Proceedings:
Eastern Division Program
September, 2001 (Volume 75, Issue 1)
Minutes of the 2000 Eastern Division
New
York Hilton and Towers
December 29, 2000
1. The meeting was called to order at 11:18 a.m. by President Daniel Dennett.
2. President Dennett announced the agenda, which had been distributed to members present, and appointed David Rosenthal as Parliamentarian.
3. The minutes of the 1999 business meeting, which had been published in the Proceedings, volume 74, number 1 (September 2000) were approved as published.
4. The Secretary-Treasurer’s report of the activities of divisional committees from December 27, 1999 through December 26, 2000, which was distributed to members present, was received. The report reads as follows:
(A) On behalf of the Executive Committee, the Secretary-Treasurer constituted a Local Arrangements Committee composed of Linda Smallbrook (Chair) and William E. Mann (ex officio) for the 2000 meeting of the Division.
(B) The 2000 Nominating Committee met to select nominees for Vice President, Divisional Representative, and two members-at-large of the Executive Committee, in an election to be held in 2001. The Nominating Committee is composed of the immediate Past President (John M. Cooper), serving as Chair; two members elected by mail ballot and serving the second year of two-year terms (Nancy Fraser and Terence H. Irwin), and two members elected by mail ballot and serving the first year of two-year terms (Cora Diamond and Beth J. Singer). The nominees for Vice President are Seyla Benhabib, Amy Gutmann, Alexander Nehamas, Thomas M. Scanlon, Jr., and Robert Stalnaker. The nominees for Divisional Representative are Robert Merrihew Adams, Richard Bett, Jorge J. E. Gracia, and Susan Wolf. The nominees for members-at-large of the Executive Committee are Robert B. Brandom, Sally Haslanger, Diana Tietjens Meyers, and Michele M. Moody-Adams.
(C) The 2000 Program Committee (David Blumenfeld [Chair], Wayne Davis, Daniel T. Devereux, Samuel Freeman, Thomas Hill, Peter Klein, William E. Mann [ex officio], Victoria McGeer, John Sallis, Rosemarie Tong, and Allen W. Wood) met to establish the submitted portion of the program for the 2000 meeting of the Division.
(D) The 2001 Program Committee (Richard Aquila, Daniel T. Devereux, Willem deVries, James C. Edwards, Samuel Freeman, John Greco, William E. Mann [ex officio], Victoria McGeer, Mark Richard, John Sallis [Chair}, Rosemarie Tong, and Kathleen Wallace) met to establish the invited portion of the program for the 2001 meeting of the Division.
(E) The Executive Committee took the following actions at its meeting on December 27, 1999:
1. Approved the minutes of its previous meeting on December 27, 1998.
2. Set the agenda for the 1999 Business Meeting.
3. Heard a report from J. B. Schneewind, Chair of the Board of Officers, concerning the Board’s annual meeting in October 1999. Schneewind mentioned the Board’s decision to begin a search for an Executive Director, discussed the report of the Committee on Priorities and Problems of the APA, and discussed the Board’s decision to recommend amendments to the APA Constitution.
4. Passed
unanimously the following two-part motion to be put to mail
ballot and adopted. First, that the APA adopt amendments
to Article VI of the Constitution that would separate the job
of treasurer from the duties of the Executive Director, create
the position of Treasurer as an Officer of the Board, and create
the position of Vice-Chair as an Officer of the Board. Second,
in order to maintain consistency with the proposed amendments
to Article VI, that the first sentence under section 2 of the
By-laws of the Association, "Funds of the American Philosophical
Association," be modified by deleting the material indicated
by strikeout: "a. The Executive Director of the Association,
as treasurer of the Association, shall maintain accurate
records of the receipts, deposits, and disbursements of the
Funds of the Association."
5. Received a draft of the auditor’s financial statements along with a draft income statement for the Eastern Division for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999, and an updated report on the division’s investments.
6. Approved the estimated divisional budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000.
7. Acted on a series of issues concerning the division’s annual meeting:
• Approved, on a three-year trial basis, a proposal to pool the three divisions’ advertising revenues in a fund, to be managed by the National Office, dedicated to defraying the costs of convention planning and management.
• Discussed the possibilities of rotating the annual December meeting through the three divisions and introducing a September meeting time in lieu of having two divisional meetings in the Spring. The Committee referred these issues to the National Office for further study.
