Minutes IGALA meeting & New IGALA Bylaws voting

[Ana Cristina Ostermann]

Dear IGALA members,

We would like to invite you to read the Minutes of the last IGALA Executive Committee and Advisory Board
meeting (March 23rd-May 4th, 2007). The Minutes are posted below as well as on the IGALA website
<http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/organisations/igala/activities.html>. The attachments to the Minutes have been
posted on the website only.

In particular, we would like to invite all members to read and vote on the New Bylaws. For your convenience,
you will also find the “old” Bylaws available on the IGALA website as well as a document entitled “Bylaws
compared” – a summary of the main differences between the old and the new Bylaws.

Please return your vote (Yes or No) to me <aco at unisinos.br> by Friday, July 20th, 2007. Make sure you send your
vote to me rather than to the entire list. And, please remember that you must be a member of IGALA by July 20th
in order for your vote to count. (Note: Membership is extremely good value, especially because it includes a
subscription to the new Gender and Language Journal.) The site for joining IGALA/renewing membership is:
<http://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/main.asp?jref=60>. A downloadable IGALA Membership Application form is also
available at: <http://www.equinoxpub.com/downloads/igalamember.pdf>. 

Thank you!
Ana Cristina Ostermann, Secretary, IGALA
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Minutes of IGALA Executive Committee and Advisory Board E-Meeting

March 23rd  – May 4th, 2007

Participants: Executive Committee & Advisory Board (present part or all of the time)
AO: Ana Ostermann
BM: Bonnie McElhinny (present as journal co-editor)
CM: Claire Maree 
FS: Fatima Sadiqi
JH: Janet Holmes
JP: Joan Pujolar 
JS: Jane Sunderland
JSE: José Santaemilia
JY: Jie Yang
MS: Mari Stubbe
PB: Paul Baker
PE: Penny Eckert
RG: Rudolf Gaudio 
SE: Susan Ehrlich
SM: Sara Mills
SU: Susanne Unger
VB: Vicky Bergvall 


Attached to the Minutes are the following documents:

(1)	Job descriptions
(2)	Graduate student representative – job description
(3)	Amended Bylaws
(4)	IGALA 5-2008 report
(5)	Bursary Policy (revised and approved) 
(6)	Political role of IGALA (´Talking to the World’ document)
(7)	First announcement of the IGALA 5
(8)	Local branches and Local IGALA events


1.	Welcome and thanks

JS welcomed the new Executive Members: Vicky Bergvall (President Elect), Secretary (Ana Ostermann) and
Webweaver (Paul Baker), and thanked Susan Ehrlich (for having acted as Secretary), Penny Eckert (for continuing
to be Treasurer) and Bonnie McIlhinny (for co-editing the Gender and Language journal). She also thanked the
outgoing President, Sara Mills, including for her work on the Gender and Language journal.


2.	New IGALA Executive Committee Structure and changes in the Bylaws

JS proposed streamlining the number of Advisory Board Members to 3. The new structure proposed had already been
presented and approved in Valencia and is as follows:

“(a) Officers: President, Vice-President/President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Webweaver (a new position) 
(b) Three other 'advisory' positions, one of who is the (post)graduate student representative.” (but see below)

JS also suggested changes in the Bylaws to reflect that new structure as well as to include changes relating to
new developments, in particular the journal, and other small additions. (See the new Bylaws attached.)

MS reminded the group about the concern raised in Valencia as regards ensuring that the Executive Committee
remains broadly representative of members from different parts of the world. JS raised the fact that the
Executive Committee, as it stands, is geographically imbalanced.

After discussion, the following Decisions and Actions were agreed:

DECISIONS

(1) AC members become part of the Executive Committee, and everyone meets together.
(2) We will seek proposals for the new Advisory Board, which will be composed of 5 to 8 members, one of which
should be a graduate/postgraduate student.
(3) We will encourage/nominate candidates not only with different research priorities (e.g. sexuality, minority
languages) but also candidates from a range of countries with a range of dominant languages.
(4) The Vice-President (Vicky Bergvall) will chair the Nominations Committee. The Secretary (Ana Ostermann)
will also be on the committee. The process can only start after the Bylaws are approved.
(5) President´s term will be 2 years.
(6) AC members should remain 3 years in order to propose continuity.
(7) Article XV in the Bylaws needs updating to take account of membership fees, currently held by Equinox.

