INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL
LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, 13 July 2000
University of Melbourne, Australia
DRAFT: PARTICIPANTS SHOULD SEND ANY NECESSARY
CORRECTIONS TO CAROLYN
HARTNETT, hartnett@compuserve.com
Present: Jorge Arus Hita, Anthony Baldry, Jim Benson, Frances
Christie, Kristin Davidse, Emilia Djonov, Robin P. Fawcett,
Lenore Ferguson, Hiroshi Funamoto, Guo Libo, Carolyn Hartnett,
Per Holmberg, Huang Huijian; Hisao Kakehi, Gerda Lauerbach,
Seong-Woo Lee, Annabelle Lukin, Ursula McGowan, Bernard Mohan,
Nina Norgaard, V. Prakasam, Louise Ravell, Erich Steiner,
Masa-aki Tatsuki, Miriam Taverniers, Chris Taylor, Helen Tebble,
Anne Thwaite, Eija Ventola, Geoff Williams, Lynne Young, Yu
Dongming (32 total present)
1. Chairperson’s remarks:
Chair Kristin Davidse convened the meeting at 4:30 pm in Copland
Theatre and welcomed all those present.
2. Comment on current congress:
Convenor Frances Christie reported 170 registrations for the full
week. Additional registrants attended for a single day,
especially Tuesday, the education day. There was no
workshop held. Attendance is more overseas than local
because the local non-teaching week was rescheduled to clear the
campuses for the Olympics. We were able to share with other
linguistics conferences here the expenses of having Charles Li
and Malcolm Coulthard make plenary addresses. Bursaries helped
six participants to attend from Vietnam, China, India, Pakistan,
and the Australian Systemic Linguistics group.
3. Minutes of the previous meeting:
The minutes were approved after Kristin Davidse summarized
the actions taken then. Incoming officers were
elected: Kristin Davidse as Chair, Geoff Williams as Deputy
Vice Chair, Nan Fries as Membership Secretary, Peter Ragan as
Recording Secretary, and Caroline Stainton (UK), William Greaves
(North America), and Susan Feez (Australia) as Treasurers for
their areas. International area representatives include
Louise Ravelli, Michael Cummings, Erich Steiner, Masa-aki
Tatsuki, Gordon Tucker, and Zhuanglin Hu. Congresses were
scheduled for Melbourne in 2000, Ottawa in 2001, Liverpool in
2002, Hyderabad in 2003, Kyoto in 2004, with 2005 open, probably
for Australia although other locations are possible, such as
Mendoza, Argentina.
4. Business arising from the minutes:
None
5. and 6. Treasurers’ reports and reports of finances
of previous meetings
Although none of the official treasurers were present, alternates
made brief reports. Geoff Williams reported $6,693.89 in
the Australian account, with $3000 given to Fran Christie for
seed money; he expected $4,000 surplus from Singapore to be
mailed to Australia. Fran said there was no excess of seed
money to return from the current congress. Jim Benson
reported no change in the Canadian account. Caroline
Stainton sent a statement of 1,872.29 Pounds Sterling. There was
discussion of how much should be reserved for a possible
conference loss and how much reserve could be invested in
interest-bearing accounts.
7. Upcoming congresses
Lynne Young verified the information printed on page 7 of the
current program book. The theme at Carleton University in Ottawa,
Canada, July 22-28, 2001, will be “Interfaces: Systemic
Functional Grammar and Critical Discourse Analysis.”
Speakers will include Ruqaiya Hasan; Norman Fairclough, Jay
Lemke, and Frances Christie. There will be a summer school July 8
to 21, preceding it, like Glendon’s. She has
established a web site at www.carleton.ca/isfc28
Geoff Thompson will convene the Liverpool congress in 2002, V.