• Decided to raise the price of reception tickets for those who have not paid the registration fee to $5.
• Decided, in light of increasing rates charged by decorating firms, to charge exhibitors $540 for their first booth and $490 for any subsequent booths, depending on information about what other professional societies typically charge.
8. Decided not to take action immediately on any hotel contracts for the 2004 meeting.
9. Decided to increase the size of the Program Committee from ten regular members to twelve, implementing the increase over a two-year period.
10. Approved a request from the Committee on International Cooperation to defer beginning a three-year program of financial support of up to $1,000 per year to defray travel expenses for the participation of foreign philosophers at Eastern Division meetings. The program thus covers the meetings of 2000, 2001, and 2002.
11. Considered a request from the Institut Internationale de Philosophie for affiliation with the Eastern Division. The Executive Committee instructed the Secretary-Treasurer to write to the Institut, inquiring whether it has or would be willing to develop a category for open membership, and inquiring about what the Institut intends in terms of joint meeting accommodations.
12. Received a report on the William James Prize, graduate student travel stipend, and foreign scholar travel stipend recipients.
13. Nominated four candidates for two positions on the Nominating Committee. They are Cora Diamond, David Rasmussen, Beth J. Singer, and Stephen Stich.
14. After receiving suggestions from the Committee on Committees, established a list of candidates and alternates for membership on the 2001 Program Committee and instructed the Secretary-Treasurer to form a committee from that list plus the list of continuing members.
15. After receiving suggestions from the Committee on Committees, established a list of candidates and alternates for membership on the Advisory Committee to the Program Committee and instructed the Secretary-Treasurer to form a committee from that list plus the list of continuing members.
5. The report of results of the 2000 Eastern Division mail ballots, which had been published in the Proceedings, volume 74, number 1 (September 2000), was received.
6. The auditor’s report of the division’s finances for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000, which had been distributed to members present, was received.
7. At the request of the Secretary-Treasurer, the members present stood to observe a moment of silent respect for those members whose deaths had been reported since the 1999 business meeting. Their names are:
H.
G. Alexander
Paul G. Kuntz
Larry
Althouse
Ivor Leclerc
K.
John Barwise
Marcia Lind
John
W. Blyth
John Geddes MacGregor
Henry
Bugbee
Terri Jolene MacGregor
Barton
C. Cooper
Cecil H. Miller
Robert
F. Creegan
Chamu Namasivayam
William
Edwards
William H. K. Narum
Carolyn
Eisele
Leon Pearl
Mauricio
E. Escardo
Karen L. Pilkington
Charles
E. Gauss
Ullin Thomas Place
Samuel
Gluck
Willard Van Orman Quine
Rob
Grootendorst
George C. Reeves
William
Gruen
Ralph G. Ross
Robert F. Harvanek
G. William Sacksteder
Wilbur C. Hogan
Thomas Ward Satre
Harold B. Hoyt
James Ward Smith
Barbara M. Humphries
G. Sprung
John A. Hutchison
Joachim Stolz
Ralph C. John
William F. Ward
Oliver A. Johnson
Thomas B. Warren
Jack Kaminsky
William Noel Whisner
Helen Khoobyar
Carol J. White
Philomene Kilzer
8. The Secretary-Treasurer announced the winners of graduate student travel stipends and foreign scholar travel stipends, and presented the awards to those who were present to receive them. The following people won graduate student travel stipends:
Ty
Barnes
Peter Murphy
Anne
Margaret Baxley
Eddy A. Nahmias
Stephanie
Beardman
Douglas Eden Patterson
Andrew Chignell
Brook J. Sadler
Douglas G. Lavin
Joseph Shieber
Sukjae Lee
Daniel Speak
Antonia
Lolordo
Deborah Tollefsen
James
E. Mahon
Mark Wunderlich
Daniel
Mittag
The following people won foreign scholar travel stipends:
Elizabeth
J. Ashford
Peter Kail
9. The report of the 2000 Nominating Committee, which had been published in the Proceedings, volume 74, number 2 (November 2000), was received. (The Nominating Committee’s nominees for the 2001 elections are listed in section 4(B) of these minutes.)
10. The Secretary-Treasurer presented the nominations of the Executive Committee for two positions on the 2001 Nominating Committee and invited other nominations from the floor. There were no nominations from the floor. The nominees are Robert Bernasconi, Philip Kitcher, Charles Scott, and Stephen Yablo.
