[Linganth] Options

[monaghan at indiana.edu]

Many thanks to Kerim for passing on information from AAAUnite and
http://aaaunite.blogspot.com.  A number of people seem to be having e-mail
problems these days so information seems to be hard to get out just when we
most need it.

What are members considering doing about the AAAs proposals in reaction to the
lockout/srike of workers at the San Francisco Hilton?  What is the Society of
Linguistic Anthropology's board's opinions on these meetings?

The original options presented to the membership in an e-mail poll were to have
the meetings in SF as scheduled, move the meetings to San Jose or to cancel the
meetings altogether.

The memo that I forwarded from the AAA Board as a whole was that the Board
decided on a fourth option after negotiations with the Hilton Corporation to
move the meetings to Atlanta Dec 15-19.  The AAA Board argues that this would
allow us to avoid both crossing the picket lines at SF and the approximately
$1.2 million in penalties that breaking our contract would cost.  In exchange
for this, the AAA would agree to hold their meetings in SF at some future point
(I *think* 2006) when we would have met in Atlanta.  The hotel in Atlanta is
not unionized.

The options on the AAAUnite site include members going to either to Atlanta or
to San Jose for an alternative meeting during our original November dates that
is approved by the union striking the SF Hilton, members going to both
meetings, and members going to neither.

Another option might be to set up a series of mini-conferences around the
country, presenting panels or groups of panels to much smaller conventions but
perhaps larger individual audiences.  These could be done in addition to either
or both the Atlanta & San Jose meetings or instead of these meetings.

Other options are also discussed at the AAA Unite website.

I would love to know what other people on this list were thinking on these
issues, I'm still sorting through the options myself.

best wishes,

Leila
monaghan at indiana.edu