INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, 26 July 2001

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada,

Present: Ralph Adendorff, Ram Das Akella, Anthony Baldry, Felix Banda, Jim Benson, Wendy L. Bowcher, T. Calovini, Keith Carlon, Michael Cummings, Kristin Davidse, Robin Fawcett, Peter Fries, Christopher Gothard, Bill Greaves, Carolyn G. Hartnett, Viviane M. Heberle, Helen Jenkins, G. Kamyab, Hajar Khanmohammad, Gerda Lauerbach, Beverly A. Lewin, Jose' Luiz Meurer, Bernard Mohan, Mick O'Donnell, Janet Ormrod, Maite Taboada, Masa-aki Tatsuki, Carol Taylor Torsello, Paul J. Thibault, Gordon Tucker, Fang Yan, Lynne Young. Apologies were received from Helen Tebble.

Kristin Davidse opened the meeting at 5:40 p.m. with the projection of a transparency of the ISFLA constitution. The agenda was approved.

The minutes of the meeting in Melbourne on 13 July 2000 had been posted at the reception desk. They were approved as posted.

Issue 1 of Volume 8 of Functions of Language has gone to press. Because Editorial Assistant Miriam Taverniers became ill, Lieven Vanderlanotte took over her extensive and much appreciated work. John Benjamins Publishing Company will do the next volume themselves.

Geoff Williams, filling in for Susan Feez during her year in Hong Kong, reported that the Australian account had $AU8511.63, with a further $AU3,000 advanced as seed funding for the current congress. The account has been transferred to the National Australia Bank, University of Sydney branch.

Caroline Stainton sent a report of the British account. It had 1,898.76 Pounds Sterling including interest added after the 1,872.29 reported in June 2000. With the completion of the transfer of 3,448.00 from the 25th ISFC in 1998 in Cardiff, the account will total 5,346.76 Pounds Sterling.

Minutes report that the Melbourne congress lost money because of a change in the teaching week schedule and cannot repay the seed. Robin Fawcett reported that the institute and congress in Cardiff cost 83,627 but brought in 87,077 for a profit of 4.1% of the expenditures, adding 3,448 to the account after providing 30 fees. However, he pointed out that a 10% error would have meant a loss of $8,363. If we need reserves beyond bringing international participants, the question is how much we should keep in reserve.

The current congress has an attendance of 180-185 after an institute with 71 students. Lynne Young recommended adding $1,000 for the technical equipment that people asked for. She reported requests for e-mail access and thought we should provide it. However, she did not advocate providing photocopying, despite requests for it. She said that she anticipates no trouble refunding the seed money.

Provision was made for guests from Romania, South Africa, China, and Canada. Flights were covered for speakers and three participants who also received bursaries. Help was offered to two other possible participants, but at the last minute they could not attend.

Lynne Young expressed her appreciation for the help of past conference organizers and agreed to formalize the consulting service. Convenors of previous and future planning committees should become part of the Executive Committee.

Convenor Geoff Thompson is planning the 2002 ISFL congress to be held at the University of Liverpool, U.K., 15-19 July 2002, with the theme "Systemic Linguistics and the Corpus." Speakers will include Suzanne Eggins, Michael Hoey, Susan Hunston, Christian Matthiessen, Mike Stubbs, and Gordon Tucker.

Abstracts of no more than 150 words should include name, title, and institution. They should be sent by 31 January 2002 either by e-mail to <geoff9@liv.ac.uk>, by fax to +44 151 794 2739 (attention ISFC29), or in a hard copy with an electronic version on disk (preferably IBM compatible) to ISFC29, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZR, U.K. Updated information and abstracts will become available at <http://www.liv.ac.uk/english/confer/confer/ISFC_2002.html>. General information regarding Systemic Functional Linguistics conferences is available at <http://www.wagsoft.com/Systemics/Conferences/>.

