Minutes for the ACLA Board Meeting
Friday, 25 April 2008, 8-10 AM
Westin Hotel
Long Beach, CA
Present: Beall, Beebee, Bermann, Chen, Damrosch, Eckhardt, Felski, Fisher, Kadir, Komar, Montenegro, Rowe, Saussy, Yao
Regrets: Brodzki, Hanssen, Brodski Lacour, Lerer, Lewis

1. Approval of minutes from the 12/29/07 Chicago meeting.

2. Brief Financial/Membership Update (Richmond-Garza, attached)

a. Discussion of decline in institutional memberships
b. Discussion of need for reminders, including one in early January
c. Discussion approaching academic units beyond CL
d. Discussion of the relationship of prizes to institutional memberships
e. Motion (proposed by Eckhardt, seconded Yao and approved unanimously): The ACLA shall create two new prizes to be awarded beginning in 2009, with the competitions to occur in tandem with current prize competitions starting in fall 2008. One prize shall be for the best undergraduate essay on a comparative topic (with a prize of $250). The second shall be for the best MA thesis (with a $500 prize and a travel grant).

3. Report of the President (Bermann)

a. 2008 MLA Sessions and Organizers http://www.acla.org/aclamla.html
b. ACLA 2008 Prize Winners http://www.acla.org/aclaprizes.html
c. 2008 -09 Committee Appointments to be finalized this summer

4. Report of the Vice-President (Saussy)

a. The ACLA have an opportunity to pursue the publishing opportunity an ACLA imprint; Yale UP has been approached and a concrete proposal for a monograph series is forthcoming
b. Discussion of scope and parameters of the series, its relationship to the Bernheimer prize, and its need to be diverse and distinguished
c. Nominations for editor in chief will be solicited from the board
d. Motion (proposed by Saussy, seconded by Bermann and approved unanimously): The Editor in chief of this series will be an ex officio member of the board.

5. ACLA 2008 Long Beach Update (Fisher)

a. The conference is running smoothly and on budget
b. Pre-registration was 1,071 with walk-ins expected

6. Future Conferences Update

a. ACLA 2009 (Damrosch):

d. Discussion of possible venues for 2012: University of Chicago, North Western University, Washington University at St Louis
e. Discussion of possible venues for 2013: Miami

7. Relationship between the ACLA and Comparative Literature (Rowe present for a, b, and c and excused this thanks for d, e and f. )

a. Presentation of the handout prepared in advance by CL; core concern: current cost of printing and delivering each issue of CL is $18 per subscription which must be paid by 1 July each year
b. Presentation of the history of the financial relationship between ACLA and CL
c. Discussion of the financial challenges: increased publication costs, increase in ACLA membership (and therefore subscriptions) in recent years, increase in the length of the ACLA annual bulletin, challenges in coordinating ACLA membership and CL subscription lists so as to allow an accurate and timely mailing of CL
d. Discussion of: need for regularized contact between ACLA and CL, need for regular contact and complete written records of the relationship between ACLA and CL, pending contract for CL to be published by Duke UP, on-going publication of the ACLA bulletin and the presidential address (every other year), inclusion of a presidential forum, e-only subscriptions to CL, status of CL as the ACLA's only official journal, profits from institutional subscriptions, role of indirect costs incurred by CL
e. Motion (propose by Komar, seconded by Yao, and approved unanimously): Beginning with membership year 2009 (with renewals for 2009 starting 1 November 2008), the ACLA membership fees for all categories will remain unchanged. Graduate student memberships for 2009 will not include a subscription to CL, although student members may elect a subscription to CL from the list of journals if they wish for an extra charge at a rate to be determined by CL in consultation with the ACLA
f. The president was charged to convey the decision to Rowe; further discussion of the between ACLA and CL will be on the agenda for the December 2008 board meeting

8. Update from ADPCL (Eckhardt - postponed)

a. Undergraduate Comparative Literature Honors Society
b. Charge to secretary to communicate more clearly the size and number of the grants to the membership

9. Update from Student Representatives (Beall and Montenegro - postponed)

10. Update from Student Representatives (Armengot/ Martin)
Possible joint meeting with Fédération internationale de langues et littératures modernes in 2009
Possible future joint meeting arrangement with the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages