Robert Stern (RS) in the Chair.  Minutes by David Merrill. 

* indicates that an action is to be taken.

1. Free copies of the Bulletin.

Stephen Houlgate (SH) said he had identified institutions that will be receiving free copies of the 2006 Bulletin.

2. Marketing

Thom Brooks (TB) reported that he had made use of all the obvious websites for advertising the conference

3. Annual Accounts

David Merrill (DM) presented the accounts and ►the AGM accepted them.  (Copies of the account were distributed at the AGM and can be acquired from DM)

4. Bulletin

► AGM agreed to give the Society’s executive a mandate to spend money upgrading both the Bulletin and the website.  RS offered the reassurance that only sensible amounts of money would be spent.

5. Graduate Bursaries, Other Conference Subsidies and Other Ways to Encourage Graduate Participation

The point was made that the Graduate Bursaries should be advertised in advance.  TB recommended that there the bursaries be set at a minimum of £75.00 each and that there should always be three.

►AGM agreed that *TB’s recommendation be the rule for all further conferences.  *TB said he will put up this information on the website as soon as the 2009 Conference details went up.

SH wondered whether it was time to have another graduate paper prize.  *He would ask KD about this.  RS raised the issue of a graduate session for the first prize winner and conference accommodation subsidy for prize winners.  KDB asked whether the Society should advertise for graduate papers.  RS cautioned that if the conference is only over one night as is usual there is not the time for a dedicated graduate session.

6. Conference Management

TB provided a retrospective on this year’s conference.  He explained his continuing administrative role over the past few years.  There was general agreement at the AGM that there were many advantages to sticking with one person in this position as the Society has been doing.  TB mentioned that having a registration desk was new and thanked Ali Alizadeh for running it.  *Next year TB thought he would go with an hour for the reservation procedures.  *TB also thought that having name badges would be a good idea and proposed providing them next year.  TB also mentioned that St Edmund Hall now charges conferences for the use of meeting facilities but fortunately the college is making an exception for us in this regard.  Many thanks to TB for finding away around this cost.

The next conference dates are 3, 4 September 2009.

The AGM thanked Ali and most especially TB for all they had done to make this year’s conference a success.

7. Future Conference Subjects

Suggestions for next year were Kierkegaard, a joint session with the UK Kant society and a joint session with the Hegel Vereinigung, particularly while Axel Honneth was in charge.  SH mentioned that arranging a session with the Kantians would need more than a year.  *As such SH and TB will be liaising with the Kant Society straightaway, as this conference will be bigger than usual, so will need a two year lead in.  TB wondered whether Teddy Hall would be big enough.  The fire code sets a limit of 60 persons in the old dining hall.

►*AGM agreed that next year Hegel and Kierkegaard would be the theme of the conference and that this conference would only be for one night. 

*It was suggested that George Pattison be asked for help with logistics and possibly extra space at his college for this conference.  *RS said he will talk with Alex Honneth about a joint meeting.  *RS said he will help find speakers for the Kierkegaard conference next year.  *TB and SH said they would work on finding Kant speakers.

►AGM agreed that 2010 be the Kant conference and that it take two nights and that 2011 be the Hegel Vereinigung year.  *It was also mentioned 2012 was the 200^th anniversary of Hegel’s Logic and so an appropriate subject then.

1. Minutes of previous meeting

These were approved.

2. Matters arising

There was further discussion last year of how to provide honorary subscriptions to the Bulletin to overseas universities in less privileged circumstances to our own, and how to identify such institutions (particularly with reference to Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia).

3. Treasurer's report

With respect to the finances of the Society, members discussed the prospect of transferring the non interest-bearing account to an alternative account with the Co-operative Society. It was also decided to inquire into how current rates of return on the Society's accounts could further be maximised. Stephen Houlgate suggested encouraging more Society members to subscribe to the Bulletin via debit accounts and proposed including relevant information in future issues of the Bulletin to this effect. The Treasurer presented the detailed figures of the current state of the Society's accounts. It was agreed that the accounts were in a healthy state, and there was some discussion of whether more funds should be spent on various projects; but in the end it was agreed to proceed cautiously, and to only make spending in the hope of generating further income.

