SEA Minutes and Correspondence 1994

Minutes of the Business Meeting
Society of Early Americanists
Saturday, June 4, 1994

Officers present: Carla Mulford, Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy,
Sharon Harris, Raymond Craig. Seven members attended.
Called to order: 8:08 a.m. Closed: 8:56 a.m.

1. The first issue discussed was the low turnout at the
meeting, and whether or not a later time in the day might be better
for busines meetings. Carla Mulford said it was difficult to
schedule the conference, and might be more so next year because it
is a day shorter.

2. The minutes of the previous business meeting were
approved.

3. Carla Mulford traced a brief history of the development of
the Society during the past year. It now has 275 members, over 100
joining during the 1993-94 academic year. The Constitution and By-
Laws have been ratified and are now operational. The membership
list has been rented out. There were 34 submissions of papers or
proposals for this Conference. The 1995 Conference will be in
Baltimore, May 26-28, 1995 with Gloria Cronin as director. The
number of sessions the Society will have has not been set yet. The
feeling of the membership was that another teaching session would
be nice. Ray Craig suggested a poster session, where large pads
and easels might be used to set forward ideas. Various
possibilities for the organization of the session were discussed.

4. Carla Mulford announced that plans are being solidified
with Philip Gura for a reduction to Society members in the cost of
a subscription to Early American Literature.

5. Sharon Harris gave a financial report as well as
approximate figures of institutional support from the Officers'
affiliations. Penn State University has provided $1100+, the
University of Nebraska has provided $500+, and Radford University
has provided $800+. The University of Texas at Austin also
provides discounts for the production of the newsletter. Carla
Mulford noted the importance of institutional support for the
success of the Society, and the need for new officers to have such
support.

6. Rosemary Guruswamy discussed the production and
distribution of the Directory of Members. How often to distribute
this Directory was discussed, and every other year was agreed on as
a good goal. One member suggested the Constitution and By-Laws be
included in the Directory. The possibility of an e-mail directory
was discussed, but this might present problems with list rentals
and privacy of members.

7. Ray Craig discussed the electronic bulletin board, EARAM-
L. There are 200+ members and activity has increased this year.
When he returns to Kent State, Ray plans to continue the major
questions raised in the session on teaching. He also announced
that the Society will have an FTP site for the posting of syllabi
and other information that might be downloaded by members. He also
discussed technological problems that would occur during the summer
due to the replacement of equipment at Kent State.

8. Carla Mulford discussed the upcoming rotation of officers.
She noted that nominees must agree to a six-year commitment, as the
person elected will begin as Executive Coordinator and move up
through the other two offices. She also noted that other members
of the Council of Officers may have longer-term appointments
because of specific tasks they perform. Carla Mulford also put
forth her idea that the At-Large position might be offered to a
graduate student or a retired/independent scholar on an annually
rotating basis. She plans to work on job descriptions for offices
and publish these before nominations are open. She also opened the
discussion for suggestions about the nomination process. One
member suggested a committee be formed to mediate and limit the
list of nominees. Carla Mulford said the Executive Officers could
do this. The member suggested that, once the Society is well
underway, a separate committee might be set up so as to avoid in-
breeding. Carla Mulford said this might be established by a change
in By-Laws in the future.

9. Carla Mulford then suggested that the Society is willing
to co-sponsor conferences instigated by members.

Respectfully submitted,


Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy
Vice-President, SEA


Minutes of the Council of Officers
Society of Early Americanists
Thursday, June 2, 1994

Present: Carla Mulford (Chair), Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy, Sharon
Harris, J. A. Leo Lemay, Raymond Craig, Jeffrey Hammond

Unable to Attend: William Scheick

Meeting Called to Order: 3:11 p.m. Meeting Closed: 5:20 p.m.

1. Carla Mulford called the meeting to order. The minutes of
the previous meeting were approved.

2. Carla Mulford gave a general summary of the Society's
progress: there are 275 members and the Constitution and By-Laws
have been fully ratified (Sharon Harris has the figures of the
vote.)

3. Carla Mulford informed the Council that she has offered
the membership list for rental. Routledge has accepted, and is
paying the Society $150.00. Oxford University Press has inquired.
Sharon Harris is handling inquiries.

4. Carla Mulford reported that 34 people had submitted papers
or proposals to be read at this Conference, and 20 people were on
the various panels. The next Convention will be in Baltimore on
May 26-28, 1995. Gloria Cronin will be the director.

