2011 October 27 Meeting minutes

The meeting was convened at 4:01 p.m. in the Case Room of the Special Collections Department of the Rutgers University Libraries by Dr. Marc Mappen, who was standing in for Dr. Maxine N. Lurie at her request.

Attendance: Ben Beede, Raymond Frey, Marc Mappen, Gordon Bond, Laura Poll, Carla Zimmerman, Ron Becker, Bonita Craft Grant, Paul Israel, Joe Corabas, and Barbara Pepe.

Old Business.

Mappen presented the minutes of the May 21, 2011, meeting. Grant moved acceptance of those minutes. The motion was seconded by Zimmerman, and it was passed unanimously.

Grant, NJSAA Treasurer, reported that the organization has an account balance of $1,568.40, as of October 26, 2011. A copy of the complete report is attached.

Acceptance of the report was moved, seconded, and approved unanimously.

1. Membership Report. New and renewals. (Zimmerman)

There are currently seventy-one paid members.

2. Committee on Authors Awards. (Leinaweaver)

Four awards were made for 2011:

Non-fiction Scholarly Category

Ezra Shales. Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in te Progressive Era. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2010.

Non-fiction Popular Category

Michael S. Adelberg. The American Revolution in Monmouth County: The Theater of Spoil and Destruction. Charleston, SC: History Press. 2010.

Non-fiction Reference Category

Joseph H. Bilby, ed. New Jersey Goes to War: Biographies of 150 New Jerseyans Caught Up in the Struggle of the Civil War. Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House. 2010.

Fiction and Poetry Category

Irene Fleming. The Edge of Ruin. Emily Weiss Mystery ed. New York: Minotaur Books, Macmillan. 2010.

3. Committee on the Award for a Librarian. (Becker)

Bonita Grant was given the award for 2011. Becker noted that there were "many good submissions," which may be useful in future years.

4. Committee on Teaching Awards. (Lucibello/Mappen)

Mappen stated that the report is not ready for submission.

5. New Jersey Historical Commission Annual Conference. November 19, 2011.

The teaching award will be given at this conference.

6. Stellhorn Award Committee (Waldron)

There were nineteen submissions for this award. The first place was won by Taylor H. Desloge of Princeton University for "'Help the Ladies': Public and Private Vision in Women's Historical Preservation at the Old Barracks in Trenton, 1899-1919." Nominating Professor: Alison Eisenberg. The second place went to Emma Curran Donnell Hulse of Columbia University for "The Black City: Remembering Newark in the Era of Black Power." Nominating Professor: Alice Kessler-Harris; and to Eric Schkrutz of Rutgers University for "Urban Development in the City of Traveler: the Story of New Brunswick and Why It May Never Resolve Its Identity Crisis." Nominating Professor: Alison Eisenberg.

7. NJSAA Lecture Series. Schedule of Events for 2011-12 (Grant)

Grant will ask the current Stellhorn Award winners to speak on January 12, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. in the Pane Room of the Alexander Library, Rutgers University,

New Brunswick, New Jersey. Their presentation will be presided by a NJSAA business meeting from 3:00 to 3:45 p.m. in the Case Room.

8. Proposal for an award for a graduate paper. (Israel)

This proposal refers to papers prepared in graduate courses, but it excludes dissertations.

9. Report on non-profit status of the NJSAA (Grant and Becker)

The committee on this issue has received the name of a contact at the Internal Revenue Service. The suggestion was made that New Jersey Lawyers for the Arts might assist use in this matter.

New Business.

1. Other business - updating committee memberships.

Current lists of committee members were distributed and verified.

2. Member news.

Gordon Bond's compilation of articles is coming out shortly as a publication of the Historical Press.

Laura Poll's has prepared two new exhibits for the Monmouth County Historical Society.

Joe Corabas is working on a book about New Jersey land titles.

Raymond Frey is writing a history of Centenary College, which will be issued in 2012 by Acadia Press.

Marc Mappen 's latest book deals with criminals of the Prohibition era, but it is not restricted to New Jersey people.

Maxine Lurie's collection of essays on New Jersey history will be issued by the Rutgers University Press.

3. Next meeting.

As noted, the next NJSAA meeting will be convened in the Case Room at 3:00 p.m. on January 12, 2012.

Respectfully submitted,

Benjamin R. Beede