Minutes
2018: Rochester Community and Technical College
The 2018 metting of the Society was held on October 3th at the Rochester Community and Technical College, but no bussiness meeting was held due to an insufficient number of persons present (only the the vice president, Brenden Shea and the sectretary treasurer, John Kronen remained for the meeting.)
2017: Saint Cloud State University
The 2017 meeting of the Society was held on November 4th at St. Cloud State University. John Kronen opened the meeting on behalf of Kevin Possin, the Society’s president, who was not in attendance. He tanked Paul Neiman and the philosophy department of St. Cloud State for hosting a well-run meeting. Next Kronen asked if there were any volunteers to host the 2018 meeting—there were none so Jason Ford asked Paul Neiman if he would send out a request for volunteers via email—he agreed.
Next, Kronen read the minutes and reported on the Society’s finances. After that it was time to elect officers. Paul Neiman was elected President by voice vote and John Kronen was re-elected as secretary/treasurer. Since there were no volunteers to host the 2018 meeting, there were no volunteers to become vice president.
There was a brief discussion of how combining the student conference with the regular conference went. Many commented that they thought the students benefitted from combining the conferences, and also that doing so increased attendance.
After this discussion, the meeting was adjourned by voice vote.
2016: Winona State University
The Fall 2016 meeting Winona State University on Nov. 5th. Kevin Possin, the year’s vice president, opened the meeting, since the president, Jamie Hoffman, could not attend. John Kronen, the society’s secretary/treasurer, read the minutes for the 2015 meeting and they were approved by voice vote.
After that it was time to see if any school wished to host the 2017 meeting. No one volunteered. This was followed by a discussion of the fact that there has been an appreciable decline in attendance at meetings over the past several years. Ron Glass pointed out that the Wisconsin Philosophical Association has, for a number of years, hosted the undergraduate meeting of the association along with the regular meeting. This practice has revivified it—the Wisconsin Philosophical Association used to be less active than the Minnesota Philosophical Association (which is the actual name of this organization, by the way, though it is not the one commonly used)—but that has been reversed of late, largely because of having the student conference concurrently with the regular conference. Ron moved that we consider having the MPS adopt the same practice. Someone suggested that the vice president of the society should write to department chairs to see if they would be open to this suggestion, and the vice president agreed to do this. At this point it was noted that the Canadian Philosophical Associate also does concurrent student sessions at its annual conference, as does the South Carolina Philosophical Association, and also that it allows students to chair session, even if they do not present papers.
After this discussion it was time to elect officers. Kevin Possin was elected president and John Kronen was re-elected as secretary treasurer. This was done by voice vote. Since no school had yet agreed to host the 2017 meeting, there were no candidates for vice-president. The president agreed that he would send an email asking for volunteers to host the 2017 meeting. After this the meeting was adjourned. The society currently has $ 790.15 in it's bank account, not counting the $ 200.00 honorarium for this year’s invited speaker.
2015: Normandale Community College
The Fall meeting of the society for 2015 was held at Normandale Community College in Bloomingon MN. Jason Ford, the president for the year, opened the meeting and thank Linda Canzanella and Jamie Hoffman for their work in hosting it. Next John Kronen, the treasurer/secretary of the Society, read the minutes of the 2016 meeting. After finishing, he asked who would be willing to host the student meeting in the Spring of 2016--no one present said their school would be willing to. Next he asked who would be willing to host the 2016 fall meeting of the society and was told that Kevin Possin of Winona State would be willing to.
Next was time to nominate and elect officers. Jamie Hoffman was nominated for president, Kevin Possin for vice president, and John Kronen for secretary/treasurer. All were elected by voice vote.
After this it was time for announcements and a general discussion. There were two announcements, first that the UM Twin Cities hired Sam Fletcher, who works in the philosophy of physics, and second that UMD was interested in hiring someone in Ethics. During the discussion period, one member wonder why younger philosophers don't seem to be very interested in the meetings of the society. Someone noted that there is now more pressure on non-tenured faculty to publish and that presenting at the society doesn't count for much in the area of research any more. Also there is more pressure on them to do administrative work and to get very high teaching numbers. Society meetings still offer an opportunity to receive feedback on papers in progress, but many junior faculty simply find it easier to send their work to others electronically, or to contribute to online discussion groups. It was asked whether schools might use the society's email list to announce speeches, conferences, or other events--the president and vice president agreed that that would be fine and no one present opposed the decision. After that the meeting was adjourned.
