Minutes of the General Assembly of ISHEASTM, July 2008

Posted: Sep. 18, 2008    Event Date: July 18, 2008

Minutes of the General Assembly Meeting
International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (ISHEASTM)

* Time: 9:15–10:40 A.M., 18 July 2008
* Place: Glass Pavilion, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US

* The meeting took place during the 12th International Conference for the History of Science in East Asia (ICHSEA).

1. President Prof. Christopher Cullen called the meeting to order at 09:15 A.M.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and Apologies for Absence
President Prof. Cullen omitted to read the minutes of the previous assembly on the ground that they had already been circulated to the members through the website of the Society.
He also made an apology for the vice president, Professor Zhang Baichun’s absence from the meeting.

3. Working Reports by the Outgoing Officers
1) The President, Prof. Christopher Cullen, reported on the whole range of the Society’s work during the years of 2005-2008.
He prefaced his report by warmly congratulating Marta Hanson, Morris Low and all their colleagues and assistants at Johns Hopkins for having organised such a large and successful conference for the Society. It was clear that all those who attended were having a most enjoyable and intellectually valuable experience. The Society owed the organisers a considerable debt of gratitude for all that they had done.
His report included: (1) the current state of the Society’s membership and the recent decision to reduce the membership fee to young scholars, (2) the efforts to maximize the use of electronic technology in conducting Society’s business, for instance, setting up a new Website that has many features and useful functions and establishing a Google Group for the mutual communication among the members and the Board, (3) the Society’s official Journal, EASTM, and the financial administration of the Society (He emphasized the need to keep a solid bank balance in case the Society fail to get a new grant from DFG), (4) the Zhu Kezhen Awards, (5) the efforts of the Society and the Local Organizing Committee to prepare for the 12th ICHSEA, (6) the Society’s plans to participate in the 13th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, which would be held in Budapest 2009.
Prof. Cullen also expressed his compliments to the other Board members by calling attention to the fact that the excellent results in every respect of the Society’s activity would not have been possible without the strenuous efforts of the other officers of the Society.

2) Treasurer Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann reported on the financial situation of the Society. She outlined the balance of the Society’s account, which had become much more stable during the previous three years. It was due to the increase of income including institutional subscription to the Journal as well as the decrease of administrative costs of the Society. She mentioned the introduction of new means to accept subscriptions and other payment, PayPal, and its positive effects on the Society’s financial situation. She also reported about the problems caused by the fact that Society’s financial base was located in Paris.

3) Secretary Dr. Fa-ti Fan’s report focused on his efforts to enhance communication among the members of the society. He put special emphasis on the Society’s new website and other means of electronic communication including Google Group. He also reported a number of activities he had performed as the secretary – editing and circulating the News Letters, application for grants to the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, and communications between the Society and other institutions of related fields.

4. Report by the Editor of the Society’s official Journal, Professor Hans Ulrich Vogel
Professor Vogel report focused on the financial status of the journal. He called attention to the fact that the financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) was about to end in the year 2008 and that he was currently applying for a new grant from the same foundation. In case the new application is granted, the journal may receive support for another 3 plus 3 years. Moreover, the grant will enable the journal to provide an online version for the subscribers, in which additional material can be published. A system of electronic storage would be established as well as a restricted degree of open-access policy followed. He announced that two other scholars will join him as editor, one of them being Mark Elvin (St. Anthony’s College, Oxford). He also explained the current state of other sources of funds, individual and institutional subscriptions, which had considerably increased during the past three years. Eventually he thanked the editorial committee of the journal, his collaborators in Tuebingen and Cambridge (J.C. Moffett) and all the other ISHEASTM members for the constant support of the journal.

5. Presentation by the President of the amendment to the Society’s By-laws and voting by the members on the amendment.
President Prof. Cullen presented the amendment proposed from the Board to the Society’s By-laws, Article 4 (a). The proposed amendment would change the periodicity of the Society’s plenary meeting from three years to four years. This change would take place after the holding of the plenary conference due in 2011.
Prof. Cullen called attention to the fact that in accordance with Article 8 of the Society’s By-laws, the proposed amendment had been addressed to the Secretary more than six months before and had been communicated by the Secretary to all members at least three months before this triennial meeting.
Prof. Cullen emphasized a number of benefits that the proposed amendment would bring to the Society. First, the difficult task of finding a location for the plenary meeting would be less frequent. Second, it would not be necessary to find new officers for the Board so frequently as now. Third, the society would nevertheless organize more frequent activities, every two years rather than every three; this would be possible by organizing a smaller activity half way between plenary meetings at the International Congresses for the History of Science (ICHS), which also had four year intervals starting in 2013.
In the following discussion, Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann expressed her concern that the proposed change, which meant less frequent plenary meetings, would reduce the vitality of the Society.
The amendment passed: 40 for, 1 against.

6. Announcement by the Secretary of the results of the Society’s election of new officers.
Secretary Fan announced and introduced the new officers: President Paul U. Unschuld, Vice-President Mei Jianjun (absent), Secretary Lim Jongtae and Treasurer Christopher Cullen.

7. Inauguration of the new officers and speech by the new President Paul U. Unschuld.
The New President, Prof. Unschuld, presided over the meeting.
In his inaugural speech, Paul U. Unschuld recalled the long line of his illustrious predecessors beginning with Nathan Sivin whose founding of the Society and assistance to many junior colleagues is gratefully remembered. He expressed his thanks to the outgoing board members for their good services to the Society. He emphasized the importance of the Society in providing visibility to the expanding field of the history of East Asian science, technology, and medicine, and in representing its members in larger bodies such as the Division of History of Science and Technology of the IUHPS. Paul Unschuld also pointed out the importance of the regular ICHSEA conferences as opportunities to meet colleagues and get to know them personally rather than only read their books and papers. Finally, the new president promised to do his best to contribute to the flourishing of the Society.

8. Presentation on the Venue of 13th ICHSEA by Prof. Shi Yunli
Dr. Shi introduced the venue for the 13th ICHSEA, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. He emphasized a number of attractive features of the venue and its vicinities: the growing academic vitality of UCST, and the scenic beauty of Huangshan, and the historical legacies of Fang Yizhi, Mei Wending and Dai Zhen.

9. Any other business and comments from the floor
No other business and comments were brought up.

10. Meeting adjourned at 10:40 A.M.

 

Top