Prakasam the Hyderabad congress in 2003, and M. Tatsuki the
congress in Kyoto, August 30 to September 4, 2004. There was
discussion on problems in transferring seed money and other local
issues. Jim Benson recommended that the Executive gather
global information about the dates of the academic year teaching
dates so that local planners could have information available to
weigh the problems, such as weather. The precise dates
would have to be a local decision.
Louise Ravelli formally invited the ISFLA congress to meet at the
University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia in 2005.
Her invitation was accepted. Jim Martin sent a message
offering the University of Sydney for 2008 or 2009, 2010, or as
needed, but it was agreed to avoid planning more than five years
in advance.
8. Discussion about the rotation of congresses and
international regional conferences
We need to be explicit about the cycle and procedures for
implementing it. Because of the good news of our growth, the
four-year cycle sometimes seems too short. We revised it in
1999 by accepting Kyoto for the 2004 venue. Other plans were
discussed, such as a 4-year cycle; a 5-year cycle; and a flexible
schedule with four years as the unmarked option and five years
when a particularly attractive offer is made, which would move
everything forward one year.
It was agreed that five years is not too long to plan
ahead, but any longer is undesirable. Because of the range
of interests, it was agreed to set 30 April as the deadline for
the Executive Committee to receive proposals for a venue five
years in the future.
Geoff Williams said that the Australian association did not want
Australia as the necessarily preferred country. It was
suggested that the North American location be considered as the
Americas, including places in south America, such as
Brazil. Asia is a good floating location, making progress.
International regional conferences in emerging centers were
discussed extensively. There was a great desire to foster
them because they are important academically and socially.
Evidence is the success of the Hyderabad meeting. Money was
found to parachute in keynote speakers, some of whom went on to
Singapore, then southern or northern China. Systemic
linguists in West Africa and Hanoi should also be
supported. Do regional meetings want help organizing or
just speakers? Funding methods discussed included annual
membership fees (which are complicated but not cost effective),
donations to a separate account, using excess funds to sponsor
local delegates, waiving registration fees, and other
ideas. Bernie Mohan moved, and a unanimous vote agreed,
that the Executive Committee consider how to support regional
conferences and report to the next A. G. M.
9. Constitutional matters
None
10. Newsletter
It was concluded that it was time for the Executive Committee to
reconsider Network Light. Only about 100 members lack
e-mail, and it might be possible to mail them a hard copy.
11. Functions of Language
The journal began eight years ago covering compatible schools as
well as Systemic Functional linguistics. Half of the
subscriptions are outside of systemic centers. There is a
great need for more subscriptions, especially institutional
subscriptions, to satisfy the requirements of the publisher, John
Benjamins. Suggestions included offering discounts for new
subscriptions or three-year subscriptions. Kristen Davidse
expressed great appreciation for the large amount of editorial
and graphics work done by Miriam Taverniers. Issue 7-1 is
now in press. There will be no publication of conference
proceedings, but current participants are urged to offer their
presentation to Functions of Language.
12. Announcements of new publications
Besides the books launched on the evening of 10 July, Erich
Steiner, Bernie Mohan, Eija Ventola, and Carolyn Hartnett have
new books out. However, it was agreed in the interests of
saving time now and in the future to cease reporting these at the
A.G.M. and instead to list them on Sysfling with the table of
contents.
13. Any other business
Because Louise Ravelli wants to step down, it was agreed that the
president of the Australian group, Geoff Williams, would become
also the Australian representative to ISFLA.
Kristin Davidse expressed her thanks to many people:
Previous Chair Bernie Mohan advised her. Previous Recording
Secretary Carolyn Hartnett filled in for the absence of the new
secretary, Peter Ragan. The Organising Committee did a
superb job and deserve sincere thanks: Frances Christie,
Kristina Love, Judith Bell-Towers, Sophie Arkoudis, Graeme Baker,
Helen Jenkins, Brian Paltridge, Rosemary McLoughlin, and Helen
Tebble.
The meeting was adjourned on time.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Hartnett, Acting Recording Secretary
Please send her any necessary corrections, hartnett@compuserve.com