2014: U of M Duluth
The fall meeting of the society for 2014 was held at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Sandra Menssen, the President for the year, opened the meeting and thanked Jason Ford and the philosophy department of UMD for hosting the meeting.
Dr. Menssen next asked the secretary/treasurer, John Kronen, to read the minutes of the 2013 meeting, and report on the society's finances. After he finished, Dr. Menssen asked if any schools were willing to host the 2015 spring undergraduate student conference; no one volunteered. Next she asked if any schools were willing to host the 2015 Faculty/Graduate meeting and, again, no one volunteered to.
Next it was time to elect officers by voice vote. Jason Ford was elected president, and John Kronen was elected secretary treasurer. There was a motion to empower the president to appoint as Vice President whomever he could find who would be willing to serve in that role; this motion passed by voice vote.
The meeting concluded with announcements. UMD had two new temporary faculty, Michelle Saint, who specializes the Philosophy of Fiction, Value Theory and Metaphysics, and Sam Taylor, who was standing in for two faculty who had left UMD. It was also announced that David Cole had returned to UMD.
St. Cloud State announced it had hired Sarah Conrad, who specializes Applied Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy.
After these announcements the meeting was adjourned.
2013:The University of St. Thomas
The fall meeting of the society for 2013 was hosted at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Sandra Menssen, the Vice President for the year opened the meeting, thanking all the presenters, including Jorge Garcia, the keynote for the year, and those of her colleagues who had help to prepare for and run the meeting.
After that she had the secretary/treasurer read the minutes of the 2012 meeting (held at. St. Catherine’s) and report on the Society’s finances.
After the secretary’s report, it was time to ask if there were any volunteers to host the 2014 meeting. Eve Browning said the U of M Duluth was willing to host it and nominated Jason Ford for the position of vice president. The next task was to ask if there were any volunteers to host the student meeting in the spring of 2015. Members from Macalaster said that their department was willing to host it.
Next it was time for the election of officers. Jason Ford was elected for the office of Vice President, and John Kronen was re-elected as secretary/treasurer. Both were elected by voice vote.
After the election of officers, vice president Menssen asked if there were any announcements. Members from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse said that they had recently hired Mary Krizan, who specializes in ancient philosophy; members from Mankato State said they had hired Julie Wulfemeyer who specializes in Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Philosopher of Language; and members from Winona State said they had hired Patrick Clipsham, who specializes in Meta-ethics, Moral Psychology, and Applied Ethics.
After the announcements, the meeting was adjourned.
2012: St. Catherine University
The fall 2012 meeting of the MPS was held on Oct. 27 at St. Catherine University. Brandon Cooke, the president for the year, opened the meeting. He thanked Jeff Johnson, the vice president, for hosting the meeting.
Next, John Kronen, the secretary/treasurer of the society read the minutes for the 2011 meeting. After doing so, he noted that, absent the collection taken at the meeting, the soceity only had $100.00 in its account, but also noted that the new practice of charging $15.00 for dues should greatly help with the soceity's finances. He went one to point out that the new web page for the society has more information on it than the old did, including abstracts of papers and copies of some past programs, and he thanks Jeff Johnson for taking the lead in updating the society's web page.
After that, it was time to elect officers. John Kronen nominated Sandra Menssen of St. Thomas to be vice president for the following year, and Linda Canzanella said that Normandale would be willing to host the the 2014 student conference, if no one else came forward (a few weeks later Macalaster offered to host the student conference). Ron Glass nominated John Kronen for the office of secretary/treasurer. After a voice vote, Sandra Menssen was elected as vice president of the society, Jeffrey Johnson was thus automatically made president, and John Kronen was reelected as secretary/treasurer.
