Minutes of UKLEF business meeting, BAAL Annual Meeting, Leeds, 4 September 2003.
Present:  Richard Barwell (chair), Karin Tusting (minuting), Leena Robertson, Ana Souza, Sabine Sica, Chong Nim Lee, Jo Arthur, Deirdre Martin, Joanna McPake, Janet Maybin, Richard Barwell, Rachel Hodge, Kate Pahl, Paclaine Laëtitia Scalone, Erik Borg, David Barton, Uta Papen, Stef Slembrouck.  
Apologies:  Ben Rampton, Angela Creese.
1.  Chair’s introductory remarks
Richard Barwell introduced the meeting, giving a brief description of the history, purposes and activities of the UKLEF SIG.
2.  Minutes from Edge Hill business meeting
Passed without amendments.  No matters arising.
3.  Annual report
The submission of the annual report to BAAL was noted.
4.  Draft constitution
The draft constitution was approved by the meeting.
5.  Elections of officers
Current acting officers on steering group:
Ben Rampton, Convenor
Richard Barwell, Treasurer (Richard has taken over the Treasurer role from Janet Maybin)
Angela Creese, Meetings Secretary
Karin Tusting, Communications Secretary
Janet Maybin, Ordinary Member
The meeting approved the continuation of the current steering group until next Spring’s meeting at Gregynog, when formal elections will be held for the Co-ordinating Committee officers.
ADDENDUM:  It was resolved that Dr Richard Barwell take over acting treasurer role from Dr Janet Maybin and be added to the list of signatories for the UKLEF bank account.
The proposal for the organisation of elections was discussed: 
Officers are elected at the AGM which is held at the Spring Meeting, as outlined in the constitution.  A call for nominations goes out in January, with nominations being submitted up to the beginning of the meeting.  Each candidate to be nominated by one UKLEF member, with the agreement of the candidate.  Candidates can nominate themselves.  If only one candidate is nominated for any role, that person is elected unopposed.  Officers are elected by the AGM (rather than by the membership as a whole).  Votes are counted on a first-past-the-post basis.
This proposal was agreed.
6.  Roles and responsibilities of Co-ordinating Committee members
Richard Barwell thanked Jo Arthur for her help in putting guidelines together about how to do a Spring seminar.
Kate Pahl asked if it was part of the role of the Communications secretary to develop international links.  It was suggested that this was covered in the convenor’s job description under managing external relations, although it would also be worthwhile to develop a links page on the website and solicit links from other relevant websites, which would be the Communications Secretary’s job.
Deirdre Martin queried the phrasing in the Meeting’s Secretary description about “finding and inducting a local organiser and visiting sites”, feeling that this was a quite demanding description and that the local organiser tends to volunteer, rather than to be found and inducted.  
ACTION:  This point in Meeting’s Secretary description to be changed to read “liaising with local organiser”. (BR)
ACTION:  KT to post finalised version on web.
7.  Finance report
The finance report produced by Richard Barwell was discussed in detail.  The reationale for building up reserves was explained.  Several members queried the need to build up reserves equivalent to the cost of two seminars, particularly given the size of the additional costs this would add to forthcoming seminars.  It was also felt that there is not normally a requirement to pay out a great deal of money in advance to institutions when organising small seminars, and that BAAL might be able to step in in the event of financial difficulties which were out of our control.  
The consensus was to recirculate the financial strategy, recast with the aim of building up a very modest reserve, on the basis of adding between £5 and £10 per head to spring seminar participants.
ACTION:  RB to redraft and circulate financial strategy on this basis, and to check formal division of financial responsibilities with BAAL treasurer.
Karin Tusting fed back from the BAAL Executive meeting that the BAAL accountant will need to check the SIG accounts at the same time as the BAAL accounts, and therefore the financial year for SIGs should be the same as that of BAAL.  Also, that BAAL will require a dissolution clause in all SIG constitutions, stating what will happen to SIG finances in the event of the SIG ending, which we currently have.
8.  Website and email list
Karin Tusting reported on the development of the website, which now includes reports from the Edge Hill spring meeting, and collected names and email addresses from all those attending the meeting.  
ACTION:  KT to add email addresses of people attending the business meeting to the email list.
9.  Forthcoming meetings
9a.  Spring seminar.  A brief report on plans for the forthcoming Spring meeting at Gregynog was circulated.
9b.  Colloquium BAAL 2004.  Several themes had been proposed for this, including equity issues and voice, and ethnographies of the powerful.  It was observed that broadening the theme to cover issues of power in linguistic ethnography more generally would address both of these. Other themes suggested were the local and the global, which would link up with the European theme of BAAL 2004.  
ACTION:  KT to encourage discussion of this further on the email list, encouraging people to think about what sorts of topics they are interested in contributing to.