Executive Board Meeting - July 9, 2005

The Executive Board had its regular meeting on July 9 at SVU President Rechcigl?s residence in Rockville, MD. In the absence of Secretary General, Vice President Zdenek David was appointed Secretary-General pro tempore, who took the minutes.

Following the approval of the minutes from the last meeting, Rechcigl distributed generic agenda which henceforth was to be followed in the future board meetings.

The following items of general interest were reported:

1. Vice President Cecilia Rokusek has just moved from Florida to Minnesota to assume a new position of Dean of Education at Winona State University, MN

2. A new Blue Ribbon Leadership Search Committee has been appointed, comprised of Peter Demetz (Sterling Professor Emeritus, Yale University), Josef A. Mestenhauser (Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota), Vladimir Paces (President of the Academy of Sciences of CR), Dr. Jan P. Skalny (Past SVU Executive Vice President), Dr. Zdenek Slouka (Past SVU President), and Dr. Peter Zuman (Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Clarkson University). The purpose of the Committee is to search for new SVU leadership.

3. A new SVU Publication Advisory Committee has been established with the following makeup: Dr. Zdenek David (Chair), Dr. Slavo Michalek, Dr. Cecilia Rokusek, Dr. Oldrich Tuma, Dr. Jan Vicar, and Mr. Miroslav Wlachovsky.

4. A new SVU Youth Advisory Committee was established, comprised of the following members: Robin Anderson, Amy Garrett, Hana Konecna, Vladimir Kysucky, Jiri Smeral, and Charles Svagera,

5. The Congress Program Working Committee has been formed, including the following members: Dr. Karel Raska, Dr. Miloslav Rechcigl, Dr. Zdenek Vich, Dr. Dagmar Hasalova White (Chair),

6. The untimely death of Paul Bartl of Carlsbad, CA on May 28.

Rechcigl also informed the Board that the University of Minnesota is sending its truck to pick up the remainder of the SVU archival material which has been kept in his house. The material will be deposited with the other SVU Archives at the University?s Immigration History Research Center. The arrival time has been set for July 20.

A new SVU membership drive has been launched and the Board appeals to SVU membership to give us an active hand in this important endeavor. The campaign will be coordinated by Secretary-General who will make available to interested people the SVU membership applications form, as well as the descriptive material about our Society. He can be reached by e-mail: ojsafertal@comcast.net. Or by telephone (301) 564-9081 or by mail at the following address: Frank Safertal, SVU Secretary-General, 5529 Whitley Park Terrace, Bethesda, MD 20814-2064. Secretary-General, henceforth, will regularly report to the Board at each meeting, on the statistics relating to new SVU members.

Rechcigl also announced the formation of a new SVU Biographical Data Base which he will manage together with the SVU Webmaster Jiri Eichler. The individual members are requested to submit their biographical sketches for posting to the following address via e-mail: SVU1@comcast.net. They should be written in a flowing narrative (traditional CVs written in an outline form are not acceptable for this purpose.

The Board members who have not as yet provided drafts. spelling out their responsibilities, including specific projects to be completed by the current administrative period, have been admonished to do so by the next meeting.

Vice President Vera Borkovec reported that the monograph on the Czech and Slovak Theater Abroad that she has been editing is close to completion. What remains is just formatting to get it ready for publication. With reference to the monograph on Czech Opera Abroad, Vice President Dagmar White, who is in charge of the project, reported that almost half of the chapters are completed and that the manuscript should be finished by the end of the 2005 calendar year.

According to the information received from Olomouc, the selected papers from the 2004 congress are planned for publication in October.

As far as the proceedings of the Florida Conference are concerned, Rechcigl expressed some concern, noting that a large number of speakers have not as yet submitted their papers. Unless we have a critical mass of the papers we may have to rethink the idea of publishing them at all. The respective speakers/authors are urged to send in their papers right away. They ought to be sent via e-mail to : SVU1@comcast.net

The editor-in-chief of Kosmas, Clinton Machann issued a call for manuscripts suitable for publishing in the periodical. Apart from traditional historical, literary and social essay, he would welcome contributions in the area of art and music history, as well as in the history of science and technology. More subscriptions are needed especially from university, libraries and other institutions. Secretary-General will henceforth regularly Report to the board on the new Kosmas subscriptions.

The preparation for the next SVU World Congress to be held at the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice is well under way. The details of the local arrangements and other logistics are being periodically reported in our newsletter Zpravy SVU and are also posted on the SVU Website. The call for papers has been issued and the interested people are urged to send in their preregistration forms.

The Board would welcome volunteers to help us organize specific English panels or symposia.

There were other items on the agenda but the meeting had to be adjourned because of the lack of quorum.

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