Next it was time for announcements. The University of Wisconsin at La Crosse announced it was advertising for a position--possibly two. For the first position they were looking for a person who could teach ancient philosophy and/or sympolic logic up through identity, as well as tradtional Arsitotelian logic. For the possible second position they were looking for a more mature faculty member who might be interested in becomeing chair of the department in the fairly near future. Minnesota State University at Mankato announced a position opening for someeone specializing in epistemology. St. Catherine announced it had hired a new faculty member, Susan Hawthorne, who had received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
2011: Minnesota State University at Mankato
The fall meeting of the MPS for 2011 was held on November 5 at Mankato State University. Linda Canzanella, the president for the year, opened the meeting. She thanked Brandon Cooke, the Vice President, for his excellent work in hosting the meeting.
Next, John Kronen, the secretary/treasurer, read the minutes of the 2010 meeting and reported on the Society’s finances. He noted that, not taking into account the dues collected at the meeting, the society has $252.15 in the bank and that, in his role as treasurer, he made a decision that day he wished to inform the Society of in order to ask whether or not they approved of it. As background he informed the audience that the Society opened an account years ago at Liberty Bank in St. Paul. At that time Liberty bank automatically provided images of all checks deposited into the account. Liberty was later purchased by Associated Bank. At some point last year, Associated Bank began charging a fee for check imaging, $11.00 a month for accounts having a minimum of $250.00 in the bank, and of $17.00 a month for accounts falling below that amount. In the space of six months the Society lost $120.00 in these fees. Associated bank agreed to reverse the fees, leaving the society with $257.15, but the Secretary wished to know if the account could be changed so that the check imaging along with its fee would be dropped. The Banker said it could at a cost of $5.00, and explained that, without the check imaging feature, the account would not be charged at all if it did not drop below a $250.00 minimum, but would be charged $5.00 for every month it did drop below that. The Secretary asked that the banker do this, but wanted to ask the society to vote on this change. The Society members present voted to give the secretary power to see if a credit union or a different community bank could be found that would not charge the Society any fees even if it fell below a certain amount—barring that they voted to keep the change to the Society’s account at Associated Bank that the treasurer had requested be made that day.
After that the President Cananella called on volunteers to host the 2012 meeting. Jeffrey Johnson said that St. Cate’s would do it again if necessary, but it was decided, ultimately, that Linda Canzanella, would send out an email to all members of the society, asking for volunteers.
A discussion ensued concerning attendance at the regular meeting of the society—it seems it is always the same people who attend and that the number of attendees have dwindled over the years. Some mentioned that this may be due to the fact that many area schools expect more from faculty with respect to research than used to be the case and that giving papers at the Society doesn’t count for very much anymore. Others noted that, in general, schools expect more from faculty than they used to and people value their weekend as a time to rest. It was responded to this that, nonetheless, there is a great value in the discussion that occurs between faculty members and graduate students from different area schools and that people giving papers at the MPS can get some really good feedback from MPS commentators and audience members. A few people complained about the Society’s web page saying it is “primitive” by contemporary standards, not updated enough, and lacking in information about the Society and its past that might entice persons to attend Society meetings. Jeffrey Johnson said that in coming up with a Google email address for the Society in hosting the 2010 meeting, the Society also acquired a Google based web page complete with a host of ready made features which, if used, could produce a more attractive web page for the Society. He asked if the secretary/treasurer (who keeps up the old web page) would be interested in working on replacing that web page with the new, enhanced, Google web page. The Secretary said he would be. After this discussion the meeting was adjourned.
2010: Normandale Community College
The regular meeting of the MPS for 2010 was held at Normandale College. Jeffrey Johnson, the President for that year, conducted the business meeting. He thanked the Vice President, Linda Canzanella, and then proceeded to convince her that she had done such an exemplary job that her reward should be to host the student meeting for the year as well!
Next the minutes for the 2009 meeting were read by the Secretary/Treasurer, John Kronen and passed by voice vote. The President then asked for volunteers to host the 2011 meeting—Mankato State offered and its offer was accepted. After that Linda Canzanella (Normandale Community College) was elected by voice vote as President, Brandon Cooke (Mankato State) as Vice President, and John Kronen(University of St. Thomas) was re-elected as Secretary/Treasurer. After a few announcements the meeting was adjourned.
