Attendance from the editorial and scientific committee: Ulla Mannering, Mary Harlow, Elsa Yvanez, Karina Grömer, Jane Malcolm Davies, Marie-Louise Nosch, Eva Andersson Strand, Kayleigh Saunderson, Tereza Stolcova, Claudia Merthen, Heidi Sherman, and Johanna Banck-Burgess.
Ulla Mannering (Denmark) was unanimously voted as chair.
2. The report of the board for 2017 to 2022
The way the journal is consumed by readers has changed significantly through the years, to be now mostly read online through our website. For the period from January 2019, we have had at least 1000 to 2000 unique visitors per month, regularly spread along the year beside the January picks when the new issue comes out. Those visitors do stay on the webpage for a long time. We hope soon to be able to show the number of downloads as well. Therefore, our readership seems secured and we can feel quite satisfied about it. The readership is also very global, with more than 100 countries recorded, with special notice for the USA, Scandinavia, and China.
Editorial team:
During this period, several changes occurred in the team of editors: Ursula Rothe stopped after the 2017 issue, while Jane Malcolm Davies joined in the same year. In 2020, Eva Andersson Strand stepped out, and Mary Harlow, Kayleigh Saunderson, and Elsa Yvanez joined the team.
Current team: Karina Grömer, Mary Harlow, Jane Malcolm-Davies, Ulla Mannering, Kayleigh Saunderson, and Elsa Yvanez.
We have now reached a good work routine within this extended team and did not encounter major problems to put out every issue on time.
Scientific committee:
Since CTR started hosting ATR, we have had a Scientific Committee composed of 8 members: John-Peter Wild (UK), Lise Bender-Jørgensen (Norway), Elisabeth Wincott-Heckett (Ireland), Johanna Banck-Burgess (Germany), Tereza Stolcova (Slovakia), Heidi Sherman (USA), Claudia Merthen (Germany), and Christina Margariti (Greece).
The first three members have expressed the wish to retire from this particular duty and we thank them for their great work for ATN/ATR. From 2023 onwards, we would like to restructure the list of members and work slightly differently with them. A consultation will occur in the coming months and propositions will be made during 2024, with the aim of solidifying the peer-reviewing process and thereby creating a better support system for the editorial team.
3. Presentation and approval of the revised account 2017 to 2022
The economy is sound and the society has sufficient funds for the coming years, but we have no income so the balance will continue to diminish. The final balance of our account at the end of the 2017 exercise was 9.749 euros, which has decrease to 7.179 euros at the end of 2022.
The journal is entirely run by volunteers and the only expenses are structural costs: the largest cost is the web hosting and maintenance of the site, followed by the bank fees. Additional running costs can also occur, specifically occasional printing and shipping costs.
Since 2020, the bank expenses have risen exponentially – doubled in fact. The web expenses have also increased, to reach 376 euros per year in 2022. This represents a large cost for our small economy, but the website is our lifeline and main publication tool, so we depend almost entirely on it to reach our readers.
In the past few years, we have made efforts to reduce our expenses, first by cutting our running expenses. We are now ordering only a very low number of prints (mainly for the editors), as we cannot get free copies from the printer anymore, and those are our only running expenses, as we are also not sending anything through the post anymore.
This year, we have also tried to tackle the website cost by opening of a new webpage that functions on a cheaper hosting model.
If we continue like this, we should have enough fund for c. 10 to 15 years.
The fund was mostly formed by old subscription fees, coming from a pool of 150 to 200 subscribers. It has not been replenished since we switched to a non-monetary and fully online system.
Future strategies could involve the use of crowd funding through a social media donation campaign that would reach both academic and non-academic audiences.
4. Statutes of the Society Friends of the Archaeological Textiles Newsletter
The society was established in Denmark on 17 August 2007 to secure the scientific and legal continuation of the ATN/ATR. It was conceived as a platform for the publication of the journal ATN/ATR and dissemination of the most current research on archaeological textiles. All old and new individual subscribers to the ATR automatically became members of the society.
Major changes to its operation were introduced in 2017:
• All ATN/ATR issues are now published on the Society webpage.
• We have no membership lists.
• Printing and postage is done by the UCPH webshop.
• The annual fee has been 0 DKK/EURO.
• We have had no new income.
This deep change in the structure of the Society means that we need to change our statutes to comply with societies by laws in Denmark. We have worked on a new version of the statutes document that we present and vote for at this meeting.
The main points of the new statutes are the following:
– We suggest to separate the board into two units: the Society Board and the Editorial Board. Together with the Scientific Committee, they are all working voluntarily and do not receive any payment for their work.
– The Society Board consists of at least three members who are able to suggest and appoint their own new members. One member should be affiliated at Centre for Textile Research (University of Copenhagen), which hosts the society.
– The Society Board holds at least three meetings every year, including the AGM in the beginning of the year.
– The Society Board constitutes themselves at the first meeting every year.
– At least one of the Society Board members should be in the Editorial Board. This is currently Ulla Mannering.
– The Editorial Board consists of at least five members who are able to suggest and appoint their own new members among the field of textile research.
– The Editorial Board hold regular meetings during the year to secure the publication of ATR at the end of each year.
– At least one of the Editorial Board members should be in the Society Board. This is currently Ulla Mannering.
– The Editorial Board appoints new members to the Scientific Committee when necessary.
– The Editorial Board is in charge of guarantying the scientific quality of the journal’s contents.
– The Editorial Board members do not have access to the Society assets.
In the constitution of the Scientific Committee and the Editorial Board, we will aim for more diversity in terms of age, gender, and disciplines.
5. Constitution of the boards and their tasks
Suggestions of members of the Society Board: Ulla Mannering, Eva Andersson Strand and Marie-Louise Nosch.
Current members of the Editorial Board: Karina Grömer, Mary Harlow, Jane Malcolm-Davies, Ulla Mannering, Kayleigh Saunderson and Elsa Yvanez.
Within this framework, the tasks of the two boards are different but related.
The tasks of the Society Board include:
• The Society Board makes sure that the bank account and legal obligations regarding the society are maintained.
• They are responsible for updating the webpage with the data provided by the Editorial Board and security of the webpage.
• They are responsible for the society assets and fundraising.
• They decide how to use the society assets.
• They prepare and hold the AGM. • They report regularly to the Editorial Board.
• They are responsible for the compliance with the Danish national rules and bylaws.
The tasks of the Editorial Board include:
• The Editorial Board publishes an issue of ATR each year.
• They are specialists within the field of textile research.
• They are to secure the scientific standard of the review.
• They are responsible for making the yearly updates of the webpage.
• They participate in the AGM.
• They report regularly to the Society Board.
The Scientific Committee supports these tasks while guarantying a wider scope of expertise and audiences. Their tasks may include:
• Each member of the Scientific Committee undertakes one peer review for each ATR issue. Peer reviews usually takes place during the summer
• They help identifying and inviting appropriate people to be peer reviewers for the journal.
• They attract at least one article for the journal every second year.
• They write conference reviews or invite and encourage others to do so.
• If native English speaker, they help to proofread articles and other submissions.
• They help proof reading the layout of the journal. This usually takes place in November and December.
They participate in the online Annual General Meeting (AGM). The definition and articulation of these different tasks will be discussed in the near future, through the organisation of a dedicated meeting during the first half of 2024.
Voting:
The accounts were approved and the new statutes accepted by all attending participants.
6. Other issues
The next AGM meeting reporting for 2023 will be organized by the Society Board in February 2024.