Minutes for the ACLA Board Meeting
Friday, March 11, 2005, 8:00–10:00 AM

The Nittany Lion Inn at Penn State University

Present: Higonnet (presiding), Armengot, Beebee, Bermann, Eckhardt, Finney, Kristal, Lewis, Prins, Richmond-Garza, Russell, Saussy, Thuerwachter, Yao, Zamora
Regrets: Lionnet, Moebius, Palencia-Roth, Trumpener

1. Approval of minutes from the 12/28/04 board meeting held at the MLA

2. Financial, Fundraising and Membership Report (Richmond-Garza)
a. Discussion of appropriate relationship between the ACLA and the institution hosting the annual conference for ACLA in terms of prestige and funding
b. Discussion of the nature of the ACLA investments and how to maintain and grow the endowment
c. Suggestions about fundraising: request for subventions of travel costs for Wellek/Levin prize winners, fundraising letter to the ACLA membership
d. Discussion of gains and losses in values of the ACLA investments
e. Treasurer charged to create separate investment account for the Haskell M. Block donations based on terms of the bequest
f. Treasurer confirmed that all ACLA accounts are audited by the University of Texas
g. Treasurer charged to investigate ACLA tax filings
h. Secretary requested to send a targeted email to those who are not current in their membership prior to the 2006 Princeton conference

3. Report of the President (Higonnet)
a. Welcome to new members and announcement of ACLA sessions at MLA
b. Prize Committee appointments and logistics for 2005-06
c. New guidelines for the Bernheimer dissertation submissions including the requirement of a letter of nomination to be posted on webpage

4. Report of the Vice-President (Komar)
a. Discussion of the ACLA professional ethics statement with recommended additions
b. Statement unanimously adopted

5. Report of Finances Committee (Saussy)
a. Portfolio to be diversified in keeping with current market trends
b. Board approved that $6,000 in cash be invested in new way and that no investments be made in load funds
c. Discussion of loss in value of ACLA investments in Jan./Feb. 2005 as a result of bond market losses

6. ACLA Penn State 2005 update (Eckhardt)
a. Offer to work with upcoming conference organizers
b. Report of conference numbers: 587 pre-registered participants, 66 sessions, 20 sessions at any time
c. Other issues: the policy was to accept as many good proposals as possible; the lack of uniformity among the abstracts meant they could not be posted on-line; there we more international participants this year; there were many last minute cancellations; a recommendation was made to increase size of the travel grants

7. ACLA Princeton 2006 (Bermann)
a. The website will be available by 21st Mar.
b. The exact dates will be 23-26 March 2006
c. Despite the challenge of securing hotel rooms that are near, 400 rms. are reserved so far and Princeton University has committed $10,000 towards to conference as well as contributing the funding for the plenary address

8. ACLA Puebla 2007 (Zamora) and discussion of future venues
a. Working with Enrique Peres-Castillo and the University of Puebla with a planned summer 2005 meeting in Puebla to confirm initial conference arrangements with the local travel agent
b. Zamora to take care of the site logistics and Komar and Kristal to oversee the program and conference website
c. The dates will be 18-22 Apr. 2007
d. Discussion and approval of Karl Fisher’s proposal to host the ACLA in 2008 at Cal State Longbeach

• i. $10,000 is promised by the dean already
• ii. Fisher is applying for other funding
• iii. Fisher indicated that Longbeach could also host in 2007

9. Financial Report from ADPCL (Eckhardt)
a. Discussion of joint institutional memberships in ADPCL and ACLA
b. Survey of undergraduate programs in Comparative Literature to be completed and reported in October 2005
c. Undergraduate initiative with Scheiner’s panel on undergraduate teaching

10. Student Representatives Report (Thuerwaechter/Russell)
a. Inquiry about publishing the conference proceedings (or abstracts of the papers) on CD or on-line, or at least the abstracts
b. Report of the completion of the FAQ page regarding the MLA jobsearch

11. Other business
a. Saussy report on the state of the discipline complete and being copy edited