Minutes of the Australasian Drama Studies Association

Executive Meeting

Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Wednesday 2 July, 2003

1.      Attendance

Maryrose Casey, John Downie, Julie Holledge, Veronica Kelly, Adrian Kiernander, Paul Makeham, Geoffrey Milne, Ben Payne, Delyse Ryan

2.      Apologies

Peter Eckersall, Helena Grehan, Peter Hammond, Joanne Tompkins

3.      Business arising from most recent e-mail meetings

·        Membership problems (Ailsa McPherson?s work)

·        Difficulties with e-mail meetings

·        Rotation of Judges for the awards

4.      President's Report

·        ADS is going along well. It is financially on an even keel.

·        There has been a concerted effort made to increase the association?s membership.

·        Ailsa McPherson has been employed to help boost the membership. She went through past lists of members from the last five years and wrote letters encouraging them to rejoin.

·        Ailsa also worked on some brochures and posters for advertising.

·        We need to keep looking at ways of tightening up the membership and encouraging people to remain financial.

·        The current arrangement for the collection of membership needs to be looked at seriously.

·        Currently ADSA membership is intricately linked with the journal. We might need to look at ways of linking the membership to the conference fee instead. Richard Fotheringham used to set up a table at the Conference to collect memberships. Cathy Squirrel currently keeps a good membership database and we should put some money aside for her to do an annual membership blitz.

o       The discussion around this issue focused on how good it was to have multiple mechanisms in place to catch non-members

o       It would be good to keep the journal connection, the point of paper acceptance, and at the Conference itself as membership collection points.

o       However, a more systematic approach probably needs to be point in place. (eg a printout of the most up-to-date membership list should be given to the Conference Convener a few days prior to the conference for cross-checking)

·        We will be putting a motion to the AGM regarding a possible name change for the association. The proposed name will be the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance, but we will retain the ADSA acronym.

5.      Treasurer's Report

In Joanne?s absence Richard Fotheringham has prepared an Assistant Treasurer?s report which will be tabled at the AGM. The Executive decided that retired people are eligible to pay student rates on their membership fees.

6.      AusStage Report

·        The second round of funding was successful.

·        AusStage has been selected as one of 12 research projects to be presented in Canberra at the National Arts Research Showcase.

·        The website can be found at:   www.ausstage.edu.au

·        The government is forcing us to shift the paradigms of what is research. We have to look at new ways of doing research.

o       We need a pool of money for the creative arts which will be used by academics, practitioners, and Australia Council.

o       The idea is to create a Research Network.

o       The grant will be for $2.5million

7.      Ailsa McPherson?s work for ADSA

·        See notes under the president?s report

·        Ailsa has prepared a list of Australian universities who have an interest in Drama. (We need to expand this to include New Zealand and other Australasian institutions).

·        Ailsa will also be working on a Poster and Postcards to help with publicizing the association.

8.      2003 Conference:

·        Held at Australian Catholic University, Brisbane (in association with ASAL, Winter)

·        A successful joint conference with ASAL

·        The question arose about paying guest speakers.

o       The practice of past conferences (and this conference) has been to give guest speakers a nice gift if they are on an academic wage. If they are freelance writers/performers/etc then an honorarium has been offered.

9.      2004 Conference:

·        Held at Victoria University of Wellington (30 June-3 July 2004)

10.   2005 Conference:

·        Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga  (Winter)

11. Prizes:

Rotation of Judges will need to occur at AGM

a.      Philip Parsons Prize report

· There will be an award in 2003

· Judges for next year: Helena Grehan and Jonathan Bollen plus new person

b.     Marlis Thiersch Award report

· There will be an award in 2003

· Judges for next year: Joanne Tompkins and Maryrose Casey plus new person

c.      Rob Jordan Award report

· no award in 2003

· Judges for next year: Bill Dunstone and Gay McAuley plus new person

d.     Best Postgraduate Paper prize

· Inaugural Award to made in 2003.

· Members of the Executive will take notes on the forms that were e-mailed prior to the conference and confer before making the award after the last conference session.

12. CHAUTSI Report

·        Nothing to report

       13. ATHE Report

·        Tomorrow?s panel featuring Peta Tait, Jonathan Bollen, and Jules Holledge will be a test-run for the ATHE conference.

14. Publications Report

·        The journal only had one issue last year but it has produced three issues this year.

·        There have been no specific ADSA publications and there are not likely to be any more.

15. Postgraduates? Report by Ben Payne

·        Started a mailing list in an attempt to get people chatting

·        Sometimes this works

·        Wanting to create a Register of Theses

16. Any Other Business

·        Executive Nomination Forms are available for the election of office-bearers.