Linguistic Ethnography Forum

Minutes of General Meeting
Edge Hill College, Tuesday 8th April

Present: Jo Arthur, Richard Barwell, Jill Bourne, Angela Creese,  Peter Flynn, Jane Freeland, Julia Gillen, Rachel Hodge, Moira Inghilleri, Piotr Kuhiwczak, Sarah Lawson, Adam Lefstein, Vally Lytra, Deirdre Martin, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Ben Rampton (chair), Christopher Stone, Karin Tusting, Donna West.

1.	Apologies: 

Janet Maybin, Stef Slembrouck, Brian Street

2.	Minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2002

The minutes of this meeting were agreed.

3.	Matters Arising

None.

4.	Draft LEF Constitution

4.1 BR reported on the background of the UK LEF constitution.  UK LEF is the first BAAL SIG.  The constitution has been drafted following the BAAL SIG guidelines, which were developed by adapting guidelines from the British Sociology Association and IATEFL. The new constitution is compatible with BAAL’s constitution.  BR asked for comments from the floor.  

4.2 PK noted that a dissolution clause needs to be added stating what happens to assets and liabilities on the dissolution of the SIG.
Action: BR to amend

4.3 MMJ asked for clarification on the role of the various coordinating committee posts, in particular the meetings secretary. It was felt that there was a need for the responsibilities of each post holder to be made clearer.  
Action: A meeting needs to be arranged for steering group  and interested others to work on these descriptions.  These descriptions to be put on email discussion list for further discussion and clarification.

4.4 KT reported that the SIG attempted a balance between maintaining an open list, which currently counts all participants on its list as  members,(approx 170), while also maintaining a special interest group focused on linguistic ethnography.  KT suggested asking any new prospective members to write a description of their interests in linguistic ethnography.  This was agreed to.   It was agreed that all those currently on the email list would be informed that they will be considered members of the SIG unless they choose otherwise, in which case they will be removed from the list.  
ACTION: KT to circulate this information to the list.

4.5 An agreement was reached that ‘UK based’ should be omitted from the Membership category of the constitution. A further deletion of the sentence, ‘LEF membership is free for BAAL members’ was also agreed. 
Action: BR to redraft.

4.6 RB queried the quorum of 8.  After some discussion, this was left unchanged.   

5.	Forthcoming Activity
5.1	BR reported on the arrangements made with BAAL for SIG colloquia.  BAAL has agreed to allocate a half day colloquia slot for SIGs.  DM reported that it may be that SIG submissions of abstracts for BAAL’s annual meeting will fall out of usual deadlines.  BR reported that abstracts will be reviewed by members of the SIG as well as at BAAL level by local organising committee member and/or membership secretary. 

BR reported on ideas for the 2003 colloquium at BAAL.  The following were proposed:

1.	Linguistic ethnography at the interface with education. (BR)
2.	Feminist post-structuralist ethnographies: over/underlaps with linguistic ethnography. (AC)
3.	Equity issues and voice, research as an exploitive process (RB)
4.	Ethnographies of the powerful: studying up. (JB)
5.	Issues in teaching linguistic ethnography (BR)

After discussion, it was decided that  theme 5 should go out on LEF email list for abstracts  for submission to BAAL annual meeting 2003.  

Theme 2 was suggested for the seminar  2004.

Themes 3 and 4 would be further discussed at the BAAL 2003 annual meeting as a possibility for BAAL 2004 colloquium. 

The following timeline was suggested as a cycle for future events
At Spring Seminar: 
•	ideas generated for the following year’s seminar and colloquium 

After Spring seminar:

•	plans for the following year’s seminar developed by email
•	at September Colloquium: formal discussion of theme for following annual colloquium, followed by call for papers, with a February deadline for the submission of abstracts.

Action: BR to float theme 5 on email list and ask for abstracts by 1/5.

5.2Two venues were offered as potential sites, Cardiff and Southampton.  Weekdays, (early April) were expressed in preference to weekends.  BR reiterated that the local organisers have scope to develop their own themes and threads.   Interest in theme 2 to be developed

Action: AC to contact Sarah and Jill regarding costings and dates. AC to contact Valerie Hey re. possible contributions and others.

5.3	None

6. Finance

Local organisers are encouraged to apply for local funds.  Need to apply to BAAL to bring a speaker from overseas for next seminar visit.

7. LEF web-page

KT reported on the development of the web-page.  This will be circulated shortly.  The web will be used for information and the email list for communication. The meeting thanked Karin for her work on creating this wonderful resource.

Action KT to contact email list to let participants know of new web-page information.

8. AOB
 
BR reported on the White Paper and its impact on the development of consortia. The meeting was encouraged to respond to BAAL’s request for response to the White Paper.

MMJ thanked the steering committee for its organisation of the event.
Everyone thanked the local organiser, Jo Arthur for all her work.