Eudora Welty Society

Minutes from Business Meeting Held at ALA in Chicago on 5/23/24

Attendance: Allison Bertolini, Jo Ellyn Clarey, Mae Miller Claxton, Sarah Ford, Rebecca Harrison, Donnie McMahand, Kevin Murphy, Harriet Pollack, Rebecca Mark, Adrienne Akins Warfield.

President Rebecca Harrison called the meeting to order and welcomed all members to the ALA Conference. She extended gratitude to outgoing members Donnie McMahand and Kevin Murphy for their dedicated service and introduced Adrienne Akins Warfield as the new Vice President. She then proceeded to raise two business items for discussion.

Business Items:

1. Eudora Welty International Conference in Jackson: Scheduled for April 10-12, 2025, at Millsaps College, with optional additional events the day before and after on April 9th and/or on April 13 (Welty’s birthday) possibly at the Welty House; all members are encouraged to make plans to stay through the 13th. Rebecca Harrison, Harriet Pollack, and Michael Pickard will meet next week for conference planning.

Specific actions pertaining to this business item were as follows:

a. Harriet Pollack and Rebecca Harrison will be soliciting volunteers for the formation of a conference committee to solicit and evaluate panel proposals and papers for the conference.

b. Mae Miller Claxton suggested tapping into the Welty at Home group for the International Conference and proposed a special CFP for graduate students in Jackson, Mississippi.

c. Rebecca Mark noted that the Welty Society has many members who have retired from university positions but are still active in the scholarly conversation and Society, and that these retirees will be crucial assets in the development of the 2025 International Conference in Jackson. Mark’s remarks stressed the importance of intergenerational dialogue, arguing that we should try to assemble a panel at the International Welty Conference engaging the “oldies but goodies” (Suzanne Marrs, Peggy Whitman Prenshaw, etc.) in conversation with younger scholars.

d. President Rebecca Harrison expressed interest in organizing a Welty trivia event for the International Conference.

2. ALA 2025: ALA 2025 will take place on May 22-25 at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, a mere six weeks after the International Welty conference in Jackson. President Rebecca Harrison stressed the importance of coordinating panels to complement the earlier event. Leslie Petty confirmed that the society can host two events at ALA 2025, whether those are roundtables or panels, without affecting the number of spots the Welty Society will hold at ALA.

Prospective ALA 2025 panel/roundtable topics that emerged from the discussion were as follows:

a. “Eudora Welty in the Twenty-First Century”: Society members discussed the benefits of a roundtable in which we could continue conversations begun at the Welty Conference in April. Mae Miller Claxton requested that “Roundtable” not be included in the official ALA session title, as many institutions will not provide funding for presenting as part of a roundtable. After much discussion, members agreed on the idea that this session/roundtable should be framed in such a way as to welcome both continuing conversations from the Jackson conference as well as other perspectives and voices from newer scholars and papers/speakers who were unable to attend the Welty International Conference in April. Sarah Ford moved that we call this panel/roundtable “Eudora Welty in the Twenty-First Century,” and members agreed that this would be the best way to title this ALA session.

b. There was less consensus on how best to title the second ALA panel, but there was great interest in having a panel focused on Welty’s engagement with feminism/radicalism and in building upon the momentum emerging from the Women’s Studies special issue co-edited by Sarah Ford and Rebecca Mark. Some titles discussed included “Stealth Feminism in Eudora Welty” and “Living Dangerously with Eudora.” President Rebecca Harrison stated that she and Vice President Adrienne Akins Warfield had a good feel for this panel/roundtable’s direction and that they could handle finalizing the title, finding chairs for them, etc. Members agreed.

Announcements:

1. SSSL: President Rebecca Harrison provided an update on the panels the Welty Society will sponsor at this summer’s meeting of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature in Gulfport, Mississippi. Harriet Pollack will chair a panel titled “Reconstructions: New Essays on Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples,” featuring papers by Katherine Henninger, Rebecca Mark, David McWhirter, and Sarah Gilbreath Ford. Michael Pickard will chair another panel titled “Reconstruction: Critical Response to the Work of Eudora Welty,” which will include papers by Annette Trefzer, Ebony O. Lumumba, Michael Gleason, and Harriet Pollack.

2. Dues: President Rebecca Harrison provided an update on our new dues structure and reported that the new “sustaining membership” option is going very well. Vice President Adrienne Akins Warfield noted that Society dues and sustaining membership contributions can be reported as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.

3. IRS and Taxes: We celebrated our new officially recognized federal non-profit status and thanked Kevin Murphy for all of his work with the IRS. President Harrison relayed reports from Murphy and EWS Secretary-Treasurer Laura Wilson that the IRS accepted our 2023 federal tax return. We are massively thankful to Kevin for all of his work toward attaining federal nonprofit status for the Society and are excited about the stability and opportunities this will provide going forward.

4. TN Filing: Secretary-Treasurer Laura Wilson has completed our state-level non-profit tax filings with the state of Tennessee. Leslie Petty has graciously agreed to serve as our Tennessee-based advisor for these filings for as long as they may be required.

5. Treasurer’s Report: The Eudora Welty Society has a current balance of $3,583.30 in our PayPal account. Vice President Warfield raised the possibility of reestablishing a US-based checking account for the Society to minimize fees and streamline the process of funding the 2025 International Conference.

6. Eudora Welty Review News and Updates: Sarah Ford highlighted recent developments including new Associate Editors Mae Miller Claxton and Michael Pickard and Pearl McHaney’s transition to Founding Editor. Ford announced the forthcoming Issue 16 and described exciting scholarship featured in it. She also announced the new Eudora Welty Review research grant and emphasized that these grants are open to anyone, whether they are graduate students, junior or senior faculty, independent scholars, or retirees. Both Ford and Harrison expressed excitement about the opportunities offered by the new “Notes” section in the Eudora Welty Review and encouraged more submissions.

7. Other Business or Announcements from the Floor: Harriet Pollack requested more essays on Welty and Film for the University Press of Mississippi Critical Perspectives on Eudora Welty series volume.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Adrienne Akins Warfield.