ICLS Treasurer’s Report – 2013 General Assembly, lisbon

Note 1: The annual initial balance is only for the account held by the treasurer.

Note 2: A-R account: The bank account held by A-R for payments from agencies and institutions.

Note 3: The newly-formed Iberian Branch ordered back copies of recent issues of Encomia.

Note 4: U.S. taxes were owed on profits from 2010 and 2012.

Note 5: The final bill for Encomia, an additional $10,761.97, will be paid shortly.

Note 6: This sum includes payment from the Belgian, French, German, and North American Branches.

III. President’s report / Rapport du président / Bericht des Präsidenten, Keith Busby

The President thanked the organizers of the Lisbon Congress, Margarida Madureira, Ana Paiva Morais, and Carlos Clamote Carreto for the efficient organization of the congress, and thanked all participants for their contributions. Compliments were also offered to Francis Gingras and Isabelle Arseneau on their speedy publication of the proceedings of the previous congress.

He further thanked Logan Whalen for his work as editor of Encomia, Emma Cayley as International Secretary, and Kristin Burr as International Treasurer. He added special thanks to all three and to Richard Trachsler, International Vice-President, for their help in negotiations with publishers concerning the online transformation of Encomia. The President also introduced Rebecca Dixon, to be proposed as International Secretary, and Florence Bouchet, to be proposed as Editor of Encomia.

The President acknowledged the presence of two founder members of the ICLS, Ron Akehurst and Ray Cormier. He also passed on the greetings of Erik Kooper, who regretted that he was unable to attend the congress. The President observed that the current healthy state of the ICLS is in no small measure due to the tireless energies of the founders.

The President finally asked for a minute’s silence to honour the memory of Jean Dufournet, Tim McFarland, Olive Sayce and other members, deceased since the Montreal Congress.

(Report delivered by Keith Busby)

IV. Secretary’s report / Rapport de la secrétaire / Bericht der Generalsekretärin, Emma Cayley

Bom dia! Gostaria de começar por expressar, em nome da ICLS, os nossos sinceros agradecimentos aos colegas de Lisboa por nos terem acolhido nesta bela cidade e pela organização desta conferência que foi um sucesso. Muito obrigada.

Dear colleagues of the International Courtly Literature Society, it is a very great pleasure to address you here this year for the last time as International Secretary. After three terms, and nine years, I am finally stepping aside, and leave the ICLS in excellent hands in the shape of our

nominated candidate for the role, Dr Rebecca Dixon. Rebecca begins a new full-time post as lecturer in medieval French at the University of Liverpool, UK, in September, and I wish her all the very best in that post, and in this new capacity as International Secretary. I have very much enjoyed my time as Secretary, and largely because it has enabled me to work with such wonderful and able colleagues in the shape of the current and previous Executive committees, with the national branches, and with all the Society’s membership. I feel that now is the right time for me to step aside, not only because I want to allow new blood to circulate in the ICLS, but also because as Head of Modern Languages at the University of Exeter, UK, I have more than enough to occupy my time, and I think the role deserves someone with more time to devote to it than I have had since I took up my role at Exeter in 2011.

I would like to record a huge thank you to the national branch secretaries of our eleven branches: Colette Van Coolput Storms (Belgian); Jane Gilbert (British); Françoise Laurent-Gailliard and Florence Bouchet (French); Stefan Seeber (German); Emese Egedi-Kovács (Hungarian); Margarida Madureira (Iberian); Anna-Maria Babbi (Italian); Ludo Jongen (Dutch); Chris Callahan (North American); Yasmina Foehr-Janssens (Swiss); Insaf Machta and Nadia Kamoun (Tunisian); for their prompt and good-humoured replies to my requests for information and updates on membership, and for their excellent work maintaining and in some cases growing numbers of members in the individual branches.

Points in brief:

–In organizing the conference, the Iberian branch have taken a huge step to the firm establishment of their membership and health and dynamism of the branch. The setting-up of this new branch, as well as the newly established Hungarian branch, attests to the continuing appetite for courtly literature and discussion about it. It is very encouraging in particular to see the next generation of members, many of whom are here with us in Lisbon.

–The membership is currently in good shape with 608 registered members across 11 branches. These are currently broken down as follows:

Belgian: 25

British: 75

French: 74

German: 78

Hungarian: 17

Iberian: 16

Italian: 30

Netherlands: 25

North American: 233

Swiss: 27

Tunisian: 8

We must continue with driving forward recruitment via new technologies: developing more of an online presence through regular updating of the International website, and using social media such as Twitter and Facebook both for publicity, and for ease of circulating information to members (the British Branch has a new Twitter account for example and you can follow them @ICLS_British). Four of our national branches that I know of have individual branch websites: North American, British, French and German. This is an excellent method of maintaining interest and encouraging new recruits.

–I have received some encouraging reports of national branch news from secretaries, which demonstrate an impressive level of engagement with the ICLS, and would like to share with you instances of good practice from the newly set-up Hungarian branch. Emese Egedi-Kovács reports that every two months, study days have been held under the aegis of the ICLS at the Collège Eötvös. She also advertises a forthcoming conference emerging from this research to be held there: ‘Byzance et l’Occident: Tradition, transmission, traduction’ (25-26 novembre, 2013), and a publication by the Collège, Byzance et l’Occident: Rencontre de l’Est et de l’Ouest, with the collaboration of Michelle Szkilnik. Congratulations to the Hungarian branch for maintaining this level of commitment to the Society.

Please do continue to correspond with the new secretary, and let her know in particular of any changes in your boards and membership. She will also be happy to receive regular reports of your branches’ activities and colloquia.

