BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY
2014 ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES
Friday-Sunday, June 13-15, 2014
The University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
BRS ANNUAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES, Friday, June 13, 2014
I. CALL TO ORDER. Chad Trainer, chair, BRS board of directors, called the 2014 annual meeting of the BRS board of directors to order at 5:25 pm Friday, June 13, 2014 at the University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Michael Potter was host of the meeting.
BRS DIRECTORS PRESENT. Board members in attendance were Chad Trainer, Michael Berumen, Kenneth Blackwell, David Blitz, William Bruneau, Rosalind Carey, Kevin Klement, Gregory Landini, Tim Madigan, John Ongley, Ray Perkins, Jr., Michael Potter, Thomas Riggins, Alan Schwerin, and Thom Weidlich.
OTHER BRS MEMBERS PRESENT. Other BRS members in attendance were Karl Anderson, Giovanni de Carvalho, Ed Ferrier, David Henehan, Mandeep Kaur, John Lenz, Billy Joe Lucas, Steve Maragides, Karl Maris, Charles McCarty, and Karen Perkins.
NONMEMBERS PRESENT. Michael Ruse.
II. REPORTS
1. APPROVAL OF THE 2013 MINUTES. Outgoing BRS Secretary John Ongley noted that the BRS 2013 annual board meeting minutes had been posted online for many months, and read an addendum to them. It was:
ADDENDUM
From October 29 to November 12, 2013, the BRS board of directors held an online special board meeting at which the following motion by Ken Blackwell was passed:
That chapter dues be $60.00 for the first ten chapter members and $3.00 a member thereafter; that people joining in October through December be offered a choice on the Lenz website between joining for the current calendar year and joining for the following year with reduced privileges for the current calendar year; and that those joining for the following year in October through December not be eligible to vote or to nominate or be nominated for the board until the next calendar year.
The minutes with the addendum were approved.
2. BRS BULLETIN REPORT. Michael Berumen gave the BRS Bulletin report. He has donated $400.00 himself for production of the Bulletin. Berumen said that in the future, the Society may want to print at least one of the two Bulletins as an electronic-only version, given the ever-increasing expenses for publications.
3. TREASURER’S REPORT. Michael Berumen gave the treasurer’s report. The Society’s treasury at that time had a balance of approximately $14,500.00. He said that we are in acceptable shape, financially, but that our expenses run very close to our regular revenues without considering the extra donations from members, which are down this year. He also pointed out that the BRS is down by 35 members from Dec 31, 2013. He urged board members to help recruit new dues paying members.
III. NEW BUSINESS
1. ELECTION OF OFFICERS. The following BRS members were nominated and elected or re-elected as executive officers of the BRS for the coming year:
Chad Trainer, Chair, BRS Board of Directors
Alan Schwerin, BRS President
Ray Perkins, Jr., BRS Vice President
Michael Berumen, BRS Treasurer
Michael Potter, BRS Board and Society Secretary
The following members were re-elected as officers of the BRS for the coming year:
Peter Stone, Vice Chair, BRS Board of Directors
Dennis Darland, Vice President / Electronic Projects
Kris Notaro, Vice President / Website Technology
2. Ken Blackwell said that he needed to raise the price that he charges the Society for the Russell journal from $30.00 per subscription to $33.00 USD. (Membership in the BRS includes a subscription to Russell. The Society thus pays for one subscription per member except that a couple membership only includes one subscription. Last year’s bill for the BRS subscriptions to Russell was $5,490.00 USD.)
Ken informed the board that the Society’s subscriptions supplied about one-sixth of the total cost of producing the Russell journal.
Ken then moved that the BRS agree to pay $33.00 USD each for its subscriptions to the Russell journal. The motion passed.
3. A discussion ensued concerning two of the BRS websites (one maintained by Kris Notaro and another by John Ongley and John Lenz. Dennis Darland, Thomas Stanley, Ken Blackwell, Peter Stone on Facebook, and Warren Allen Smith are other Society members who maintain BRS websites.) No motions were made or suggested.
4. Michael Berumen suggested that the Society revive the email discussion group for BRS members, the BRS list. Ken Blackwell offered to reinstate the BRS list, which he had closed down a year and a half earlier.
5. Karl Anderson said that he wanted to start a BRS chapter in Lund.
IV. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was adjourned at 6:41 pm.
BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY
ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING MINUTES
Saturday, June 14, 2014
The University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
I. CALL TO ORDER. The 2014 annual BRS members meeting was called to order Saturday, June 14, 1014, at 12:50 pm at the University of Windsor by BRS president Alan Schwerin.
MEMBERS PRESENT. Alan Schwerin, Michael Berumen, Kenneth Blackwell, David Blitz, William Bruneau, Rosalind Carey, Giovanni de Carvalho, Ed Ferrier, Nicholas Griffin, David Henehan, Mandeep Kaur, Kevin Klement, Gregory Landini, John Lenz, Billy Joe Lucas, Tim Madigan, Steve Maragides, Karl Maris, Charles McCarty, John Ongley, Michael Potter, Karen Perkins, Ray Perkins, Jr., Thomas Riggins, David Shier, Michael Stevenson, Chad Trainer, Tom Weidlich.
OTHERS PRESENT. Michael Ruse.
II. NEW BUSINESS
1. Ken Blackwell moved that the following set of chapter rules be accepted as bylaws.
1. A chapter must have at least 3 members, at least one of whom is a BRS member.
2. The chapter must apply for membership.
3. A chapter will be represented by a head, to be chosen by the chapter members.
4. A chapter will have all rights and responsibilities, including the right and responsibility of voting as if the chapter were an individual member of the Society.
5. Members of a chapter will not have the voting rights of individual members of the Society, but individual chapter members may themselves be individual members of the Society.
6. The names of chapter members will appear on the Society’s membership list.
7. The chapter will submit a report to the BRS on its activities once a year, in time to have it presented at the BRS annual meeting.
8. The chapter will receive at least one copy of the print edition of the BRS Bulletin and only one copy of the Russell journal, which can be passed around, member to member, or photocopied.
The motion passed.
2. Ray Perkins, Jr. moved that the BRS adopt and publically declare its support for the lawsuit before the International Court of Justice by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. (They are suing the United States and the eight other nuclear armed nations for failure to negotiate arms reduction “at an early date” as required by the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.)
The motion passed.
3. John Ongley moved that a committee be formed to write a proposal to apply term limits to BRS officers. The committee would also consider David Blitz’s idea of having past presidents continue for a time as members of the executive committee, as is done in the American Philosophical Association.
The motion passed. BRS president Alan Schwerin appointed Bill Bruneau committee chair.
III. ADJOURNMENT. The Society meeting was adjourned at 1:50 pm.
BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY
2014 ANNUAL BOARD MEETING (continued)
Saturday, June 14, 2014
The University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Chad Trainer, BRS board chair, re-opened the board meeting at 1:55 pm Saturday, June 14, 2014.
Ken Blackwell moved that the time of online BRS board meetings be cut in half at the discretion of the chair.
The motion passed.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:05 pm.
Michael Potter
BRS Secretary
June 15, 2014