SES General Business Meeting, Munich 1999

The Society held its constitutional Business Meeting during the Fifth International Conference on Emblem Studies in Munich. The major piece of business was to approve a proposal from the Executive, following consultation with the Advisory Committee, for an important revision to the Constitution in order to effect a merger of the North American and the European Branches of the Society. In recommending this revision the Chairman noted that the two branches into which the Society had traditionally been divided no longer reflected the geographical spead of its international membership and had caused some problems of communication and responsibility for running its various activities. The following amendment to para. 3 of the Constitution was approved nem. con. by the meeting.

The management of the Society is the reponsibility of an Executive Committee consisting of the Chairman of the Society; the Editor of the Newsletter, and the Treasurer/Membership Secretary. The Committeee is responsible for the routine management of the Society’s affairs, the maintenance of membership details, the circulation of the Newsletter and other materials. The Executive Committeee shall have the authority, at its discretion, to appoint a Vice-Chairman from time to time to assist in the duties of the Committee, and to co-opt other members as appropriate. The Executive Committee has the authority to appoint National Representatives to assist in maintaining membership details and remitting subscriptions.

The following nominations were approved:

President: Prof.Dr Wolfgang Harms

Chairman: Dr Michael Bath

Editor, Newsletter: Dr Alison Adams

Treasurer and Membership Secretary: Dr Stephen Rawles

Advisory Board: Prof Paulette Choné (Nancy); Prof Peter Daly (Montreal); Prof Michael Giordano (Detroit/Michigan); Prof David Graham (Newfoundland); Prof Sagrario López Poza (Coruña); Prof J. R. Manning (Lampeter) ; Dr Sabine Mödersheim (Madison, Wisconsin); Dr Jean-Michel Massing (Cambridge); Prof Karel Porteman (Leuven); Prof Daniel S Russell (Pittsburgh); Prof Mara Wade (Urbana).

In his Chairman’s Report, Dr Bath suggested that the Society had continued to serve its three major functions as a channel of communication between scholars, as sponsor of colloquia and research initiatives, and as a means of representing ongoing work in emblem studies to the wider academic community. Though not all the relevant conferences held in the three years since we last met in Leuven had been sponsored directly by the Society, we remained committed to supporting and assisting such colloquia in whatever ways were appropriate, and members were urged to ensure that proposals for and, above all, reports of such meetings were brought to our attention at an early stage. We were indebted to student Isis Prior in Pittsburgh for the design of our website. Thanks to the efforts of acting Treasurer, Stephen Rawles, we were at last updating our membership and subscription records, and putting procedures in place which will ensure their efficient management from now on. The need to attract new blood to the Society and to build bridges with other scholars and groups was mentioned, and a number of suggestions were noted. The suggestion that National Representatives should be co-opted onto the Advisory Committee, where their knowledge of the particular concerns and requirements of their national memberships could be relevant, was approved.

In her Report the Editor of the Newsletter, Dr Adams, sought the advice of the meeting on whether members felt that the Newsletter needed to develop some new input of various kinds. Although the general feeling of the meeting was that the Newsletter was already highly valued by members, there was support for the suggestion that the Executive Committee should explore ways and means of offering a more exhaustive and up-to-date bibliography of recent publications (on similar lines to that already achieved by the Spanish Society); more Notes and Queries would be welcome; the Newsletter might take over the regular Conference Reports compiled by Peter Daly and published in Emblematica. A number of further suggestions were noted.

In his Treasurer’s Report, Dr Rawles presented a Balance Sheet (available to members on request) which showed that the Society’s finances, though modest, were adequate for current needs. The following amendment to para.7 of the Constitution was approved.

Members of the Society pay an annual subscription at a rate to be recommended by the Executuive Committee and subject to approval either by postal ballot of the membership or at the General Business Meeting.

The Chairman was pleased to announce that agreement had been reached with our Spanish colleagues that the Society’s Sixth International Congress would be hosted by the University of La Coruña, in association with the Sociedad Española de Emblemática at La Coruña, Spain, in September 2002. It was acknowledged that a September date was particularly inconvenient for our American colleagues, but it had proved impossible to find an alternative timing that would not involve further, and insuperable, difficulties. It was hoped that by timing the conference to take place in the second or third week in September, at least some of our American colleagues would be able to organise courses and teaching in ways that might enable them to attend.

In following up some of the decisions taken at the Business Meeting, the Executive Committee has now asked Prof Pedro Campa to join them as Vice Chairman, and to take continuing responsibility for organising the session(s) on Emblem Literature at the Annual Medieval Studies Congress at the University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo. Arrangements for our sessions at the forthcoming Congress, 4-7 May 2000, are in hand, but members are reminded that offers of papers, or enquiries concerning future sessions at Kalamazoo, should be addressed to Prof Campa, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598, normally no later than September of the preceding year.