Finally, I sign off with a thank you, merci, vielen Dank, muito obrigada, and au-revoir.

(Report delivered by Emma Cayley)

V. Treasurer’s report / Rapport de la trésorière / Bericht der Schatzmeisterin, Kristin Burr (in absentia)

The Society remains solvent, and we currently have a total balance of $15,874.77, which includes the funds in the account held by A-R Editions for payments by agencies and institutions as well as the money in the treasurer’s ICLS account. The current balance does not give an entirely accurate picture of our finances, however, since we still owe A-R $10,761.97 for the final bill for Encomia 32-33 and includes only payments from the North American, Belgian, German, and French branches.

Encomia continues to be our main expense. Since the current volume is a double issue, production and shipping costs were higher. The cost should be more stable–and known ahead of time, which has not been the case with A-R–as an online version becomes available.

Finally, many thanks to the treasurers of the national branches for their work and especially to those who have already paid for Encomia 32-33.

[see the full report published in this volume]

(Report prepared by Kristin Burr
and delivered by Logan Whalen)

VI. Report from Editor of Encomia / Rapport du rédacteur en chef d’Encomia / Bericht des Herausgebers von Encomia, Logan Whalen

I would like to thank the branches who have already sent to Tania their entries for volumes 34 and 35. I invite any other branches who wish to have their entries included in the next volume of Encomia to send them directly to me.

Volume 32-33 of Encomia was distributed to the branches as follows: 232 copies to the North American branch, 18 to the Hungarian, 16 to the Iberian, 85 to the German, 74 to the French, 67 to the British, 27

to the Swiss, 25 to the Belgian, 30 to the Italian, and 25 to the Dutch. 80 copies were sold to institutional and commercial subscribers.

In conclusion, I would like to thank Tania Van Hemelryck for her work as Chief Bibliographer. And I thank very much the branch bibliographers and all others who contribute to Encomia.

As you know, and as we voted at the last General Assembly in Montréal, Encomia is moving from a print version to an online version. Richard Trachsler will now discuss the details of this change.

(Report delivered by Logan Whalen)

VII. Discussion about the publication of Encomia / Discussion sur la publication d’Encomia / Diskussion der Publikationmodalitäten von Encomia

–Keith Busby discussed the history of the mise en ligne of Encomia. The Executive Committee had begun our initial discussions with A-R Editions of Madison, but these had proved difficult to pursue. We then approached Brepols, however these discussions stalled over a number of points. The Executive Committee therefore decided to approach Éditions Garnier and Claude Blum.

–Richard Trachsler then took the floor to develop discussion around Garnier. After initially considering Champion, Slatkine and Garnier, Garnier was decided to be the best option, and a satisfying contract was secured.

–Garnier will provide both a paper and a digital version of Encomia, and individual branches will choose which their members prefer to receive. The digital version retailed at 28 euros; the paper at 35 euros, so there was a small saving from choosing the online version. Garnier would pay back 6 euros per copy to the branch*.

–Garnier is prepared to send the copies/access either to branches or to individual members. For the digital/online version, Garnier would send an access code following payment.

–Past issues will also go online. Over the course of the next 2 years, all past issues would be digitised.

–There were some concerns raised from the floor about payment. If individual members could go through institutions to access Encomia, why would they pay individual dues? However, it was clarified that the dues pay for things besides Encomia such as the organisation of conferences and conference activities, etc.

–Garnier is prepared to allow branches to set their own price for accessing the online version of Encomia on an annual basis.

–The dangers of alienating members were discussed, and it was agreed that we would need to discuss how to encourage members to stay, and ways to make Encomia a more attractive prospect for younger scholars.

–Richard Trachsler closed the discussion by stating that the contract with Garnier had been signed and would run for three years. At the next International Congress we would review the situation.

*The price has been re-negotiated since the Lisbon conferences and now stands at 23 euros.

VIII. Varia

–It was noted that the International website needs proper updating and maintaining. Judy Shoaf has been doing an amazing job, however it may be useful to be able to pay for someone to take on regular maintenance. The Executive Committee proposed to finance this using surplus in Society coffers.

–The motion above was put to the floor, moved and agreed.

IX. Presentation of Proposal for 2016 Congress / Présentation de la proposition pour le congrès de 2016 / Vorstellung des Vorschlags für den Kongress von 2016

–Gloria Allaire presented the University of Kentucky as the proposed site of the next and 15th Triennial Congress of the ICLS. Wendy Pfeffer translated her pitch into French on the hoof with considerable flair.

–The presentation trotted along very nicely, with members treated to images of Kentucky and its beautiful surroundings.

Gloria and her colleagues would set up a website presently. Though the dates had not been fixed, the likely dates would straddle the second half of July 2016.

–The floor enthusiastically endorsed (and gave a rosette to) Gloria and the University of Kentucky, for the excellent and most lively presentation of what promises to be a most entertaining and successful ICLS congress, featuring horses and whisky among other attractions.

X. Election of new international officers of the ICLS / Élection des nouveaux officiers internationaux de la SILC / Wahl der neuen internationalen Funktionäre der ICLS

The proposed new slate of International Officers was as follows:

President: Richard Trachsler

Vice-President: Logan Whalen

International Secretary: Rebecca Dixon

Editor of Encomia: Florence Bouchet

These were unanimously approved by the floor, and wished well for their terms of office.

Treasurer: Kristin Burr was re-elected for a third term.

Keith Busby was nominated by Logan Whalen as Honorary President, and seconded by Emma Cayley. The nomination was put to the floor, moved and agreed. Logan Whalen was thanked by the Society for his wonderful work as Editor of Encomia during a tricky transitional period.

XI. Any other business

There was no other business and the meeting was closed at 12.50 pm.