2009: St. Catherine University
The 2009 meeting of the society was held at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. Geoff Gorham , the President for the year opened the meeting by thanking Jeffrey Johnson the Society’s Vice President for the year, as well as St. Kate’s Philosophy department. Next the secretary, John Kronen, read the minutes of the 2008 meeting, which were approved by voice vote. After that it was time to elect officers. Normandale volunteered to host the 2010 meeting and put forth Linda Canzanella’s name for Vice President. She was elected by voice vote, as was John Kronen for Secretary, and Jeffrey Johnson for President. New Hires were announced: Wisconsin at La Crosse had hired Sam Cocks, The College of St. Catherine David Jones, who does moral philosophy, MSU Moorehead Marilea Bramer, who does Ethics and Feminist Philosophy, and Normandale Linda Canzanella. After this it was announced that St. Olaf was looking to hire something in Ancient Philosophy or Ethics, and Winona State an adjunct to teach three to four courses for the department. There were no further announcements before the meeting adjourned.
2008: Macalester College
Doug Knapp, the Society’s president for the year, started the meeting. He thanked Geoffrey Goram and Macalaster for hosting it and announced that Macalaster would also host the student conference in the spring. Next he brought up the topic of carbon energy emissions, which was the topic of the talk of last year’s featured speaker. Doug suggested that the society give an annual contribution to an organization like Native Energy that would take that money and use it to support non-carbon based sources of energy. This passed by voice vote and it was determined that the society would contribute $30.00 a year to such an organization.
Next the secretary/treasurer read last years minutes which were passed by voice vote. After that it was time to elect the officers. John Kronen was re-elected secretary treasurer, Geoffrey Goram was elected President, and Jeffry Johnson of St. Catherine’s was elected vice president. St. Benedict’s and St. John’s offered to host the student conference in the spring of 2010.
After this new faculty were announced. UMD hired Tristram McPherson, who works in ethics, and The University of Minnesota at Morris also hired a person in Ethics. Macalaster hired Geoffrey Gormam; The College of St. Catherine hired Jeffrey Johnson, and Anoka Ramsey Community College hired Kristin Klamm.
2007: Inver Hills Community College
David Cole, president of the society, opened the meeting by thanking Doug Knapp and Inver Hills for a wonderful meeting. He next asked the secretary to read the minutes of the 2006 meeting and to report on the Society’s finances. After the secretary read these, the president asked for a motion to pass them—the motion was made, seconded and passed. Next came the inroduction of new members—Sean Walsh, UMD, Ethics; Andy Platt, St. Cloud State, Modern; Emily Esch, St. John/St. Benedict, Philosophy of Mind; Lisa Bergin, Hamline, Feminism, Environmental Ethics; Elizabeth Arnold, Inver Hills; Kristen Peterson, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.
The introduction of new members was followed by announcements. UMD has money for a colloquium series, if you would like to give a paper there contact David Cole or Jason Ford. St. Cloud State will host the central states philosophical meeting in the fall of 2008 the last weekend in September. UMD announced it would be advertising for a joint position in ethics/political theory with the political science department; Moorhead that it would be advertising for a potion in feminism, St. Cloud State that it would be advertising for two positions, one in business ethics the other in ancient or modern, St. Thomas that it would be advertising for an open position for anyone familiar with and respectful of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
The meeting closed with the election of officers. Doug Knapp was automatically elected to the position of president and John Kronen was reelected as Secretary/Treasurer. No one offered to host either the spring student conference or the 2008 regular conference. [Later, in March, St. Olaf offered to host both conferences next year.] The last entailing that no one ran for the position of vice president of the society.