The accounts were duly approved and the Treasurer thanked.

4. The Bulletin

Steven Houlgate reported on the technical feasibility of scanning the text of the Society Bulletins, and that he is still working on finalizing this. The handing over of the future editorship of the Bulletin to Katerina Deligiorgi at the University of Sussex was formally confirmed. In this connection the Society expressed its thanks to Steven Houlgate as former editor and it was formally moved and accepted that Steven be made a member of the Council of the Society.  

5. Retrospective on 2007 Conference

It was noted that the attendance at the 2007 Conference was particularly high (61 participants). There were reports from the organisers of the Conference that there had been some problems of liaison and organization  at St Edmund Hall, with some participants failing to receive the precise form of accommodation which they had requested when booking for the Conference. Some reservations were also expressed about the quality and variety of the meals provided by the College, with suggestions that more salad options be considered in future. It was further suggested that the College should try in future to ensure that noisy and distracting work and traffic on the part of College employees should be avoided or minimised in the immediate environ of the Hall where the Conference was being convened. In this connection it was discussed whether a more appropriate room for future meetings at the College be considered. It was agreed that the organisers of the forthcoming conference would look into the possibility of finding an alternative room that was large and quiet enough to be suitable, particularly the College library. It was also decided to try and expand the general publicity base for the Society and disseminate information concerning the annual Conference, specifically in relation to further web-sites.

6. The Conference for 2008

It was decided to revert to the usual two-day format of the annual meeting of the Society and the date for the next Conference was fixed for 1-2 September 2008. It was also decided to explore the possibility of future collaboration or joint conferences with the Hegel-Vereinigung and with the Kierkegaard Society.  After discussing various themes that had already been proposed for future Conferences, it was decided that 'Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit' form the subject of the 2008 Conference. In this connection, it was decided not to refer more narrowly to the 'Philosophy of Mind' or 'Philosophy of Subjective Spirit', or specifically limit the theme to the text of part three of the Encyclopaedia, so that the range of possible papers be left open to different aspects of Hegel's concept of 'spirit' in general. Thom Brooks and SH agreed to organize the 2008 Conference with assistance from other members of the Society.
 The question of asking foreign speakers to participate with papers delivered in languages other than English was discussed. It was generally felt that for the benefit of the broad range of HSGB members papers should continue in principle to be given in English, but that exceptions might be considered on condition that a full translated text of the relevant paper be provided for all participants. (It was recognized that this approach might be necessary if we succeed in future of attracting speakers from Russia or Eastern Europe.)

7. New Honorary President

Given the passing of H. S. Harris in early 2007, it was suggested and unanimously agreed that the HSGB should approach John Burbidge and ask if he would accept the position of Honorary President, and Robert Stern agreed to contact him in this connection.

8. Other Business Arising

(a) The question of whether the current web-site of the HSGB might be updated was discussed, and it was agreed that the current site is still adequate to our needs.

(b) It was also suggested that we consider retaining the option of including one or more 'graduate papers' for future meetings, though it was recognized that there would be specific time constraints once the usual two-day Conference format is resumed. It was suggested that we consider possible graduate slots (and papers on any aspect of Hegel) well in advance of future conferences in order to maintain flexibility in programming contributions.

(c) Andrew Chitty had presented a request that the society members be asked whether they would support his Hegel bibliography, if this was converted into a Wikipedia site. This was given enthusiastic backing.

