Australasian Drama Studies
Executive meeting
Wednesday July 2nd 2008
The Rehearsal Room
Allen Hall
University of Otago
The meeting opened at 6.30pm with Jonathan Bollen in the Chair
1. Attendance and Apologies
Those present: Jonathan Bollen (President), David Williams (Executive Member at
Large), Stuart Young and Jerry Jaffe (Current Conference Convenors), Adrian
Kiernander (Executive Member responsible for Linkages), Ian Maxwell (Secretary),
Glen McGillivray Geoffrey Milne (Representative for Australasian Drama Studies),
Maggi Phillips (Executive Member, Regional; Convenor, Next Conference), Joanna
Winchester (Postgraduate Representative) and Meredith Rogers (Treasurer and
Current Conference Convenor).
Apology: Gaye Poole (Vice-President)
2. Minutes of Previous Executive Meeting
Stuart Young requested the following amendments to the mnutes of the 2007
Executive Meeting:
1. that the dates of the current conference be amended in the minutes; and
2 that the full name of the conference (“Turangawaewae: A Sense of Place”) be used.
The minutes were then adopted as a true and faithful record of the 2007 meeting
(moved Geoffrey Milne; seconded Meredith Rogers).
3. Business arising
There was no business arising.
4. President’s Report
Jonathan Bollen reported on three matters:
1. The state of the Association’s membership, which has remained steady at around
104;
2. The new Content Management System for the Association’s website is ready to go;
and
3. Postgraduate completions and members’ movements as follows:
Completions:
Daniel Johnston (University of Sydney; PhD)
Celina McEwen (University of Sydney; PhD)
David Williams (U.N.S.W.; PhD)
Briony Tresize (U.N.S.W.; PhD)
Rosie Klich (U.N.S.W.; PhD)
Meredith Rogers (University of Melbourne; M.C.A.)
Appointments
Pauline Manley (Macquarie University)
Kate Rossmanith (Macquarie University)
Glen McGillivray (University of Sydney)
Rosemary Farrell (La Trobe University Albury-Wodonga)
Paul Moore (University of Ulster)
Andrew Filmer (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
Gillian Arrighi (University of Newcastle)
Stuart Grant (Monash University)
5. Treasurer’s Report
Meredith Rogers tabled a report for financial year 2007-8, summarised as follows:
Expenditure: $13,359.10
Income: $35,491.51
At bank June 2, 2008: $38,474.72
Meredith clarified that the bank fees item at Expenditures consisted of internet
banking fees and merchant fees, and indicated her intention to close down the
unnecessary internet banking facility.
It was resolved that the Term Deposit be extended to one year to take advantage of
more favourable interest rates (moved David Williams; seconded Geoffrey Milne).
The report was accepted (moved Delyse Ryan; seconded Joanna Winchester).
6. Elections for Executive
The Returning Officer, Ian Maxwell reported that at the close of nominations, he had
received the following nominations;
President: Ian Maxwell
Vice-President: Bree Hadley
Secretary: David Williams
Treasurer: Meredith Rogers
Executive Member (Regional): Janys Hayes
Executive Member (at large): David O’Donnell
Executive Member (linkages): Adrian Kiernander
Next conference convenor: Maggi Phillips
These nominees were declared elected unopposed.
The Postgraduate Caucus reported that they had met and recommended that two
members join the Executive:
Joanna Winchester and
Edwin Creely.
Jonathan Bollen takes up an Executive position as Immediate Past President.
7. Membership
The Treasurer reported that the renewal process, involving sending out reminder
notices early in the year, is working. As at 29th June, 2008, membership stands at:
Individual members: 80
Student members: 27
Honorary life members: 13
Based upon figures over the past two years, we might expect a further 20
memberships to be taken out during the current conference.
8. Prizes and Rotation of Judges
There are to be awards in all prize categories, to be announced tomorrow (July 4th)
For 2009, the following judges will adjudicate:
• Marlis Thiersch Prize for a Scholarly Article by a Member
David O’Donnell, Laura Ginters and Alison Richards.
• Philip Parsons Prize for Performance as Research
David Fenton (convenor) and 2008 awardee.
• Rob Jordan Prize for a Book by a Member
Tom Burvill, Maryrose Casey and Geoffrey Milne.
• The Veronica Kelly Prize for best paper by a Postgraduate at the Annual
Conference will be convened by Maryrose Casey, with the assistance of a
‘Kelly Gang’ of colleagues at the next conference.
It was noted that Katharine Brisbane is an ‘ex officio’ member of the Philip Parsons
Prize panel. Ian Maxwell undertook to write to Katharine to bring her up to date with
recent awards, and to see whether she is interested in playing an active role in future
assessments.
9. Conferences
9.1 2007: Meredith Rogers tabled an 8 page report on the La Trobe/Melbourne
University conference, including an impressive budget statement which shows a
$5005.70 profit.
9.2 2008: Jerry Jaffe reported that “it’s going quite well”, and acknowledged that the
whole thing “rested on the shoulders of having a wonderful conference organiser”,
who had willingly taken on all the worries of everyone involved. Jerry explained that
Claire had been employed for nine months leading up to the conference, gradually
taking on a larger workload as the conference approached.