2006: University of Minnesota at Duluth
David Cole, the Vice President of the Society, opened the meeting on behalf of the president, Sandra Menssen, who could not attend due to illness. After thanking the secretary/treasurer of the society and all who had helped organize the conference, he had the secretary read the minutes of the 05 meeting and report on the society's finances. When the secretary finished reading his exciting minutes it was time to elect new officers. Unfortunately, as had happened in 05 as well, no one came forward to volunteer to be the vice president of the society for 06. Nor did anyone say they would "consider" it, perhaps remembering that David Cole had said he would consider it at the 05 meeting. The vice president therefore asked members to go back to their respective departments and plead with them to consider hosting the meeting for 07. (Later that week Doug Knapp, of Inver Hills Community College, said that his department would be willing to host the meeting in 07 and that he would be willing to be the vice president of the society.) After this it was time for announcements and the introduction of new members. Jaimi Hoffman and Mark Newman were new members teaching at UMD Duluth. Bob Vitorin-Vangerud was a new member teaching at North Hennepin Community College. Heather Wainwright was a new member teaching at Argosy University/Twin cities. Dan Allan was a new member teaching at Inver Hills Community College. Following the announcement of new members the floor was open for any other announcements members wanted to make. David Cole said that UMD was still looking to hire a person in ethics. Kate Gill announced that St. Cloud State would be sponsoring the Midwest meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy later in October, and that it would be hosting the annual student conference of the MPS in the spring. After these announcements the meeting was adjourned.
2005: University of St. Thomas
The 2005 meeting of the Society was held at the University of St. Thomas. Craig Matarrese, the president of the Society for 2005, opened the meeting and thanked Sandra Menssen, the Society's vice president, for her work in hosting the conference. Dr. Menssen then spoke. She thanked Professor Felicitas Munzel, a Kant scholar from Notre Dame and the keynote speaker for the 2005 conference, as well as John Kronen, Jon Van Ingen, Michael Rota, and Nicole Mass for their help in organizing the conference. After that the Society's secretary/treasurer, John Kronen, read the minutes from last year's meeting and reported on the society's finances. The next order of business, one that is always anticipated with bated breath, was to be the election of the new vice president and the choice of the hosting school for 2006. Unfortunately, no one came forward to volunteer to host the 2006 conference and so there were, for once, no candidates whatsoever to run in the, usually hotly contested, race to be vice president of the Society. The disappointment at not being witness to the normally very exiting election of the vice president was palpable to those gathered in the Roggie Layden room who had just finished a delectable lunch and were greatly enjoying the business meeting of the society up to that point!!! Someone (the secretary believes it was Doug Lewis) did, however, nominate David Cole as vice president and Dr. Cole graciously said he would think about accepting the nomination to this illustrious office. After this it was time for announcements. David Cole said that Doc Mayo was leaving U of M Duluth to take an early retirement and that the department, therefore, wuld have an opening for some one in ethics or ethical theory in particular, as well as in the philosophy of science and/or epistemology. He also said that his department would have a limited term position in the spring. Finally he noted that he would like to invite members of the society interesting in giving papers to come up to Duluth to present them to the department. The department would have time to sponsor them on Wednesdays or Fridays. New members were announced at the end, but the secretary was unable to clearly hear their names. He did hear, however, that the University of Minnesota as Morris had two new members. The secretary requests that those schools who have hired new members and would like their names to appear in the minutes of the Society should not only announce the names of those members but should present the secretary, after the meeting, with the names of those members under the names of the schools they teach at. After the announcements the business meeting was adjourned.
2004: Minnesota State University at Mankato
The 2004 regular meeting of the society was held at Mankato State University. The president of the Society, Vicky Harper, opened the meeting, and began by thanking the Vice President, Craig Matarrese, for organizing the meeting. After these remarks the president opened the floor for announcements. Mark Chekola announced that Minnesota State University in Moorehood was looking to hire someone in the area of feminism or applied ethics. David Cole announced that the University of Minnesota at Duluth was looking to hire someone in the area of analytic philosophy. The University of Wisconsin in Eu Claire was looking to hire someone in epistemology or the philosophy of mind. Richard Liebendorfer announced that Mankato was looking to hire two or maybe three persons, in the areas of aestethics and or the philosophy or religion, the philosophy of science, and, perhaps, in the area of ethics. John Kronen announced that St. Thomas was looking to hire two or three persons with the AOS and AOC open, but with a preference for someone with an AOS or AOC in non-Western Philosophy. Finally, Carleton College was looking to hire someone in a limited term position in the areas of either ancient philosophy or the philosophy of mind. After these job announcements it was time to introduce the new members of the Society. These were as follows: Derick Brown from the University of Minnesota at Duluth, Michael Katz from the U of M, Twin Cities, and Ellen Maccorone from St. Cloud State.
