Organization News

SHCY Officers

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Business Meeting of the Society for the History of Children and Youth

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. August 6, 2005

Unapproved Minutes

Joe Hawes called the meeting to order at 4:35 PM.

The members unanimously approved the minutes of the 2003 business meeting.

Joe introduced new president Kriste Lindenmeyer while providing salacious details of her previous career as a lingerie buyer and presenting her with a magic wand.

Kriste led the members in thanking Joe for his work over the last three years and introduced the new officers and members of the Executive Committee.

Kriste asked several members to report on efforts and programs of the SHCY and related organizations:

Pat Ryan reported on the book review program of H-Childhood and encouraged members to respond positively when asked.  He also passed around a sign-up sheet for members interested in participating.  Tom Cardoza, another, H-Childhood editor, asked members to utilize H-Childhood as a forum for discussions more regularly.  Kriste announced that the SHCY website would be upgraded and updated by Christmas.  She also announced that the Robert Bremner Children and Youth in America project was progressing and urged members to think of H-Childhood as a possible venue for publishing documents, essays, and other projects.

Kriste announced the formation of a membership committee to deal with outreach, especially outside the US.  She suggested that many scholars "do" children's history without realizing it, or without realizing that there was an organization dedicated to that field.  She asked for interested members to contact her.  She also proposed amending the By-Laws in such a way that the Executive Committee would have the freedom to alter the dues structure when necessary (if the opportunity to publish a journal occurs in the next two years, for instance). The amendment passed unanimously.

Jon Pahl introduced the Publications Committee and summarized discussions regarding three publications issues:

--Conference Proceedings: after considering other options for making conference papers more widely available and for publicizing the organization, the Committee recommended soliciting abstracts of all presentations at the 2005 conference and posting them (with authors' email addresses) on H-Childhood.  Jim Marten will solicit and collect the abstracts by September 1, 2005.

--Journal.  Jon described three options considered by the committee and mentioned a few possibilities for proceeding.  The University of Massachusetts has offered seed money for a publication; representatives from two other universities have suggested possibilities, as well.  The Committee seeks formal proposals for institutional sponsorship and editorial staff by December 1, 2005.  An extended discussion of the issue of publishing the journal ensued.  Committee members expressed cautious optimism about the process; the Society wants to do this right and not rush into print without the necessary institutional support.  The danger of "ghettoizing" the field was raised; members suggested that just the opposite might happen; a journal would legitimize the field and encourage even more work and publication of that work in other journals.  An association with the History Cooperative, institutional subscriptions, the possibility of organizing thematic issues, and the experiences of equivalent societies were also discussed.

--Newsletter.  Kathleen Jones announced that the summer newsletter would feature essays and information about this conference and about he ways in which children's history has been featured at other conferences.

Joe Austin provided a brief report on the best article prize.  Kriste announced that Joe had agreed to chair a general prize committee to work out procedures for a new book award, which Joe Hawes had proposed and donated money toward at Thursday night's Presidential Address.

Julia Grant reported on the work of the 2005 Program Committee. She introduced and thanked the members of the committee and applauded the high quality of the proposals.  She raised the issue of funding for graduate students and junior scholars, especially non-American students coming to SHCY conferences in the US, and Americans who will want to participate at the 2007 conference in Sweden.  Julia also raised the issue of the perception of the SHCY's orientation toward the study of American children.  She also introduced a resolution thanking the administration and staff of Marquette University for their hospitality in hosting the 2005 Conference.

Kriste announced that the 2007 conference would be held in Sweden, at the invitation of Bengt Sandin, new member of the Executive Committee and Professor of Child Studies at Linkšpings Universitet.  Kriste noted that the Executive Committee was aware of the expense of traveling to a conference in Sweden, and promised that athe Committee was working on ways of reducing the cost, perhaps through foundation support.  The rest of the meeting was devoted to a presentation by Bengt about the university and the city.

The meeting adjourned at 6:00 PM.