9.3 2009: Perth, to be co-hosted by Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and
the University of Western Australia. The theme will be ‘BOOM or Bust’, and
keynotes will include Susan Melrose U.K.), Jane Goodall (Australia), Per Brahae
(Denmark), Keiji Sawada (Japan) and, hopefully, Tim Etchells (U.K.). Negotiations
with potential collaborators, including the Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts are
well advanced.
Responding enthusiastically to the report, Jonathan Bollen requested that the
convenors give some thought to reviving the Plenary Postgraduate/Early Career
Panel.
9.4 2010, 2011 and beyond . . . There was some talk of the possibility of Flinders
University for 2010, and mention was made of a tentative expression of interest from
Auckland University for 2011.
10. Postgraduate Report
Joanna Winchester reported that plans to develop a regular postgraduate news and
notices section on the ADSA website were hampered by the problem of generating
content. She spoke of the general problem of the isolation of postgrads, particularly
due to various restructures which have reduced the coherence of discipline-based
departments.
The postgraduate caucus will meet on July 4th to elect representative(s) for the
Executive.
11. Publications
11.1 Australasian Drama Studies
With characteristically wry understatement, Geoffrey Milne reported that ADS is “still
happening”. The October 2008 issue is nearly ready, and April 2009 is gathering
momentum. Recent conferences have generated an ample sufficiency of strong
papers.
Future feature issues:
October 2009: New Zealand and the Pacific (Jerry Jaffe and Hilary Halba eds)
October 2010: on teaching (Lesley Delmenico and Gaye Poole eds)
October 2011: interculturalism (Wil Petersen and Maryrose Casey eds)
The journal continues to do well financially, both through healthy ADSA membership
and through copyright payments for reproduced material from the back catalogue.
11.2 Performance Paradigm # 4 has just been published, as has About Performance 8.
It was also noted that the most recent issue of Research in Drama Education (13:2,
2008) co-edited by Helen Gilbert included a strong representation by early-career
A.D.S.A. members: Caroline Wake, Rand Hazou and David Williams.
Ian Maxwell reported that Being There: After, the refereed conference proceedings of
the 2006 A.D.S.A. conference have now been published on-line through the
University of Sydney’s e-scholarship repository.
12. Research report
12.1 AusStage
Jonathan Bollen reported that phase three of the AusStage project has been going
strongly. There will be a meeting on Friday July 4th, immediately following this
conference to plan the next phase.
12.2 Excellence in Research for Australia (E.R.A.)
The Australian Research Council (A.R.C.) has distributed a draft list of journals with
proposed rankings as part of the E.R.A. initiative. University Research Offices have
been asked to recommend amendments to the lists, although discipline-based bodies
such as A.D.S.A. have not. Nonetheless, A.D.S.A. is developing a response. Veronica
Kelly, Peta Tait, Jules Holledge and Joanne Tompkins have prepared a draft list,
which is to be circulated at the A.G.M. and then posted on the A.D.S.A. website. The
incoming A.D.S.A. president will then co-ordinate a submission to the A.R.C. on
A.D.S.A.’s behalf.
12.3 Performance as Research.
No report.
13. Advocacy
13.1 Ian Maxwell is moving ahead with a research project intended to create a clear
picture of the status of the ‘theatre-plus’ disciplines across Australasia.
13.2 Jonathan Bollen reported that he had made representations on behalf of A.D.S.A.
to the Vice-Chancellors of the University of Western Sydney and Griffith University,
seeking stays of execution for the performance departments at each institution. In both
cases, there were poor results. The department at Griffith has now gone, and the
discipline area has been radically transformed at U.W.S..
Jonathan suggested that the lesson learnt is of the difficulty of having an impact upon
university decision-making processes, and suggested that A.D.S.A. pursue a strategy
of forging strategic alliances, and to encourage members’ careers, so that they can
attain senior position within institutions.
13.3 The Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Canterbury,
Christchurch has been saved from the threat of axing. The colleagues from
Canterbury will be convening a session at the conference tomorrow (July 3rd) to
reflect upon their situation and the campaign to save the department.
14. Liaison with other organisations
14.1 C.H.A.S.S. (The Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences) has been quiet
in recent months.
14.2 There is not much to report on other organisations with regard to A.D.S.A.
15. Any Other Business
15.1 Ian Maxwell reported that a delegate had approached him with the idea of
A.D.S.A. commissioning a carving or other artwork for the Arai-te-uru Marae, where
conference delegates were welcomed at the beginning of this conference. It was
decided to offer cautious support for such an idea, pending getting an idea of the
potential cost of such a gesture.
15.2 Ian Maxwell reported his intention to develop a model for institutional
membership for A.D.S.A., with a view to off-setting the cost of attending the annual
conference for postgraduates.
15.3 It was reported that plans are in train for a C.W.A. (Country Women’s
Association)-style send-off for Veronica Kelly in Brisbane next summer.
There being no further business, the meeting was closed at 7.55pm.