Minutes of the LAGB AGM 15 April 1998, University of Lancaster 1. Apologies were received from the Meetings Secretary, Marjolein Groefsema. 2. The minutes of the Business Meeting held at the University of Hertfordshire on 4 September 1997, which had previously been circulated via the LAGB list, were approved. 3. There were no matters arising other than those to be covered under item 4. 4. Officers' Reports. 4.1. President a) The President reported the following arrangements for future meetings: September 10-12 1998 at the University of Luton. The invited speaker would be Dan Sperber; a workshop on experimental pragmatics would be organised by Billy Clark and Vlad Zegarac; and the language tutorial would be given by John Payne, on Roshani, a Pamir language of the Eastern Iranian group of Indo-European. April 8-10 1999 at the University of Manchester. The invited speaker would be John McCarthy; a workshop would be organised by Wiebke Brockhaus; and the language tutorial would be given by Jaklin Kornfilt, on Turkish. September 1999 at the University of York. Mark Steedman was nominated by the committee as invited speaker. Peter Sells, Bernard Comrie and Geoff Pullum were also nominated. After some discussion, a vote was taken, and it was decided that Bernard Comrie should be invited for Autumn 1999, and failing that, for Spring 2000. If he could not accept for Autumn 1999, Geoff Pullum should be approached. Next time an invited speaker was to be chosen, Peter Sells, Mark Steedman and Geoff Pullum should be considered again, along with any new nominations. [Action: RH] It was agreed that Martin Haspelmath should be invited to give the language tutorial, on Lesgian, a North Caucasian language. [Action: AS] Workshop arrangements would be made for Autumn 1999 depending on the invited speaker. b. The President invited Bob Borsley to report on progress on JL. The journal will be moving to 3 issues per year from the next calendar year. c. The President informed the members that a poster publicising linguistics and the LAGB was being designed in collaboration with CUP. d. The President reported that he had been attending ALSISS meetings. An implementation group has been set up to consider the establishment of an Academy for the Social Sciences, but little progress has been made as yet. e. Regrading linguistics: the President is awaiting a response from BAAP. 4.2. Secretary's Report. a. DA welcomed Anna Siewierska, the new Secretary. b. DA reported on the recent ESRC research recognition exercise. The panel had been surprised by the low rate of application, and DA encouraged linguistic departments to apply in the next round, in two years' time, and in the interim advanced course recognition exercise planned for later this year. Any member with questions on procedure is invited to contact DA for advice. c. DA introduced and welcomed to the meeting Eleanor Douglas, the new ESRC staff member concerned with linguistics. 4.3. Treasurer's Report. PR reported that the Association's trading profit over the past 12 months was approximately 6,600 pounds. Assets stood at around 28,000 pounds at the end of last year; subtracting the CUP bill and some other outstanding items left disposable assets of approximately 22,000 pounds. The committee proposed a scheme whereby members of the LAGB organising conferences on linguistics in the UK should be invited to apply for grants of up to 300 pounds; conference publicity would in return have to state that the event was sponsored by the LAGB, and membership application forms should be enclosed in conference packs. This proposal was approved. In view of the Association's currently healthy financial situation, no limit was set for the moment on the number of grants to be made each year. Applications should be made to the President, ideally by e-mail to allow a quick response. It was agreed that details of the scheme should be included in the next circular. [Action: AS] The Treasurer proposed no increase in subscriptions. However, the increase in size of JL is likely to lead to a 10 per cent increase in the CUP charge for members' issues, and this increase will have to be passed on to members in due course. 4.4. Membership Secretary's Report The Membership Secretary invited members who had not received the recent membership list to e-mail her. 4.5. Assistant Secretary's Report The Assistant Secretary drew attention to the 'Genes, Languages and Peoples' meeting, sponsored by the LAGB and the Genetical Society, to be held in Cambridge on 5 September 1998. Details were included in the recent second circular, and booking forms can be obtained from April McMahon, e-mail amm11@hermes.cam.ac.uk 4.6. Meetings Secretary The President asked that any offers of venues for meetings in 2001 and beyond should contact the Meetings Secretary. 5. AOB The President proposed votes of thanks to David Adger, who is standing down as Secretary; to the local organiser for the Lancaster meeting, Julia Glass; to Billy Clark, for co-ordinating circulars for the current meeting; and to the invited speakers. April McMahon Assistant Secretary, LAGB 19 April 1998 April McMahon Department of Linguistics / Selwyn College University of Cambridge Cambridge, CB3 9DA, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1223 335830 Fax: +44 (0) 1223 335837