5. Carla Mulford informed the Council that Robert Arner plans
to convene one panel for next year's Convention that will feature
papers read by several prominent people in early American
literature. The Society will also (pending the director's
approval) have 2 open call panels and a discussion session. The
Council decided to ask members at the business meeting what topics
they would like to see addressed in the discussion session. Leo
Lemay suggested some back-up ideas, such as major authors, or
multicultural literature. Ray Craig suggested a session on the
state of early American scholarship. Leo Lemay noted that field
was very broad. Sharon Harris suggested pinpointing a certain
year, such as 1795, when several texts appeared. It was also
suggested that the Society ask for another session on a single
early American text. Carla Mulford will ask for suggestions.

6. Carla Mulford discussed her conversations with Philip Gura
about offering Society members reduced rates on Early American
Literature subscriptions. The University of North Carolina Press
has scrutinized our membership list and ascertained that 100+ of
our members already subscribe. Gura feels he should also offer the
discount to MLA division members. Right now he is leaning toward
offering a first time reduction for MLA division and SEA members
and graduate students. He is fairly certain some sort of reduction
will be offered in the near future.

7. Sharon Harris distributed and discussed the current
financial report (see attached), and said the IRS will scrutinize
such reports soon. Carla Mulford stressed the importance of the
Officers' universities making a commitment to fund SEA business
activities. Leo Lemay suggested including the university
expenditures in the financial report. Rosemary Guruswamy offered
approximate figures for the production and distribution of the
Directory of Members, and will give exact figures to Sharon Harris
at a later date. The process of bulk mailing was discussed.

8. Rosemary Guruswamy gave a report about the production and
distribution of the Directory. Carla Mulford asked about the
feasibility of indexing and cross-referencing interests, but Leo
Lemay said it would be very difficult. Ray Craig suggested he
could put the directory on the electronic bulletin board as an FTP,
but Carla Mulford was worried about member privacy. It was decided
that members could list themselves on the bulletin board, if they
so desired.

9. Ray Craig then discussed the EARAM-L electronic bulletin
board. There are 200+ members on line. Activity has picked up
since last year, but it is still a fairly quiet list. In February,
there was a lag due to technological problems; Ray noted that it
would happen again this summer as Kent State University replaced
its technological equipment. Ray Craig requested newsletter
deadlines so he could send material solicited through the bulletin
board to Bill Scheick for the newsletter. Carla Mulford said July
1 is the deadline for the fall issue, and generally Jan. 22 and
Aug. 17 are deadlines. She suggested Ray forward material to Bill
once a month. Ray also announced he has an FTP site to store
material that can be downloaded by interested parties, such as
course syllabi. He reported confidentially that he and David
Shields are working on an electronic archive for early American
literature texts in a CD-ROM format. The first phase will be
eighteenth-century poetry still in manuscript. An editorial board
will be needed in the near future.

10. Carla Mulford then brought up the issue of the rotation
of officers, which will be delayed one year. She stressed how
work-intensive these positions are, and suggested the Council be
careful about how they went about replacing the Executive
Coordinator. She also announced that Jeff Hammond's At-Large
position would be open for 1994-95. She suggested either a
graduate student or a retired/independent scholar might fill that
position. The Council expressed consensus that an assistant
professor might not be a good candidate for the Executive
Coordinator position, and then debated possible procedures for
nomination and election of the new officer. Members felt strongly
that the universities affiliated with candidates should give
written commitments about their willingness to support financially
Society business activities. According to the Constitution,
nominations must be open, the Executive Council then decides the
slate of candidates, and the whole Society votes. Carla Mulford
agreed to draft a statement about the qualifications a candidate
must have, to send it for perusal to all members of the Executive
Council, and prepare it for the January issue of the newsletter.

11. The Council then discussed the possibility of separate
meetings or conferences. It was suggested that Bill Scheick do a
running calendar of anniversary dates in the newsletter. Rosemary
Guruswamy will send these to him on a continuing basis. There is
a possibility that Philip Gura would co-sponsor a conference.

Respectfully submitted,


Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy
SEA Vice-President






General Newsletter:

With each new member, each useful newsletter, each paper delivered
before our large and engaged audiences at conventions, the Society
is strengthened and made more stable, more varied, and more
interesting.

