The Founding General Assembly of the RSE
The RSE was officially founded at our first and constitutive general assembly at the RiS conference in Copenhagen, January 2013. The picture shows the newly elected Executive Board. From left to right Ivanka Mavrodieva (Bulgaria), Marie Lund Klufeff (Vice-President, Denmark), Marie Załęska (Poland), Anne Ulrich (Germany), Lisa Villadsen (Journal Editor, Denmark), Jens Kjeldsen (President, Norway), Esben Nielsen (Webmaster, Denmark), Hilde Van Belle (Belgium) and Michael Burke (Netherlands). The members of the board not present were Kris Rutten (Treasurer, Belgium), Michael Hoppmann (USA/Germany) and Andrew Crines (UK).
The presence of Kendall Philips, president elect of the Rhetoric Society of America, in the audience was also a sign of the spirit of cooperation between the two societies.
If you wish to see more pictures from the General Assembly and the RiS conference sse here.
Minutes of RSE General Assembly – (Jan. 18, 2013)
Minutes: M. Burke (RSE Secretary)
1. Welcome
- Marie sets out the rationale for RSE , initiates its founding and points forwards to today’s agenda
2. President’s report
- Jens delivers a speech in which he sets out the history of RIS/RSE since the first conference. He also introduces the board members to the membership (see the website for the full speech)
3. Advisory board
- Hilde reports on the advisory board members and goes through their CVs one by one (see the website for the full list)
4. Journal
- Lisa, as the designated editor-in-chief of our proposed journal, explains that she is currently exploring options with various publishers and that the membership will hear via the website as soon as there is news
5. Conference
- Marie explains that the next RIS/RSE conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland and hosted by the Polish rhetoric society. It will probably be in the summer (late June) owing to the severe Polish winter
6. Funding
- Michael (the RSE secretary) explains how together with Kris (the RSE treasurer) and Anne (RSE board member) they have been setting out funding priorities (following a meeting in autumn in Middelburg, The Netherlands). They seek to find out what RSE needs money for. Broad agreements are made that in the short term money is needed to fund the webmaster and for student bursaries to help them attend the RSE conference. In the long term money could be used for helping to set up a cross-European rhetoric MA program.
7. Constitution
- Jens expands on the constitution and tells of the bylaws (a draft version had been drawn up my Michael Hoppman and members were encouraged to read it before the conference and come with questions). A final version will be published on the website soon
8. Questions
- Jens asks for comments or questions from the floor – None are posed
9. Accept constitution and elect executive board
- Charlotte -- who is not a member of the RSE executive board but has been appointed as an external person to conduct the elections -- points to the constitution and reports that she has received no comments for changes before the December 21 deadline
- Charlotte reports that article 4, section has be changed by the committee (it has simply been shortened). The change is explained in detail. No objections are received from the floor. The constitution is approved and accepted
- Charlotte announces the formal election of the board members. She reads aloud the individual names and function of the members. She solicits possible objections from the floor. None are received. She notes that the executive board in its current state is duly elected
10. AOB
- There are no general questions or comments from the floor
11. Final remarks
- Jens thanks Charlotte and his fellow executive board members. He encourages the membership to get involved in RSE and to keep in contact. His parting words are “See you all in Warsaw”!