Reports - Report of the Executive Director

The number of Medieval Academy members in good standing as of 31 December 2006 was 4,172, a loss of 314 over the previous record year. The rise in individual membership dues accounts for the decline in membership figures, no doubt, but dues income is nevertheless up. As is typical in the beginning of the year, lapsed members reminded of their lapse (second notice) and those seeking to attend the spring meeting and the lower registration fee for members contribute to a warming effect that causes the numbers to rise. Institutional subscriptions to Speculum declined in 2006, a general trend that those working in universities and libraries with budgets under attack know all too well. Almost 476 subscribers have been lost since 1993, when Speculum reached a high of 1,801 subscribers. Overseas subscribers fell from 666 in 1995 to 377 in 2005, and now to 318.

The Medieval Academy will meet in Vancouver on 3-5 April 2008, hosted by the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Victoria. In 2009 we will meet in Chicago, where DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago will co-host, and in 2010 at Yale. On Wednesday Council approved an invitation from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies to return to Tempe in April 2011.

The Council has approved the following appointments recommended by the Committee on Committees: Electronic Editions Advisory Board: Hoyt Duggan; Committee on Electronic Resources: Martin Foys and Timothy Stinson; Committee for Professional Development: Sara Lipton; Graduate Student Committee: Jennifer Feltman, Jennifer Smith, and James Wade; Kalamazoo Program Committee: James Long; Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching: David Staines and Joseph Goering; and Publications Advisory Board: Piotr Górecki.

The Committee for Professional Development awarded travel grants to independent scholars or those unaffiliated. In the November 2006 cycle Simone Brosig, Laura M. Grimes, Debra Lacoste, and Joshua A. Westgard received awards. The current cycle of awards (AY 06-07) is made possible by a generous gift from Mr. John Goelet, a life member of the Academy.

The respective award committees conferred the Birgit Baldwin Fellowship in French Medieval History on Emily Wilson and the Schallek Fellowship on James Bennett. It is anticipated that the Birgit Baldwin Fellowship will be open to competition this coming academic year.

I thank the following members whose terms on Academy committees have concluded: Sheila Bonde, Lawrence M. Clopper, Allen J. Frantzen, Jen Gonyer-Donohue, J. Patrick Hornbeck, Jesse D. Hurlbut, Patricia Kiernan, Edward Peters, Kevin P. Roddy, Mary A. Rouse, Laura A. Smit, Robert C. Stacey, Paul Strohm, Carol Symes, John Van Engen, and Joseph S. Wittig.

Let me thank outgoing President Roberta Frank and the other members of the Executive Committee: Bernard McGinn, Patrick J. Geary, Dyan Elliott, Thomas J. Heffernan, Richard Kieckhefer, and Lawrence Nees. Their strong support at the beginning of this year was very heartening. Let me thank as well Treasurer Barbara Shailor and the members of the Finance Committee whose Argus-eyed attention to the financial health of the Academy makes much possible.

Let me conclude my first report as Executive Director by echoing Richard Emmerson in appreciation for the dedication and hard work of the Cambridge office staff. This small staff performs many of the tasks that a faculty member might recognize at a university in addition to many tasks that a complicated university structure would ordinarily take on: from mail certification to check collecting to IRS regs. I thank Mary-Jo Arn, Editor of Medieval Academy News; Jacqueline Brown, Associate Director; Christopher Cole, Office Assistant and Webmaster; and Sheryl Mullane-Corvi, Assistant to the Executive Director.

Respectfully submitted,
PAUL E. SZARMACH, Executive Director