Minutes of PMSSEM Business Meeting

October 26, 2007


POPULAR MUSIC SECTION of the SOCIETY FOR ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

Columbus, Ohio

Meeting was called to order at 6:07 P.M.

The minutes of the 2006 meeting, which were posted on the website and were distributed at the meeting, were approved.

Reports

Chair (Paul Greene)

The Chair’s Annual Report to the SEM is available at the door and also through the PMSSEM website (http://orpheus.tamu.edu/pmssem/).

The PMSSEM has a total of $2,930 as of today, October 25, 2007. Our membership dues are voluntary ($5 for students, $10 for non-students) but very much appreciated. Dues are collected through the SEM membership application/renewal form, with a check box for PMSSEM optional dues. These sponsor the Lise Waxer Prize, the new Richard Waterman Prize, the PMSSEM Lecture, and other activities and expenses.

The membership of the PMSSEM is now 550 members. This represents a net increase of 39 members since last year’s meeting. Our section has been and continues to grow rapidly (our current rate is approximately 8% per year). If anyone here would like to become a member of the Section, and join our listserv, please contact me.

As an organization, we have done many worthwhile things. We organize the PMSSEM Lecture every year since 2002, and today, Barry Shank will deliver the sixth annual PMSSEM Lecture. For five years we have held the Lise Waxer student paper prize competition and the sixth annual Waxer prize competition begins with today’s meeting. We have organized numerous panels on the theme of popular music. We have developed and implemented new initiatives, such as the creation of a new junior faculty prize, to be announced in a few minutes.

The PMSSEM welcomes new initiatives, new directions, new ideas. In New Business today, you have an opportunity to suggest a new direction or directions for our Section. [I mention this now in hopes that ideas may start percolating.] Also, you can communicate with me and/or on our listserv to discuss new directions that you would like our section to take.

Lecture Committee (Paul Greene, for Liz Wollman)

The Lecture committee solicits input from the Section about who should deliver the annual PMSSEM Lecture, invites the Lecturer, and works with the Chair to see to all of his or her arrangements. Previous PMSSEM Lecturers were: Sara Cohen, Deena Weinstein, Juan-Pablo González, Paul Théberge, and Toru Mitsui. The sixth PMSSEM Lecturer, for 2007, is Barry Shank. His Lecture is titled “The Political Agency of Music.” This will take place right here as soon as this meeting is over.

Waxer Prize Committee (Kristin McGee, for Tracey Laird)

Because of the difficulty of choosing between a number of high-quality papers, the committee will propose to judge papers on a more formalized point system. Students are invited to submit papers for the 2007 Waxer Prize competition, and forms are available at the meeting. Applications will be accepted tonight and until noon on Saturday by Lyn Pittman at the book exhibit.

Richard Waterman Prize Special Committee (Jeremy Wallach)

The Richard Waterman Prize will be awarded to a junior scholar for a published article in the ethnomusicology of popular music. A committee for this new prize will be chosen tonight. Lyn Pittman will be handling the submission process, and the deadline is April 1, 2008. Works must be published and available by the submission date. Junior scholars are defined as scholars whose degrees were awarded no more than seven years ago (following April 1, 2001, for this 2008 contest). The committee will be composed of three senior scholars.

Music and Fair Use Forum (Alex Perullo)

Paper proposals are invited on the subject of the struggle between the creative commons (those working to make music freely available online) and the music industry. Papers will be given at either a panel or a roundtable next year. Write to Alex Perullo for more information (mailto:aperullo@bryant.edu).

Website Editor Report (Paul Greene)

Please feel free to view our website at http://orpheus.tamu.edu/pmssem/ or through the SEM website. We not only have a few pages that are part of the SEM website, but we also have our own dedicated site. On our site I maintain our mission statement, the Chair’s annual report, the Waxer Prize guidelines, the new Waterman Prize guidelines, minutes of the most recent business meeting, a linkspage, and an online directory of PMSSEM members including research interests. If you would like to be included in our online directory, then please fill out a form and return it to me. Or you can email me (pdg4@psu.edu). This directory allows you to describe your interests and include links to your own website. Be aware that unlike the SEM directory, the PMSSEM directory can be accessed by anyone, so you are very welcome to send me information to include, but do not submit information that you do not want all over the web.

Announcements

Susan Oehler announced a call for papers for a special issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies on popular music pedagogy. She also made a call for syllabi of previously-taught courses on popular music to be put on the IASPM-US website as a reference. The deadline is in November.

Jennifer Milioto Matsue announced the upcoming special issue of Asian Music on popular music, for which she was guest editor. This issue will be available in November or December.

Cheryl Keyes, president of IASPM-US, announced the 2008 IASPM-US conference, which will take place in Iowa City next April. The deadline for abstracts is November 1, 2007. She also encouraged PMSSEM members to join IASPM-US and to visit the website (http://www.iaspm-us.net) for more information.

Paul Greene announced an opening for an assistant professor in performance studies Texas A&M with a specialty in popular music outside of the US, or ethnic, immigrant, diasporic, or Native American popular music within the US.

Unfinished Business

Announcement of 2006 Lise Waxer Prize delivered by Jane Florine

The 2006 Waxer Prize winner is Elizabeth K. Keenan of Columbia University, for her paper “Straightyfest, Ladyquest, Ladyfest: Femininity, Sexuality, and Third Wave Feminism at Young Women’s Punk Rock Music Festivals.”

Nominations

The Chair minuted appreciation for the work done in 2006-07 by:

Kiri Miller was nominated and elected to the Lecture Committee.

Heather Miller was nominated and elected to the Lise Waxer Prize Committee.

For the newly-formed Richard Waterman Prize Committee: Les Gay and Paul Greene were nominated and elected.

Paul Greene moved that the committee members will chose their own chairs. The motion was seconded and approved.

Meryl Krieger was nominated and re-elected 2008 Conference Theme Coordinator.

Susan Oehler moved to change the guidelines of the Lecture Committee to select lecturers without a requirement of academic rank. The motion was seconded and approved.

2008 PMSSEM Lecture

The Chair opened the floor for suggestions for the 2008 PMSSEM Lecturer, to be considered by the Lecture Committee:

Additional names can be submitted to the Lecture Committee and discussed on the listserv.

2008 Conference Panels

The Chair opened the floor for suggestions for themes for the 2008 PMSSEM panels as part of the 2008 SEM conference:

Additional suggestions may be submitted to the Conference Theme Coordinator and discussed on the listserv.

New Business

Paul Greene moved to raise maximum reimbursement amount for annual lecturer from $900 to $1100. The motion was seconded and approved.

The Waxer Prize Committee will use a two-tier system for judging papers this year. Each member will evaluate papers on a 10 point scale, and they will also list their top five choices. The final decision will incorporate both of these factors. The committee will use this system as a pilot this year and report back to the membership at the next annual meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:06 P.M.

Minutes were taken by Camille Peters.

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