Details

Action By

1.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Noted:

Agreed subject to amending the author of Sport and the British from Richard Hill to Richard Holt.

2.

Matters Arising

Noted:

a.       Lady Birley agreed to support the Sir Derek Birley annual lecture (see AGM Minutes, 17^th April 2004 and Treasurer’s Report in these minutes).

b.      The venue for the BSSH 2005 Conference is still outstanding. (see item a. below)

c.       With regards to the BSSH website and whether Richard Cox should continue with this, if he has financial support from BSSH, it was noted that, should Taylor and Francis take over the Journal that they will also manage a website. Any decision is therefore deferred, depending on the outcome of discussions relating to the Journal’s future.

d.      Discussions on a possible new ‘A’ level text is on-going.

e.      Discussions on the roles and responsibilities of Executive Members are still outstanding. It was suggested that this could be developed via email.

ALL

3.

BSSH Conference: 2005 and 2006

Noted:

a.       For 2005, Leicester University is a possibility again but members of the Executive had concerns that it was not a positive move to have too many conferences at the same venue.

Dave Terry suggested that Gareth Williams should be contacted as he had expressed an interest in hosting the conference before.

Agreed:

To contact Gareth Williams.

b.      Martin Johnes stated that it would be a good idea to hold the 2006 in conjunction with one of the international historical society’s conferences. Dil Porter suggested the Central History Association whilst Martin Johnes suggested the Congress of European Sports History (CESH), via Jim Riordon. It was noted that as they had not had a conference in the UK it could be suggested that we could help them host one here.

Dave Terry also volunteered to contact Twickenham (Jed Smith) to enquire about the possibility of holding a conference there.

Agreed:

To contact all possible venues & societies mentioned. This should include Grant Jarvie at Stirling University to enquire about holding the 2006 there.

MJ

MJ, DP, LD & DT

4.

Report of the Chairman

Noted

a.       The Chairman will discuss the Taylor and Francis proposals for Sport in History later in the meeting.

b.      That Carol Osborne won the best Post Graduate paper at the BSSH 2005 Conference.

Agreed:

That the Post Graduate prize should be increased from £50 to £100 with immediate effect.  This will be sent to Carol Osborne.

MJ

5.

Treasurer’s Report

Noted:

a.       On behalf of the treasurer, Martin Johnes reported that the 2004 BSSH Conference made about £400 profit so the Society is financially sound.

b.      Lady Birley had agreed to provide £20,000 to support a guest speaker giving the opening speech at the annual BSSH Conference.

c.       Martin Johnes is in the process of passing over the Treasurer’s files.

6.

Membership Secretary’s Report

Noted:

a.       As Jonathan Thomas was unable to attend, Martin Johnes read out a report provided by the Membership Secretary. This report clearly showed the low number of students that are BSSH members.

b.      Martin Johnes suggested that BSSH needs to actively encourage the direct debit option of payment for members to help reduce renewal losses.

c.       That Sporting Traditions and Sport in History could have a reciprocal agreement to give out a complimentary copy of the Journal to their members, in an attempt to interest new members.

Agreed

To contact Rob Hess in Australia. BSSH can use 200 available back copies of our first two editions of the new Sport in History Journal. The Society can also utilize Wray Vamplew’s Australian bank account to save costs.

TC

7.

Sport in History Editors’ Report

Noted:

a.       Tony Collins reported that there were eight articles in the Journal and it should be a strong edition.

b.      ‘Drugs in Sport’ is likely to be a special edition rather than Winter 2005, as previously thought. This special edition could well be the first Journal under Taylor and Francis (if the proposals are agreed).

c.       500 – 1,000 word book reviews would be welcome to boost the book review section of the Journal. These do not have to be solely on sports history as long as there is an element of it in the book.

d.      Jeff Hill suggested appointing an Assistant Review Editor to help Richard Cox as he is increasingly busy. He suggested contacting Paul Dimeo and Martin Johnes suggested Dean Allen.

Agreed:

To speak to Richard Hill first to see whether he feels an assistant would be helpful to him.

TC

8.

