Minutes of Annual General Meeting
1. Apologies: J Hammond, J Scheeres, A Thwaite. L Unsworth
2. Election of new office bearers -- unanimously approved and willing to serve:
| Chair: | Bernie Mohan |
| Deputy Chair: | Geoff. Williams |
| Membership Secretary: | Dirk Noel |
| Recording Secretary: | Carolyn Hartnett |
| Treasurers: | Caroline Stainton Hermine Scheeres |
| Network Editor: | Christian Matthiessen |
| Committee: | Michael Cummings Erich Steiner Louise Ravelli Masa-aki Tatsuki Gordon Tucker Noboru Yamaguchi (nominated from the floor by W Bowcher, seconded by R Hasan and P Fries) |
3. Minutes of the meeting 21 July 1995 in Beijing: approved
4. Business arising from the minutes:
Fran Christie moved amending the Constitution to have two treasurers to handle the separate bank accounts in the UK and Australia. Approved.
The membership list has not been kept up as specified. Dirk Noel will be asked to attend to this at next year's congress. Approved.
5. Retiring Chair's report: Accepted with thanks
6. Treasurer's report
Hilary Hillier submitted statements with a current balance of 1,688.95 pounds sterling, and Robert Veel reported $A 12,101, including a donation by MAK Halliday. Ruqaiya Hasan had transferred funds from Macquarie University. R. Veel announced that an independent auditor's report will be available in late September, at which time ISFA will incorporate in New South Wales, as voted at the 1995 meeting. Approved.
Bill Greaves and Jim Benson received AU$3000 from the Australian account and 2,000 pounds sterling from the British account as seeding for the 1997 conference. It is understood that they will return these funds and any additional funds left over after the conference.
7. Network report
Christian Matthiessen reported on the plan for Full, Light, and Web versions of Network. The first Light version is just out.
There was an extended discussion of our publications needs. Anne Thwaite sent a note of concern about the proliferation of web sites and home pages. Tony Berber Sardinha's site will become an archive to avoid redundancy on Mick O'Donnell's. Other concerns were for people without network access and for sending Light to key people for distribution in their regions. Consensus seemed to be that although we now have Functions of Language and Occasional Papers, we still need the Full Network. The job of editing Network is nearly as big as editing a journal, and the editor needs time and resources. Light seems worthwhile too for new books and other announcements. Christian Matthiessen holds the bank account for Network. ISFLA does not control Network, and has no funds for it anyway. We do need a means of providing it to everyone.
It was concluded that these matters need further discussion next year after we try the current arrangement of Network Light, Full and Web versions this year and see how it works.
8. Upcoming Conferences
1997 - 21 July- 25 July, York University, Toronto A formal word of gratitude was extended to Bill Greaves and Jim Benson for agreeing to take over the organization of next year's congress. Although the theme for the congress is learning how to mean: transdisciplinary perspectives on language in context, all papers are welcome.
1997 Summer School of Systemic Functional Linguistics, 7-18 July, Glendon College, York University, Toronto, Canada. Bill Greaves outlined the summer school, noting that interest in SFL has come from diverse disciplines in Canada. The summer school is intended to be a two-week graduate program arranged prior to the congress. Students can earn credit for the course. The mornings will be spent on basic understanding of IFG, while the afternoons will be spent on working on texts, which it is hoped the participants will provide. It is hoped that participants will be recruited from a variety of disciplines and that the classes in the morning and afternoon will stimulate and facilitate analysis and discussion. It is hoped that there will be a flow-through of ideas from the summer school into the congress. The number of participants is limited to 100. The summer school is looking for the 100 best graduate students in SFL and other disciplines from around the world.
1998 (13 - 18 July) Cardiff University, Wales (Robin Fawcett and Gordon Tucker) The precongress institute will be from 6 - 10 July, although the dates are not suitable for all members. Congress dates should aim to suit the areas in which the congress takes place.
1999 (TBA) Singapore (J. Foley)
2000 Melbourne (F. Christie)
Japan Association of Systemic Functional Linguistics 1996 November 3 - 4, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan.
9th Euro International Systemic Conference, 1997 July 2 - 6. It is planned that the first two days will consist of paper presentation, while the next two days will be workshops and the last day is an excursion day (or will give those participants who are going to Canada, time to leave).
9. Other business
A discussion ensued about the role of the Executive committee in deciding how much money should be available for funding participants in need. It would be useful to set some kind of ceiling on the amount available, but there should also be some flexibility. Also, all costs to be met needed to be mentioned by the committee in their letter to recipients for them to receive permissions. There are actually two mechanisms in place for funding. Finance motion 8 from last year's minutes states that "the ISFLA annual conference fees shall include a component of 10% to be used to support participation by non-OECD scholars who would otherwise be unable to take part." Finance motion 9 states that "the organizing committee for each conference [shall] (i) in advance of the conference draw up proposals for funding participants; (ii) submit these for approval to the Executive; and (iii) provide a financial statement after the conference indicating how the funds were spent."
Robert Veel moved that:
10. Thanks and adjournment
A formal word of gratitude was extended to Fran Christie by M. Halliday on behalf of the ISFLA. The meeting closed at 7:15pm.
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