MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL AND GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY FOR HISTORIANS OF THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA

Friday, April 9, 2010

Washington, D.C.

President Maureen Flanagan, Michigan State University, called the council Meeting of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era to order. In addition to President Flanagan, the following SHGAPE Council and other members attended the meeting:

Robert Barrows, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

Jack Blocker, Huron University College, University of Western Ontario

Roger Bridges, Bloomington, Illinois

Charles Calhoun, Eastern Carolina University

Catherine Cocks, independent scholar

Ruth Crocker, Auburn University

Wendy Gamber, Indiana University

Julia Irwin, Yale University

Alan Lessoff, Illinois State University

Deirdre Moloney, George Mason University

Christopher Nichols, University of Pennsylvania

Phil VanderMeer, Arizona State University

Christopher Waldrep, San Francisco State University

Maureen Flanagan reviewed minutes from the previous Annual Meeting (March 27, 2009) which had previously been distributed to committee members. Minutes were adopted.

Maureen announced a forthcoming change in her institutional affiliation; she has accepted the position of Chair of the Humanities Department at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The council then reviewed and acknowledged the written reports from committee chairs and editors that had been pre-circulated.

Program Committee.

Christopher Waldrep (chair) presented the report of the Program Committee, Christopher Waldrep, Charles Postel, and Laura Tuennerman. The committee received seven complete panel proposals, one for the AHA and six for the OAH. The committee agreed to endorse all seven proposals.

Newsletter.

The current Newsletter Editor has had little time to devote to the newsletter; as a result the Fall & Spring 2009 issues were combined. An ad hoc committee consisting of Maureen Flanagan, David Blanke, and Wendy Gamber will consider (1) whether the newsletter should be published in electronic form only and (2) whether a newsletter is necessary, and if so, how it can best serve our members.

Fishel-Calhoun Prize Committee.

Maureen Flanagan spoke on behalf of the Committee (Worth Robert Miller, chair, David Macleod, and Robert MacDougall). The quality of the nominations received was uniformly high, and the decision to award the prize to Ann Marie Wilson for “In the Name of God, Civilization, and Humanity: The United States and the Armenian Massacres of the 1890s,” Le Mouvement Social (April-June 2009) was unanimous.

JGAPE article Prize Committee.

Ruth Crocker, chair, spoke on behalf of the Committee, which also included Rebecca Edwards and Steven Noll. She noted the very high quality of the articles published and the Committee’s unanimous decision to award the prize to Julia Irwin for “Nation Building and Rebuilding: The American Red Cross in Italy During the Great War” (July 2009).

Roger D. Bridges Distinguished Service Award.

Maureen Flanagan spoke on behalf of the Executive Committee of the SHGAPE Council, which enthusiastically conferred the Roger D. Bridges Distinguished Service Award for 2010 to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center for its long standing service to SHGAPE.

Membership Committee (Skip Hyser).

Skip Hyser was not present, but Wendy Gamber summarized recent developments. Due to the unanticipated departure of the Hayes Center and a sometimes rocky transition to an online membership system, membership renewals were somewhat behind schedule. Thanks to the efforts of Skip Hyser and Alan Lessoff, who sent out reminders by U.S. mail to delinquent members, we are quickly approaching normal membership levels.

Treasurer’s Report. (Phil VanderMeer).

Phil reported that despite problems related to the recent shift in operations from the Hayes Center to Indiana University, SHGAPE is still in very good financial condition. The Endowment Fund benefited from donations from Peter and Jo Ann Argersinger and from life memberships from Skip Hyser, Phil Roberts, Christopher Waldrep, Shelby Shapiro, Sarah Silkey, and Stacy Cordery. There was a general discussion of how best to track the organization’s finances and how to best keep SHGAPE’s Treasurer and President abreast of financial developments.

Executive Secretary’s Report (Wendy Gamber).

Wendy provided a brief summary of the issues involved in managing subscriptions. She wishes to thank Kalani Craig for designing and operating a membership database and an online subscription system that allows members to pay via electronic check or PayPal (they may also send checks by mail). While the transition has been relatively smooth and the new system operates reasonably well technological glitches and bank errors have discouraged some members from renewing.

H-SHGAPE Editorial Board report (Jacqueline Moore, Chair, was not present) & H-SHGAPE Website report (Christopher McKnight Nichols).

Moore’s report noted that the Editorial Board (Moore, Hal Williams, Shelton Stromquist, and Robert Cherny) hopes to solicit more book reviews than it has in the recent past. The report also presented two additional nominations for the Editorial Board. The election could not be conducted because there was a quorum of Council members was not present. The election will be conducted via email. Christopher McKnight Nichols has agreed to serve another term as webmaster. He reported that there are currently 1300 subscribers to the H-SHGAPE listserv. Nichols suggested that pdf’s of newsletters could be posted on H-SHGAPE.

Annual Report, JGAPE (Alan Lessoff).

Alan introduced Robert Dreesen, journals editor at Cambridge University Press, who explained Cambridge‚Äôs proposal to begin publishing the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era beginning in January 2011. Dr. Dreesen outlined the advantages of the proposal. Cambridge University Press would not interfere with JGAPE‚Äôs content, which would continue to be controlled by its editors. Affiliation with Cambridge will increase JGAPE‚Äôs visibility and readership—under the proposed agreement, 1,300 new institutions will have access to the journal, as will scholars outside the United States. Dr. Dreesen stressed the high quality of Cambridge‚Äôs publications and the press‚Äôs reputation for working closely with editors. He noted that other journal editors had strongly recommended JGAPE as a possible addition to Cambridge journals and that he‚Äôs received many positive comments about both the journal and Alan Lessoff‚Äôs editorship. If the proposal is adopted, Cambridge University Press will manage both w institutional and individual subscriptions. Alan Lessoff and Dr. Dreesen answered questions about the specifics of the proposal.

After Dr. Dreesen’s departure, it was determined that a vote on Cambridge University Press’s proposal could not take place because a quorum of elected Council members (4/9) was not present. The vote will be conducted via email.

Maureen Flanagan declared the meeting adjourned.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Wendy Gamber (Executive Secretary)