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Contents |
2002/2003
IASIL NEWSLETTER |
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Treasurer's
Report November 2002 Dear
friends in IASIL,
The past year saw your treasurer operating from
Belfast where I was on sabbatical, commuting back to Limerick about
once a month. This meant that
everything got done, but sometimes with a delay, so I apologise to
anyone who was inconvenienced. I
did have some access to my emails, and got mail forwarded to me from
Limerick, so that helped to process the work.
It was a very busy year on the treasurer front, with sending
renewal forms in January, processing payments until the end of April,
and afterwards for late payments, continuous updating of the databases,
sending lists for journals to the Irish University Review and receipts
to those who paid by card and/or for three years, preparing data for
the Accountant and writing the Treasurer’s Report.
Never a dull moment! However, I enjoyed hearing from so many
of you, by letter or email, and it helped me to keep in touch with
all of the Association and the doings of the members. In particular
I appreciated communication with the Regional Treasurers, José Lanters,
Carol Tattersal, who had to retire due to pressures of work and is
replaced by Ninian Mellamphy, and Hiroko Ikeda.
Thanks are due to them for their diligent and selfless work,
from all of the Association as well as from me.
IASIL
is numerically and fiscally in sound health. Membership at this year’s Conference and
AGM in Brazil was, however, slightly down on last year’s figures. By July 25 it stood at 604 on the general
list, including the US (91 members) and Canadian (32 members). Of these, 331 (approx. 55%) were paid up
by July 2002, and many more renewed during the conference. The Japanese branch membership has 202 paid-up
members.
Membership runs for the calendar year, and is due
by the end of April. Lists
are then sent to the Irish University Review, and paid-up members
receive their copy of the Spring/Summer issue about six weeks after
that date. Membership closes at the conference for that
year, and late renewals get the Spring/Summer IUR in the Autumn. The winter issue of the journal is then
sent out to people on both lists in December. Subscriptions do continue to come in after the conference, but
those have their sub attributed to the following year, in this case
2003.
Members from many countries had been finding it
increasingly difficult or very costly to make membership payments
for a number of years. The
system of payment by credit card has now been in operation for a year,
so it is opportune to review its success.
Of payments of fees directly to the Treasurer up to the date
of the conference, about 55% chose to do so by credit card, and this
trend has continued. Members are more likely than before to pay
for three years if paying by card.
This means that the accounts are healthy, but these are monies
which have to fund the expenses, journals etc of future years.
On the operational side, each payment has to be
processed by phoning the Credit Card Centre in Dublin, which will
accept a maximum of 3 transactions per call, so this proved to be
relatively costly in terms of time and phone bills.
Some initial difficulties were encountered with gaining authorisation
from the Centre for a minority of fees paid in this way, which necessitated
correspondence with the card-owners.
99% of these difficulties were later resolved.
The membership
form for 2003 will be sent out early in the New Year to members paid
up to the end of 2002. Intending
members should email me at patricia.lynch@ul.ie, including full postal
address, to receive the form with its accompanying details. The 2003 form will include for the first
time the email address for the 2003 conference at Debrecen, Hungary,
and the deadline for receipt of abstracts for this conference. Those who know the form will appreciate the
difficulties which I expect to encounter in the effort to shoehorn
extra details onto it!
The following table gives the details of rates and
means of payment:
RATES OF MEMBERSHIP: (revised to Euro currency, and to include the extra charges involved
in credit card use. Approved
at the AGM in DCU in August 2001)
Ordinary 1 year: €30
US $40 Can.$50 19£stg
Ordinary 3 years: €75 US
$110 Can $130 47£stg
Couple I year: €35 US $50 Can
$60 22£stg
Couple 3 years: €85 US
$125 Can $145 53£stg
Student with IUR: €20 US $25 Can
$35 13£stg
Student no IUR: €10
US $10 Can
$17 7£stg
Recent fluctuations in currency exchange have seen
the euro and the dollar attain a rough equivalence. On the receipt of enquiries, I checked out
the possibilities of a change in the rate for US members, and found
that this can only be done through the IASIL AGM.
The
method of payment will be one of the following:
1. Personal cheques in Euros drawn on
an Irish bank, or sterling on a UK/North of Ireland bank, payable
to IASIL; mail to Dr Patricia Lynch, Dept of Languages and Cultural
Studies, University of Limerick, Plassey, Limerick, Ireland.
2. Bank drafts in Euros; mail to Dr Patricia
Lynch, Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of
Limerick, Plassey, Limerick, Ireland.
3. U.S.Dollar Cheque, payable to IASIL,
mail to Prof. José Lanters, Dept of English, University of Wisconsin,
P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI USA 53201-0413.
4. Canada Dollar Cheque, payable to IASIL,
mail to Prof. Ninian Mellamphy, English Dept, University College,
University of Western Ontario, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada.
5. By Visacard or Mastercard/Eurocard.
NB. This option can only be used with the invoice on the membership
form, must be made out in euros, and sent to Patricia Lynch.
The bank will not accept details sent by email.
Every best wish in the coming festive season, and
for the New Year.
Patricia Lynch |
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