Council Meeting

London, British Library

Friday, 26 October 2012, 2:00 pm

Minutes

Present: Lisa Colton (Chair), Nicolas Bell, Margaret Bent, Sophie Burton, John Caldwell, Barbara Eichner, Emma Hembry (Administrator), Elizabeth Eva Leach, Christian Leitmeir (Treasurer), Susan Rankin, Matthew Cheung Salisbury, Thomas Schmidt (Secretary)

1.  Apologies for absence
John Harper, Owen Rees, Bruno Turner

2.  Minutes of the meeting of 14 October 2011
Approved nem. con.

3.  Unapproved minutes of the Annual General Meeting of 10 March 2012
Noted.

4.  Matters arising
- The question of encouraging members of the editorial board of PMM to become full members of PMMS was discussed again. CL had written collectively to the board but had received almost no response. CL would approach board members individually about their membership status.
- The Play of Daniel edition had apparently not reached all members; this would be remedied.

5.  Chair's Report
- The society was looking back on another active year. The Oxford conference, organised by Liz Leach and Owen Rees in Oxford had been a success, with some members reconnecting with the Society, and with a report by Thomas Neal in Early Music.
- The society had had a highly visible presence at the Med-Ren conference in Nottingham, with the sponsored keynote lecture by Pedro Memelsdorff providing excellent publicity.
- Support had been provided for the Med-Ren conference (see above), and a publication subsidy to the Fursey Pilgrims project.
- The Play of Daniel edition had finally been sent out.
- The increased visibility of the society on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter) had had a positive impact on member engagement.
- As a consequence of Marianne Gillion moving to Manchester, Emma Hembry had been appointed as the new society adminstrator. LC thanked Marianne for her hard work on behalf of the society, especially for bringing the membership records up to date.
- The society was looking forward to the high-profile annual conference event as part of the YEMF in York in July 2013
- The RMA (Mark Everist) had approached the society with the aim to forge closer links between mearned societies in music for advocacy puposes; a first meeting was to take place in the winter or spring.
- The society had been invited to register at the IMC in Leeds for one day at no cost, to be represented at a fair promoting learned societies in medieval studies on 3 July 2013. This was deemed useful and important; LC asked volunteers to contact her.
- After three years, LC will stand down as chair of the society in 2013. An election to replace her would take place at the AGM in York. Council members were invited to help in indentifying suitable candidates. LC thanked council and officers for their continued support.

6.  Treasurer's Report
- CL presented the report which contained little out of the ordinary.
- The transfer of signatories for the savings account was still proving difficult; the possibility of changing banks was considered.
- The funded keynote at Med-Ren had been excellent in terms of exposure, but had not resulted in new members joining
- The Compline edition was still selling exceptionally well
- The sales of Journal articles through the CUP Digital Archives was proving very profitable, with c. £1.5k in the past year alone
- The society had been approached to administer the surplus from the Nottingham Med-Ren, to be spent on sutdent bursaries for Certaldo. These were to be labelled 'PMMS bursaries' – CL to liaise with Philip Weller to arrange the details of their advertisement and award.

7.  Chair and council elections
- It was agreed that a better record needed to be kept of length of service of various members.
- JC announced his intention to step down as an advisory member. EEL was stepping down, but expressed interest to rejoin council after a year's break.
- Various names were suggested for new council members, TS to follow up.
- TS to check with MON and OR whether they were willing to continue serving
- BE to advertise in the newsletter that the society was interested in recruiting new council members.

8.  PMMS grants
- One application had been received from Tim Shephard to support an overseas speaker for his 'Sources of Identity' conference in Sheffield in 2013. Approved nem. con.

9.  Report from PMM
- The board had yet to meet and would do so in November.
- In order for good communication betweencouncil and the PMM editorship to be ensured, it was decided that at least one of the editors should always be a council members, if need be through co-option.

10.  PMMS conferences
- A paper with the provisional programme for the anniversary conference at the YEMF in York was circulated. Mark Everist had cancelled the round table regarding his 'Cantum pulchriorem invenire' project, and possible replacements were discussed.
- CL was to enquire whether CUP might subsidise the reception following the conference.
- It was suggested to move the 2014 conference back to its usual spot in the spring. Possible venues were Manchester, Bangor, Bristol or the BL.
- SR suggested inviting David Hiley as a keynote speaker for the 2014 conference

11.  Website, Newsletter, and Publicity
- The possibility of a members-only website was discussed, possibly with a members database (suggested by EEL), photographs, online management of subscriptions, and direct links to PMM/CUP. MCS to explore with CUP/PMM? MCS to explore.
- BE announced that another newsletter was imminent fairly soon; she asked for contributions and alerts to calls for papers.
- Membership was slightly increasing.
- Emma Hembry was thanked for her smottih management of the transition between administrators
- Given that the Facebook PMMS page has many more members than the actual society, attempts had been made to encourage them to join, but with limited success.
- Bruno Turner had sent a reminder regarding the online mini-editions.

12.  AOB
- The newly elected student representatives were encouraged to make suggestions how the work of the society could be improved.
- A vote of thanks was extended to LC for her service to the society.

13.  Dates of next meetings
- AGM: York, 10 July 2013
- Council: BL, October 2013, exact date tbd