Secretary General’s report on the Council meeting to the General Assembly, Antwerp 2014

"It is my pleasure to give you a summary of this year’s Council meeting. I will make an announcement on IAML-L when the minutes are available on the website.

The meeting started with reports from the President, the Secretary General and the Treasurer.

The President gave a summary of an eventful year in which several members increased IAML’s visibility in different contexts.

The Secretary General informed that she had completed her initial four-year term, and had indicated to the Board that she would like to renew her appointment for a further two years. This was unanimously approved by Council.

The Treasurer suggested that we keep membership fees the same for 2016, which means 68 EUR for institutions and 41 EUR for individual members. He emphasized the importance of keeping membership lists current and explained that they have an effect on the health of IAML’s economy. We can save a substantial amount of money by making sure that Fontes is not sent to people who are no longer members or to wrong addresses.

There was a discussion about the changes to the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure proposed by the Constitution Reform Committee. The documents had reached the Secretary General and had been disseminated to the members in due time, as stipulated by the IAML Constitution. They had also been translated into German and French. There were certain concerns expressed about the status of the national branches, how the proposal would make the Association more streamlined and the role of the Board. The President pointed out that the Committee had been charged with revising the Constitution in accordance with the decision already made by Council last year. The proposal was approved, with two votes against.

Joseph Hafner, Chair of the Publications Committee, announced that the Search Committee recommended Jim Cassaro as the new Editor of Fontes when the present Editor, Maureen Buja, resigns at the end of 2015. The proposal was unanimously approved. Jim Cassaro was appointed for an initial term of four years.

Council approved a new Membership Committee, with Jim Cassaro as Chair, as suggested by the Board. The Committee will work on identifying, documenting and promoting the value of membership in the Association.

Jon Bagüés was appointed new Chair of the Outreach Committee. The necessity for the Outreach Committee and the new Membership Committee to coordinate their work was recognized.

Council approved a new Conference Committee, with Antony Gordon as Chair. The role of the Committee is to assist future organizing committees with things like payment systems, setting up websites, etc., and to act as a central reservoir of advice, experience, and information for conference planning.

A proposal to disband the Ad-hoc Committee on Electronic Voting was approved.

The Chair of the Publications Committee, Joseph Hafner, announced that they are working on making Fontes available electronically to IAML members via the IAML website. It will then be possible to cancel the printed version for those who wish to do so. Gerry Ostrove resigned as Editor of “Recent Publications in Music” after many years of dedicated service. She was given a round of applause. The next special issue of Fontes will have advocacy as the theme.

The new website is on its way. A demonstration will take place at the end of this General Assembly. The Web Editor Stefanie Hundsberger has resigned. Jennifer Ward, presently Web Editor’s Assistant, will be our new Web Editor. We also need to find two new Web Editor’s Assistants since Jennifer Ward is stepping up and Astrid Evasdotter has resigned. Council gave the Board a mandate to appoint two new Web Editor’s Assistants.

The Working Group on Access to Performance Ephemera was renewed for another three-year term with Paul Banks as Chair.

The Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions and Accreditation Working Group was disbanded. A document has been completed, which is available upon request.

IAML’s Archivist, Inger Enquist, is retiring this summer. The Music and Theatre Library in Stockholm will soon employ a new archivist, who will take care of IAML’s archive, among other duties. Since this person will not necessarily be a IAML member it will be the responsibility of the Secretary General to make sure that all relevant material is archived. Inger Enquist was cordially thanked for all her work during many years.

A new Co-Chair for the Working Group on Access to Music Archives, after Inger Enquist, was appointed: Klaas Jaap van der Meiden. Judy Tsou will be Inger’s successor as IAML’s liaison to the International Council of Archives.

Council established the new position of IAML Historian. Roger Flury was appointed for an initial term of four years.

The Board had received an application from colleagues in Brazil to form a national Branch. I am happy to announce that we now have our first national branch in Latin America.

In spite of many efforts during the year, enough common ground to form a national branch in Belgium has not yet been found. At present a Belgian national branch will therefore not be established.

Next year's conference will take place in New York from 21 to 26 June. The Italian IAML Branch will host the conference in Rome from 3 to 8 July 2016.

Council approved a Code of Conduct proposed by the Board. It had been brought to our attention that some American institutions require such a Code of Conduct if they are going to send their employees to a conference.