SPECIFIC ACTION: Members to check that these are properly reflected in the new Bylaws (ALL).

(8) Maria Stubbe, Jie Yang, Jose Santaemillia and Rudi Gaudio, Janet Holmes, Fatima Sadiqi, Joan Pujolar, Maria
Stubbe and Claire Maree have served in the AC for three years, so their positions should be refilled. However,
they will remain until the end of June, 2007 – end of the elections of the new AC members.

ACTION

(9) We should explore the implication of and possible changes to PE´s being in charge of selling publications
from the past IGALA conferences (and which help fund bursaries) (VB?).




3. 	Update on Gender and Language Journal

BM´s presented a report on the Gender and Language journal, which is quoted below.

“We currently have 138 institutional subscriptions, and 184 individual subscriptions.  This is a solid start,
though of course we hope numbers will continue to increase.  The number of subscriptions and requests for
sample copies has been so high that Equinox Publishing had to make a second print-run of the journal.  The
first issue of the journal was very well-received--we have received several large orders for that issue for
classroom use.

We have implemented a web-based submission and review Process (accessed through the Gender and Language
web-site).  This has a number of advantages for us.  It allows us to coordinate co-editing from different sites
more readily, since all manuscripts, reviewers' comments and author information will be centrally available,
and it allows us to automate a number of tasks ordinarily done by our editorial assistant (e.g. Reminding
reviewers that reviews are due).  It allows authors to check on the status of their manuscripts.  It allows
scholars to receive alerts when an issue of our journal (or, for that matter, any of the other 27 journals
published by Equinox) has appeared, with a full table of contents. And it allows users to input information on
their areas of expertise, so we can establish an on-line reviewer database. We hope you will log in, and try to
use at least the "journal alert" and "reviewer" portion of the database, and of course we hope all of you will
submit manuscripts to the journal soon as well, through this system!

All of our authors so far have had email access.  If, however, someone doesn't (or for some reason is reluctant
to use the web-based system), we can still handle submissions, reviewing, etc. with paper or email. We are
still working on a number of aspects of the system--fine-tuning form letters, adding additional information,
clarifying information, and learning how to use some of the more obscure (and not so obscure) copyediting
features.  We welcome any comments you might have about how to refine the system.  Please send them to Sara or
to me, and we'll consolidate them, and pass them on to Equinox.”




4.	Relationship between IGALA Conferences and Gender and Language Journal

Background from BM: 

“At the IGALA business meeting in Valencia, a decision was made to keep the conferences and the journal
distinct, such that people attending the conference did not have to subscribe to the journal. I think we should
revisit this decision. Many other organizations require membership/subscriptions in order to participate in the
conference (IPRA for Pragmatics, NWAV for Language Variation and Change, American Anthropology Association for
its flagship journal), and this requirement helps to support the journal. In addition, the subscription fees
for this journal are modest when compared with other journals, and we have established separate rates for
institutions in wealthy and in currency-restricted nations. And Equinox has agreed to gather membership fees
for IGALA along with subscriptions so I think we need to support the press. I think we should require
membership/subscription of all participants in New Zealand, with an opt-out clause for students or faculty from
currency-restricted nations.” (BM)


Even though a number of Excec/Advisory Committee members agreed to the principle of making membership to IGALA
mandatory for attending conferences, concern was raised about starting with that procedure at the IGALA 5,
given that the flight fares to most attendants would be high, and indeed that potential IGALA members my not
feel ready to align themselves with the organisation by joining immediately. JS suggested that only for
presenters should membership be mandatory, but not attendees in general – the latter would be encouraged to
become members during the conference. JH, in the position of a local organizer of the coming conference,
suggested that both conference presenters and attendees should only be encouraged to join. A mandatory IGALA
membership, according to JH, might discourage far away and local people (from New Zealand and Australia) from
simply attending it and later becoming members.

