The annual general meeting for 2014 was held at the Culture and Congress House, Hallstatt, Austria on the 23rd of May 2014
Present: Margarita Gleba (editor, chair), Eva Andersson Strand (editor), Carol Christiansen (deputy editor), Susanna Harris (editor, minutes), Ulla Mannering (editor, by skype), Johanna Banck-Burgess, Milena Bravermanova, Joanne Cutler, Ida Demant, Celia Elliott-Minty, Ruth Gilbert, Annelies Goldmann, Karina Grömer, Sunniva Halvorsen, Heini Kirjavainen, Barbara Klessig, David Kohout, Ulla Lund Hansen, Christina Margariti, Ave Matosh, Olga Michatowska, Claudia Merthen, Carla Nübold, Eva-Maria Pfarr, Frances Pritchard, Riina Rammo, Émeline Retournard, Angelika Rudelics, Kallipoe Sarri, Annemette Bruselius Scharff, Heidi Sherman, Irene Skals, Tereza Štolcova, Felicity Wild, John Peter Wild, Hannah Wilkinson, Kelvin Wilson, Elizabeth Wincott Heckett.
1. Election of a chairperson, if somebody so wishes
Margarita Gleba accepted election as Chairperson, and opened the meeting.
2. The report of the board for the period since the previous annual general meeting
Report for 2013: Status for printing issues 1 – 45. We are aiming towards print on demand via the University of Copenhagen webshop. It is estimated to cost about 30 pounds for 10 issues. We hope to deliver these in five or ten issue batches as according to the most favorable printing and postage costs.
The funding from the Danish Research Council allows ATR to keep subscription fee stable for this year. The funding ends the end of 2014.
Web presence: The facebook page has over 500 likes. Unfortunately this does not reflect in the subscriptions. We ask members to join and receive announcements. All facebook members can post directly and are welcome to add news about publications, new Masters and PhDs on textile topics and textile related events. This means we do not have to wait one year for news in ATR.
3. Presentation and approval of the revised account of 31st of December 2012
The accounts were accepted and approved by the members.
ATR is in good shape for the coming year, and in 2014 the costs for printing come from the Danish Research Council. Production of only one annual edition cut postal costs considerably, which is reflected positively in the accounts. We are also able to keep the homepage running.
4. Decisions concerning individual and institutional subscription fee for the current financial year
The subscription rates will stay the same in 2015, but VAT will be added to the individual subscribers (not for subscribers outside EU) and institutional subscribers (not for subscribers outside Denmark) according to the Danish VAT rules. Online payment is the only possibility, and all other methods present administratively difficulties.
5. Current subscribers
As of June 2014 we are low on subscribers. In 2012 when ATR was reduced to one yearly issue the number of subscribers went down. This cannot be due to the online payment system as this was already in place from 2008. More likely this is due to the pdfs free online. It seems that people wait one or two years to download ATR for free. It is essential to have subscribers, especially if we want to apply for more funding as the Danish Research Council will not fund journals with less than 200 subscribers. We sell many back issues, but we sell less, which is in relation to the free download. Back issues are published online with a three year delay. On the other side, we can see that there are huge quantities of people who download for free. Recent results show 17382 downloads of ATR for free. This is super, and demonstrates the importance of ATR. This presents a constant dilemma, and the issue is that open access and subscriptions do not work well together.
Question from Francis Pritchard: there is a problem that people forget to subscribe. Please can we have a reminder email.
6. Election of members of the board and auditors for the current financial year
Margarita Gleba and Susanna Harris are stepping down as editors, and they will be replaced by Karina Grömer and Carol Christiansen. Ursula Rothe will be deputy editor. Voting: those in favour for these five persons: total in favour 28, those against 0. We also need to vote in one auditor, Carsten Holt, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen, and one deputy auditor, Marie-Louise Nosch. Voting: those in favour of these two auditors: total in favour 29, those against 0.
7. Scientific board
We would like to expand to add new people. Those interested individuals should email Eva Andersen Strand to express an interest. We would like skills including a willingness to advertise ATR at conferences, to solicit articles of relevance to ATR, to advise on peer review and to peer review. We suggest a three year renewable term.
8. Change of website payment platform
There are some problems with the current system. A possibility has arisen to use the University of Copenhagen webshop. This should look the same for users but is easier as we here can make publish on demand issues which will be useful for the coming back issues.
Question: Will we be able to pay by paypal? Ulla Mannering will have to check.
9. Miscellaneous
Reminders
For authors: the deadline for publication in ATR 2014 is 1st July 2014. Authors receive a copy of journal and a pdf of their article. There is no free copy for notes and reviews.
For subscribers: please subscribe at the beginning of the year, as this helps our statistics for funding.
For all, remember to publicise new PhDs so that people are aware of new research.
Open access
There is a question of the requirements of Open Access (OA). Note the broad distinction between Gold OA (anyone with the internet can access for free) and Green OA (must be accessed via a paid-for journal until the end of the embargo period). ATR editors and ATN members need to consider if ATR should become open access. Why publish OA? The publication world, including academia are changing. Many researchers based at universities, especially those with EU grants, are now required to publish OA.
The options for ATR are to either continue as we are, in that case we need to be subsidized. This is Green OA, after the three year embargo period the journal goes online. Alternatively we go for full Gold OA and publish online for free. Those wanting a hard copy would have to order it. An example of this model would be Ubiquity Press, which currently publishes several journals for University College London. They currently charge £250 sterling for each article, which is very cheap compared with most journals but is still beyond many of ATR’s authors. The problem is that this still costs but has no subscription base. Whichever solution is found, OA will be a coming challenge for the new editorial and scientific board.
General questions
Who would be happy with PDF, instead of print copy?
Johanna Banck-Burgess: she would not be happy with PDF only, wants a printed version. This applies to others as well.
Karina Grömer: For people who are not on facebook, we would like an email from ATR, when it is coming, and to subscribe. Many people do not have time to scan internet for something interesting.
Eva Andersson Strand: ATR editors do send out emails with the content.
Johanna Banck-Burgess: People do not realize they need to know to subscribe every year. This is a big problem. Is there a way to get this automatic annual repayment?
Margarita Gleba: The problem is that we are not a big enough organization.
Kelvin Wilson: Post it on facebook: We need subscribers! Put it as a one-off to help us survive. Please help us! Like crowd funding.
Kelvin Wilson: it may be useful to reconsider marketing. Would we be able to put out something in September as an advert?
Ruth Gillbert: could we put fliers in other journals?
Barbara Klessig: has the ATR been publicized in the EAA or AIAs pdf newsletters? These might be free.
Other suggestions for marketing / publicity include SAA, ICCOM, North American Conservators biennial conference, Fibers / Perishable Interest group of the SAA (conact Barbara Klessig), Textiles Society American, Textiles Institute of the SAA. Contact Ruth Gilbert for contacts with www.braidsociety.com, Knitting History Forum.
Angelika Rudelics: look at the example of free online comics, this is print on demand, if there are enough people ordering they run a batch of print on demand. Also if there are multiple downloads this attracts advertising.