Friday, October 23, 2009 at SSAWW, Philadelphia.
In attendance: Judith Barlow, Cheryl Black, Martha Carpentier, Drew Eisenhauer, Sherry Engle, Sharon Friedman, J. Ellen Gainor, Noelia Hernando-Real, Ling Jian-e, Basia Ozieblo, Michael Winetsky.
1) President’s Report:
Basia summarized SGS conference activities and publications since the last business meeting in 2006, an impressive list including performances, readings, and papers at Delphi, Cadiz, London, New York, Missouri, and San Francisco. We continue to accomplish the goals stated in the Society mission statement, increasing the visibility of Glaspell and her work in both academic and theatre communities. The future looks bright, with plans for ALA 2010 in San Francisco to be organized by Drew Eisenhauer; the American Drama Conference in January 2010 at Kean College, NJ with SGS panel to be chaired by Linda Ben-Zvi; ATHE reading 2010 to be directed by Monica Stufft; panel and reading at the Eugene O’Neill Society Conference in Greenwich Village June 2011 organized by Sharon Friedman; and ALA Boston 2011. Future goals include increasing membership and publishing more in journals. Ellen volunteered to check Dissertation Abstracts to see if any dissertations other than Noelia’s, Drew’s and Michael’s have been produced since 2006.
2) Vice-President’s Report:
Martha forgot to work on the SGS logo as per the last business meeting; she will try to develop an image using Aline Fruhauf’s caricature of SG so that we can have a logo. Martha read Monica’s Membership and Finance Officer’s Report. We approved Monica’s decision to choose the non-profit, non-interest bearing account and to stay with the registered unincorporated non-profit association status. Discussion of overseas members’ payments ensued. Martha will pursue the idea of putting a Paypal option on the web site for all members.
3) Webmaster’s Report:
Members thanked Martha and approved her re-election as Webmaster. Martha encouraged members to send her information, pictures, and programs about this year’s events for the archives, and to provide input particularly in June when she usually updates the site. She also mentioned the need to create a copyrights page with Patricia Bryan’s (SGS member and attorney) latest statement about public domain.
4) Bibliographer’s Report: Martha will e-mail Mary Papke and ask whether she wishes to continue as SGS Bibliographer, and tell her that we need an update every six months and suggest the possibility of a graduate student to assist her. If Mary decides against continuing as Bibliographer, Ellen volunteered to take it on.
5) Nominations and Elections Officer:
Members thanked Judi Barlow for her willingness to conduct the upcoming election. Even though she is planning a trip to Thailand and Cambodia, she will attempt to complete the election process in November. Cheryl and Ellen agreed to be nominated for a second term on the Executive Council. Judi volunteered to check whether Monica wants to be nominated for a second term as Membership and Finance Officer. Basia noted that any by-law amendments approved at this meeting must receive a two-thirds vote by the full membership. Martha will send the amended by-laws for Judi to include on the ballot. Although according to the By-laws, Basia should continue as President till the end of the year, she and Martha have agreed that Martha should now take over as President.
6) Awards:
After much debate, it was decided that the SGS would 1) fund a grant to defray registration costs for graduate students and underemployed Glaspell scholars presenting papers on SGS-sponsored panels or participating in SGS readings at the American Literature Association Conference; and 2) the SGS would award biannual prizes of $100 for the best published paper and $50 for the best conference paper on any aspect of Susan Glaspell’s life and works. This award is open to nonmembers as well as SGS members. The awarding of all grant and prize monies is to be judged and determined by the Executive Council and will be announced at the biannual SGS Business Meeting. Grant requests and papers must be submitted to the Executive Council at least four weeks prior to the ALA Conference.
8) Proposed amendments:
Amendments to Article III, section 4 and Article II, section 1 passed unanimously and will be provided to Judi for inclusion in the ballot for all members to vote on.
9) Sharon, the SGS representative and organizer for the EONS Conference:
Reported on plans for the EONS Conference, scheduled for the last weekend in June, 2011. She got permission for the conference to use the Gallatin Theatre, plus a $500 grant from her dean to defray any costs of performing there. Sharon met with EONS organizers Brenda Murphy and Jeff Kennedy, and she proposed back-to-back readings of O’Neill and Glaspell one-acts, in addition to a Glaspell panel, possibly focusing on the cultural and historical background to her Provincetown plays. Cheryl is willing to direct the SGS readings (and, if asked, the O’Neill readings as well). Cheryl proposed another possible idea of incorporating O’Neill and Glaspell into a script she would devise focusing on the Greenwich Village institutions such as The Masses, the IWW, Liberal Club, and Heterodoxy, that inspired these playwrights. Michael Winetsky suggested that, based on his experience at the last EONS in California, there is a significant “cultural divide” between the EONS and ours that might make them less receptive toward such a collaboration. Sharon must find out what their performance plans are before we can proceed with our own.
10) Members unanimously approved holding the next business meeting at ALA 2011 in Boston.
Our association with SSAWW will not be severed and we can propose panels for SSAWW as desired, but given the new “Five Drama Society” association at ALA, we decided it would make a better venue in future for meetings.
11) Glaspell online:
Michael Winetsky will monitor and update the Wikipedia entry on Glaspell. Basia sought volunteers to continue the entries for Glaspell’s works on the Literary Encyclopedia online (www.litencyc.com). Basia has already done the biographical entry plus Trifles and The Verge; Noelia has done Alison’s House and several one-acts; Martha has done Fidelity, Brook Evans, and Fugitive’s Return. Links
to these may be found on the SGS web site External Links page http://academic.shu.edu/glaspell/links.html.
Cheryl volunteered to do Inheritors; Ellen will do Close the Book, Springs Eternal, and Chains of Dew; Drew will do Lifted Masks, and Michael will continue with the novels. Martha will e-mail everyone the URL and contact information.
12) New publications:
Michael has published an article in Ecumenica; Martha and Patricia Bryan’s Her America: “A Jury of Her Peers” and Other Stories by Susan Glaspell is forthcoming from University of Iowa Press and Martha described their discovery of the original publication of “A Jury of Her Peers” in Every Week with a different conclusion; Ellen and Linda’s Complete Plays is forthcoming in 2010 and Ellen reported their very exciting discovery of a new Glaspell one-act originally performed at a Provincetown festival, which is a political allegory about free speech.