Minutes

Business Meeting Minutes - 28 May 2011

The 39th annual Business Meeting of the North American Society for Sport History was called to order by President Maureen Smith at 4:05 p.m., Saturday, May 28, 2011 at the Auditorium 204, University of Texas at Austin.

There were about 78 present.

The minutes of the 2010 annual business meeting were approved as published on-line, nassh.com, in the 2010 Proceedings. PASSED (PASSED unanimously).

Ron Smith handed out a two-page report and summarized the Secretary-Treasurer Report. He indicated that membership is remaining steady and that the financial situation is in good shape.

Jaime Schultz gave the Nominations Report of a committee consisting of Schultz, Carly Adams and Gary Osmond. Elected in the Fall of 2010 were:

President Elect – Dan Nathan
Secretary-Treasurer – Ronald A. Smith
Members at Large: Sarah Fields, Annette Hofmann, Kevin Wamsley, and Christiane Job (student member).
Publications Board: Gertrud Pfister and Murray Phillips
Distinguished Lectures Committee: Colin Howell and Cesar Torres

Doug Brown gave the Publications Report
JSH is on time under Wray Wampleu and Alison Wrynn
JSH vol. 39#2 will be under Alison Wrynn’s editorship
Publications Board is looking for an assistant editor at the present time
Proceedings was discussed at length. A Pre-Conference Proceedings might be valuable.
Proceedings publications is still being discussed as to how best to have it published.

Questions relative to back issues of the JSH published online with Project MUSE was raised, and will be looked into by the Publications Board

Scott Martyn gave the IT report. Changes in technology will impact the NASSH website.
The use of the website showed 495,000 website hits; 185,000 individuals used the site; 321,000 ; Directory of Scholar hits was over 1,000. There was an increase in the number of people using the WEB and 2CO for membership fees.

Spaming the NASSH website or hijacking the Directory of Scholars is a continual problem, but this has not happened.

It was announced that there were no Time and Site bids for the 2015 conference. Kevin Wamsley is retiring from chair of Time and Site at the conclusion of this conference.

Maureen Smith and Rita Liberti gave a report on the 2012 conference in Berkeley, California, June 1-4. The cost of a room at Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Berkeley is $139 plus tax. Registration will be $275 and $200 for students. Public transportation is the best means of transportation.

The Operational Codes of NASSH Offices were updated with the help of Toby Rider.

A NASSH ListServe will be created and will help with call for paper, conferences, and other important activities of NASSH.

The NASSH website will be used for a NASSH account with 2CO credit card payment of NASSH registrations for the 2012 conference.

There were 68 members who had not paid their membership fees to NASSH in 2011 who were on the program. The NASSH Council determined that membership fees in the future will be paid prior a complete acceptance of abstracts. To emphasiaze, abstract acceptance will be contingent upon a membership payment.

The Graduate Student essay will allow a master degree individual to submit an essay at the following acceptance period (if they are not in a doctoral program). [This allows an individual more time to prepare a paper for submission.]

Intellectual property questions were raised to help people who have their intellectual property taken without attribution.

NASSH abstracts should be available prior to next year’s conference.

There was a discussion on a future transition plan when Ron Smith is no longer Secretary-Treasurer. An ad hoc committee was created consisting of Bob Barney, Dick Crepeau, Jerry Gems, Dan Nathan, Tina Parratt, Maureen Smith, and Patricia Vertinsky. Dick Crepeau gave the ad hoc committee presentation of how, in the future, to distribute the tasks of the Secretary-Treasurer. By-Law changes need to be introduced a year in advance. Discussion issues included:
1) Two positions need to be created, one Secretary and one Treasurer.
2) How would the positions be filled? They should be appointed positions by NASSH Council, similar to the Publications Board editor, rather than elected.
3) Clear responsibility of the two positions needs to be identified.
4) By-Law changes will need to be made.
5) Volunteers may be needed for the creating the annual Book Display and Newsletter editor and separated from the Secretary and Treasurer position.
6) A mentoring period from the present Secretary-Treasurer should be considered.
7) Are people willing to take on one of these positions?
8) What are the qualities needed? Someone who loves NASSH, according to Ron Smith.

