Executive Council Guide-sheet

(Begun by Alan Nadel, revised by Dorothy Hale and Alison Booth in 2006; and again by Margaret Homans in 2008; updated in 2012 by Jim Phelan and Irene Kacandes; updated in 2016 by Sue Lanser and Jim Phelan; amended in August, 2025 by Executive Council)

Executive Council Guidelines: Duties of Officers and Council Members

The President is the chief executive officer of the Society and has both official and informal duties. They preside at four Executive Council meetings throughout the year of their tenure, and host the awards luncheon at the annual conference.

The President chairs the nominating committee for the officers and Executive Council, with two or three society members of their choice, preferably reflecting the diversity of our membership in terms of geography, gender, and interests, and has nominations ready in time for the annual conference, when the election period will period will open.

The President also serves with the Past President and the First Vice President as the nominating committee for the Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award. As Past President, they oversee the organization of the conference panel that focuses on the work of the Booth Award winner.

The President needs to keep the contact list for the Executive Council current and to make sure that the various committees and functions of the Society proceed apace. When necessary, they act as spokesperson for the Society. 

The President may also undertake specific projects, usually with the advice and approval of the Executive Council, that may in some way enhance the Society. At the end of the Presidential term, they should communicate the ongoing issues and concerns to the incoming President.  The President should keep in touch with the other officers, especially the Secretary-Treasurer and editor(s) of Narrative and the Vice and Past Presidents, to keep people abreast of news, stay on top of any potential problems, and lend advice. The President should also ensure that there is good communication between the conference coordinators and the Executive Council—through the Conference Liaison, the Secretary-Treasurer, or themself.

First Vice President (one-year tenure):

(1) serves with the Past President and the President as the initial nominating committee for the Booth Award.

(2) chairs the committee for the Phelan Prize to select the best essay published in the previous year’s three issues of Narrative, with the third-year members of the Council;

Second Vice President (one-year tenure):

(1) chairs the MLA program committee on which the two first-year council members also serve.

Past President (two-year tenure):

(1) chairs the three-person committee for the Perkins Prize (receiving submissions towards the end of their term as President, awarding the prize as Past President);

(2) selects the presenters for the Contemporary Narrative Theory sessions and chair the sessions;

(3) oversees the organization of the conference panel that focuses on the work of the Booth Award winner. The Past President may delegate the detailed organization to another appropriate person.

Two Executive Council members, first year: with Second VP, serve on the MLA program committee.

Two Executive Council members, second year: form the prize committee to select the best graduate student paper (Alan Nadel prize) at the Narrative conference.

Two Executive Council members, third year: with First VP, select the Phelan Prize winner for the best essay in Narrative.

Executive Council members, in conjunction with the ex officio members of the Council, also decide on final nominations for the Booth Award. 

Outreach Coordinator: manages the listserv and website, including archival information and updated information on prizes, prizewinners, officers and council members; oversees web-based communications; sets up online elections and online voting on such ballot issues as changes to the constitution. 

Secretary-Treasurer: maintains finances and reports on them to the Executive Council; arranges plaques and other prizes; works with the OSU Press on membership and helps maintain membership records; serves as liaison with MLA; coordinates annual election with nominating committee and Outreach Coordinator; records and distributes minutes of Executive Council meetings; works closely with President as President requests; works with Conference Liaison and conference coordinators as appropriate.

Editor of Narrative: oversees the publication of the Society’s journal; works in cooperation with authors, reviewers (including members of the Editorial Board) and the journals manager at the Ohio State University Press.

Conference Liaison: works with potential conference coordinators; reports to Council on proposals from individuals and institutions willing to host the conference; seeks to develop multi-year line-up of conference sites; advises conference coordinators as needed. 

SUMMARY OF PRIZES AND AWARDS

(see also under Committees, below, for instructions for selection committees)

James Phelan Prize for the best essay published in Narrative: awarded to an essay chosen from the previous year’s three issues of Narrative. Prize consists of $500 USD, a plaque, announcements at meetings and in Narrative and Newsletters, with 1-year subscription to Narrative.