ACTION/DECISIONS: JS forwarded the following proposal, which was accepted as it reads below:

“(1) that on the IGALA5 abstract proposal form and conference website there is strong wording to the effect of
 'Presenters are expected to be IGALA members, or to have become so by the time of the conference', with
membership website provided (and that Janet H. et al. check this and send reminders if necessary) (JH)

(2) that every effort is made to court all attenders to join IGALA, both before and during the conference (e.g.
Janet Joyce from Equinox at a table with forms and journals throughout); different ways of doing this to be
discussed and implemented by the IGALA5 committee (JH/SM/BM)

(3) that at the Exec. meeting in Wellington we review this and discuss its implications for IGALA6 (where in
particular we discuss whether the policy of required membership should apply to attenders too)” (AM – Agenda)

 


5.	Progress Report on IGALA 5, Wellington, New Zealand, July 3rd-5th 2008

(See JH´s progress report attached.)

JS thanked Janet Holmes for working as the organizer of the next conference. JS also brought up the Bylaws
(Article VII Item 7) that stipulate that:

“(a) the organiser from the previous conference shall serve on the organising committee.” 
(b) at least one member of the Exec. shall serve on the conference committee and act as a liason
(c) the Exec. Committee is available for consultation.”

ACTION/DECISIONS:
JSE will serve on the organizing committee.
JS was suggested and approved to act to serve on the conference committee and act as a liaison person.
JS will write an 'Organizing IGALA Conferences' booklet. (JS)




6.	Ratification of Bursary Policy for IGALA Conferences

SU´s revised draft for the Bursary Policy was sent to the Exec/Advisory Board for approval. (See the revised
and approved document attached.)

JSE sent a brief report of how the bursaries were granted in Valencia, which is reproduced below:
“In Valencia, we granted three bursaries (to presenters from Algeria, Oman and India), ranging from 500€ to
850€, and a total amount of 2,000 € (euros). The members of the ad-hoc committee to judge on bursaries were:
Janet, Jane and myself as IGALA-4 co-ordinator (together with Penny as Treasurer). The money was handed in
Valencia, on production of the relevant receipts, etc.”

JH reported on the IGALA 5 organizing committee´s wish that “the money for the bursaries would come out of the
money Penny is looking after rather than being a cost against the Conference expenses.” In response to that, JS
proposed as an additional option to raise sponsorship within the institution organizing the conference and
among individuals and business connections. JS suggested that we should post a request on the GALA-L list for
ideas for this.


ACTION/DECISIONS:
(1) The revised draft for the Bursary Policy was accepted, but will put on the website only at a nearer time
(PB/JH)
(2) PB should put a sentence on the website saying “'A limited number of bursaries will be available to help
people in financial need to present at IGALA5, details to be provided nearer the time.’ (PB)
(3) We have an Ad Hoc committee for this purpose (headed by the conference organizer) + 2 others of the
Exec/Advisory Board (JH)
(4) Some bursaries might be (or might include) waiving the registration fee (or refunding it, if already paid).
(5) Bursaries will normally be paid at the conference itself, which doesn't exclude the possibility of paying
in advance if this is the only way someone can get to the conference.
(6) The money comes out of conference funds (i.e. from registration fees) or from the money Penny is looking
after, if this is possible. 
(7) Receipts must be provided.



7.	New Arrangements for IGALA Website

PB´s reported on the IGALA website, its new address, what would be kept, what would be added. As for the new
address, it is now: <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/organisations/igala/index.html>.

He also raised the issue whether we would like to purchase a domain to simply host the site without a domain
name – which would have the disadvantage of having a longer address. PB is trying to get the domain igala.net,
which should cost around £75.00. No decision has been reached whether the money will come from Penny’s fund or
the Equinox fund.

PB commented that the item Activities on the website has nothing on it at all and asked for suggestions of what
could be added, as well as suggestions in general. He also proposed to add information about all of the IGALA
conferences, update the officers´ page (and also add the academic websites and photos of all officers). Members
should let him know if they do not want their pictures added. In addition, he proposed that the site has “a
page for the media if they want to make contact with us to get our 'expert opinions' on aspects of gender or
sexuality.” Finally, he also suggested adding information on how to join IGALA.