Convenor V. Prakasam is planning the 2003 ISFL congress to be held in Hyderabad, 8-13 December 2003. Ram Das Akella announced that the 30th ISFL Congress would be preceded by a 'Winter' Institute in SFL, 1-6 December. Ram Das Akella announced that Michael Halliday had been named Honorary Fellow of the Institute 1-6 December.

Convenors Masa-aki Tatsuki, Hisao Kakehi, and Wendy Bowcher are planning the 2004 ISFL congress to be held at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, 30 August - 4 September 2004. The Theme will be "Aiming at Globalization: SF Theory and Linguistic Description." Enquiries may be send to ISFC31, Masa-aki Tatsuki <mtatsuki@mail.doshisha.ac.jp> or Wendy Bowcher <bowcher@u-gakugei.ac.jp>.

Convenor L. Ravelli is planning the 2005 ISFL congress to be held in Sydney 11-15 July 2005.

Michael Cummings reported planning for the 2006 ISFL congress. The Americas have had little regional work, but a solicitation brought excellent proposals from both the University of Mendoza in Argentina and Sao Paolo Catholic University in Brazil. The recommendation that was endorsed by the Executive Committee is to have a significant regional meeting first in 2003, when the ISFL congress will not meet until December of that year in Hyderabad, and then to hold the 2006 ISFL congress at the other site. Cecelia Colombi had expressed confidence that Mendoza could host the 2003 regional/international meeting very well, and Jose' Meurer represented Sao Paolo, which will host the 2006 congress. The plan was accepted unanimously, with no abstentions. Other regional meetings are also encouraged.

Another meeting was announced: the 14th Euro-International Systemic Functional Linguistics Workshop at the Department of English Studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 24-27 July 2002. The theme is "Issues in Language Description: Rethinking Systemic Functional Theory?" Invited speakers include Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian Matthiessen, and Susanna Shore. Abstracts of 300 words maximum must be received by 31 January 2002. Send queries and abstracts to Carlos A. M. Gouveia, 14EISFL Workshop, Departmento de Estudos Anglisticos, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Cidade Universita'ria, 1600-214 Lisboa, Portugal, e-mail <14eisflw@mail.fl.ul.pt>, phone (+351) 21 792 00 00, Fax (+351) 21 796 00 63. The Workshop Webpage is <http://www.fl.ul.pt/DEA/14eisflw/Index.htm>.

A workshop to be held in Aberystwyth, Wales, 22-27 July, 2002, is titled "The Developing Discourses of Identity and Immigration in Europe" (Workshop 510). It is to be held at The Eighth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas -- European Culture in a Changing World: Between Nationalism and Globalism. The URL of the conference is <www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/issei2002> and the workshop chair is Robert Gould, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada, <rgould@ccs.carleton.ca> (613) 520-2600, ext. 2123.

Mick O'Donnell offered to establish a website for ISFLA. The site would be located with Doteasy <http://www.doteasy.com> who provide free sites. ISFLA authorized him to purchase a domain name, <http://www.ISFLA.org> for $75 for five years and thanked him profusely. The web site will hold information about our organization including office bearers, goals, minutes of meetings, announcements of conferences, etc.

Christian Matthiessen is interested in continuing Network as a web-based newsletter linked to ISFLA, with assistance from Annabelle Lukin. It would be structured for regional news, but local people would have to provide the information.

Because of the need to institutionalize a system of substitutes, Nan Fries moved that chairs be authorized to appoint substitutes from the members present. Bernie Mohan seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

Bernie Mohan was named chair of the Nominating Committee to choose new office bearers next year. It was suggested that to avoid feelings of exclusiveness, how people get into office should be publicized. Mick O'Donnell will put this on the web site, and volunteers could be requested on Sysfling.

David Banks is new president of the French Association of Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Thanks were given to Jose' Meurer and Mendoza for their offer and to the Executive Board and Lynne Young for a successful congress.

Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Hartnett, Acting Recording Secretary

Please send any additions or corrections to the minutes to her at <hartnett@compuserve.com>.

Carolyn

hartnett@compuserve.com