Alan Nadel Prize for the Best Graduate Student Paper delivered at the Narrative Conference: deadline, set by the committee, soon after the conference; email submissions of unrevised papers. Prize consists of a choice of a Perkins Prize winning book (in print) and encouragement to submit an article-length revision of the paper to be considered for publication in Narrative. In addition, the prize includes $500 USD toward expenses to attend the following year’s annual conference.

Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Prize for the best book published in the field with a copyright date of the calendar year prior to the one in which the prize committee is formed. Prize consists of plaque, citation, and announcements (as for best essay prize, above) and an award of $1000 USD, plus $500 USD toward travel to the spring conference at which the prize is presented. If the committee names two winners (an outcome that the Council does not prefer), each receives the full award. Winners of an Honorable Mention are announced and cited at the business meeting. 

Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is to be given annually until the Council decides it is time to review the frequency. The award consists of a plaque and the citation to be read at the annual conference and coverage of the winner’s expenses in attending the conference up to $2000 USD; the award winner should be invited to attend the conference and to give an acceptance speech at the awards dinner; the award also entails a panel at the conference on the award winner’s work and legacy during which they also offer remarks.

MEETINGS

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETINGS

All members of the Executive Council should be invited to submit agenda items for the meeting. The items usually covered at Executive Council meetings may include:

• Report on the finances of the Society (from the Secretary-Treasurer)

• Report on the journal (from the Editor(s))

• Report on future conferences (from the Conference Liaison). Since the Executive Council is responsible for approving future conference proposals, this report may include discussion of alternatives, based on proposals submitted by prospective coordinators. Because it takes over a year to organize a conference, if possible it is a good idea to stay at least two years ahead on approved conference proposals.

• Report of MLA program committee (by its chair, the Second Vice President)

• Report of nominating committee (by its chair, the President)

• Reports from prize committees: Best graduate student paper at the Narrative Conference; best essay in the previous year’s Narrative; Perkins; Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award 

• The results of elections and of any ballot issues (e.g., constitutional amendments)

• Any new ballot issues or proposed amendments.

• Any other issues related to the way the Society conducts its business. 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING

The Executive Council meets four times per year in March, June, September, and December. The first and fourth meetings of the year will be quorum meetings. The remaining two annual meetings will be quorum if quorum is required for a vote. Otherwise, they will be predominantly information only meetings during which the EC and our various committees and initiatives will share the details/progress of their activities, seek support, and offer recommendations.

OVERSEEING COMMITTEES

The major committees that need to run smoothly are: Nominations, MLA Program, and the prize committees: for best graduate student paper at the annual conference, for the Phelan Prize, the Perkins Prize, and for the Booth Lifetime Achievement Award. There is also a competition for International Graduate Student Research awards, which is overseen by the President and the editor(s) of the journal.

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE AND ELECTION PROCEDURES

The nominating committee is chaired by the President, who chooses two other members of the Narrative Society. While there are no rules governing the appointment of the additional members of this committee, the inclusion of individuals who are not on the Executive Council is intended to aid in broadening the social, intellectual, and institutional diversity of the Society’s elected governing body. The names of the entire committee should be announced on the listserv and that notice should indicate that nominations from the membership, including self-nominations, can be sent to the President by a specified deadline. In the months before the annual conference the President normally consults with the Past President and the Secretary-Treasurer for information about previous nominations and questions about eligibility; names of past officers and Council members are on the website. All such suggestions, however, are advisory; the nominating committee sets the final slate of candidates. In making their selections, the committee should agree on backups, as rarely do all six people accept the nominations.