PB´s ideas were approved and further suggestions provided by members.

JS´s suggestions were as follows: (1) to post the past Minutes on the site (the 2 from Valencia can go up now),
also those from this meeting once they've been finalized and agreed; (2) the new ByLaws can also go up now
(with a comment like 'awaiting ratification'); (3) Job Descriptions; (4) link to IGALA:
<http://www.stanford.edu/group/igala/joinigala.html>. ; (5) a list of past Officers and AC people with links to
homepages.

MS raised the question whether we could post information and links to resources also in languages other than
English and suggested the following: (1) that we could “aim to make a space on the website for posting
resources/some of the basic information in other major languages than English?” and  (2) that we “work towards
setting up a simple bulletin board system (see Yahoo for an example) which would allow people to discuss
issues/view previous discussion threads in other languages as well as in English - this would complement the
existing IGALA list-serv.”

JS mentioned that JP has ideas about languages on the site.

ACTION: PB


8.	Treasurer’s Report

Pending


9.	IGALA Essay Contest for Students

Background from SU: 

“At the Valencia meeting I suggested that there be an essay competition for undergraduate and graduate students
(perhaps in the form of two different categories) working on issues relevant to language and sexuality. I think
that institutionalizing such an essay competition would be useful for both the professional development of
individual students and for the visibility of IGALA itself in the academic world. Further details of the
contest will have to be decided on during the e-meeting. Please note that this essay competition would have to
be organized by the other members of the executive committee (and/or, perhaps, select IGALA members at large),
and would clearly not be the responsibility of the student representative (although the student representative
could assist with advertising the contest).”


Many members showed themselves to be in favor of such a contest. VB raised the suggestion to combine the Essay
Contest and the Bursaries in some way, which was firstly seen as positive by some members. 

JP however described some complexities involved in linking the two things, as quoted next: “Participants may be
willing to participate in an essay competition who may not wish or cannot attend the conferences. And the
barriers we wish to remove for attending conferences for people of particular origins may not bear a direct
relationship with the perspectives or voices of particular groups; but we may simply wish these groups to get
in touch with developments in the field.”

In light of the issues raised, Vicky asked for more time to think about a way to handle some type of link
between the Essay Contest and the “New Voices.”

JS invited SU to participate in a sub-committee who should be in charge of the Essay Contest. SU had to decline
such participation, since, due to time constraints she should be stepping down as the Graduate Student
Representative.
 
ACTION/DECISIONS:
(1) There will be an Essay Competion.
(2) The question of the Essay Contest (and the “New Voices) will be handled by Vicky (VB).
(3) The workings over it will take on board the discussion we had during the e-meeting.
(4) It has to be decided whether the results will be announced at the IGALA 5 conference meeting (JH?).



10.	Local Branches of IGALA

The idea of Local branches and Local events of IGALA was launched by JS together with a proposal of how that
might work. The idea of local branches and events was generally seen as a positive one by Exec/Advisory Board
members. JP expressed the concern that the growth this represents might demand some restructuring of IGALA in
the long term. VB raised concerns about quality control of the use of the name IGALA. 

ACTION/Decisions:
(1)	The Policy on Local IGALA Branches and Local IGALA events proposed by JS was approved, with some changes
(i.e. making clear that local meetings are not financed by IGALA).
(2)	There will be the need for a person from the Exec/Advisory committee to be responsible for
coordinating/liaising with local branches/national event organizers (presumably to be appointed from the new
advisory members (JS)).
(3)	We will post the Policy on Local IGALA Branches and Local IGALA Events on the site – but will not do so
before we have a new Advisory Committee (PB).