1. The minutes of last year’s AGM were approved as a correct record.

2. Matters arising.
a. There had been discussion last year of whether to provide honorary subscriptions to the Bulletin to a number of overseas universities in less privileged circumstances to our own. So far only one library had been suggested. Members were urged to let Stephen Houlgate or Robert Stern know of any suitable libraries. SH agreed to consult with his librarian over methods of identifying suitable libraries, and to consider putting out a request on Philos-L.
b. The graduate student conference bursary scheme (discussed in the minutes of the 2005 meeting) was now being set up in time for next year’s conference.
Graduate students at the 2006 conference were encouraged to apply retrospectively for funding, by submitting a short case for needing the support to Stephen Houlgate by 14th October 2006.
c. The constitution needed to be corrected as follows:
  under 5 ‘The AGM of the HSGB approves the HSGB's Constitution … elects the Chairman and Secretary who will organize it’; this should be amended to ‘…elects President and the organiser(s) of the annual conference’
 under 9 ‘The Secretary/Treasurer and the Bulletin Editor ….  If either of them dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns office before its normal expiry, the Chairman will appoint members’; this should be amended to ‘…the President will appoint members’
d. Lists of the Officers of the HSGB needed to be updated including to reflect that the meeting agreed to elect Thom Brooks to the council. It was agreed that current Officers had effectively assumed their posts in 2006 and would be eligible for re-election in 2009.

3. The Treasurer, David Merrill, apologised for his absence but had sent an electronic report summarising the society’s financial position (for the report contact David Merrill). The annual accounts were accepted. During 2005-6 David had established a dollar account with the NatWest.

There was discussion of whether the Society could cover the travel and/or conference registration expenses of speakers in cases when their own institutions could not cover these. It was agreed to ask David Merrill to examine the feasibility of covering speakers’ registration fees and then (if that were possible) whether it would be possible to cover the speakers’ travel expenses too, taking into account the need to leave sufficient funds for the graduate student conference bursaries. David was to be requested to make a report on this matter to the next AGM.

4. Report from Stephen Houlgate:
Stephen had now been editing the Bulletin for nine years and was going to be looking to pass the editorship on by 2007-8.
Stephen was in the process of scanning back issues of the Bulletin so that these could be made available on the website.

5. Announcement from Robert Stern regarding the 2007 conference:
A reminder that the conference will be on Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit.
It was agreed that the conference should extend over three days and should include a session for graduate students to present short papers and an author-meets-critics session.
It was agreed to defer until 2007 consideration of the theme for the 2008 conference.

6. Announcement from Robert Stern:
A one-day conference on Hegel and Kierkegaard will be held at the University of Sheffield in spring/early summer 2007. Further details would be available presently.

1. Apologies received from Robert Stern and Alison Stone.

 
2. Minutes from last year’s AGM were approved. They have been available on-line since November 2004 for examination and this year’s minutes will be displayed there as well.




3. The Treasurer, David Merrill thanked his predecessor, Ian Fraser, both for the work he had done over his years as treasurer and his continued help over the past year, which included his management of the USA dollar account. Thanks also went to Stephen Houlgate and Kathryn Wilkinson. 


He issued a report summarising the society’s financial position (for the report contact David Merrill).The annual accounts were accepted.

The bank where the dollar account is held (Evanston, IL, USA) is in the process of transferring signatory rights to David Merrill, from Ian Fraser.All necessary paperwork has now been received by the bank.To ease the transfer of signatory powers now and in the future, Susan Miller who is based in Evanston has been made a signatory.Her position within the society will be ‘Deputy Treasurer’.

It was proposed and accepted that there should be one signatory (The Treasurer, David Merrill) for the UK bank account and that a second signature should not be needed on cheques.

David Merrill highlighted that the accounts may be slightly misleading and inflated this year because a significant number of back-payments have been made by members whose subscription was in arrears.He and Stephen Houlgate have now brought the membership list broadly up to date.

It was proposed and approved that the individual subscription rate in American dollars be increased from $17 to $20 p.a.All other rates will be frozen for this year.

There are significant reserves of over £5000 held by the society and overall the annual income of the society does add to these reserves.

David Merrill will examine the possibility of using a deposit account so that a better rate of interest is received.(This year £112.22 was received in interest from Natwest Bank.)

It was proposed by David Merrill and approved by the society that some of these funds be used to provide an honorary subscription of the Bulletin to a number of overseas universities in less privileged circumstances to our own.Stephen Houlgate, David Merrill, Thom Brooks and Gary Browning will compile a list of 20 - 30 universities from countries including Turkey, India, Mexico, etc. and members are invited to send an e-mail to David Merrill if they wish to propose a university for receipt of an honorary subscription.

