ALLC AGM 240700

Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing

Annual General Meeting, May 30th, 2003

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, Held at the University of Georgia, May 30th, 2003

The Chair opened the meeting at 12.20.

1.   Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from Antonio Zampolli, Jean Anderson, Lou Burnard, John Dawson, David Robey and Thomas Rommel.

Antonio Zampolli has not been well but sends his greetings to all and hopes to join the meeting next year. The Association wishes him a speedy recovery.

2.   Minutes

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record of the AGM 2002.

3.   Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

4. Officers' Reports

Chair: The Chair reported that most of his activities over the past year will be covered under item 7 on the ADHOC group. Otherwise the general running of the Association has been normal. Finances are normal, which is partly due to the journal and our Editor, Marilyn Deegan.

Secretary: The Secretary reported on the membership figures, which have remained stable since last year. She also reported on the website, which is now in the process of being turned into a multilingual site. The 2004 conference announcement will be posted on the site shortly and will also be available in languages other than English.

Treasurer: In the absence of the Treasurer, the Secretary presented the report on the finances, which have remained healthy. The report and balance sheets were distributed at the meeting.

Michael Sperberg-McQueen proposed, and John Bradley seconded, that the Association retain the Bank of Scotland as the official bankers of the Association.

5.   Communications of the Association

Journal: Marilyn Deegan reported on the journal. It is in a healthy state. 18.1 and 18.2 will contain papers from the Tübingen conference. There will also be a special issue containing a collection of papers on editing and philology. Finally, there will be an issue with papers by younger scholars. Submissions have been healthy but more submissions are always welcome. The editorial processes have been augmented and the Editor wished to thank Simon Horobin, Edward Vanhoutte and Louise Heininck for their efforts.

The main issue regarding the journal concerns the publisher. Blackwell’s has approached the Association and they would offer an online publishing environment, portal services and discounts on Blackwell’s books. OUP need to be given a one year notice if we are to consider changing publisher and then we would need to go out to tender. OUP has been kept abreast of events and they are quite keen to keep the journal. At worst we would get a better service. We should consider this very seriously.

The Chair noted that the Committee will meet in December and make the decision as to whether we should go out to tender or not.

Michael Sperberg-McQueen asked how broadly the Editor considers markup and encoding as being within the scope of the journal. Marilyn Deegan replied that she considers markup and encoding applied to the humanities to be within the scope of the journal.

Humanist: Willard McCarty still edits this. There have been 300 new subscribers in the last year and the list continues to thrive.

CHWP: Computers and the Humanities Working Papers is not as active as it could be.

6.   Conferences

2003: Lorna Hughes reported that the Programme Committee for the present conference has been generally speaking excellent. This is the 5 th year she herself has been on the Programme Committee in some capacity. Some difficulties arose because of the war and travel problems. Numbers were slightly down this year, but it is difficult to judge why.

Lorna Hughes would like to see a greater focus on the poster sessions; they should be promoted more and given a more significant standing. She wished to thank all the members of the Programme Committee and John Bradley, who created the system of editing abstracts that was used. She also noted that the list of reviewers is out-of-date and we should be looking at ways of updating the list.

Harold Short asked Lorna Hughes what she as Programme Chair thought about adjoining conferences and special streams. She said she thought it was an excellent idea. The allied organisation activity this year was good – there were four sessions this year. Her one concern was that it took four sessions out of the programme, which was a large chunk.

John Paolillo noted that the workshops had been excellent.

Lorna Hughes pointed out that the job description for the Programme Chair has changed and there is a need to update the protocol.

Harold Short thanked Lorna Hughes and the Programme Committee, especially for taking on the responsibility for allied organisations. He also thanked Bill Kretzschmar because the allied organisation activity has a great impact on the local organiser. Harold Short recognised the need to update the protocol. He and Julia Flanders are looking to develop guidelines for the Programme Committee and the Programme Chair. Lorna Hughes thanked him and said that this was very encouraging news.

The meeting expressed its thanks to Lorna Hughes and the Programme Committee for all their work. A special thanks was extended to Bill Kretzschmar, the local organiser, for all the local arrangements and all his efforts.

2004: Jan-Gunnar Tingsell invited everyone to the 2004 conference to be held in Göteborg, Sweden, June 11-16, 2004. The conference is hosted by Göteborg University. He mentioned that they hope to arrange open house activities, i.e. conference participants can visit departments and research projects during the conference. There will also be family activities for spouses and children. 60 rooms have been reserved in dormitories and others in hotels within walking distance. He wished everyone welcome to Göteborg.

Laszlo Hunyadi, the Programme Chair for 2004, said that the Programme Committee had started its work by drafting a conference announcement. The Call for Papers will come out in early September. The theme of the conference will focus on multilingualism and cultural heritage. He is looking forward to an exciting conference and wished everyone welcome.

7.   Initiatives

Bursary Awards: This year there were 2 Bursary winners. There were, however, far fewer applicants this year than in previous years. The Chair asked members to alert young scholars to this possibility.

