ADHOC Organizational Meeting, June 2004, Göteborg

Present

• John Unsworth
• David Robey
• Lorna Hughes
• Geoffrey Rockwell
• Laszlo Hunyadi
• Lisa-Lena Opas-Hänninen
• Julia Flanders
• Marilyn Deegan
• Paul Fortier
• Jean Anderson
• [others...]

Notes

There were many discussions about IFDISH in Gothenburg. These took place at the ALLC executive committee meeting, at a specially arranged dinner the night before the conference, and during several other meetings during the conference (for example, Lorna Hughes met with Jean Anderson, Lisa Lena Opas-HŠnninen and the three OUP representatives at the conference to discuss how membership would be processed for the two organizations). There was also a meeting of the ACH-ALLC 2005 program committee, at which the new conference protocols were introduced and reviewed; and other small group meetings too numerous to recount. Because the nature of these discussions was primarily to clarify and develop a better understanding of the IFDISH governing documents in a relatively informal setting, they were not officially minuted, or matters pertaining to IFDISH were minuted in the official records of these meetings (e.g., the minutes from the ALLC executive committee's meeting contains several references to decisions taken regarding IFDISH, including the appointment of ALLC representatives to the IFDISH Steering Committee and several matters relating to the 2006 conference).

Broadly speaking, what was clear in these discussions was that some legal difficulties had been overlooked in developing the IFDISH Guidelines that were circulated at Gothenburg. These specifically relate to the legal constitution of ALLC as a public charity and as their ownership of the Journal. This may mean that a new legal entity has to be created - something that the framers of the Guidelines had hoped to avoid. This will all have to be clarified before the next draft of the Guidelines can be developed. The issue was further complicated by the fact that ALLC were re-negotiating their contract with the publisher of the Journal, OUP this summer. There will be a need to review the new contract with OUP to ensure that there are no contradictions between the way that the Journal is to be owned and operated in future, and the plans for the structure and revenue sharing operations of IFDISH. The question of the ownership of the Journal was also a matter that was discussed at length: this will be addressed in the next version of the IFDISH guidelines as soon as the legal questions are resolved.

Another bone of contention was the name of the organization: several people were vocal in their opposition to the use of IFDISH, and it was decided that the community should try to come up with a better name. However, IFDISH is used throughout in these notes.

What was clear, and enthusiastically endorsed at the conference, was that the Guidelines were an excellent starting point for the way ahead. It was decided that the next 12 months should be a transitional period, during which joint activities (such as conferences and publications) will be supported, and the Steering Committee of IFDISH will develop concrete operating guidelines for the new organization, to be voted on at the 2005 conference.

However, at the end of the conference, a first meeting of the IFDISH Steering Committee was convened, and this meeting outlined what had been agreed so far in the discussions about IFDISH, confirmed areas where agreements had been reached, and presented an outline of the next steps. Minutes were taken at that meeting.