It was proposed by Gary Browning and approved by the society that some of the funds be used to provide bursaries to enable graduate students to attend the annual conference.It was agreed that 5 bursaries should be offered per annum for the next 3 years.Graduate students will be asked to pay £30 towards the cost of the conference and they will be able to apply for the bursaries through the web-site on a form that will ask for both a personal statement and the endorsement of a supervisor.This information will be included in the posters advertising the conference.

The possibility of running a Graduate Essay competition was discussed but was not approved for this year.

David Merrill pointed out how the financial report could be improved and will do so for the next AGM.Firstly, institutional subscriptions will be separated from individual subscriptions.Secondly, the dollar account will be more accurate reflection of the financial state of the society since subscription information will be more up to date.

Stephen Houlgate expressed his thanks to David Merrill for this year’s report and the work undertaken throughout the year.

4. Report and announcements from Stephen Houlgate:


He expressed a concern about retention of members, especially graduate students, and how this could be improved.It is hoped that the bursaries will partially address this.He also proposed issuing the next Bulletin for free to a number of British and American universities that do not currently subscribe to the Bulletin, however this idea was shelved for this year in favour of offering honorary subscriptions to less privileged universities and graduate conference bursaries.Dirk Held suggested that it may be more effective to send the Bulletin to departments rather than libraries.

The constitution of the society is in the process of being re-written by himself and Robert Stern.

He passed on request for help from a researcher in Berlin who is having difficulty accessing the papers of James Hutchinson Stirling.If anyone can help they are asked to send an e-mail to Stephen Houlgate.

He announced that Paul Healy is interested in organising a symposium on Hegel's Logic and the Logic of Mathematics.If anyone is interested they should contact him.

He attended the recent meeting of the Internationale Hegel Vereinigung who are currently looking for a representative from the UK for their advisory board.It was agreed that Stephen Houlgate should be that representative.

5. The American Hegel Society is calling for papers on ‘Hegel and History’. Deadline 20^th January 2006. If you are interested please visit their web-site for further details.




6. Conference 2006

A range of titles were debated including:
‘Hegel on Subjective Spirit’ (one of last year’s proposals)
‘Hegel and Literature’
‘Hegel and Critical Theory’
‘Hegel and Pragmatism’
‘Hegel and Aesthetics’ (perhaps in conjunction with the British Society of Aesthetics)
‘Hegel and Non-Western Thought’
‘Hegel and Religion’
‘Hegel and his Early Writings’

It was decided that the conference next year will be ‘Hegel and his Early Writings’ on 4^th - 5^th September 2006.

Thom Brooks has agreed to continue to organise the registration, finances and liaise with St Edmund’s Hall in preparation for the conference with the assistance of David Merrill in his capacity as Society Treasurer.

Ben Levey has agreed to organise the speakers with support from Stephen Houlgate and other officers of the society.

Additional links will be made from the web-site to relevant on-line Hegelian texts.

Thom Brooks announced that one of the difficulties in organising the conference this year had been a significant number of late-registrations.It was agreed that the deadline for registration should be made more visible on the posters and web-site and that it should be made clearer that registration must be made before this date.

To assist early registration it was decided that the conference details should be circulated earlier (Easter-time).

The possibility of a penalty for late registration (e.g. £10) was debated but it was decided not to use this scheme this year.

Allegra de Laurentiis requested better access to IT equipment and photocopiers during the conference.Thom Brooks will look into this for next year’s conference.

7. Robert Stern was absent but sent a report about preparations for the Phenomenology conference in 2007. 

The college has been provisionally booked for a 3-day conference; 10^th - 12^th September 2007. 
A number of speakers have accepted an invitation to give a paper.
Members are invited to make further suggestions about invited speakers by e-mailing Robert Stern.
8. The possibilities of joint conferences between the American Hegel Society or other Hegelian Societies were also raised as possibilities for future years. 