Bulletin Editor’s Report

Noted:

a.       That Martin Johnes produced the last one as a one-off basis and that Martin and Dave Terry are working together on the next edition. As there is a lot of material it will come out as a double edition.

b.      Membership renewal notices will go out with this edition of the Bulletin, which will save postage costs.

c.       There is a need to encourage more submissions for the Bulletin, especially from students and people who don’t want to submit in the academic journal. It is therefore important that it is produced as professionally as possible.

9.

Secretary’s Report

Noted:

a.       That Lynne Duval would like to step down from this role when someone can be appointed to take over, due to the impending birth of her second child.

Agreed:

That Martin Johnes would contact Dean Allen to see if he would be interested in taking over this role.

That the remaining back copies available would be advertised in the Bulletin and at the next Sport in History Conference in Leicester in October.

MJ

LD / MJ

10.

Aberdare Prize

Noted:

Tony Mason is unsure whether to award any text the prize this year as there are so few books and the quality is not as high as usual. Some of the suggested books do not have sports history at their centre but do deal with it as one of their themes. The Executive was asked if they were happy with this and Dave Terry expressed concern that sports history should be at the centre of the text. He suggested using the money another year when there is more than one very good book being considered.

Agreed:

That Tony Collins will read the book Tony Mason feels is the best and see if he agrees that there is sufficient sports history in it to be awarded the Aberdare Prize. If there is any concern the prize will not be awarded this year.

TC

11.

Future publication of Sport in History

This discussion was led by Martin Johnes and all comments are by him, unless identified otherwise.

Noted:

·        That Taylor and Francis (T & F) want to take over Sport in History from the next but one edition, which will be the first one of the new membership year.

·        BSSH will retain copyright and editorial control of the journal.

·        Members will get three rather than two editions of the journal per year.

·        T & F will charge BSSH £18 per member whilst membership will remain at £20 and will help subsidize unwaged members.

·        £3000 will be provided to cover editorial costs (by BSSH editors) and £750 will be provided for operating cost and prizes, incurred by BSSH.

·        Financially, assuming there is a small rise in individual members, there will be £700-£1000 surplus a year for BSSH.

·        Institutional members are the way that T & F expect to achieve success. However, the costs will rise significantly and there was some concern by members of the Executive that institutions will not support significantly more expensive costs. Schools, in particular, are unlikely to be able to stay as institutional members.

·        The contract is for a minimum of five years. If T & F do not sell enough copies, the Journal will revert to BSSH to produce as it does at present.

·        The one possible area of contention is back copies, which they would like on their website. It was suggested by Tony Collins that they could have Sport in History back copies available, whilst The Sports Historian remains with BSSH.

·        Tony Collins expressed the opinion that moving to T & F will encourage more people to join especially as there will be better publicity and better value for the individual member. The company will cover mail shots and ensure smoother distribution. The more professional production and distribution should have the impact of increasing the number of quality submissions.

·        That absent Executive members had already signaled their support for T & F’s proposals.

Agreed:

In line with the commitment given at the 2004 AGM, the BSSH members should be consulted before the final decision was made whether or not to accept T & F’s proposals.

The Executive, after discussing the proposal in more detail, agreed that they would strongly recommend to the BSSH membership that we accept T & F’s offer.

That the Executive Summary would be sent out to all members, together with the Executive’s recommendation. They would then have ten days to contact Martin Johnes or Lynne Duval by post or email to register their opposition. No reply would signal support for the T & F proposals.

In order to help schools who could no longer afford to be institutional members, it was agreed to expand the Bulletin to include teaching notes and aids. Schools could be contacted individually to explain the changes.

12.

RAE nominations

Noted:

Lynne Duval had contacted RAE but had not had a reply. Jeff Hill explained the importance of having someone that supports sport as a serious subject of stuffy on the committee. He suggested proposing Richard Holt or Tony Mason.

Agreed:

To propose, in principle, Richard Holt for history and for Wray Vamplew to continue as Sports Studies. Jeff Hill to contact Richard Holt to see if he is in agreement.

RH

13.

Date of the next meeting

November 2004.