Present: Murray Leaf, Kate Sullivan, Jim McDonald, Ben Blount, Lisa Markowitz, Glenn Stone, Joan Mencher, Ryan Adams, Lois Stanford, Francisco Gurri Garcia

Murray Leaf called the meeting to order at 6:10 pm.

Minutes of the 2005 Board meeting, which were circulated by email, were approved.

Kate Sullivan reported that proposed C&A operating budget for 2007 is approximately $14,523 and is devoted entirely to producing the journal. No other activities were proposed by Board members by the time the budget was due to AAA. [The only members who responded to the Treasurer’s September 06 report were Ryan and Joan, Board members must request line items be added prior to budget approval by AAA.] C&A will operate in the red for 2006, although by how much we cannot ascertain at this time because the financials provided by AAA do not reflect all of our bills for 2006. [We will probably end 06 between $500 and $1200 in the red.] Our membership continues to fall. We are drawing down our savings-reserves each year to support the move to Anthrosource with declining membership, i.e., we are spending more than we are taking in. We currently have about one year’s operating budget in savings-reserves. We are not however in such bad financial shape that we need to anticipate a forced folding of the journal. Kate suggests that what we choose to spend on depends on our long-term financial goals, and whether or not we wish to keep the journal afloat until Anthrosource flows enough cash to make the journal more self-sustaining. At this time, AAA predicts that Anthrosource will break even in 2008. Murray asserts that C&A’s budget should not be driven by AAA accounting methods or the journal. Murray wishes to instigate a second budgeting process outside of the budget process provided by AAA. Murray also suggests that we try to press AAA to run by the April timetable provided by the AAA bylaws. The 2007 budgets did not arrive from AAA until August 2006. Ideas, including a student paper contest, were floated as possible ways to expand current C&A activities and membership interest. The Board agreed not to burn CDs for members for 2006.

Murray attended the Association Treasurers’ meeting. He reported back on updates regarding Anthrosource, the offer of interest free loans for journals in difficulty, and the discussion about the division of funds from Anthrosource for downloads, citations, pages published. Ben added that he has much confidence in Jasper Simons, given Jasper’s experience with indexing services and the Q&A at his editor’s meeting with Jasper. Murray and Ben reiterated that AAA is sending a clear message that the Association does not want to kill off the small journals. Ben added that journal size is not a predictor of financial standing. Murray related Anthrosource issues back to the issue of the Section Assembly’s role in Association governance.

We then discussed the issue of the Journal Editor. Jim is stepping down by 2008. He has most of the two 2007 issues planned and in the review process. One issue is a theme issue on free trade/fair trade, and one is a collection of volunteered papers. UTSA contributes $2500 per year, and actually substantially more cash in most years, to support the journal. Jim is concerned about finding an editor, given ever tightening University budgets. The editor’s institution also needs to contribute office space, supplies, perhaps course releases, an assistant, etc. The editor currently hosts the website and listserve, but this is not a necessary condition of the journal editorship. UTSA field editorial office provides detailed copyediting, thus saving on production costs. Jim estimates article rejection rate is maybe 30%, fairly low due to extensive editorial help from his office. A few names were floated as possible replacement editors, and the suggesting parties will be contacting the persons of interest.

Next item concerned a replacement for Barbara Dilly, Newsletter Editor. Previous replacement disappeared after working a few months last year. Our column has not been in the Newsletter. Some discussion took place about the Newsletter being obsolete. Lois volunteered to take over as co-editor. Board also agreed to discuss this at the Business meeting.

We then undertook a discussion about our Website. Murray suggested separating the Section and Journal websites, so that we can include more interactive communication on the Section website. There was a great deal of support for the separation and for an expanded Section website. Discussion ensued as to how to get a person devoted to managing the website and a suggestion was made that C&A budget cash for the position. Kate reminded everyone that we have budgeted between $800 and $1000 a year for an editorial assistant who is responsible for maintaining the website, but Jim has foregone using all but $500 of what has been budgeted due to the uncertainty of Anthrosource. Glenn suggests soliciting and then rotating pictures on the Section website, and his suggestion met with enthusiasm. There was discussion as to how to use the Newsletter column in conjunction with an expanded web presence. Links will be updated and expanded by Murray.

We then turned to a discussion of panels for AAA 2007. Lisa graciously agreed to remain on as Program Chair for one more year, even though her term as member-at-large expires this year. She will attend the Program Chairs’ meeting at these AAA meetings. Ideas were sought as to how we might share panels with other Sections, especially invited slots. Suggestions for panels included:

Fair Trade panel (Sarah Lyons)

Energy Farming (Glen)

General theory and its implications (Murray)

Food social movements (Ryan)

Politics of local versus global food production (Ryan)

Farm policy (Lisa)

Discussion about including Washington based politicians.

Discussion on including archaeologists.

Discussion about a plenary put together by C&A.

Discussion about inviting non-AAA members to participate and their registration fees.

Murray reported that while the original plan to get the three 2005 invited panels published as book fell apart because there were almost no responses to the request to submit drafts within thirty days of the last meetings, a small group wants to go ahead. They are working on the possibility of putting together either a special issue for a journal or a possible renewal of the book idea. Suggestions were advanced about getting this and the C&A special theme issue 07 covered in the Newsletter column.

Brief discussion addressed the pending Board vacancies including one member-at large, president-elect, and secretary-treasurer candidates, all to run in 5-07, and to begin in 11-07. Kate suggests Ryan as a candidate for S-T given his strong commitment and the analytical engagement that he has already demonstrated in his short tenure as student representative.

The meeting adjourned at 8 pm.

Minutes by Kate Sullivan