For Second Vice President, the nominee typically must have been a member of the Society for three years and attended at least two of the last five Narrative Conferences. For member of the Executive Council, the nominee must be a member in good standing of the Society. Nominees should be checked for eligibility by the Secretary-Treasurer. In keeping with a decision of the Executive Council in 1995, the elections for Executive Council are often organized so that candidates with similar identity markers (e.g., gender, specialty within narrative studies, geographic location) run against each other. This procedure enables the nominating committee, over a period of time, to maintain gender and other kinds of balance on the Executive Council. The committee should continue to try to include representation of foreign languages and of disciplines other than literature. Selection of nominees should be done with an eye to bringing diversity to the Society and also to providing significant institutional history. In connection with that institutional history, recent conference coordinators often become nominees.

The Executive Council should at all times include a representative from the Sustainability Committee and from the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee. Typically, these representatives will be elected members of the Council. The nominating committee is tasked with confirming whether the term of either of these representatives on the council concludes in the election year the committee is responsible for. If so, the committee shall invite the relevant committee to put forward two names to stand for election for one of the member at large positions. For instance, if a member at large who is also a representative of the Sustainability Committee is in the third and final year of their tenure, the nominating committee will reserve one of the member at large slates for two members of the Sustainability Committee, ensuring that a representative of that committee will be elected.

If either the Sustainability or DEI committee is unable to furnish two members willing to stand for election, the nominating committee may seek candidates from outside those committees.

Once a list of nominees has been agreed upon, the President invites the nominees to run for election and fields their questions and responses. Nominees should be informed of the beginning and ending dates of their potential terms. Seats on the Executive Council are for three years (beginning on September 1), while the office of VP is a five-year commitment (second VP, first VP, President, Past President [two-year role]) with the second VP beginning their term on September 1 and the others rotating into their new positions on that date.  Nominees for all positions should also be advised of the importance of attending the Council meetings, and they should be able to commit to attending at least two of the four meetings every year. If they are unable to make such a commitment, they should decline the nomination. When a nominee accepts, they should be asked to provide a short biographical note for the ballot. The nominating committee should complete its work, including the compiling of the short biographies, in time for an election period that would begin at the opening of the annual Conference. After the election, the President should inform the candidates of the results and send the winners a copy of this Guide-sheet. 

Ex officio members of the Council: The Secretary-Treasurer, Editor or Editors of Narrative, and Conference Liaison have five-year renewable terms. 

MLA PROGRAM COMMITTEE

The MLA Program Committee is composed of the Second Vice President (chair) and the two members of the Executive Council serving in their first year. The committee evaluates proposals to chair panels sponsored by the Society at the MLA. As an Allied Organization, ISSN has one guaranteed panel on the program; with the opportunity to compete for up to two others (in recent years with attendance from membership at MLA not that robust we have been focused on the guaranteed panel). The likelihood of holding a second panel is increased if sponsored in conjunction with another Allied Organization and/or if the topic is related to that year’s MLA Presidential theme. Only current members of the Society may submit proposals, but participation on the panels should be open to all MLA members. The call for proposals should be announced on the Narrative list in October. The Second Vice President may also be in touch with the Outreach Coordinator about disseminating the call beyond the membership. The proposals should go to the Second Vice President, and the deadline should be sometime in mid-November. In the past we have received between two and sixteen proposals. 

If there are not enough good proposals to choose from by mid-November, the nominating committee, in consultation with other members of the Executive Council, may devise its own proposal and seek out someone to chair it and to solicit papers from the MLA membership. Under special circumstances, a member of the Council may organize a panel with invited speakers.

Shortly after the deadline, the Second Vice President should send copies of the proposals to the committee members and coordinate discussion to arrive at a consensus. In mid-December or early January those selected should be notified and so should those not selected. The selected chairs should be provided with the necessary contact information so that the call for papers can appear on the MLA website. The call should also be distributed on the ISSN listserv. (Note: MLA will ask the Society liaison—in our case the Secretary-Treasurer—to approve the panel titles, so it is important that they be informed about the panels. In addition, the MLA restricts the posting of the program information for Allied Organizations to the liaison between MLA and the AO. Therefore, once the panel chairs have selected their papers, they need to send the relevant info to the Secretary-Treasurer in time for her/him/they to meet the MLA deadline of early April.) 

