[Draft, subject to approval by the membership at the 2015 meeting]
American Musicological Society, Southern Chapter
Business Meeting Minutes
7 February 2014
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
I. Call to order. President Margaret Butler called the meeting to order at 4:47 p.m.
II. Approval of minutes. Electronic copies of the 2013 minutes were posted on the internet
prior to the meeting for review. Jennifer Thomas moved to accept the minutes, and Ed Hafer
seconded. The minutes were approved.
III. Thank yous. On behalf of the membership, Margaret Butler expressed appreciation to Local
Arrangements chair Zoë Lang and to Maria Cizmic and Andy Berish. She extended thanks to Ed
Hafer, who edited the abstracts and had the program printed, Program Committee members Scott
Warfield (chair), Jennifer Roth-Burnette, and Sarah Eyerly, Nominating Committee members
Jennifer Thomas (chair), Alice Clark, and Michael Broyles, AMS Council Representative Brett
Boutwell, Student Representatives Amy Dunning and Andrew Owen, Secretary-Treasurer Bryan
Proksch, and President-Elect Valerie Goertzen.
IV. Reports.
Student Representative to the AMS Council. Amy Dunning reported four main issues discussed
in Pittsburgh. 1) Role responsibilities for student representatives: They must fulfill duties of the
office and attend two meetings at national conference to receive funding. 2) Student engagement
at chapter functions (without specific results or proposals). 3) A proposal is now under
consideration to allow student representatives to vote at national business meeting. 4) Debate
over the teaching statement on music history by Ph.D. holders, with reluctant acceptance in spite
of the possible effects it might have on teaching assistants and those who are ABD.
Representative to AMS Council. Brett Boutwell noted a similar debate over the proposal
regarding the Ph.D. in musicology as a requirement for teaching music history courses. The
council feels that good teaching is an outcome of good scholarship. The statement passed the
council by a 3-2 vote. Student voting similarly raised and passed. AMS President Christopher
Reynolds talked about hiring trends in musicology, noting that there is a desire to compile
statistics for numbers of Ph.D. graduates each year and job placement results. There is currently
no mechanism to track such numbers, but has created a spreadsheet based on the “musicology
jobs wiki” as a first step. The approach, while incomplete and controversial, is a first step in a
longer plan to compile data.
Secretary-Treasurer, Bryan Proksch. Forty-one members registered for the 2013 Lake Charles
meeting of the chapter, slightly down from 2012. Twenty-one of these were student members,
approximately a 50/50 split. Twenty-eight regular and twenty-five students registered for the
2014 meeting at USF in Tampa.
An itemized Treasurer’s report was handed out to the membership. Our treasury has been
growing in previous years but was down slightly ($200) in 2013. The decline in funds was due in
part to unusually high printing costs for programs (over $300) and in part to lower attendance at
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the annual meeting. An inquiry as to why no annual chapter fund contribution from the AMS
National was reported in the financial statement was answered to the effect that the 2013
contribution was received in January (so reported by the previous year’s record) and the 2014
contribution was received one day prior to the meeting (by which time the statement for the
business meeting had already been printed).
Given our balance remains greater than $5500 and our outlook stable, the chapter officers
decided to use some of the chapter funds to invite a keynote speaker for the 2014 meeting in
Tampa. AMS National has already credited our account $200 in support of the invitation, and so
we anticipate this one-time expense to cost around $1000 net. AMS-National makes this $200
available to chapters on a yearly basis to cover extraordinary costs, not only plenary speakers.
In March 2013 the chapter signed a non-profit IRS group Exemption Authorization
Letter, making us an official chapter of the national AMS. Prior to that date we were simply a
freestanding organization insofar as the IRS and government were concerned. AMS-National has
always managed our tax affairs, when applicable, and banking, so this step was simply a
formality to help Robert Judd continue to conduct these affairs.
Chapter Officers’ Meeting, Bryan Proksch. Bryan Proksch represented the Chapter at the
breakfast meeting in Pittsburgh. Topics addressed included much of the usual issues regarding
encouraging conference attendance and participation by senior scholars at chapter meetings. The
New York Chapter has embarked on an effort to publish select papers presented at their meetings
in a peer-reviewed on-line journal. The AMS-SW Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas)
similarly has a web-based publication of articles and posters presented. Both chapters obtained
an ISSN number, making the publication more official. The officers expressed concern at the
advisability of this practice, namely questioning the value of such a publication relative to
publication in more prestigious venues. The representative from AMS National’s board
emphasized that the publication must not in any way appear to be approved by or related to the
national organization, whose constitution allows only for two publications: JAMS and the
newsletter.
Other perennial issues were also addressed, including the quality of student submissions, ways to
encourage faculty/senior scholar participation, etc. Some chapters require faculty to sign off on
grad student submissions. However, the AMS does not permit chapters’ program committees to
discriminate for or against graduate students in deciding on if an abstract is selected for
presentation. Fully blind decisions are necessary to avoid violating the AMS ethics standards.
There was also discussion on chapter membership requirements in the parent organization. There
is no rule in the AMS by-laws requiring speakers/attendees of chapter meetings be members of
AMS national. However: all chapter officers, including student representatives to the AMS, must
be members of AMS national. This is a requirement of both AMS national and the AMS-S bylaws. The AMS-S Chapter By-Laws, Section III Paragraph A is more stringent: “Membership in
the Chapter shall be open to any member of the AMS in good standing.”
V. Election of Officers. There were no vacant office positions this year. Normally abstracts
editor would be vacant, but Brett Boutwell switched to chapter representative from abstracts
editor last year, so Ed Hafer, who replaced him in 2013, will serve through the 2015 meeting.
Michael Vincent at Ph.D. student at UF, was chosen by that institution’s faculty to serve as our
next Student Representative, replacing Amy Dunning.
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VI. Student paper prize. Margaret Butler announced that six students submitted their materials
for the student paper prize, and she commended them for having their papers and all illustrations
ready two weeks before the meeting as required. The winner is to be announced at end of
meeting, after all the papers have been heard. Note: The award went to Timothy Love of LSU for
the paper “The National Bard of Ireland: Thomas Davis and His Songs Fit for a Nation.”
VII. Encouraging Students Interested in Musicology. Scott Warfield (UCF) proposed to
establish a non-member visitor registration category for our meetings, for students at local
institutions who are curious about musicology as well as graduate students outside of traditional
musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology programs. This proposal would create a “guest”
meeting category, which would be open to non-AMS members on a one-time basis only. The
purpose would be to allow undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in pursuing
musicology at the graduate level to see a chapter meeting simply to have some sense of what we
do and perhaps to meet with the graduate faculty at the doctoral-granting programs in the
chapter. Michael Broyles amended the proposal, eliminating the “one time” stipulation. The
proposal as amended was seconded by Silvio dos Santos and passed with 11 in favor, 5 opposed,
and 10 abstentions.
VIII. Next year’s meeting. We have received an invitation from Valerie Goertzen at Loyola
University in New Orleans 27-28 February 2015. The conference could not be held earlier in the
month at Loyola because of Mardi Gras. Margaret Butler asked whether other invitations were
forthcoming. Hearing none, she announced the chapter’s acceptance of Loyola’s offer.
IX. Butler term ends. Margaret Butler expressed her appreciation at serving as president these
past two years. Michael Broyles moved that the record show the membership’s appreciation for
her service, which was enthusiastically applauded without vote.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:28 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bryan Proksch, Secretary-Treasurer
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