The Officers and Executive Committee met on Thursday, 2 January, in the Henry Room of the Atlanta Hilton and Towers in Atlanta, GA, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Those attending were Frederick J. Newmeyer, President; Walt Wolfram, Past President; Ray Jackendoff, Vice President/President-Elect; Sally McConnell-Ginet, Secretary-Treasurer; Cynthia Clopper, Bloch Fellow; Stephen Anderson; Eve Clark; Michael Krauss; Donna Jo Napoli; John Ohala; and Sarah G. Thomason. Past Presidents Eric Hamp, Ilse Lehiste, Peter Ladefoged, and Arnold Zwicky were present by invitation as were Donna Christian, President of the Center for Applied Linguistics; Dennis Preston, Director-designate of the 2003 Linguistic Institute; Jay Jasanoff, Alec Marantz, and James Huang representing the 2005 Linguistic Institute; and Joan Bybee, incoming Vice-President/President-Elect. Mary M. Niebuhr and Margaret W. Reynolds represented the Secretariat.
Appointed: (1) Ray Jackendoff, Frederick Newmeyer, Joan Bybee, Past President D. Terence Langendoen, and Sally McConnell-Ginet to serve on the Finance Committee for 2003. Dr. Langendoen’s appointment is for a period of three years, replacing Past President Eugene Nida, who has served over 30 years on this Committee. The Executive Committee noted Dr. Nida’s long service to the Society with a motion of great appreciation. (2) Sharon Klein to serve as chair of the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Web-based Materials on Language for 2003. Nominated: Peter Culicover to serve on the Program Committee for a three-year term. Named: Margaret W. Reynolds Associate Secretary in order to execute various government required documents. Voted to be a party as an amicus curiae in the Alaska language rights case as suggested by Peter Tiersma. Further, the Committee voted their appreciation to Dr. Tiersma for his work on this issue and service to the Society. Voted to adopt the following access policy for the Society’s archives at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection:
The archives of the Linguistic Society shall be open and fully accessible. Any material written and submitted in confidence currently in our holdings will be removed. In the future such inappropriate materials will not be sent to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection.
Dr. Jackendoff reported on the Society’s participation in a NSF-sponsored workshop on educational reform and human resource development in the social and behavioral sciences.
In her role as Treasurer, Dr. McConnell-Ginet reported the following
actions taken by the Finance Committee at its meeting earlier on 2 January:
1. Approved the minutes of the May 2002 meeting;
2. Requested the Secretariat solicit three proposals from financial management
firms to manage the LSA investments. The firms should have positive experience
with non-profit organizations;
3. Approved the continued consultancy with McMasters, Ryan and Olsen for accounting
services;
4. Approved the audit report for 2001-2002;
5. Tabled recommending a draw down of endowment funds; and
6. Recommended the appointment of D. Terence Langendoen to the Finance Committee.
Her annual Secretary's report noted highlights of various activities and projects, announced new life members, reported results of the election, recorded the deaths of members in 2003, and noted the continuing decline in the number of regular and student members of the Society.
The Executive Committee accepted the report of the Finance Committee with thanks and voted in a separate action to accept the audit report. Verified mail ballots circulated since the May 2003 meeting. Received with thanks the report from Susan Steele on the Linguistic Enterprises Project. The Secretariat was asked to explore the possibility of maintaining this site with the webmaster. Unanimously approved motions of appreciation to Cornell U for its support of the Secretary-Treasurer, to OHSU for its support of the Editor of Language and to USC for its support of the Book Review Editor.
Received with thanks: (1) Reports from the Committee on Social and Political Concerns, the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics, the Language in the School Curriculum Committee, the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics, and the Undergraduate Program Advisory Committee. The report and recommendation from the Committee on Honorary Members was also accepted with gratitude. As requested, the Executive Committee voted unanimously to recommend K. V. Subbarao of Delhi University for honorary membership. (2) The delegate report submitted by Virginia Fichera as LSA delegate to ACTFL. The Secretariat was asked to follow up with her on several projects that merit LSA collaboration. (3) The report prepared by the Executive Director on a variety of special activities undertaken at the Secretariat. Dismissed with thanks the Ad Hoc Secretary-Treasurer Search Committee, chaired by Elizabeth Traugott.
Arnold Zwicky, the Society’s delegate to the Permanent International Committee of Linguists, presented a brief report on CIPL activities.
[Copies of committee and delegate reports are available from the Secretariat.]
Accepted with thanks the annual report submitted by the Editor of Language, Brian Joseph. Approved the Editor's nominations of Gregory Stump, Stephen Crain, Kirk Hazen, James McCloskey, Norma Mendoza-Denton, and Donca Steriade for appointment as Associate Editors of Language. Asked the Editor, Brian Joseph, and two former Editors, Mark Aronoff and Sarah G. Thomason, to serve on an ad hoc committee to develop some guidelines for the appointment of Associate Editors. Accepted with great gratitude the new FAQ, “What is Ebonics?” prepared by John Rickford. Stephen Anderson agreed to prepare an FAQ on animal communication, and suggestions were made for scholars to write an FAQ on raising children bilingually. Received a brief report on the redesign of the Society’s website.
The Secretariat reported that there had been some delays in the production of the Twentieth Century Index to Language but that publication was expected in the first quarter of 2003.
Received reports from: the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the Coalition for National Science Funding, the National Museum of Language, the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, the Joint National Committee on Languages, the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, the National Humanities Alliance, the Decade of Behavior, and the National Research Council’s Survey of PhD Programs. Learned that the LSA has been invited to organize a session at the 2003 Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English to be held in November in San Francisco. Vice President/President-Elect Ray Jackendoff agreed to coordinate the special 75-minute session.
Acting on the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Search Committee for Secretary-Treasurer, the Executive Committee nominated Gregory Ward to stand for election as Secretary-Treasurer for 2004. The Executive Committee also nominated Brian Joseph to stand for election as Editor for 2004.
Accepted with thanks the report of the Program Committee, presented by John Whitman, 2002 Chair, and the report prepared by the Secretariat on the status of negotiations for future annual meeting.
Received with thanks the report prepared by Dieter Stein, Director of the very successful DGfS Summer Program held at the University of Duesseldorf in 2002, and encouraged the Linguistic Society of Belgium to explore the possibility of a summer program for 2008.
Dennis Preston, Director-designate for the 2003 Linguistic Institute, presented copies of the Institute brochure to the Committee, reported that the Association for Computational Linguistics had contributed $10,000 to the Institute, and noted that the American Association for Applied Linguistics would contribute support for enhanced fellowships to two students.
Alec Marantz of MIT and Jay Jasanoff and James Huang of Harvard presented plans for the 2005 Cambridge Linguistic Institute.
The University of Colorado continues to be interested in hosting the 2007 Institute and expects to submit a preliminary proposal in either May 2003 or January 2004.
[This report highlights the major actions taken by or reported in the Executive Committee. Full minutes of the meeting are available from the Secretariat.]