The four retiring members-at-large, Susan Rayl, John Wong, Vicky Paraschak, and Matt Llewellyn will give Council a view of how NASSH is working to help future Councils.

Annette Hofmann gave an ISHPES invitation to the 2011 conference.

It was announced that Michael Lomax had a stoke and was recovering

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ronald A. Smith
Secretary-Treasurer

Council Meeting Minutes - 27 May 2011

The 39th annual meeting of the NASSH Council was called to order by President Maureen Smith at 9:06 a.m., Friday May 27, 2011 in 238 Sanchez Building, University of Texas at Austin.

Present were: Doug Brown, Matt Llewellyn, Dan Nathan, Catriona Parratt, Vicky Paraschak, Maureen Smith, Ronald Smith, Stephen Wenn, and John Wong. Absent was Susan Rayl.

Others present were: Bob Barney, Dave Barney, Dick Crepeau, Jerry Gems, Scott Martyn, Alan Metcalfe, Toby Rider, Jan Todd, and Kevin Wamsley.

The 2010 Council Minutes were approved as published online (nassh.org) in the 2010 Proceedings. PASSED (unanimously).

The 2010 Council agenda was approved with a couple of minor changes.

Ron Smith gave the Secretary-Treasurer’s Report. He indicated that the number of institutional members dropped, principally as a result of the Journal of Sport History becoming an E-journal with Project MUSE. However, early in 2011, Project MUSE made a $10,000 payment for 2010 to NASSH for going online with the JSH. Individual membership increased and remained over 400 members. Income approximated expenditures though there was an additional journal issue in 2010. Total savings rose from $194,000 to nearly $223,000 during the year.

Jan Todd gave the Convention Manager’s Report. She said there were 195 registered and 24 guests. There were 131 from the U.S., 31 from Canada, and a number of other countries represented to make this a significant international meeting. A total of 56 graduate students were attending. She suggested several things:
1) implement the use of credit cards for conference registration, as there were only two individuals who paid by check.
2) Create a master list of members for email communications by the manager.
3) Clarify the registration for the conference on the website

Scott Martyn said that the president could get access to the NASSH list through:
nasshpresident@nassh.org. Information can thus be sent to the entire membership.

Kevin Wamsley gave the Time and Site Report. There were no nominations for the 2015 conference, though the possibility of Calgary and the University of Calgary were raised. He showed a map of all the previous conference sites and indicated that NASSH has done a good job of representing the geographical areas of Canada and the United States. NASSH has been paying attention to graduate students. Kevin is resigning as Time and Site Committee at the close of this conference.

Kevin noted two documents, which should be placed on the website: 1) the bidding process for future conferences, and 2) how to host a conference.

John Wong asked if the number of graduate students attending depended largely on the site and its cost. There appeared to be little relationship over the past four years.

Tina Parratt gave the Program Chair Report. She noted 138 submissions. There were 14 complete sessions submitted and all were accepted. There were a number of individuals who withdrew late with no good reason for withdrawal. There were 44 students presenting.

Tina asked for a greater use of website for improving abstract logistics. She suggested possible alternative formats for communicating our sport research, such as roundtables.

Tina noted that 11 individuals had withdrawn early with sufficient reason. Another six had withdrawn late with no acceptable excuses. A discussion ensued about the problem of individuals dropping and causing program problems for entire sessions.

Stephen Wenn gave the Distinguished Lectures Report (members, Nancy Bouchier, Chuck Korr, Sam Regalado, and Jan Todd, and Wenn). For the 2011 Distinguished Lectures, Sarah Fields and Bruce Kidd were chosen. He asked about inviting an individual to give a second honorary address, which the Committee did not recommend. It was noted that the Operating Code indicated that a second honorary address by the same individual should not be solicited. He recommended that the website be utilized for nominating individuals for the Distinguished Lectures. Two Honor Awards will be given at the conference-concluding Banquet.