2. The Treasurer, Ian Fraser, reviewed the Society’s finances. He reported that:
The Society currently has £5014.16, plus $1355.97 in its US account and 96.09 in its Euro account. It was agreed that two smaller accounts, held with Alliance and Leicester and Lloyds TSB, should be closed.
There are now 189 individual members, plus 42 institutional subscribers in Europe and 46 outside Europe.  94 members are still in arrears representing a significant loss of around £1000. It was agreed that a strategy is needed to encourage payment by these members. Ian had already sent around, with the last issue of the Bulletin, a standing order form to those in question. It was agreed to continue to recommend payment by standing order where at all possible.
Ian was retiring from the post of Treasurer this year, to be succeeded by David Merrill. Ian was congratulated on his hard work in the post.

3. The Bulletin editor, Stephen Houlgate, reported on the situation with respect to the Bulletin:
He intends to continue publishing one double issue of the Bulletin per year for the foreseeable future. The 2004 double issue would be out by the end of the year.
Stephen asked whether there were any volunteers to become book reviews editor. Anyone interested in this post should contact him.
A list of books for review will be included at the end of the next issue. Again, Stephen reminded anyone interested in reviewing a book for the Bulletin to contact him. Reviews from graduate students are welcomed.

4. Thom Brooks asked whether it might be possible to create a web archive of past issues of the Bulletin. The contents of back issues can already be viewed online and back issues are available from no. 13 onwards (although there are a few gaps). Thom asked whether issues 1-12 could be put online. These mainly consist of reviews and conference reports. It was agreed to investigate the possibility of finding someone who would be willing to undertake this.

4. The graduate essay prize had taken place in 2003-4 and was highly successful. There were 16 submissions. The winning three essays, by Oran Moked (Columbia University), Thom Brooks (University of Sheffield), and David James (University of Sussex), will be published in the Bulletin.
It was agreed to award another prize in around 3 years or so.

5. Following the vacancy created by the death of Michael Petry in 2003, Robert Stern had been elected as President of the Society. This election had revealed that there is some confusion in the Society’s Constitution as to the roles of President and Chair. Robert and Stephen agreed to look into this and clarify the specification of the President’s role.

6. Those present discussed the theme of next year’s conference. Several suggestions were put forward and on the basis of a vote it was decided that the 2005 conference would be on the theme of ‘Hegel and the Greeks’. This would be organised by Thom Brooks, with assistance from Stephen Houlgate.
The suggestions and votes were as follows:
Hegel and the Greeks – 12
Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit – 8
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right – 8
Hegel and feminism – 5
Hegel’s philosophy of education – 3

It was also agreed that the 2007 conference would be on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, to mark the bicentennial of its publication (in 1807), with Robert Stern as provisional organizer.

1. Members were invited to send any comments on the minutes from last year’s meeting to Stephen Houlgate.

2. The Treasurer, Ian Fraser, was absent but had sent a written report on finances to Gordon Finlayson on changes since last year:
i. A new Society account had been set up with Nat West which allows for subscriptions to be paid by standing order.
ii. A Euro account had been set up with Nat West allowing subscription payments in Euros and by repetitive relay payment.
Ian reported that the Society’s current finances were healthy. Gordon confirmed that this year’s conference had made a profit of £700.

3. The issue was raised of whether the Society could pay speakers’ expenses or subsidise graduate students for the annual conference. It was agreed to raise UK library subscription costs for the Bulletin to £15 and UK individual subscriptions to £12 to provide money towards these costs (the precise amount available to be fixed in any particular year). Gordon also suggested that extra money could be raised by charging publishers for flyers or manned stands at the conference.

4. Members were reminded that the deadline for the graduate essay prize was 1st October 2003.

5. Stephen reminded members to contact him if they were interested in reviewing any of the books listed in the last Bulletin or the new books since received.

6. Stephen reminded members of the call for papers by the Hegel Society of America for the conference on Identity and Difference to be held at UCLA in Fall 2004 (details available from the Hegel Society of America website).

