Saturday, 9 January, 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., in Room 5B, at the Austin Convention Center.I am pasting at bottom the bylaws-related measures that are currently up for vote by members paid through 2015 (not 2016--no renewals are due yet for 2016; 2015 renewals were just called in Nov. or Dec.). Any new members who wish to pay 2015 dues will be eligible to vote. Votes should be emailed by 4:30pm Eastern on Jan. 10 to Leland (at deladur@gmail.com), who will confidentially tally them. Only paid members' votes will be counted.
The Business meeting will start around 12:50 [central time]. We will try testing Google Hangouts. People wishing to participate should have Google + accounts [or, perhaps, at least a Gmail address or Google Chrome login-sb]. This link should allow you to register. If it does not please let me know.
The Agenda for the Vladimir Nabokov Society Business
Meeting of January 9, 2016
Call to Order
Acting Secretary for the session if Steve
Blackwell is not online
Communications
a. The VP Election Results
Committee Reports-
a. Next Year's MLA, AATSEEL, ASEES, SAMLA, NAMLA,
American Literature Conference Sessions
b. Conference: 100th Anniversary of
Nabokov’s First Publication
New Business
Discussion/Voting: First Round of Changes to the Bylaws
Announcement of Nabokov Studies Prizes
Motion to adjourn
First
Round of Changes to the Bylaws.
Vote
YES or NO
Motion:
The
Board of Directors of the Vladimir Nabokov Society recommends
to the membership the following measures:
1.Write
into the bylaws a mechanism for resolving ties by
i. Populating the website Nabokovian’s columns with
editors and
ii. Having the column editors become de facto members of
the Board and so that non-US based members can become
officers.
iii. Setting the website column editors' terms at four
years.
iv. Succession planning: Initially, the editors may
publish their own work but in most cases they will be expected
to recruit other work and eventually recruit their own
successors for the Board’s approval.
Note:
There is no website ubereditor. Column editors pair up and
read each other’s columns before they are posted.
2.
Query the future Board (once so constituted) on
a. Continuing a print version of the Website Nabokovian
b. Defining the role, term, and authority of the editor.
i. Note: A print option of the website Nabokovian
continues to exist, unless/until the New Board votes to end
it. The print option will be financed by members'
supplemental payments and by gifts specifically made in
support of such printings, as long as the New Board agrees
that accepting such gifts is in the best interests of the
Society.
ii. If voted on, the print edition of the Website
Nabokovian will have an editor, who will have the authority to
uphold pre-defined length limits for each "issue" (on a
first-come-first-served basis); the authority to correct typos
and to request corrections of important found errors (e.g. in
translations or references); authority to make decisions about
the visual appearance of the print edition; the authority to
purchase envelopes and stamps and contract and pay for
printing and shipping of the printing to him/her, using the
funds available through the specified additional payments or
earmarked donations.
3.
Agree that any and all financial support that might be given
to the Society by the VN Estate and its successor Foundation
must go to the Society as a whole and be distributed according
the Society Board's decision process; the Society (including
its individual Board members acting on its behalf) shall
accept no donations from the Estate offered with
contingencies, unless specifically agreed to by vote of the
full Board.
4.
Agree that all membership and donation money goes to The
Nabokovian Website, Nabokov Studies, prizes, Yearly Board and
Business Meeting/Open Bar/Funded Gathering following the MLA
Society session—percentages to each to be determined by the
Board based on the cost of website upkeep and features. While
we recognize the value of funded gatherings, especially for
graduate students at national conferences, we strongly
recommend an online business meeting whenever possible and
will investigate at least one instrument/model for such
meetings: Google Hangouts.
5.
Agree that Nabokov Studies is the Society’s journal of record
and the perk to be distributed (as a locked pdf file) to
logged-in and paid-up membership (if they do not already have
access to it through MUSE); any necessary financial agreements
are to be negotiated with Davidson College, currently the sole
owner of Nabokov Studies._