Student Prize: With regard to the Student Prize, the Committee agreed that since Literary and Linguistic Computing would have an issue of papers by young scholars, it seemed best to give the first Student Prize to the best of these papers. We will revert to the normal procedure next year and everyone is encouraged to make sure that young scholars apply for the Prize. Thus we would hope to announce the winners of the first and second prizes at Göteborg.

Workshops: There are two workshops planned for South Africa in September.

Busa Award: The Busa Committee has met and is looking at the candidates for the 2004 Award.

Text Encoding Initiative (TEI): John Unsworth reported that the TEI Council had a meeting in Oxford a few weeks ago. Membership is adequate; it is holding steady but not yet at a stage where it can support itself without disproportionate support from the hosts.

The Chair thought that there is still scope for encouraging projects that use the TEI to join on a project level for the duration of their project. Hermann Moisel noted that in Newcastle they had had a project funded by the AHRB and were given guidelines for how the TEI could or should be used, but there had been no mention of the possibility even of being a member of the TEI; it was like getting a free ride.

ADHOC: The ALLC open meeting discussed the publishing activities of the new umbrella organisation and on Sunday the ACH open meeting will discuss membership, affiliation and multilingualism issues.

There has been an executive workgroup in existence for a year now and it was their task to come up with a list of recommendations for the creation of such an umbrella organisation. Each person on the workgroup took on some area. The result of their work will be made public on the websites of both associations, but the key issues are flagged here.

The workgroup recommends that we establish an umbrella organisation. Membership would be via associations, i.e. ALLC and ACH would continue and collaborate on establishing regional chapters of the umbrella organisation. ADHO itself should be very thin and should not have much money, it would be distributed to the regional chapters. The common print publication would be Literary and Linguistic Computing and ACH would break its link with Chum. Much could be done with respect to the activities of the organisations since at present ALLC does things ACH doesn’t and vice versa. The ALLC in particular could develop its multilingual agenda, focusing on developing the role of computing in cultural development and cultural heritage. Adjacent conferences and allied sessions, such as we have seen here in Georgia, are examples of new things that we could be developing. After editorial support has been covered, the revenue from LLC would be distributed according to membership in the chapters of the umbrella organisation.

John Unsworth thanked Harold Short for chairing the process of making these recommendations over the last year. From the ACH point of view this should probably have happened a long time ago, but it is a good thing that it is happening now and both Committees of the two Associations seem to be supportive of this process.

Harold Short urged members to read all the relevant materials, discuss them with others and give the Committee their feedback on this issue.

8.   Any Other Business

There was no other business. The chair closed the meeting at 1.30pm.