It has been a three-year process, but SEA members should be proud
of their individual contributions and our cooperative
accomplishments: we've gone from Bill Scheick's valiantly initiated
and continuously excellent newsletter to a formally organized and
officially sponsored Society of Early Americanists with a
membership numbering over 280. We have ratified our Constitution
and Bylaws, and we have successfully filed with the IRS for non-
profit status. Our membership is so attractive to publishers that
we have been asked to rent our list out. (If you'd prefer your
name to remain off any rented Society lists, please let Sharon
Harris know.) We have regular, well-attended sessions at the
American Literature Association conventions. We have been asked to
sponsor sessions at other conventions, such as last fall's
Symposium on Women Writers. And we have just published--with the
hard work generously contributed by Rosemary Guruswamy and Sharon
Harris--our first Directory of Members (with an anticipated
publication of an updated directory every other year). This would
not have been possible without the interest, support, and
suggestions of our many members.

The recent American Literature Association meeting in San Diego
again provided Americanists a provocative example of our
accomplished members' work. The three formal sessions of papers--
"Community Story-Making and Communal Stories in the English
Colonies," "Reconstructions of Early American Poetry," and
"Literary Politics in the Early Republic"--were excellent instances
of the range and vitality of early Americanists' scholarly
endeavors. The session "Teaching Early American Writings and
Culture" included nine members speaking about their work and
offering suggestions and teaching materials. So interesting was
the panel that we look forward to an ongoing discussion of teaching
issues, coordinated by Ray Craig, on the Electronic Bulletin Board,
EARAM-L; we also look forward to the publication of the teaching
forum in forthcoming issues of The Heath Anthology of American
Literature Newsletter (to get yours, free, call D.C. Heath at 1-
800-854-8454, 1-422-1127). Finally, the Society's second teaching
seminar, this time on Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative and
directed by Frank Shuffelton, was a resounding success.

Other points of interest for the future include the development of
sessions for other conferences and of entire conferences apart from
the ALA sites, along with the prospects of our first election of an
Executive Coordinator.

The next American Literature Association convention will be held in
Baltimore, MD, May 26-28, 1994. The Society will sponsor its
sessions at the convention, as usual, although the shortened time
period of the convention might require our hosting fewer panels.
Papers and proposals for papers should go to each of the Executive
Officers (Mulford, Guruswamy, Harris) by November 30. No faxes can
be accepted. At some point in the future, we hope to establish ad
hoc committees to review submissions. Please let me know your
thoughts about ad hoc convention committees. Also, if you'd be
interested in serving on an ad hoc committee to review these
proposals and papers, please let me know.

With our strong membership interest, we are likely to be asked more
and more frequently if we'd like to sponsor sessions at conferences
other than (and in addition to) the American Literature Association
convention. This happened already with last fall's Symposium on
Women Writers. And it has happened again! The American Literature
Association Conference on American Humor (sponsored by the American
Humor Studies Association and the Mark Twain Circle) is seeking
papers, abstracts, and panel proposals for its conference in
Cancun, Mexico, December 8-11, 1994. Conference Director David E.
E. Sloane has expressed a particular interest in having early
Americanists on panels at the conference. Why not write to Prof.
Sloane directly if you'd like to submit something for the
conference: Prof. David E.E. Sloane, Department of English,
University of New Haven, 300 Orange Ave., West Haven, CT 06516
(phone: 203-932-7371; fax: 203-777-0667).

We are also considering sponsoring, perhaps in conjunction with the
journal Early American Literature, separate conventions entirely
for members of the Society of Early Americanists. We are in the
process of soliciting members' input on possible organizational
formats, conference sites, and interest in such separately
sponsored conventions. Indeed, because of earlier newsletter and
Society business meeting announcements about this, I've already
heard from one member who enthusiastically offered his institution,
with institutional support for our programs and the possibility of
plenary speakers. Please write to any of the Executive Officers if
you'd like to think about sponsoring a conference for Society
members. We seek your input, your advice, and (especially) your
assistance.

Finally, during the fall we will ask your assistance in identifying
and nominating members who might be interested in becoming
Executive Coordinator of the Society of Early Americanists. As
many of you who have had occasion to write to Sharon Harris can
guess, this is a very rewarding but highly work-intensive post.
The officers are currently outlining the responsibilities of the
post, along with the expectations of institutional support, and
will be officially seeking nominations by the late fall. While we
hope to find a few members are interested in the post, we are
hoping that you'll hold off on making nominations until the
workloads and levels of necessary support have been clarified. The
period for official nominations will begin with a separate mailing.
At some point in the future, we will consider developing an ad hoc
nominating committee. Please let me know your thoughts about--or
experiences on--such committees.

I'd like to conclude by again extending my thanks to Sharon Harris
for her unflagging organizational efforts as our Executive
Coordinator and to Bill Scheick for his superb work on the
newsletter. Without their continued interest and consistent hard
work in behalf of their many early Americanist colleagues, the
official founding of and continued stability of the Society would
have been far more difficult to manage.