11.	Political Role of IGALA

JS expressed her wish to see IGALA taking a more active role in talking to the world about issues of gender,
sexuality and language and proposed to structure such action in the following way:

“(a) someone from the membership (including ourselves) proposes an issue and someone on the Exec (President
plus one other?) writes the letter (with input from the proposer) and sends it on behalf of IGALA (and/or from
the President of IGALA)

(b) an IGALA member might wish to write to the press about a local/national issue; she or he could write the
letter, send it to a couple of designated members of the IGALA Exec/Advisory committee
(probably President + one other) for approval, and if it was found to be OK, it could be written by that member
who could put 'member of IGALA' after her or his name [of course, that member could in practice write directly
to the press and still do that, but we might be unhappy about that, in case it looked as if she were
representing the organisation but was in fact misrepresenting us in some way]”

MS suggested that besides encouraging IGALA ‘to speak to the world’, we should also try “to enliven the
discussion list in some way so that it becomes a forum for these kinds of discussions, rather than mostly a
place to seek or post information and notices.” MS added that we should create some space on the website for
that (PB – but someone may need to start the ball rolling!).

SM, despite agreeing with JS´s proposal, raised the concern that consulting IGALA before writing to the
newspapers could delay the response and perhaps ending up not getting it published, as most newspapers only
publish letters commenting on issues for 2 days.

In response to SM´s concern, JP proposed that we “could assume we can trust members to write as "members of
IGALA" (that is, in non-academic contexts), although such interventions should be approved "ex post facto" by
the exec appointees to prevent some form of undesirable use of this prerogrative. Conflicts are unlikely here
and it would allow us to keep track of things that happen. However, texts representing "the position of IGALA"
should be approved by the executive and could certainly not be delivered in a very immediate way.”
 
ACTION/DECISIONS: 
(1) JS launched a final version of the proposal, which was accepted by the Exec/Advisory Board. (See document
attached at the end of the Minutes.)
(2) MS and PB will exchange ideas about how to enliven the discussion among IGALA members on the web (MS/PB).



12.	AOB

12.1 - Supporting the Linguist List
Mary Bucholtz requested that IGALA made a donation to the Linguist List.
ACTION: It was decided that in 2007 IGALA will donate US$200.00 pa (PE).


12.2 – First announcement of IGALA 5
JH launched amongst members the first announcement of the IGALA 5 and requested from members to circulate it. 
ACTION:
(1) PB should post the announcement on the IGALA site.
(2) BM and SM should ask Equinox to add the conference announcement in a link named “Announcements” on the
Gender and Language journal page (BM/SM).



12.3 – Book prize

JS proposed an IGALA book prize, in which publishers would be invited to propose gender and language books,
which would then be reviewed by IGALA members. The prize would be announced at each IGALA conference.

ACTION: SM will organize the IGALA book prize and request suggestions from members on how to do so (e.g.
Veronika Koller, who organises the BAAL Book Prize).



12.4 – Financial questions

JS described the current two sources of finances that IGALA has, which are:

(1) money looked after by Penny Eckert: from the sale of books associated with Berkeley Women and Language
conferences, and which has provided bursaries for conference attendance. 

(2) money looked after by Janet Joyce of Equinox, our journal publisher: an amount from each subscription is
put aside as a membership fee

JS raised the following issues with regards to these two financial sources:

“Penny is concerned about (1), in particular any legal/fiscal/tax implications. Personally am I am a loss here
partly as this may be something specific to the US. Vicky, I wonder if you could help here? It would be good to
know however if this fund is diminishing (i.e. are bursary awards greater than book sales?) and if so whether
we could/should help it to diminish (e.g. by generous bursaries for Wellington), and get Penny out of this
responsibility.

(2) is presumably on a sound footing as it presumably falls within whatever arrangements Equinox have in place,
and is safe and growing for the time being. We will need to know, though, if money can straightforwardly be
transferred from that pot to (say) Janet/IGALA5 to pay bursaries in Wellington. Sara/Bonnie might be able to
help here.

One issue here is that it's not established what IGALA 'is', especially as it's an international organisation.
In the UK it could probably be a 'constituted organisation' (less complex than having 'charitable status'). I
wrote to AILA some time ago (indeed, the right people, I think), but received no response. For example, if our
finances were 'divorced' from the Penny/Janet Joyce arrangements, would we need an auditor? - not necessarily
(in the UK this depends on how much money comes in and out), but it would be good to know.”

ACTION: PE/VB/SM/BM/JS should continue discussing these issues after the meeting closes.