7. Ian Fraser was considering resigning as Treasurer and David Merrill, who was supported by Gordon Finlayson, agreed that if so he would be interested in taking the post on. Stephen agreed to write to Ian during the next year to clarify the position.

8. Gordon emphasised that the organiser of the annual conference needs information from the Treasurer regarding the Society’s bank accounts and emphasised the importance of the web and email in advertising the conference. It was agreed that the Society needs a web- and email- coordinator. It was agreed that Andrew Chitty, Bob Stern, Kathryn Wilkinson and Gordon Finlayson would discuss this over the next year and report back to the next AGM.

9. The post of Chairperson to the Society had become vacant through the sad death of Michael Petry. Stephen invited nominations, to be sent to him over the next year and voted on at 2004’s AGM.

10. The 2004 conference is to be held with the British Society for the History of Philosophy, on Hegel and British Thought. Kenneth Westphal is the programme co-ordinator. Thom Brooks agreed to become the general organiser and Bob Stern agreed to liaise with the BSHP and with Kenneth Westphal.

11. Any other business: Stephen reported that he was exploring the possibility of the Society’s affiliating to the newly formed British Philosophical Association.

2. The Society was meeting in the new venue of St. Edmund’s Hall this year. Members were asked about their views of the accommodation, service and food. It was decided to book the Hall for a further year.

3. Stephen Houlgate gave a summary of the position with the Society’s Bulletin. He promised that the next issue would be available by December 2002. He made a request for additional reviews and reviewers. The possibility of bringing out the Bulletin with a recognized publisher was briefly discussed. There was no consensus for this at the moment.

4. It was decided once again to offer a graduate essay prize. The prize will be £200. The successful paper may be given at a subsequent conference as well as appearing in the Bulletin.

5. Nominations were sought for the Society’s Officers whose positions were falling vacant. It was agreed that all Officers, apart from Howard Williams, would serve a further year. All thanked Howard for serving as a Society Officer for more than ten years. Alison Stone of the University of Lancaster will take his position as Secretary.

6. After discussion and a vote on several alternative possibilities it was decided that next year’s topic for the Conference would be Hegel and Social Theory. Conference organizers would be Sean Sayers of the University of Kent and Gordon Finlayson of the University of York. Suggestions for possible papers and paper-givers should be sent to either of these individuals.

7. The Conference also decided that the topic for the following year would be Hegel on British Philosophy. Ken Westphal on the University of East Anglia and Michael Petry, the Society’s chairperson agreed to convene this conference with the possible collaboration of the British Society for the History of Philosophy.

8. This year’s conference organizers and all the Society’s Officers were thanked for their hard work in making the Society and its activities a success.
 

Back to the Home Page

(2) Minutes of the 2000 AGM were approved.

(3) Treasurer’s Report from Ian Fraser (Nottingham Trent).
The finances, being in a fundamentally sound state both in respect of the Bulletin and the Annual Conference, do not necessitate any increase in the subscription rate.
The membership list has been updated via letters and a notice in the Bulletin to ensure that the Bulletin is sent out only to those who are members of the society.
There are approximately 209 individual members and 87 institutional subscribers (42 within Europe).  There is an increasing number of enquiries about membership via the web-site.
It was clarified that members of the society are those who subscribe to the Bulletin and that the wording in the Bulletin should be altered to express this.  New members will receive the issue(s) of the same calendar year that they join.  The subscription fee is therefore due when the first issue of the Bulletin in a calendar year is produced.

Many thanks to Ian Fraser for his report and his work in updating the membership list.

(4) Bulletin Editor’s Report from Stephen Houlgate.
The next issue of the Bulletin will be a double issue and is due to appear October/November 2001.
It will be a double issue in response to the time taken to prepare the Bulletin for publication and distribution.  Gary Browning (Oxford Brooks) has suggested that a publisher (or the Philosophy Documentation Centre) might be willing to take over these aspects of the Editor’s position and will report back at next year’s AGM.
The number of unsolicited papers is rising and Stephen has decided to continue in his policy of blind refereeing.  The referees will be selected from members of the HSGB.
Stephen also appealed for book reviewers.
An e-mail advertisement to libraries in the USA has resulted in one new institutional subscriber to the Bulletin.

