The Executive Board of The Norman Mailer Society convened at the Norman Mailer Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2012. Present were Board members President Mark Olshaker, Vice President Barry Leeds, Treasurer David Light, Secretary Marc Triplett, Mailer Review Editor Phillip Sipiora, J. Michael Lennon, Barbara Wasserman, John Buffalo Mailer, Lawrence Schiller, Deborah Martinson, Denise Pappas, Gerald Lucas, and Bonnie Culver.
Minutes of the Board meeting held in Austin, Texas, on November 12, 2011, were submitted and approved.
The Board took up the question of conference fees to be charged for students, spouses and significant others who attend future conferences. The past policy has been to charge half-rate for students attending the conference. After discussion, and upon motion made and duly seconded, the Board approved a new policy that will set the conference fee at one-half the normal conference fee for students, spouses and “significant others” of members attending. The fee for the next conference will be set by David Light and Phillip Sipiora, who will be organizing the conference. It was also decided that all presenters at the conference must be members, but this requirement can be waived by the President, if waiver is deemed appropriate in a particular case.
The matter of venue for forthcoming annual conferences of The Norman Mailer Society was discussed extensively. Among possible locations discussed were Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Sarasota, Florida, and southern California, including possibly Los Angeles or Palm Springs.
After first considering the appointment of a committee to make recommendations regarding future venues, a consensus was reached that establishing locations for the next three meetings should be accomplished now. The Board considered a motion by President Mark Olshaker that the annual conference be held in Sarasota, Florida in 2013, Wilkes University in 2014, and in the Los Angeles area in 2015. The motion was seconded and approved by the Board.
Larry Schiller discussed the activities of The Norman Mailer Center, including his extensive time and effort expended on fund-raising to acquire the Mailer house in Provincetown. He also discussed details of the recently-held and successful fundraising gala in New York, including frustrations involved in the process. The latter, at the suggestion of the President, will be described herein as four distinct “kvetches” by Mr. Schiller.
There being no other business to come before the Executive Board of The Norman Mailer Society, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Marc S. Triplett, Secretary
The Norman Mailer Society Executive Board