Council Meeting

London, British Library

Friday, 8 November 2013, 2:00 pm

Minutes

Present: Emma Hornby (EH) (chair), Nicolas Bell (NB), Margaret Bent (MB), Barbara Eichner (BE), Christian Leitmeir (CL) (treasurer), Owen Rees (OR), Matthew Cheung Salisbury (MS), Thomas Schmidt (TS) (secretary), Bruno Turner (BT), Emma Hembry (EJH), Martin Eichner (guest)

  1. Apologies for absence
    Susan Rankin, Sophie Burton, Richard Moore, John Harper, Jeremy Llewellyn, Hana Vlhová-Wörner
  2. Minutes of the meeting of 26 October 2012
    Previously circulated by e-mail and acknowledged by the AGM in July, but no paper copies at meeting. To be formally approved via e-mail following the meeting.
  3. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of10 July 2013
    Circulated and noted, with minor corrections
  4. Matters arising
    None
  5. Chair's Report
    The chair referred to Lisa Colton's report at the AGM on 10 July. Since then, the inaugural event of the Music Research Consortium (MRC-UK), led by Mark Everist, took place in London on 25 October. TS had attended on behalf of PMMS; it was as yet unclear in what ways the activities of the consortium would unfold.
    Action: none
  6. Treasurer's Report
    CL reported that the finances of the Society were stable in principle, but that there were severe cashflow problems: the funds from the dissolved Savings Account were still unavailable due to awaiting clarification from the Halifax about how to transfer the balance into the society's current account. The Paypal account through which a vast majority of members now paid their fees was inaccessible as an income threshold had been exceeded, and CL's efforts to resolve the issue had so far met with no success.
    Action: EH to write to JH to accelerate the process of forwarding the paperwork. CL to sustain his efforts to unblock the Paypal account, if necessary with a letter from the Charity Commission. In the meantime, efforts would be made to postpone spending as much as possible.
  7. Chair and council elections
    All council members agreed to stand again for election in 2014, hence no recruitment of new members would be necessary.
    Action: TS to confirm with those absent from the meeting whether they would be happy to stand again as well, and to ensure that the two student members would still have student status in 2014. He would also communicate to the student members that the Society would bear their travel expenses to the meetings.
  8. PMMS grants
    The council considered three applications:
    1. From Ann Buckley regarding the Fursey edition. It was decided to enquire with Ann what relationship this application bore to the previous one already approved and paid for in 2012.
    Action: EH to write to Ann to enquire [retrospective note: the application was identical to the one submitted in 2012; it had been re-submitted by EH to the council for consideration in error]
    2. From Catherine Bradley for a conference on Montpellier fascicle 8 in Oxford in 2014, to support a keynote speaker. It was queried whether it was money well spent for the Society to support a keynote by a UK speaker on a high academic salary, and whether the costs for conference fees, accommodation etc. were reasonable; also, it was suggested that it would be more appropriate to support the attendance of one or more postgraduate speakers, and to make sure that the Society would gain adequate publicity from the event.
    Action: EH to write to Catherine to enquire, council to decide via e-mail once a reply had been received.[retrospective note: EH has received clarification from Catherine Bradley; the council is being sent her responses with these minutes, in order to decide whether to support postgraduate attendees or non-postholder speakers’ attendance (or neither)]
    3. From Andrew Kirkman for the Med-Ren in Birmingham in 2014. This was approved in principle, as long as it was made sure that the Society would gain exposure similar to that achieved by Pedro Memelsdorff's PMMS keynote at Nottingham (billing as PMMS keynote, EH to chair, leaflets, if possible a banner).
    Action: EH to write to Andrew to discuss details.[retrospective note: EH has written to Andrew]
    A more general discussion followed regarding the nature and scope of the grants as it was felt that they were not taken up sufficiently. It was decided that the availability should be more widely publicised (through Facebook etc.), that there should be two deadlines per year rather than one, and that it should be possible for postgraduates to apply for support for conference attendance when they are speakers. Also, it was deemed desirable to encourage practitioners to apply for support (e.g. for liturgies, concerts, exhibitions, or similar events) as long as they promoted the aims of PMMS.
    Action: TS to draw up revised criteria and circulate to council in time to be included in the next Newsletter.
  9. Report from PMM
    Attached. NB and CL reported on a generally highly satisfactory year for the Journal. It was confirmed that the membership term for the editorial board members was renewable, but that it was within the discretion of the editors to decide whether a member should be approached for a new term or whether to approach new potential members.
  10. PMMS conferences
    NB confirmed the BL as the venue for 2014. The date was set for 29 March. It was decided that the conference should be billed as a joint event with the BL (which would publicise it to the outside world), and that the focus should be on sources from the library itself (which would be physically available). David Hiley would be invited as a keynote speaker, and the event itself would be in honour of his retirement from the University of Regensburg. 'Treasures of the British Library' was suggested as a possible conference title.
    Venues for 2015 and 2016 were provisionally confirmed as Manchester (John Rylands Library) and Bangor.
    Action: NB to approach David Hiley, to book room and liaise with BL. Members to suggest possible speakers to EH (Eduard Aubert was mentioned). MO’N to think about possible performers to involve, and liaise with EH.
  11. Website, Newsletter, and Publicity
    BE reported on publicity activities. The Society had 116 members (92 of whom are in good standing), with 24 students and 26 additional recipients of the Journal as members of the editorial board.
    The Facebook page was flourishing, and the next edition of the Newsletter was in preparation.
    BT raised the topic of the small online editions on the website. It was generally felt that they ought to continue, but that members found it hard to find the time required. It was then suggested that one should make use of the website to provide a forum for the many scholar-practitioners of plainsong and medieval music who prepared their own editions; this might also help to (re)engage the practitioners who apparently felt they had less of a home in the Society than in the old days.
    Action: EH to approach David Hiley and Christopher Hodkinson whether they might be interested in making their editions available on the PMMS website.
  12. AOB
    TS raised the question whether the Society might find a good use for the funding reserves (once they had been freed up) which shouldn't just sit in a bank account (e.g. publications, performances, infrastructure). Members were asked to give this some thought for the next meeting.
  13. Dates of next meetings
    AGM: 29 March 2014, BL
    Council: autumn 2014, BL, date tbd

The meeting ended at 3:45

TS, 13xi2013