The Canadian Society

vol. 16, no.1 October/octobre 2001

Contents

Funding for Symposium............................................................................. 1

Membership Fees: Pay up!....................................................................... 1

Continental Thought in Canada Series ................................................... 2

New CSH Executive................................................................................... 3

Minutes of Annual General Business Meeting, Laval 2001.............. 4 - 5

Toronto 2002.............................................................................................. 6

Symposium

As most of you know, Symposium’s founder and first editor Donald Ipperciel resigned his position at the CSH’s May 2001 Annual General Business Meeting in Laval, Québec, his last Journal issue following shortly thereafter in the Spring of 2001. Editorship of Symposium fell to Paul Fairfield at Queen’s in Kingston, along with long-time Assistant Editor Tanya DiTommaso at the University of Ottawa. As Jeff wrote in the last Bulletin, this society owes a great deal to Donald, who saw a possibility and actually made it happen. Thank you, Donald! Well done!

Unfortunately, along with Donald’s departure, we also lost funding support from the Faculté de Saint-Jean at the University of Alberta, who coughed up the bucks for roughly one of the two annual issues of the Journal. This rather sticky wicket left John, Paul and myself scrambling for money to get the Fall 2001 issue printed and mailed out, even though the issue is ready to go. As I write this [October 2001], we still have not managed to secure funding for this issue, but I have put in a request for “bridge financing” from SSHRC until we can apply for something a little more permanent from SSHRC’s AID TO RESEARCH AND TRANSFER JOURNALS programme, applications to which cannot be made now until 2004 [!]. Stay tuned to these pages for updates on our progress. If anyone can think of any other organization, or a rich uncle perhaps, who would be interested in funding our Journal, please let me know: email me at mfairbai@uoguelph.ca or call me at 519-824-1703. We need approximately $1,800.00 per year to keep the Journal going, over and above our membership dues/subscription revenues.

Membership Fees

This segues nicely into the issue of Membership Fees. Please pay up! We have the Journal currently “on hold” until we can afford to print and mail it; worse, the executive recently had to cancel its annual trip to Las Vegas [ar, ar]. But seriously, folks, we’re just about broke. Memberships still include a subscription to Symposium [assuming that we can afford to send it out]. Please see the Dues Call insert in this Bulletin for address information.

The Continental Thought in Canada Series

The good news is Jeff has agreed to remain at the helm of the Continental Thought in Canada series. The bad news is, we haven’t found a publisher yet. We are currently trying Broadview Press. Stay tuned.

New CSH Executive

Following our rather raucous General Business Meeting last May, we had to scramble a little bit to fill some vacancies in the Executive. I volunteered to step in as President, but at the time we had no Secretary. Paul Fairfield has since volunteered to be Secretary, assuming that the responsibilities of the position are not too onerous; he’s already spending a great deal of time as editor of the Journal. John Bruin is continuing as Treasurer and Tanya Di Tommaso will remain at least for now as Vice President.

Toronto 2002

Next year’s meetings will take place at the University of Toronto. The Congress theme is “Borders: geographic, genre and gender.” I am proposing that the CSH have as its theme, “Hermeneutic Philosophy in a time of crisis: parlour game or civic virtue?” Please send me your ideas for panel topics as soon as possible. [Please see Call for Panels/Papers insert in this Bulletin.] This year, our meetings will be structured as five two-hour panels, three on the first day, two on the second, with the business meeting in between and six stand-alone papers on the third day. Each panel will have three speakers [25-30 minutes each], with plenty of time to explore the theme of the panel. This will allow a later start time of 10:00 a.m. and will also permit a greater concentration of work on specific topics.

Minutes of the 2001 General Business Meeting

Minutes of the General Business Meeting

Canadian Society for Hermeneutics and Postmodern Thought

Québec City, 24 May 2001

Members present:Bruce Baugh, Daniel So, Donald Ipperciel (Secretary), Felix O’Murchadha, Gary Madison, Geraldine Finn, Giorgio Baruchello, James Mensch, Jeffrey Dudiak, John King, Karen Houle, Marty Fairbairn, Roberta Imboden, Sonia Sikka

(1) Approval of the minutes of the Edmonton 2000 General Business Meeting: approved.

(2) Treasurer’s Report:

- Since the treasurer John Bruin was not present, Jeff Mitscherling presented the report.

- John King suggested the new editor of Symposium, Paul Fairfield, explore the possibility of using a new technique in printing which would significantly reduce the producing costs of the journal. He will send an e-mail to Paul.

- Jeff pointed out that the money we received from HSSFC was money first paid by CSH members, which was given back to the CSH.

Approval of Treasurer’s report Moved by Marty Fairbairn, seconded by James Mensch, passed.

(3) President’s Report on Membership and Dues:

- Not all dues were paid. Jeff promises he will “hassle” people to get the money.

(4) Report on Symposium:

- Paul Fairfield, who has been serving has Co-editor of Symposium on the last issue, is appointed the new editor.

(5) Revision of the Constitution:

- It has been agreed that no modifications to the constitution was necessary regarding Paul Fairfield’s appointment, which is considered compatible with the Constitution.

- The Constitution was changed on another aspect: All references to the Advisory Board, which is no longer relevant, has been eliminated.

Constitution Amendments Moved by Bruce Baugh, seconded by Marty Fairbairn, passed.

(6) Database Corrections:

- The database of members was incomplete, explaining some problems in disseminating the information. It has been completed.

(7) Next Year’s Congress in Toronto:

- Next Year’s Congress in Toronto will be held from May 25 to May 27. For further information, one should talk to Pam Gravestock.

(8) Update on Continental Thought in Canada Series:

- Basically, nothing is happening on this front.

- Different publishing houses were contacted, such as Broadview, Hartcourt, which have either refused the project or declined to respond.

- The Canadian Foundation for Innovation refused.

- Jeff says he will further explore the possibility to get funds from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

- John King suggests we try again with Broadview. Jeff agrees.

(9) Other Business:

- Jeff Mitscherling puts forward the following theses:

(a) The HSSFC controls the press, which amounts to a non-sinister form of censorship.

(b) A disproportionate amount of power is given to the Francophone’s in Quebec.

- Jeff presents quantitative data to support his theses.

- For Jeff, this inequity is a reason for the CSH to withdraw from the HSSFC.

- The withdrawal from HSSFC is set as a condition for him to remain President of the CSH. Jeff notes that this is not to be understood as an ultimatum.

- The figures are contested by Donald Ipperciel, who sees no favoritism towards Quebec. He contends that Ontario gets the lion’s share of the subsidies.

- For Marty Fairbairn, it is a question of fairness. He proposes the following motion, seconded by Karen Houle:

“That we nominate a committee to investigate further with the view to bringing a report that would come up with a decision to resign form the HSSFC at a press conference”

The motion was considered preempting the findings of the committee. So it was amended as follows:

“That we nominate a committee to investigate further the question of fair procedure of publication”

- Karen Houle opposes the idea of an investigation. She suggests we spell out what we consider fair representation in the first place, and that we further discuss the problem, which, as a problem, is nebulous.

- The motion is rejected by the members.

As a consequence, Jeff Mitscherling resigns as president.

Donald Ipperciel now has the chair.

He asks if anyone present would be willing to step in as the new president. No one is ready to take the position.

For lack of time, Donald suggests the matter be pursued through e-mail.

Donald Ipperciel steps down as secretary for reasons unrelated to the above.

John King proposes a motion to thank Jeff Mitscherling for his invovlment as President of the CSH.

The meeting is adjourned.