After this the Secretary/Treasurer of the Society read the minutes of last year's meeting and reported on the Society's finances. After his report the President announced that St. Thomas had agreed to host the 2005 regular meeting as well as the 2006 student meeting, and that Sandra Menssen was willing to be elected Vice President of the Society. It was further announced that Macalaster would host the 2005 student meeting of the society. This was followed by the election of officers. Sandra Menssen was elected to be Vice President, Craig Matarrese to be President, and John Kronen was re-elected as Secretary/Treasurer.
The election of officers was followed by a discussion of current trends in education and the effect these trends are having on philosophy departments. Mark Checola noted that in his school technological changes were allowing the philosophy department to reach out to the local community through a popular program called "philosophy for all". Vicky Harper said that a lot of schools are struggling with juggling the demands put on students by the liberal arts core with the demands put on them by their majors. Another member mentioned that at some schools there is now a writing intensive requirement and that at his school the philosophy department delivers over 40% of that requirement. David Cole mentioned that at the U of M Duluth there is an advanced writing intensive requirement for all liberal arts majors but that philosophy majors can now elect to take an upper division philosophy course that will also fulfill the writing requirement. After this discussion the meeting was adjourned.
2003: St. Olaf
The regular meeting of the Society for 2003 was held at St. Olaf, Northfeild. The President, Wade Savage, opened the meeting. He thanked the Vice President and Program Chair, Vicky Harper, for organizing the conference. He next thanked the Secretary/Treasurer John Kronen, and said he would like to thank St. Olaf himself, but regretted that that was not possible since the Saint was not present at the meeting of the Society! Dr. Savage next made a few announcements bearing on the appropriate disposal of food and metal cans. Corlis Swain, of St. Olaf, announced the upcoming Malcolm Lectures hosted by the St. Olaf philosophy department and concerned with various moral aspects of forgiveness. Vicky Harper announced a special tour of an historic library on the St. Olaf campus (I cannot spell the name of the august place).
Next the President asked the Secretary to read the minutes of the 2002 meeting. After he did so he noted that there are still some problems with the member list. There are actually two lists, a list the Secretary inherited from the previous Secretary, Michael Degnan, which he has been trying to keep up to date over the years, and another list Kate Gill assembled when the Secretary was in Paris for a semester. The old list is arranged by school, and has a concluding section of unaffiliated philosophers; the new list is arranged in alphabetical order. Both lists are on the Society's Web page, but both are plagued with errors and neither is complete. After some discussion about what to do with the lists the secretary agreed he would first compare the two lists and make any changes to the old list necessary in light of the information in the new list. He would then send the corrected list around to all department chairs by email and ask them to make any corrections or emendations to it. The Secretary said that he could do this himself and did not need to have the Society hire an assistant worker to do so. Doug Lewis was incredulous that the Secretary would actually accomplish this task any time during his life, let alone in time for next year's meeting. The Secretary assured Dr. Lewis he would accomplish this task. Dr. Lewis said he would hold the Secretary to this, under threat of replacing him with a more responsible and capable secretary.
The next item of business concerned the host for the 2004 regular meeting of the Society. Two schools contacted Dr. Savage just the night before to say that they would be willing to host the 2004 meeting, to wit, Mankato State University and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. After some discussion it was decided that Mankato State would host the 2004 meeting, and that Craig Materise would be the the Vice President for next year. Vicky Harper, thereby ascended to the position of President, and John Kronen was re-elected as Secretary (mainly because no one else wanted this rather thankless and boring position and not because of any particular virtue possessed by the Secretary).
