Executive Committee Report

The 2005 Annual Meeting was moved from the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco, CA, to the Marriott City Center in Oakland, CA. This change was necessitated by on-going labor disputes involving 14 hotels in San Francisco including the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero.

The Officers and Executive Committee met on Thursday, 6 January 2005, at the Oakland Marriott City Center at 8:00 AM and continued until 4:30 PM. Those attending were Joan Bybee, President; Mark Aronoff, Vice President/President-Elect; Ray Jackendoff, Past President; Gregory Ward, Secretary-Treasurer; Kristen Syrett, Bloch Fellow; Mark Baker; Eve V. Clark; Larry Hyman; Ellen Kaisse; and Gillian Sankoff. Donna Christian, President of the Center for Applied Linguistics; Sally McConnell-Ginet, Vice President/President-Elect for 2005; Dennis Preston, Executive Committee member-elect; Past Presidents Elizabeth Traugott, D. Terence Langendoen, Peter Ladefoged, and Arnold Zwicky; Peter Sells, Louanna Furbee, and Ivan Sag were present by invitation. Margaret W. Reynolds represented the Secretariat.

A. Motions of Approval

The minutes of the May 2004 meeting were approved with amendment. The revised agenda and the proposed schedule for the meeting were approved.

B. President's Business

The appointment of Mark Aronoff, Joan Bybee, D. Terence Langendoen, Sally McConnell-Ginet, and Gregory Ward to the Finance Committee for 2005 was unanimously approved. The Committee on Committee and Delegate Appointments was asked to review subcommittees of the Executive Committee at its May 2005 meeting. James Huang was appointed to serve on the Committee on Linguistic Institutes and Fellowships for 2005, and Barbara Shaffer was asked to serve on the Social and Political Concerns Committee for a three-year term beginning in 2005. The Committee on Language in the School Curriculum was encouraged to organize a session to be presented at the 2005 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English.

The Committee encouraged Mark Aronoff to design a fundraising campaign for the Ken Hale Chair. The Committee received a brief report entitled "Archiving Endangered Languages: A Conversation" by Louanna Furbee and thanked Dr. Furbee and the others involved in the project. The establishment of liaison status with the Unicode project was noted with thanks.

The Committee agreed in principle to establish a Fellows Program to recognize especially distinguished contributions of members and asked that a constitutional amendment be prepared adding a provision for the election of fellows. The Committee approved formal motions of thanks to Northwestern U, OH SU, and the U SC for their support of the Secretary-Treasurer, the Editor of Language, and the Book Review Editor of Language, respectively.

C. Secretary-Treasurer's Business

The Committee verified the ballots taken by mail since the May 2004 meetings. The Secretary-Treasurer noted the continuing decrease in the number of individual LSA members: These declines are not reflected by the discipline at large (as evidenced by the fact that the number of PhDs granted each year continues to rise) or by other professional societies. The Secretary-Treasurer reported on a number of initiatives currently underway to increase membership.

The Committee voted unanimously to establish a new position devoted to IT. A Search Committee will be charged with developing a job description, planning a search, interviewing potential candidates, and making recommendations, drawing on advice from expert consultants should they deem it advisable.

The election returns for terms beginning in 2005 were Sally McConnell-Ginet as Vice President/President-Elect, Diane Lillo-Martin and Dennis Preston to the Executive Committee, Brian Joseph as Editor of Language, and Gregory Ward as Secretary-Treasurer.

The Committee received the management letter prepared by McMaster and Associates with thanks. They concurred with the recommendation of the Finance Committee that a constitutionally mandated Audit Committee be named. Since any constitutional amendments cannot take effect until 1 December, well after the audit for 2004-05, an Audit Committee for 2005 was appointed consisting of the Investment Advisor (4-year term), Dennis Preston (3-year term), and Donna Christian (2-year term). The Secretariat was asked to prepare a document describing internal control structures, financial policies and procedures in advance of the May 2005 meeting. The audit report was accepted with thanks.

The Committee approved the use of $10,000 of the drawdown of the endowment funds from the 2002-03 fiscal year and $10,000 from the 2003-04 fiscal year to support the Ken Hale Chair. The remaining $30,000 will be used to pay the salary and fringe benefits of the new IT staff member. They approved the reimbursement of the Parliamentarian for one day's per diem and air travel up to $500.00 to attend the Annual Meeting. They declined to establish a reduced fee structure for non-commercial exhibitors in the Book Exhibit. They approved the use of funds contributed in memory of Kathleen Ferrara to provide a special stipend ($500.00) for successful Linguistic Institute fellowship applicants from Texas A & M.

The revised Personnel Manual and the Retirement Plan Documents were accepted with thanks.

D. Publications

Brian Joseph presented his report as Editor of Language for 2004, which was accepted with thanks. The nominations of William Davies, Shari Speer, and Tom Wasow to serve as Associate Editors were approved. The Committee noted with thanks the work of Monica Macaulay and Kristen Syrett, who are working on a new FAQ entitled "Why Major in Linguistics?" Reports on the activities of Project Muse and JSTOR were received with thanks. The Committee received a report from an ad hoc committee consisting of Stephen Anderson, chair, Mark Baker and Brian Joseph which was charged to consider electronic services for LSA members, specifically the establishment of an online journal. After discussion the Committee tabled the final decision on the online journal until its May 2005 meeting.

E. Meetings

Diane Brentari presented the report from the 2004 Program Committee. The Executive Committee received the report with appreciation and congratulated the Program Committee on the breadth and richness of the 2005 Annual Meeting program.

Gregory Ward, Chair of the Committee on Membership and Services, presented, and the Executive Committee approved, a recommendation that the summer meeting be reinstituted in the years without an institute. Though not limited to students, the summer meeting would be geared towards graduate students and the issues of importance to them. A prominent feature of the summer meeting would be special "professional development" panels designed to prepare students to be career linguists.

F. Reports from Sister Organizations and Collaborative Projects

The Committee received with thanks reports from the American Anthropological Association's Race and Human Variation project, the National Language Conference, the Decade of Behavior, the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Museum of Language. After consideration, the Committee agreed to join the 2005: Year of Language effort being coordinated by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. In conveying our interest in participating, the Secretariat was asked to note that sign and endangered languages should be highlighted in this effort.

G. Committee and Delegate Reports

Reports from the chairs of the Advisory to Programs Committee, the Committee on Ethnic Diversity, the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics, the ad hoc Committee on the Virtual Museum on Languages and Linguistics, and the Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation were accepted with thanks. The report of the Committee on Honorary Members was accepted with thanks and the nominations of Anvita Abbi, Rodney Desmond Huddleston, and Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal for honorary membership were unanimously approved. The report from the Committee on Social and Political Concerns was accepted with thanks. This Committee was asked to review the sign language guidelines, prepared by David Perlmutter, and the policies governing requests for interpreters at the Annual Meeting and to prepare recommendations for the Executive Committee to consider at its meeting in May 2005. The reports submitted by the delegates and liaisons to Unicode, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, and the Consortium of Social Science Associations were accepted with appreciation.

H. Linguistic Institutes and Summer Programs

Sabine Iatridou, Director, and the other organizers of the 2005 Linguistic Institute were warmly congratulated on the exciting program and handsome brochure prepared for this summer's institute at MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA. Peter Sells and his colleagues at Stanford were sincerely thanked for their detailed preliminary proposal to host the 2007 Linguistic Institute.

[The full text of the minutes of this meeting are available on request from the LSA Secretariat.]