JAMES PHELAN PRIZE FOR BEST ESSAY IN NARRATIVE

Once the October issue of Narrative appears, the First Vice President should make sure that all members of the committee (the First VP plus the two third-year Council members) have copies of the year’s three issues of Narrative. The First VP should set a preliminary deadline for discussion of a short list of candidates. The winner should be selected sufficiently in advance of the annual conference to enable them to attend, and to allow time for preparing the plaque that will be presented at the conference. A committee member writes a citation to be read at the Awards Luncheon.

ALAN NADEL PRIZE FOR BEST GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The two second-year members of the Executive Council consider submissions and select a winner, who is notified by the Secretary-Treasurer. The committee coordinates with the annual conference organizers to announce the prize, set deadlines, and provide instructions for submitting papers. Notice of the prize and of the deadline and address for submissions should appear in the conference program, on the website, and on the listserv, and it should be announced at the Awards Luncheon. Submission deadlines should be set to allow a decision to be made by October 1 and announced electronically then. The prize committee writes a citation to be read at the following year’s conference Awards Luncheon.

PERKINS PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK

The Perkins Prize Committee is chaired by the Past President and includes two other members selected by the Chair. Wherever possible, one member should be selected from the group of past winners and the second member should not have served previously on this committee. The June 1 deadline for nominations and self-nominations should be publicized on the ListServ and announced at the Awards Luncheon when the conference occurs before June 1. Authors nominating their own books should ask their publishers to send a copy to each of the three committee members; in the case of nominations by others, the Past President solicits copies from the publisher. The winner should be announced through the listserv, the website, and social media by November and is invited to attend the annual conference. A member of the committee writes the citation to be read at the Awards Luncheon that takes place at the annual conference.

WAYNE C. BOOTH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Past President, the President, and the First Vice President serve as an initial nominating committee charged with identifying three to six candidates. (Solicitation of the membership via the listserv is recommended as a way to identify potential candidates.) The other members of the Executive Council (minus those who can vote in the next step) then discuss the nominees at the December/January meeting. If there are more than three candidates the president conducts a confidential email ballot for ranking the nominees; the top three ranked nominees become the finalists. A larger group consisting of all past ISSN presidents and past Booth Award winners then ranks the three finalists to select the winner. 

The Past President notifies the winner and invites them to attend the annual conference and to give a brief acceptance speech at the Awards Lunch. Normally the award entails a special session at the conference during which the work of the nominee is discussed; the Past President will take responsibility for organizing the session—sometimes by designating some other member of the Society to take the lead. The award should be announced publicly and with considerable fanfare (perhaps, for example, with a press release to such publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education).

The Booth Award process is confidential from start to finish. Those who participate at each stage are enjoined to confidentiality, and no nominee except the winner is ever notified that they are on the ballot. 

Criteria for all candidates: Established scholars with at least 30 years of sustained impact on the study of narrative. The candidates’ contributions should be understood broadly and holistically rather than in relation to a particular discipline or historical period. In exceptional circumstances, the committee can consider candidates who do not meet the 30-year criterion.

INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARDS

In 2015 the Society agreed to allocate $2,000 per year to fund five international travel grants of $400 each, for students currently registered for a postgraduate degree at a higher education institution on a continent other than the one where the conference will take place. (“Continent” will refer to North America, South/Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia or Australasia.) During the pandemic when we shifted to on-line or hybrid Conferences, this allocation has evolved to be four Research Awards of $500 each regardless of where the graduate student was located in relation to the site of the Conference. Here is the procedure for selecting the winners. 