(5) Alternate ways of paying subscriptions are to be investigated to facilitate payment, particularly for members outside Britain and USA.  These include the possibility of setting up a new and additional Euro bank account (Robert Stern, Sheffield) and the possibility of payment by credit card (Ian Fraser).  It was agreed that Brian O’Connor (UCD) would be approached concerning the Euro bank account.

(6) Professor Gary Browning, Dr Katerina Deligiorgi (Anglia Polytechnic University), Dr David Merrill (Sarah Lawrence, Oxford) and Professor Robert Stern were appointed members of the HSGB Council.  It was agreed that the constitutional rules concerning period of office and re-election will be observed in the future.  Stephen Houlgate agreed that he would arrange for members of the council to be written to concerning their period in office.

(7) On the basis of extensive research by David Merrill it was decided that next year’s conference is to be held at St Edmund's Hall, Oxford as it offers a more affordable location for the conference and it is hoped this will encourage more postgraduate students to attend.  It will be held on Monday September 2nd and Tuesday September 3rd 2002 and its theme is to be “Hegel and His Critics”.  The programme organisers are Alison Stone (Trinity Hall, Cambridge) and Stephen Houlgate.  Robert Stern and Kathryn Wilkinson will organise publicity and co-ordinate registration and David Merrill is to liaise with St Edmund's Hall.

(8) David Merrill was thanked for the report and his role in the organisation of this year’s conference.

(9) Robert Stern reported that he attended a meeting at the Joint Session on behalf of the HSGB, organized by the National Committee for Philosophy. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the role of the NCP in relation to the various philosophy societies in Britain, with a view to increasing the representation of individual philosophers within the NCP. One plan discussed was that membership of the NCP would entitle individuals to discounted rates of membership in individual societies, thus providing individuals with an incentive to join the NCP. It was recognized, however, that this would only be an option with societies who did not rely on membership subscriptions to fund the society (such as Mind, or the Aristotelian Society, which have substantial capital funds to subsidise membership); societies such as the HSGB would therefore not be expected to participate in this scheme. Nonetheless, the meeting gave the NCP a mandate to explore other ways in which links might be developed, and how it might become more representative, where all specific proposals would be discussed and approved at a further meeting. So, nothing concrete was decided at this stage. (For full minutes of this meeting, see the NCP web-site: http://www.ncp.ac.uk/jtmtg.htm)
 
 

Back to the Home Page

Stephen Houlgate (Warwick) continues as editor of the Bulletin: since plenty of material is to hand and there has been some delay in preparing it for publication, the next number  (now available) will be twice the size of its predecessors.

Robert Stern (Sheffield) is to go ahead in preparing and keeping up-to-date a web page on the Society, and is authorized to make some demands on the treasury to this end.

The officers of the Society, - President (Michael Petry, Rotterdam), Secretary (Howard Williams, Aberystwyth), Treasurer (Ian Fraser, Nottingham Trent), Bulletin Editor (Stephen Houlgate, Warwick) are re-elected for the current year.  The Constitution of the society is to be published in the next number of the Bulletin so that there may be a full awareness of it among the members during next year’s elections. It is likely that several positions may need to be filled next year. Members are invited to consider nominations.

Next year’s meeting is to be held at Pembroke on Monday September 3rd and Tuesday September 4th 2001.  Its theme is to be “Hegel and Kant”, and it is to be organized by Stephen Houlgate (Warwick) in conjunction with the Internationale Hegel-Vereinigung

David Merrill (Williams, Oxford) is to gather comprehensive information on the basic costs for conferences at the various Oxford Colleges.  The administration at Pembroke has assured us that the college is in the middle band in this respect, but the assurance is to be thoroughly investigated.  The possibility of meeting at Sheffield or Edinburgh was mooted.  It is essential that it should be possible for students to attend the meeting.

Michael Petry (Chairman)
Howard Williams (Secretary)