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Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing Annual General Meeting, May 30th, 2003 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, Held at the University of Georgia, May 30th, 2003 The Chair opened the meeting at 12.20. 1. Apologies Apologies for absence were received from Antonio Zampolli, Jean Anderson, Lou Burnard, John Dawson, David Robey and Thomas Rommel. Antonio Zampolli has not been well but sends his greetings to all and hopes to join the meeting next year. The Association wishes him a speedy recovery. 2. Minutes The minutes were accepted as an accurate record of the AGM 2002. 3. Matters arising There were no matters arising. 4. Officers' Reports Chair: The Chair reported that most of his activities over the past year will be covered under item 7 on the ADHOC group. Otherwise the general running of the Association has been normal. Finances are normal, which is partly due to the journal and our Editor, Marilyn Deegan. Secretary: The Secretary reported on the membership figures, which have remained stable since last year. She also reported on the website, which is now in the process of being turned into a multilingual site. The 2004 conference announcement will be posted on the site shortly and will also be available in languages other than English. Treasurer: In the absence of the Treasurer, the Secretary presented the report on the finances, which have remained healthy. The report and balance sheets were distributed at the meeting. Michael Sperberg-McQueen proposed, and John Bradley seconded, that the Association retain the Bank of Scotland as the official bankers of the Association. 5. Communications of the Association Journal: Marilyn Deegan reported on the journal. It is in a healthy state. 18.1 and 18.2 will contain papers from the Tübingen conference. There will also be a special issue containing a collection of papers on editing and philology. Finally, there will be an issue with papers by younger scholars. Submissions have been healthy but more submissions are always welcome. The editorial processes have been augmented and the Editor wished to thank Simon Horobin, Edward Vanhoutte and Louise Heininck for their efforts. The main issue regarding the journal concerns the publisher. Blackwell’s has approached the Association and they would offer an online publishing environment, portal services and discounts on Blackwell’s books. OUP need to be given a one year notice if we are to consider changing publisher and then we would need to go out to tender. OUP has been kept abreast of events and they are quite keen to keep the journal. At worst we would get a better service. We should consider this very seriously. The Chair noted that the Committee will meet in December and make the decision as to whether we should go out to tender or not. Michael Sperberg-McQueen asked how broadly the Editor considers markup and encoding as being within the scope of the journal. Marilyn Deegan replied that she considers markup and encoding applied to the humanities to be within the scope of the journal. *Humanist: Willard McCarty still edits this. There have been 300 new subscribers in the last year and the list continues to thrive. CHWP: Computers and the Humanities Working Papers is not as active as it could be. 6. Conferences 2003: Lorna Hughes reported that the Programme Committee for the present conference has been generally speaking excellent. This is the 5 th year she herself has been on the Programme Committee in some capacity. Some difficulties arose because of the war and travel problems. Numbers were slightly down this year, but it is difficult to judge why. Lorna Hughes would like to see a greater focus on the poster sessions; they should be promoted more and given a more significant standing. She wished to thank all the members of the Programme Committee and John Bradley, who created the system of editing abstracts that was used. She also noted that the list of reviewers is out-of-date and we should be looking at ways of updating the list. Harold Short asked Lorna Hughes what she as Programme Chair thought about adjoining conferences and special streams. She said she thought it was an excellent idea. The allied organisation activity this year was good – there were four sessions this year. Her one concern was that it took four sessions out of the programme, which was a large chunk. John Paolillo noted that the workshops had been excellent. Lorna Hughes pointed out that the job description for the Programme Chair has changed and there is a need to update the protocol. Harold Short thanked Lorna Hughes and the Programme Committee, especially for taking on the responsibility for allied organisations. He also thanked Bill Kretzschmar because the allied organisation activity has a great impact on the local organiser. Harold Short recognised the need to update the protocol. He and Julia Flanders are looking to develop guidelines for the Programme Committee and the Programme Chair. Lorna Hughes thanked him and said that this was very encouraging news. The meeting expressed its thanks to Lorna Hughes and the Programme Committee for all their work. A special thanks was extended to Bill Kretzschmar, the local organiser, for all the local arrangements and all his efforts. 2004: Jan-Gunnar Tingsell invited everyone to the 2004 conference to be held in Göteborg, Sweden, June 11-16, 2004. The conference is hosted by Göteborg University. He mentioned that they hope to arrange open house activities, i.e. conference participants can visit departments and research projects during the conference. There will also be family activities for spouses and children. 60 rooms have been reserved in dormitories and others in hotels within walking distance. He wished everyone welcome to Göteborg. Laszlo Hunyadi, the Programme Chair for 2004, said that the Programme Committee had started its work by drafting a conference announcement. The Call for Papers will come out in early September. The theme of the conference will focus on multilingualism and cultural heritage. He is looking forward to an exciting conference and wished everyone welcome. 7. Initiatives Bursary Awards: This year there were 2 Bursary winners. There were, however, far fewer applicants this year than in previous years. The Chair asked members to alert young scholars to this possibility. Student Prize: With regard to the Student Prize, the Committee agreed that since Literary and Linguistic Computing would have an issue of papers by young scholars, it seemed best to give the first Student Prize to the best of these papers. We will revert to the normal procedure next year and everyone is encouraged to make sure that young scholars apply for the Prize. Thus we would hope to announce the winners of the first and second prizes at Göteborg. Workshops: There are two workshops planned for South Africa in September. Busa Award: The Busa Committee has met and is looking at the candidates for the 2004 Award. Text Encoding Initiative (TEI): John Unsworth reported that the TEI Council had a meeting in Oxford a few weeks ago. Membership is adequate; it is holding steady but not yet at a stage where it can support itself without disproportionate support from the hosts. The Chair thought that there is still scope for encouraging projects that use the TEI to join on a project level for the duration of their project. Hermann Moisel noted that in Newcastle they had had a project funded by the AHRB and were given guidelines for how the TEI could or should be used, but there had been no mention of the possibility even of being a member of the TEI; it was like getting a free ride. ADHOC*: The ALLC open meeting discussed the publishing activities of the new umbrella organisation and on Sunday the ACH open meeting will discuss membership, affiliation and multilingualism issues. There has been an executive workgroup in existence for a year now and it was their task to come up with a list of recommendations for the creation of such an umbrella organisation. Each person on the workgroup took on some area. The result of their work will be made public on the websites of both associations, but the key issues are flagged here. The workgroup recommends that we establish an umbrella organisation. Membership would be via associations, i.e. ALLC and ACH would continue and collaborate on establishing regional chapters of the umbrella organisation. ADHO itself should be very thin and should not have much money, it would be distributed to the regional chapters. The common print publication would be Literary and Linguistic Computing and ACH would break its link with Chum. Much could be done with respect to the activities of the organisations since at present ALLC does things ACH doesn’t and vice versa. The ALLC in particular could develop its multilingual agenda, focusing on developing the role of computing in cultural development and cultural heritage. Adjacent conferences and allied sessions, such as we have seen here in Georgia, are examples of new things that we could be developing. After editorial support has been covered, the revenue from LLC would be distributed according to membership in the chapters of the umbrella organisation. John Unsworth thanked Harold Short for chairing the process of making these recommendations over the last year. From the ACH point of view this should probably have happened a long time ago, but it is a good thing that it is happening now and both Committees of the two Associations seem to be supportive of this process. Harold Short urged members to read all the relevant materials, discuss them with others and give the Committee their feedback on this issue. 8. Any Other Business There was no other business. The chair closed the meeting at 1.30pm.
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