The following decisions were made at NEPCA’s Executive Council meeting on October 25, 2013.

 

1. The Council voted to hold the 2014 meeting at Providence College. Bob Hackey will serve as program chair for the conference.

 

2.  Tim Madigan was thanked for his service as NEPCA president. He now becomes a one-year member of the Council as past-president. Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman was unanimously acclaimed at president for 2013-14.

 

3.  Lance Eaton and Virginia Cowen were elected to new three-year terms on the Council. Carol-Ann Farkas finished her term on the Council. Robert Niemi was elected as a new Council member (three-year term).

 

4. The Council voted to reduce the Rollins Book Prize Committee from three to five members in hopes of attracting more entries. Virginia Cowen will chair the new committee.

 

5. Rob Weir reported that the treasury and membership rolls are both quite healthy at present.

 

6. There was general consensus that the current system of posting conference papers on the St. John Fisher Digital Commons is time-consuming and that the costs of hiring someone to do this would likely be prohibitive. Lance Eaton, Virginia Cowen, Tim Madigan, and Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman were empowered to begin a discussion of alternatives. The current thought is that a tool such as Google Forms may be appropriate for uploading paper abstracts.

 

7. There was strong sentiment that future conferences should have just one program chair, not two, in order to streamline the process. Rob Weir was asked to update the Website on this matter.

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The following items were discussed and are now open for general membership feedback. Direct all feedback to Executive Secretary Rob Weir: weir.r@comcast.net

 

 

1. NEPCA has a preliminary offer for hosting the 2016 conference. There is, as yet, no offer for 2015. This is a high priority. Please contact Rob if you’d like to host.

 

2. Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman brought up the idea of reserving one Council slot for a graduate student, a practice followed by the national PCAACA. No decision was rendered, as bylaws would need to be amended to do this. There was also some feeling that it may not be needed as NEPCA Council membership is open to all and it has, in the past, already had graduate student members.

 

3. Rob Weir was asked to pursue whether PayPal would be a good conference option. Attempts to use another vendor resulted in a systems crash.

 

4. Several area chair positions are open and/or inactive. If you’d like to serve as an area chair, please contact Rob Weir. We currently need an area chair for Humor.

 

5. Rob Weir brought up the idea of creating an advisory board of NEPCA ex-presidents that would caucus with the Executive Council. Ex-presidents who wished would automatically serve on this board, but not the Executive Council. The goal would be to involve more of the general membership directly, yet retain the expertise of those who have served in the past. Such a change would require a vote to amend the bylaws. This matter is now open for commentary. Direct your comments to Rob: weir.r@comcast.net