Matt Llewellyn, student member of the Council, gave the Graduate Student Report. Graduate students seem content with NASSH and the conference. A Monday morning breakfast will take place in which graduate students and some senior NASSH members will attend and discuss the place of graduate students in the profession. An evening student get together is being organized.

There was a suggestion that graduate students might sit down at lunch with senior faculty to have achieve greater student-faculty interaction.

Scott Martyn gave the Committee IT Report. There were 495, 929 hits on the website the past year. There were 184,438 individual hits, 80,000 more than last year. NASSH file downloads reached 321,000. There were 1,731 queries of the webmasters. The number of Directory of Scholars hits was 1,627, a large increase. Credit card membership payments were 113. 2CO can mine down the number of transitions. NASSH has requested 2CO to furnish the membership payment year from 2CO. Spam filtering is effective with an average of 750 spam emails filtered out each month. Sixty-five attempts to highjack Directory of Scholars data were recorded in the past month.

It was suggested that NASSH provide continuous information for its members. Possibly twitter or facebook could be integrated into the website. A NASSH’s own listserve might be created.

A graduate student to be the website oversight individual was OKed several years ago, but has not been incorporated into the website operation.

A NASSH Communications Officer might be considered, a suggestion by Kevin Wamsley, to determine what content should be posted on the website. Interaction with outside groups and membership would be facilitated. This could serve as a clearinghouse.

The credit card acceptances for conference payments can be facilitated. A new NASSH account would need to be set up.

It was MOVED (Scott Martyn) and seconded that NASSH set up a credit card collection account with 2CO for NASSH conferences that will be available to the conference manager at the same rate charged by 2CO. PASSED (unanimously).

Scott anticipates Operating Codes being placed on the website in the near future.

It was MOVED (Ron Smith) and seconded that a NASSH Listserve be established.by the IT chair and implemented by the Summer of 2011 with guidelines for the operation of the Listserve to be passed by the NASSH Council. PASSED (unanimously).

A question of ease of use of the NASSH website was raised. “About NASSH” was a concern. Drop Down menus don’t work on the website. Executive Council is not on the site, nor is the Time and Site material. Historical material is also absent.

The 2010 Election Results for 2011-2013 are as follows

President-Elect – Dan Nathan, Skidmore College
Secretary-Treasurer – Ronald Smith, Penn State University
Members-at-Large – Sarah Fields, Ohio State University
Annette Hofmann, Ludwigsburg University of Education
Kevin Wamsley, University of Western Ontario
Christiane Job, University of Calgary (student)
Publications Board – Gertrud Pfister, Universitat Copenhagen
Murray Phillips, University of Queensland
Distinguished Lectures Committee – Colin Howell, Saint Mary’s University
Cesar Torres, SUNY Brockport

The Publications Board Report was given by Doug Brown, chair.
Vol 38 # 1 (Spring 2011) is at the printers.
Project MUSE JSH upload is online for the new issue.
Alison Wynn has been appointed as the new JSH editor for a three-year term.
A new Associate Editor will need to be appointed in the near future.

A major discussion of the publication of the NASSH Proceedings Abstracts took place in the Publications Board meeting. The publishing of the abstracts before the meeting was suggested, as “Preceedings.” It was questioned whether Proceedings should be included on the website. Arguments for keeping the Proceedings dominated. Software (possibly Scholar I) allows abstracts to help the Program Chair form the meeting and can be incorporated into the NASSH website. If the Proceedings were not to be published, we would have to have a new contract with LA 84 that presently allows for placing the Proceedings online.

Doug Brown will continue to be the Publications Board Chair for next year.

Maureen Smith called for a break for lunch at 12:25 to reconvene at 1:30 p.m.

