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Executive Committee Report
The Officers and Executive Committee met on Thursday, 8 January 2004, in the Exeter Room of the Sheraton Boston at 9:00 AM and continued until 4:30 PM. Those attending were Ray Jackendoff, President; Joan Bybee, Vice President-President Elect; Frederick J. Newmeyer, Past President; Sally McConnell-Ginet, Secretary-Treasurer; Gregory Ward, Secretary-Treasurer Elect; Kristen Syrett, Bloch Fellow; Stephen Anderson; Eve Clark; Larry M. Hyman; Sarah G. Thomason; and Gillian Sankoff. Michael Krauss was ill and not able to attend. William Idsardi, Chair of the Program Committee, Brian Joseph, Editor of Language, Donna Christian, President of the Center for Applied Linguistics, and Past President D. Terence Langendoen were present by invitation. Dennis Preston, Sabine Iatridou, Jay Jasanoff, and C-T James Huang joined the Committee for the discussion of Linguistic Institutes. Margaret W. Reynolds represented the Secretariat.
President's Business
1. Appointed Joan Bybee, Mark Aronoff, Ray Jackendoff, D. Terence Langendoen, and Gregory Ward to serve on the Finance Committee for 2004, accepted the committee list for 2004, and appointed the following to serve: Roger Shuy as Chair of the Committee on Social and Political Concerns and Catherine Rudin to the Language in the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
2. Received a report from Ed Battistella on the NSF National Workshop on Improving Education in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences held in June 2003. The President reported on an invited session at the National Council of Teachers of English 2003 convention and noted that discussions were underway with the American Educational Research Association to explore mutual collaborations.
3. The President reported on his efforts this fall to raise funds for an endowed Chair named in honor of Ken Hale for the biennial Linguistic Institute sponsored by the LSA. He reported enthusiastic response from Past Presidents, members who had served on the Executive Committee over the past 20 years, and colleagues of Dr. Hale at MIT as well as the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy and the Dean at MIT. The Executive Committee enthusiastically endorsed the establishment of the chair and appointed an ad hoc committee (Steven Anderson, Chair; Sarah G. Thomason and Akira Yamamoto) to cultivate support; to guide the fundraising efforts, including possibly applying for a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant; and to draft the guidelines for the new professorship.
4. The Committee unanimously approved motions of thanks to Cornell, Ohio State University, and the University of South Carolina for their support of the Secretary- Treasurer's Office, the Office of the Editor of Language, and the Book Review Editor's Office respectively.
Secretary-Treasurer's Report
1. The Secretary-Treasurer noted the continuing downward trend in the number of members and encouraged Executive Committee members to continue their efforts to recruit members for the LSA.
2. The Committee unanimously approved the audit report for FY 2002-3 and received with thanks the management letter that accompanied the report. Further, the Executive Committee approved the recommendation from the Finance Committee that the Society's portfolio be moved to Legg Mason. Lastly, the Committee approved an increase in membership dues in 2005 and the continuation of the late fee assessments for those paying dues after the publication of the March issue of Language.
3. The Committee received the report and draft proposal from Sharon Klein on the Virtual Museum on Language and Linguistics, voted to support the project in principle, and asked Brian Joseph to serve as liaison between the organizers and the Executive Committee.
4. The Committee received the reports on the Long Range Planning discussions that took place at the 2003 Linguistic Institute. The May 2004 meeting agenda will include time to focus on LSA membership changes, challenges, and concerns.
Committee and Delegate Reports
1. The Leonard Bloomfield Book Award Committee was discharged with thanks.
2. The reports submitted by the Advisory to Programs Committee, the Committee on Social and Political Concerns, the Computing Committee, the Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation, the Language in the School Curriculum Committee, the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics, and the Ad hoc Advisory Committee on Web-based Materials were accepted with thanks.
3. The Committee discussed the report and recommendations of the Committee on Honorary Members and approved the nominations of Probal Dasgupta, Inga-Lill Hansson, and Aryon Rodrigues for honorary membership.
4. The reports filed by the LSA delegates to AAAS: Section H and the Consortium of Social Science Associations were accepted with thanks. The Secretariat was encouraged to contact the new Executive Director of ACTFL to explore ways in which the LSA and ACTFL might more effectively collaborate.
5. The report on activities undertaken by the Secretariat was accepted with thanks.
Publications
1. The report of the Editor of Language was received and discussed by members of the Committee. The Editor was thanked for his efforts and encouraged to prepare an estimate for the May meeting of the cost of correcting and updating the Twentieth Century Index of Language.
2. The appointment of Jaye Padgett, Janet Pierrehumbert, and Natsuko Tsujimura as Associate Editors was unanimously approved.
3. The Committee learned that the following four FAQs were likely to be ready this spring: "How to Raise a Child Bilingually", "Animal Communication", "How many languages are there?" and "The Origins of Language". Larry Hyman agreed to draft a new FAQ on "Why Join the LSA?"
Reports from Sister Organizations and Collaborative Projects
1. The Committee received with thanks reports from the Center for Advanced Study of Language, the Coalition for National Science Funding, the Decade of Behavior, The Race and Human Variation Project of the American Anthropological Association, the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, and the National Museum of Language.
2. The Committee asked that Carol Padden be invited to serve as LSA delegate to the Disabilities Studies conference being organized by the Modern Language Association in March 2004.
Executive Session
Gregory Ward was nominated to stand for election as Secretary-Treasurer and Brian Joseph was renominated to stand for election as Editor of Language.
Annual Meetings
1. William Idsardi, Chair of the Program Committee, presented a report on the Committee activities for 2004. The Committee urged the Program Committee to consider revising the time allotted for papers to 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion.
2. The Secretariat reported that a contract has been signed with the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque for the 2006 Annual Meeting and that negotiations were underway with the Hilton in Portland for the 2009 meeting.
Linguistic Institutes and Summer Programs
1. The Committee received with great thanks the report on the 2003 Linguistic Institute and voted unanimously their appreciation to Dennis Preston and his colleagues.
2. The Administrative Team of the 2005 Institute provided the Committee with an update on their plans and was thanked enthusiastically for all their effort to mount such an interesting summer program.
3. The Committee was disappointed to learn that the University of Colorado had withdrawn its letter of intention to host the 2007 Institute.
4. Larry Hyman reported on discussions underway at University of California, Berkeley to host a future Institute.