information relating to Honorary Members. She also invited members to comment on the website and suggest additions or revisions. The Secretary then reported on the membership. It seems that approximately 60 per cent of the membership comes from Europe, with the UK and Germany accounting for 16 and 13 per cent, respectively. The Association has surprisingly few members in countries such as Norway and the Netherlands, where there are quite a number of people involved in some aspect of humanities computing. The Association also has a surprisingly large contingency of members in Japan (nearly 10%). It seems that a membership drive should aim at most European countries. 5. Communications of the Association Journal: Edward Vanhoutte reported on behalf of Marilyn Deegan that the journal has done well. The Editor responsible for the journal at OUP has changed, and this has caused some minor problems. authors are now being sent pdf files as proofs and most submissions are by email. The journal continues to receive a helathy amount of submissions. There are, in fact, several special issues coming up, including a young scholars issue. The book reviews have also been in a healthy state. The Chair pointed out that volume 16.1 was delayed due to delays at OUP. Submissions for the conference issue should be sent to Marilyn Deegan by the end of the month. *Humanist: Willard McCarty reported that Humanist, which has been going since 1987, continues to grow slowly and steadily; it now has 1300 distribution points. The number of messages received per year continues to be fairly stable. One problem has been the dramatic increase in spam. Another problem has been a character set one, only English and Latin are without distortion; this problem is being looked into. Willard also reminded the meeting how ALLC could use Humanist: it could use Humanist* to remind people of what ALLC does; it could use Humanist to distribute a TOC of Literary and Linguistic Computing; it could use Humanist to circulate a number of ideas for its activities. The meeting wished to record its appreciation of the work Willard McCarty does in running Humanist. 6. Conferences 2001: A special issue of papers from this conference will appear in CHum in February 2003. 2002: Wilhelm Ott reported that everything seems to have gone fairly smoothly during the conference. He was also able to get some financila aid for the conference, which accounts for the reasonable prices. David Robey, the Programme Chair reported that the Programme Committee had been fairly rigorous in their distinction between papers and posters. They had suggested to a number of people who had submitted a paper that the submission was better suited to be a poster and the vast majority accepted the offer of resubmitting their work as a poster. 2004: This conference will be held in Gothenburg and hosted by Jan-Gunnar Tingsell. 7. Initiatives TEI: The Chair reported that the Consortium is now well established but needs new members. It is time to think of ways in which the Association could give its support to the TEI. Lou Burnard reported that the latest version of the TEI guidelines is now available and it comprises 2 new volumes. The TEI is now in a development phase, the aim is to identify what P5 ought to contain. The Chair said that the transition period has now been completed and John Unsworth explained how the TEI Board will change. Busa Award: The Chair of the Busa Committee, Lisa Lena Opas-Hänninen reported that the Busa Committee had not received many nominations and thus encouraged the members to make nominations; the deadline is the beginning of September. 8. Any Other Business There was no other business. The meeting was adjourned at 2pm.
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