At 1:31, the meeting was reconvened.

Toby Rider gave a report relative to the Operating Codes changes submitted to him as an ad-hoc individual to update the Codes.

Book Awards—It was decided that members of the Book Awards Committee shall recuse themselves from the Committee if they have a material interest in the book up for an award such as author, editor, and contributor involved with publishing the volume under consideration. The president shall appoint members for those who have be recused.

President-Elect—An Operating Code is needed for the President-Elect, as the present Operating Code for President-Elect is only relevant to the Program Chair.

The instructions for the Operating Code for Membership at Large many not need greater directions than is now the case. The statement for Members-at-Large to offer a yearly report was questioned.

It was MOVED (Vicky Paraschak) and seconded that the responsibility of the Members at Large for an annual report be removed from the Operating Code. PASSED (unanimously).

Toby Rider will create an Operating Code for his presidentially appointed committee to examine and update the Operating Codes and present it to Council in 2012.

The Nominations Committee Operating Code of chair of Nominations, Jaime Schultz, was presented by Ron Smith.
Section IV A will read: “To announce a call for nominees on the NASSH website and the NASSH Listserve during the summer preceding the election.”
Section IV F will read: “To submit to the Secretary-treasurer, by October 15th, the final slate of nominees and curriculum vita for the November election. These vitae will be available on the election website.
Section IV G will eliminate: “To receive the ballots from the membership and tabulate the results.”

It was MOVED (Tina) and seconded that we move toward Electronic Balloting. Scott Martyn will inform us prior to the next NASSH meeting for a planned implementation for the next, 2012, election. (PASSED), Unanimously.

It was MOVED (Toby Rider) and seconded that the Nominations Committee changes be approved. PASSED (unanimously).

Regarding the history of NASSH, Bob Barney indicated that the papers of Jody Davenport relative to the history of NASSH do not exist.

Ron Smith noted: Sport History Review not to work with NASSH to increase subscriptions to our Journals.

Tina Parrett suggested ways to slow the number of no-shows to the NASSH conference after their abstracts have been accepted. Some suggestions were:

1) Sin-bin for those to prevent who withdraw from presenting in the future.
2) Not to send registration money after acceptance
3) Letter to person’s supervisor that they have dropped out
4) Information from previous program chair to next program chair
5) If abstract has been accepted, and membership is not paid by February 28, the abstract will be removed. (It is a conditional acceptance upon payment of membership by February 15th.) Those who have abstract and are not members will receive a note will be send to their supervisor.)

The question of commentator at the Conference was raised, but there were not suggestions relative to the concern.

Nancy Bouchier wanted to allow students who have completed their degree to extend their eligibility for a period of months for submission of their papers for the Graduate Student Essay.

It was MOVED (Vicky Parachak) and seconded that Graduate Master’s Students who have already have their degree and are not in a doctoral program shall be eligible for the Graduate Student Award the next award period.

Susan Rayl asked the NASSH Council to see if NASSH could help in defending people who have their material used without attribution. Dan Nathan suggested that we send a letter to those producers who violate copyrights, if we are informed by a NASSH member or members who feel that their copyright is being violated. We have NASSH members who are lawyers who might be of help. (Intellectual property rights)

The question (Tina, Dan, Jerry, Gems, Dick Crepeau, Bob Barney) of future Secretary-Treasurers and the tasks of the Secretary-Treasurer.

1) Secretary (elected) and Treasurer (appointed) be separate positions.
2) Paid position
3) Term of position
4) Membership and other record committees
5) Treasurer pay certain things. Approval for large expenditures.
6) By-law changes needed

Alan Metcalfe indicated how it is important to have past officers of NASSH attend NASSH Council. Technology has made major changes and is time consuming.

Vicky Parachak requested that interviews of past-presidents should be done in the near future as oral history.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:27 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ronald A. Smith
Secretary-Treasurer