EWS Board Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2022 11:00-12:00 Eastern
Via Zoom
People in Attendance:
Jennifer Haytock
Myrto Drizou
Margaret Jay Jessee
Sharon Kim
Melanie Dawson
Paul Ohler
Virginia Ricard
Laura Rattray
Carole Shaffer-Koros
Donna Campbell
Margaret Toth
Rita Bode
Mary Carney
Sheila Liming
Meeting begins 11:00 am EST
- Appointment of Secretary to take minutes—Jay Jessee, secretary, appointed
- Thanks to outgoing officers
- Paul Ohler, Editor of EWR
- Welcome to incoming officers
- Symposium Director: Sheila Liming
- Treasurer: Mary Carney (Jan. 1, 2023-Dec, 31 2024)
- EWR editor: Rita Bode
- Officer Reports
- President, Jennifer Haytock
- Look for calls for the Elsa Nettels Prize for a Beginning Scholar, the Edith Wharton Society Award for Archival Research, and the Edith Wharton Society Undergraduate Research Prize now in everyone’s email
- President, Jennifer Haytock
- Upcoming elections this fall for a new secretary who will go on to become the Vice President and President as well as for a new Member-at-Large.
- Thanks to Melanie Dawson for successful SSAWW panel. We had 6 presentations at MLA on a remote roundtable. Gary Totten has 3 presenters lined up for the guaranteed panel on Wharton at ALA.
- Vice President, Myrto Drizou
- Looking ahead, we want to choose a topic for the MLA 2023 panel on Wharton
- Treasurer, Sharon Kim
- We have $30, 540.69 total assets and the society is financially healthy at this time. Memberships and royalties are bringing in enough income to sustain the Society.
- The transfer to Chase Bank is complete as is the transfer of the account to the Society rather than under the purview of the Treasurer alone.
- We might consider new fundraising opportunities for the future.
- Membership Coordinator, Sheila Liming
- Our membership numbers are holding steady at about 184 individual members and 4 institutional memberships
- Edith Wharton Review editor (outgoing), Paul Ohler
- Paul with be working with Rita Bode as she takes over the editorship of EWS
- Issue 37.1 should be out later in February
- The special issue on Age of Innocence has garnered excellent feedback
- Submission are relatively lower due to the pandemic and its effects on conferences and networking, so please spread the word to submit.
- The editors are in the process of bringing in a new Associate Editor.
- Webmaster, Donna Campbell
- Website traffic is down a bit in visitors but still seeing many click-throughs from social media presence
- If you have anything Wharton-related to publicize, please send the information to Donna to post on the website and link on social media.
- Symposium Director, Sheila Liming
- Please fill out the Doodle Poll on what type of conference members would like to see in our planned symposium at The Mount
- Looking to host the symposium directly after ALA in Boston
- Please contact Sheila for ideas about a potential public event of workshops/sessions for registered attendees.
- Discussion items
- Proposed Amendment to Constitution: Making the Treasurer position appointment as well as the editor of EWS. The Board decided that the treasurer position should be appointment only, but other officer positions should include potential nominations and elections.
- Board agreed to remove co-treasurer position from constitution
- Online banking (Sharon)
- Proposed Amendment to Constitution: Making the Treasurer position appointment as well as the editor of EWS. The Board decided that the treasurer position should be appointment only, but other officer positions should include potential nominations and elections.
Online banking (Sharon)
Board discussed whether or not we should open a second checking account at an all-online bank in order to gain more interest, instead of opening a CD with that money.
- Ideas for next MLA and ALA panels include “Working Conditions” and “Wharton and Wealth.”
- Next international conference likely to be scheduled for 2025
Meeting adjourned at 12:05
The Edith Wharton Society 