Minutes of the Business Meeting of the ISS at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-On-the- Lake, Ontario, July 24, 2004,

provided by the Recording Secretary, Norma Jenckes:

At the conclusion of the reading of papers at the First Annual Shaw Symposium, President Dick Dietrich opened the meeting and made his report to the assembled members and prospective members of the ISS. He summarized the progress of the new organization since the last meeting in March in Florida. The initial membership drive has resulted in 112 members and a budget, after expenses, of $8,448.75, $5,000 of which has been invested in CDs. He stressed that the ISS needed to find funding other than from dues and announced his intention to form a committee in the near future that would pursue grants and sponsorships. Any members interested in providing expertise in grant writing and any with ideas about funding sources should contact Dick by email.

Dick announced that the next Shaw conference is tentatively scheduled to be held in mid-June of 2006 at Brown University in Providence, R.I. As the year coincides with the 150th birthday of GBS, ways to mark Shaw's birthday would be explored, one being the joining with other Shaw Societies and groups to visit sites connected with Shaw's life.

There was then some discussion of the intention to continue the Shaw Symposium at the Shaw Festival as an annual event. If the planning is firm enough, the information about the Symposium will be included in the Official brochures for the Festival.

Other Shaw observances were also noted and members were urged to discover more about ShawChicago activities and their presentation of play readings.

Questions were raised about future venues for the ISS conferences, which it is hoped will be scheduled every

two years.

Comments were made on the usefulness of the ISS website, with a page on "Calls for Papers" being an example. It was urged that more papers on Shaw be offered to professional meetings in such areas as drama and Irish lit, which are not featuring Shaw as often as we desire. Dick stressed that we must use these professional opportunities to enlarge awareness of Shaw and his contemporary relevance and not simply rely on our own Shaw organizations for paper-reading opportunities.

Then the group turned to the pressing issue of how the ISS is to spend its income, or if indeed it should. Dick reviewed the recent discussion he had been conducting with the Penn State publishers of "SHAW: The Annual" over the possibility of including a subscription to the annual as part of membership in the ISS. To cover the costs of the journal, dues would need to be increased and, to avoid raising dues too much too fast, part of the cost would need to be subsidized.

The issues surrounding a dues increase were discussed, and there was a clarification of the history of the journal. We

were fortunate that Rodelle and Stan Weintraub were in attendance, as they were able to provide a full and balanced

account of the past and present concerns of the journal and its long connection with Penn State University Press.

After some clarification of the finances involved, a decision was made to poll the members at the meeting. The question was posed: Do we in spirit endorse the Shaw annual and see its support as the first substantial work of the group? A consensus was reached that the annual is of great importance to all Shaw scholars and that its continuation is essential. If a formal connection were made and all members were made subscribers, there would be benefits for both the press and the ISS. The distinguished Shaw journal would become our journal and it would help the ISS activities expand. Dick was encouraged to continue negotiations with Penn State Press over pricing, in hopes of putting less stress on the ISS budget.

Further positive suggestions for future directions for using the funds of the ISS included the creation of research

grants for graduate students to visit Shaw archives and/ or to attend the Shaw conferences and symposia, and the offering of prizes for "Best dissertation on Shaw of the Year" or "Best book on Shaw of the year," and similar prizes aimed at encouraging younger people to the study of Shaw.

The meeting was adjourned