1. Every self-identified graduate student whose proposal to deliver a paper at the annual conference is eligible.

2. As part of the conference organizers' vetting of proposals, they identify a short list of the 10-12 most promising applicants, based simply upon the proposals. 

The organizers then pass on this short list to the ISSN president in the year submissions are due and to the journal editor. If one of them cannot serve for some reason (e.g., conflict of interest), then the conference liaison will step in. The criterion should simply be the quality of the student’s proposal. The President will notify the winners and they will be announced at the Awards event at the Conference.

OTHER DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT

SPOKESPERSON/DECIDER

This role is not always called for. In 1996, the MLA misclassified the Society as an “affiliate organization,” rather than an “allied organization,” thus reducing us to one MLA special session slot. Correcting this error required a few phone calls. At other times, it can be quite demanding. For example, when the Society severed its ties with Eastern Michigan University, a sustained dispute arose over the relationship of our membership list to the subscription list of “The Journal of Narrative Technique,” which resulted in prolonged correspondence. These matters, for the most part, cannot be anticipated. 

Occasionally the Secretary-Treasurer/Editor of Narrative will request authorization for the spending of the Society’s funds, e.g., for the purchase of a printer for the journal (as happened in 2006). The President should exercise their judgment about either approving the funds or asking the Council to vote on the request.

FUTURE CONFERENCES

Because the Narrative Conference and the journal are the heart of the Society, planning a succession of conferences is vital to the Society’s health. This is the primary task of the Conference Liaison. The President should support this effort as much as possible. Either the President or the Conference Liaison should stay in touch with people who express an interest in coordinating future conferences, supply them with the information they need to assess their school’s and their locale’s potential to support a conference, and gather from them adequate information to allow the Executive Council to make a reasoned decision about their proposals. Since 2008, the Society has followed a policy of contributing $200 USD in conference expenses (travel and lodging) and waiving registration fees for each of four committed or potential future coordinators attending the annual conference. In recent years, the support is $500 USD. Any coordinator may receive the funding only once; a maximum of two coordinators from any one future conference site are eligible for the funding; and the supported individuals must be candidates to host the conference within three years (exceptions may be granted by unanimous agreement of the Conference Liaison, the President, and the Secretary-Treasurer).

A standing Conference Committee will include two people who will serve staggered two-year terms. The first committee would have one person who serves just one year and one who serves two (if the person who serves one year wants to get back in the rotation, they would be encouraged to do so). This committee will be charged with organizing the conference, taking advantage of the affordances of the ISSN website, etc., and the member in their second year will be the point person/main coordinator. With staggered terms, knowledge will be handed down from year to year. In years when the Conference is exclusively virtual, this Committee will be sufficient. In years when the Conference uses a hybrid in-person, on-line format, the Committee can add members from the institution hosting the in-person portion of the program.

The Conference liaison is charged with recruiting members to serve on the committee with the goal of lining up membership for a four-year period. Thus, after recruiting 2 people for the first year and another 3 to serve in the subsequent 3 years, the liaison will recruit one person per year.

SPECIFIC TASKS AND PROJECTS

In the past, Presidents have often taken on special tasks, projects, or legislative reforms. Janice Carlisle, for example, initiated the Perkins Prize. Jay Clayton created the Narrative ListServ, and Alan Nadel wrote a Narrative Conference Handbook and the first version of this Guidesheet, Sue Lanser created the DEI Committee and cultivated related initiatives, Maria Mäkelä led the Sustainability initiative, and Lindsay Holmgren created the “Mission and Code of Ethics,” increased the number of EC meetings per year, and launched the new interactive Website. In the legislative area, we have, among other things, gone to competitive elections and online ballots, become an allied organization of the MLA and formalized the process for selecting our MLA special sessions, and inaugurated the Newcomers Dinner tradition at annual conferences. 

FINAL DUTIES

The outgoing President should also send the incoming President (1) the contact details for all the members of the Executive Council and (2) a letter on current concerns and unfinished business.