11. J. B. Schneewind, Chair of the Board of Officers, reported on the Board’s activities since the last business meeting. Schneewind introduced Elizabeth Radcliffe, who will become Executive Director effective July 1, 2001, and thanked Richard Bett for his service as interim Executive Director. Schneewind announced that the newly authorized Board positions of Vice Chair and Treasurer have been filled by John M. Cooper and Stephanie Lewis, respectively. The Board authorized creation of a Chair’s Council, advisory to the Chair on matters not requiring full Board attention, composed of the three Secretary-Treasurers, one Divisional Representative serving the second year of a three-year term, one chair of a standing committee serving the second year of a three-year term (to be elected by the Board), the Treasurer, the Executive Director, and the Chair.
The Board referred to an ad hoc committee the issue of APA funding of lectures and prizes, authorized the creation of a sixth standing Board committee, the Committee on Inclusiveness (an action that requires constitutional change and thus must be put to mail ballot in all three divisions), began to consider the issue of more explicit guidelines for socially responsible investment of APA funds, approved support of two new newsletters, deliberated about a case of alleged plagiarism, decided to allow censured institutions to continue to use APA placement services so long as their censure is displayed in Jobs for Philosophers, and modified guidelines for the search process for an Executive Director.
12. The Secretary-Treasurer reported the following actions taken by the Executive Committee at its December 27, 2000 meeting.
(A) The Executive Committee unanimously approved, save for one abstention, a motion that the Eastern Division put to mail ballot and adopt the Board of Officers’ proposal to add a Committee on Inclusiveness as a standing Board committee, urging the Board to make the necessary editorial changes to the Constitution.
(B) The Executive Committee decided unanimously to continue the foreign scholar travel stipend program for 2001 and 2002, reviewing the program at next year’s meeting.
(C) The Executive Committee decided unanimously to insert the following sentence into the Eastern Division paper submission guidelines: "Papers accepted by either the Central Division or the Pacific Division may not be presented at the Eastern Division meeting."
(D) The Executive Committee decided unanimously, save for one abstention, to allow authors of papers to be presented at the Eastern Division meeting to list their URLs on the APA web site, but not to allow links to the authors’ sites.
(E) The Executive Committee unanimously passed a proposal to add two new areas to the Advisory Committee to the Program Committee, one in Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Hermeneutics, and one in Postmodernism and Philosophy of Culture.
(F) The Executive Committee passed unanimously a proposal to establish an apprenticeship year for the successor to the present Secretary-Treasurer (whose term expires July 1, 2003). It was moved that the search committee for a new Secretary-Treasurer be composed of Virginia Held (chair), Edward Casey, Vere Chappell, and William E. Mann. The motion passed with one abstention.
13. Pursuant to item 12(A) above, President Dennett reported that the Executive Committee moves that the Eastern Division put to mail ballot and adopt the Board of Officers’ proposal to add a Committee on Inclusiveness as a standing committee of the Association, urging the Board to make the necessary editorial changes to the Constitution. The Secretary-Treasurer read the charge proposed for the committee, which had been published in the Proceedings, volume 74, number 2 (November 2000):
The Committee is charged with increasing the inclusiveness of the profession. It is responsible for assessing and reporting on the status of underrepresented groups in the profession; advising the Board and members of the Association of ways in which inclusiveness can be increased; developing and carrying out its own projects to promote inclusiveness; and working in conjunction with the diversity committees.
In discussion it was pointed out that the diversity committees (Committee on Blacks in Philosophy, Committee on Hispanics, Committee on the Status of American Indians in Philosophy, Committee on the Status of Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in the Profession, Committee on the Status of Women), in virtue of being non-standing committees, have no direct representation on the Board and insufficient resources of time to carry out the tasks envisioned in the Inclusiveness Committee charge. Moreover, the Inclusiveness Committee will have as one its tasks to identify other kinds of underrepresentation in the profession not presently covered by the diversity committees. The tasks specified in the committee charge should be the responsibility of the Association, not just the diversity committees. Other professional organizations, such as the American Political Science Association and the Organization of American Historians, have such a committee structure in place and have used it to initiate constructive projects aimed at reducing underrepresentation. The Inclusiveness Committee will also be able to facilitate joint projects among the diversity committees.
No arguments were offered in opposition to the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
14. There was no new business.
15. There were no open forum issues raised.
16. The meeting adjourned at 11:55 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
William E. Mann
Secretary-Treasurer
American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division