CAA 2009

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY 2009

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The 2009 Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday, March 26, in room Colony E, Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg, VA, USA

With Nick Ryan in the chair and 46 members present.

Minutes

  1. 1. The minutes of the 2008 Annual General Meeting on Saturday 5th of April from 16.00 – 17.00 in the main building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary are accepted, but for one change: Sascha Schmidt had stepped down as SC-member Low Income and Students in 2007.
  2. 2. Matters arising: Two proposals for change of the CAA constitution will be discussed; one on Corporate Membership and the other on adding a Publication Officer to the officers of the SC.
  3. 3. Chairman’s report: The SC has not convened in between the meeting during the CAA2008 conference in Budapest and the present meeting. Intermediate mail contacts were many. Much of our effort in the past year was concerned with finding a venue for the 2010 conference. After some false starts we accepted a bid from the University of Granada (see below). The Chair recorded his thanks to the new Membership Secretary for her efforts in this process.
  4. 4. Treasurer’s report:
    • Bursaries
      • CAA offered 39 bursaries from CAA funds and a further 5 from Local Organiser (LO) funds, but 11 applicants withdrew, leaving 33 bursaries being paid to the total amount of USD 20,375 ($18,175 from CAA and $2,200 From LO)
      • The bursary fund was severely impacted by two LO decisions. One was to collect a membership fee of only $50 instead of €50 and the second was to insist on transferring funds to the UK before the conference. These then had to be changed back into USD and brought to the conference. The first reduced the bursary fund by about $6900 and the second cost over $540
    • Balance
      • In the UK Bank account GBP 375 and in the Dutch we have EURO 13.500,00
  5. 5. Election of officers and auditor:
    • Chair (Nick Ryan) was nominated, agreed to stand and was re-elected unopposed.
    • Treasurer (Stephen Stead) was nominated, agreed to stand and was re-elected unopposed.
    • Secretary (Guus Lange) was nominated, agreed to stand and was re-elected unopposed.
    • Membership Secretary (Mercedes Farjas) was nominated, agreed to stand and was re-elected unopposed.
    • Election of auditor — (no nominations received)The following are ex-officio members of the Steering Committee for 2009-2010:
      • Leif Isaksen (student and low income)
      • Geoff Avern (student and low income)
      • Elisabeth Jerem (CAA2008 organiser)
      • Bernard Frischer (CAA2009 organiser)
      • Lisa Fischer (CAA2009 organiser)
      • Javier Melero Rus (CAA2010 organiser)
      • Graeme Earl (CAAUK)
      • Hans Kamermans (CAANL and UISPP C04 liaison)
      • Juan Barceló (CAAEs)
      • Vacancy (CAAIT)
      • Gonçalo Leite Velho (CAAPortugal)
      • Vinod Nautiyal (CAAIndia)
      • Axel Posluschny (CAAD)
      • Jeffrey Clark (CAANA)
      • Espen Uleberg (CAANO)
  6. Membership:
    • The number of attendees at CAA2009 is 311. The number of the total membership (Members pay their membership fee and remain members for one year) is 306
    • Many suggestions have been put in the box during this conference for which the SC is very grateful. The suggestions will be collated and communicated to the membership.
  7. Reports from the Local Organisers:
    • 2004 Prato. Franco Niccolucci has been given notice by the SC to hand over the fully finished printer-ready manuscript to Archaeolingua in Budapest before April 30th2009. If he cannot comply CAA SC will take responsibility and will publish the proceedings.
    • 2007 Berlin. Axel Posluschny described the difficulties in publishing the proceedings for which he apologizes. He was congratulated on the magnificent publication that reached us within 2 years. Karsten Lambers advised the SC to adjust the publications process.
    • 2008 Budapest. Elizabeth Jerem reported on the difficulties with the publication but is confident to have the proceedings ready before CAA2010
    • 2009 Williamsburg. Bernie Frischer explained the plans for publication:
      • All papers will be published as .pdf on the web site of CAA2009. For including papers in this form of publication the deadline is 31st May 2009.
      • All papers will be reviewed.
      • Good papers will be published in the regular CAA printed proceedings
      • Good papers will be published in the e-Book format and publishing channel. Deadlines will be published by the Local Organiser.
    • 2010 Granada. Javier Melero presented a splendid video and gave background information on the next meeting in Granada. The AGM was concerned about the raising costs and luxuries of conferences especially for students and asks Javier to find ways for students to opt out of social activities and otherwise cut back on costs. This being said the decision of the SC to accept the bid was endorsed and applauded by the AGM.
    • 2011
      • Interest has been shown from Beijing. The proposal from The Normal University of Beijing was presented by Bernie Frischer. The AGM receives the presentation with enthusiasm. The general feeling is that Beijing itself is a better choice than X’ian for transportation reasons. Concern is expressed about the bad air conditions for cara patients.
      • The SC has also received expressions of interests for future conferences from England and Australia.
    • The AGM empowers, with all in favour, the SC to continue negotiations and present a plan at next years AGM.
  8. Publication of proceedings:
    • Nick Ryan presented a plan for digital publishing prepared by Hans Kamermans and the Amsterdam University Press.
    • Steve Stead presented the inventory on responsibilities of the Publication Officer and all other CAA committee’s and members in the Publication Process.
    • The installation of a Publication Officer requires a change in the CAA Constitution. The PO is added to the Steering Committee.
    • Hans Kamermans is willing to act as CAA Publication Officer for a limited time.
    • Karsten Lambers remarks that we should consider to publish a peer reviewed Journal next to the Proceedings. This would accommodate for many of the present quality issues and allow authors to receive full credit for their publications.The AGM (all in favour) empowers the SC to go forward with the preparations for digital publishing, including co-opting Hans Kamermans to act as Publication Officer, unless the process is flawed.
  9. Any other business:
    • The wording of the constitutional change discussed at last year’s AGM for including corporate membership was approved.
    • An addition to paragraph 4, section 1 of the constitution to include a Publication Officer post amongst the officers of the SC was presented and approved.The SC will make the texts of the constitutional changes available to the members via the CAA web site.
    • Adam Rabinowitz, represented by Steve Stead, proposed the formation of a CAA Interest Group on the formulation of guidelines for the evaluation of digital publications.
    • Benjamin Ducke proposed the formation of a CAA Open Archaeology Interest GroupBoth were accepted by the AGM with all in favour.

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