In attendance: Debbie Dergousoff; David Huxtable; Ben Levy; Bill Pelz; Jean Chapman; Robert McGray; Thom Workman; Greg Albo; Errol Sharpe; Wayne Antony; Elaine Coburn; Ingo Schmidt; Bill Carroll; Danny Goldstick; Kanchan Sarkar; Garry Potter; Murray Cooke

Kanchan called the meeting to order.

Approval of agenda and minutes from 2012 AGM – moved – Danny Goldstick/Gary Potter
• Business arising from 2012 AGM – Errol raised the issue of the book award; Murray said there had been no progress made but that Meg Luxton was still interested in working on it
• Murray has been maintaining the SSS website
• Elaine raised a call for possible volunteers for a Communications Committee for the purposes of recruiting more members and funds (?)

Financial Report – moved Danny/Debbie
• David said we spent ~$400 more than we brought in last year – partly because Congress expenses were higher – SSS is overall financially sound, but the cut of SSHRCC funding is going to hurt us
• New costs – Sean Kain, Betterworld Communications, independent contractor, has been hired to help with technical details re: journal ($700-800 per issue); he also helped produce promo material
• Membership is very low – we need an aggressive renewal campaign (based on paid memberships before Congress we have only 54 members)
• The Fed is still having issues with the membership management system – still not up and running – we have been advised to go with the old one in the interim
• There is a paypal plug for donations on the website , but this is not effective for memberships [there was some discussion as to why not]
• Ryerson Fund – funding for student travel is now coming out of SSS funds – we need to work hard at fundraising to replace the SSHRCC travel funds for students
• Motion: to instruct treasurer to get us an online second payment option; annual cost $500

Fed Rep – Jean-Marc Mangin
• 7,600 in attendance at UVIC (they were aiming for 7000)
• The Fed is looking toward a more interdisciplinary/international focus for Congress
• We raised the issue of cuts to SSHRCC travel funds – $400,000 cut in all; all societies are upset; reason given by SSHRCC was that reporting had been poor [unjustified?]
• Ben raised the issue of travel grants for international delegates and students – the Fed is working to keep student rates low
• Next year’s theme: Border Without Boundaries [related to globalization, but also across disciplines]

Journal
• Elaine reported that the journal is becoming broader and attracting international contributions
• Editorial board is very active
• Elaine wants to step down as editor – she has served for 5 years and does not want the journal to go stagnant, and she is also over-burdened with other commitments – Aziz Choudry may be interested
• 11,000 page views; 880 addresses from a variety of countries; about 900 views/month; 200-1000 issue downloads
• Sean Kain has been an invaluable help
• Problem with not a lot of high quality submissions, only 4 or 5 out of 30 are publishable; good articles are difficult and time consuming to track down!
• OJS system is faulty but we’re stuck with it for now
• Adrian Smith is in dire need of more book reviews

Election of Officers for 2013-2014
President – Kanchan Sarkar [Dan/Elaine]
Vice President – VACANT
Secretary/National Office – Matthew Brett [Elaine/David]
Federation Representative – Colleen Lundy has agreed to stay on [David/Debbie]
Treasurer – David will stay on for now
Journal Editor – VACANT
Book Review Editor – Adrian Smith
Media, Arts, Culture Editor – VACANT
Program Committee Chair [Ingo stepped down – has served 3 yrs – time intensive] – VACANT – Bill and Elaine will head up a Search Committee
Outreach Coordinator (new position) – Ben Levy nominated – accepted – moved Dan/Elaine
Congress Planning Committee 2014 (May 24-30 at Brock University, St. Catharines)
Local Coordinator – Grant Yakum (?)

Programme Committee – ?
Travel Funds Coordinator – Ben Levy

Meeting Adjourned