2012 December 4 meeting minutes
New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance
Minutes of the December 4, 2012 meeting
Alexander Library at Rutgers-New Brunswick
Members and Guests Present: George Apgar, Ron Becker, Benjamin R. Beede, John Beekman, Raymond Frey, Bonita Craft Grant, Pail Israel, Chad Leinaweaver, Maxine N. Lurie, Tom McCabe, Marc Mappen, Elizabeth Picirillo, Jean Picirillo, Louis Picirillo, Louis Picirillo Jr., Laura Poll, Gary Saretzky, Kathryn Sinclair, Julia Telonidis, Richard Waldron, Lorraine Williams, Carla Zimmerman.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
Treasurers Report. Bonita presented the report. Our account balance is $816.79. Cash on hand is $218.05. The report was approved.
Membership Report. Carla stated that we have sixty-five paid members, including eight who joined since our last meeting. Dues reminders will go to twenty-seven unpaid members. Benjamin Beede suggested that we seek members from among authors who have written about New Jersey. Marc said he would be glad to put out a solicitation notice on the New Jersey History listserv.
Author Awards Committee. Chad announced the 2012 winners, as listed in the previous NJSAA meeting. Nonfiction scholarly: McCabe, Miracle on High Street; nonfiction popular, Zink, The Roebling Legacy; edited works: Lurie (ed) New Jersey Anthology 2nd edition; reference: Sinclair and Fowler (eds) Railroads and New Jersey.
Committee on Awards for a Librarian. Ron Becker reported that Joe DaRold of the Plainfield Public Library won the award, which was presented at Archives and History Day.
Committee on Teacher Awards: Maxine reported that the award recipients were Don Wefing of Seton Hall Law School and Roseanne Lichatin of West Morris Regional High School. The awards were presented at the New Jersey Forum in November. Maxine opined that in the future we could find candidates for the award among teachers who participate in NJ History Day, and visit archives and libraries in the state.
Stellhorn Award Committee for undergraduate papers. Dick Waldron stated that at the NJ Forum on November 17, the student authors of the winning term paper and the winning senior thesis gave presentations. The Stellhorn prizes went to two College of New Jersey students:
-Lauren A. Wells of Kendall Park, for her senior thesis titled, “The Early Roots of School Desegregation: Hedgepeth-Williams, Trenton, and the History behind Brown v. Board of Education, 1943-1954.”
-Trevor J. McLaughlin of West Caldwell, for his seminar paper titled, “A View from the Chalkboard: Trenton School Desegregation and the Struggle of Black Teachers in the Pre-Brown era, 1944-1954.”
Award for a graduate student paper. Paul reported that seven submissions had been received and that the following were selected for award:
- Steven Eliot of NJIT for his paper on “Sustaining the Revolution: Civil-Military Relations, Republicanism and the Continental Army’s 1780 Morristown Encampment”
-Laurie Lahey of George Washington University for her paper “Too Much Singing: Christianity and the Limitations of Nonviolence in the Ghetto.”
Paul will send the contact information to Bonita so that she can send out checks to the award winners.
NJSAA Lecture Series: Bonita has the names of prospective speakers and is seeking more prospects.
Planning for 350th anniversary of the State of New Jersey in 2014. Maxine stated that the committee to plan the state wide celebration has moved along under the direction of the NJ Historical Commission. Obtaining state government funds will be difficult in light of the damage to the economy done by Hurricane Sandy. Among the projects of the committee is to assemble a list of 350th anniversary conferences, exhibits, possible book projects, encourage local government agencies and historical societies to present programs, and gain widespread recognition of the role New Jersey has played in the nation. Members of the NJSAA interested in participating in the planning are encouraged to contact the Historical Commission about joining one of the six subcommittees now working on plans for this year long event.
New Business:
- Work continues on registering as a nonprofit. Adoption of the new by-laws, with its clearer mission statement is part of the effort. Changes in the by-laws, which had been sent to all members by email, when then unanimously approved.
-We need to pull together information on our separate award programs and collate those presented at the NJHC meeting. Dick Waldron volunteered to coordinate this.
-In response to an issue raised by Carla, a motion was approved to have dues collected on a July 1 to a June 30 fiscal year basis.
-Bonita discussed the fact that compact storage would be installed in the New Jersey reading room.
Next meetings: Tuesday February 14, 2013 at 2:30 pm in the Pane Room, Alexander Library, Rutgers University. Followed by a talk by Lucia McMahan, William Paterson University.
And then Monday April 1, 2014 at 3pm. Followed by a talk by Gary Saretzky, Monmouth County Archives.
Respectfully submitted,
Marc Mappen, Secretary
The meeting was followed by presentation by three of the four NJSAA book award winners – Lurie, McCabe, and Fowler.