The next item of business was the determination of who should host the 2004 student conference. After a suggestion by Doug Lewis St. Olaf volunteered to host the 2004 student conference. After this the next order of business was the announcement of new members: Peter Hanks from the U of M Twin Cities; John Bruss from St. Olaf; Sean McAleer from Wisconsin, Eu Claire; Greg Peterson from South Dakota State; Michelle Speidel from Mankato, and Kyle Swan from the U of M. Duluth..
After this the President opened up the floor for announcements from members. David Cole said that Doc Mayo would like people to contact him if they would like to give a colloquium in the Spring at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Ronald Glass, of the University of Wisconsin, said he thought it a shame that the technology schools acquire for distance education is not used to broadcast philosophical presentations from one school which has members in the society to others that do. Dr. Glass believes it might help students smitten with philosophy that there are other people "like them" elsewhere in the universe. He suggested that the University of Minnesota Twin Cities look into this possibility.
After this the meeting was adjourned.
2002: University of Minnesota Twin Cities
This year's meeting of the society was held at the U of M, Twin Cities. Kate Gill, the co-president (along with Jean Keller) of the society for 2002-2003, opened the meeting. She thanked Wade Savage, the vice-president, for all the work he did in preparing for the meeting. Wade Savage next thanked all the presenters and commentators at the meeting, as well as Doug Lewis, Susan Wittle, Romona Lillia, and the philosophy department secretary for all the work they did in helping to co-ordinate the meeting.
Next, John Kronen, the secretary/treasurer of the society, read the minutes for last year's meeting. His minutes passed by voice vote. He then informed the society that it currently has $702.13 in its bank account. He noted that this is probably due to the fact that the society no longer needs to pay for the mailings which used to be associated with upcoming meetings since host schools now send information about meetings over the web and via email. He asked the members of the society to think about what they might want to do with the money the society currently has.
This was followed by the introduction of new members from the chairs of various schools. After new members were introduced, Kate Gill asked Gene Mason to say something about the history of the society. This was prompted in part because some members were under the impression that the society is only about twenty years old. But Professor Mason recalled a meeting of the society in 1958 at Carleton College at which Herbert Feigl spoke on the identity of the mind and the brain. After his brief presentation, the president asked the secretary if he had any past minutes or announcements he could assemble to inform members of the history of the society. He said he did and that he would attempt to do this over the next year.
Next Professor Gill announced that the University of Minnesota would host the 2003 student conference, and said that St. Olaf had volunteered to host next year's regular meeting. The discussion then turned to the question of the list of members and how to keep it updated. The secretary said that the there is a list of members published on the Web, organized by institution, and that the most efficient way to keep it updated would be for department chairs to email him information concerning any new members they have.
Next there was a discussion of how the list should be used. Could schools use it to send members announcements about talks they are hosting which are not sponsored by MPS, for instance? It seemed to be agreed that this would be no problem, and that the rule of thumb here would be that the list may be used to convey any information to members which would be conveyed to them via a society newsletter, if the society had one!
This discussion was followed by a number of announcements concerning upcoming conferences and lectures. Finally the president turned to the election of officers for 2003-2004. John Kronen was re-elected to be secretary/treasurer, Wade Savage was elected to be president, and Vicky Harper was elected to be vice president. The meeting then adjourned.
2001: Saint Benedict
The 2001 meeting was held at Saint Benedict's and was co-sponsored by Saint John's . Gary Pech, the president for 2001-2002, opened the meeting. The first order of business was the election of officers. A motion was made to make Kate Gill and Jean Keller co- presidents for 2002-2003. The motion passed by voice vote. Next a motion was made to make Wade Savage vice-president for 2002-2003. The motion passed by voice vote.
The election of the officers was followed by a discussion of what to do with the dues collected at the meeting. A motion was made to give the money to the American Red Cross. This motion passed, and a total of $ 335.00 was given to the American Red Cross by the society last year.
The next order of business was to select a site for the student conference in the spring of 2002. Bethel volunteered to host the conference and their offer was accepted.
P.S. I was unable to attend this meeting and so am relying on information conveyed to me by other members of the society.