Business Meetings
of the
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
The Research Group holds its Business Meetings frequently at the Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), which takes place in May at Kalamazoo, where various of our Trustees, Associates, Advisors, and Volunteers gather. The blog for our Activities at the ICMS cites these Business Meetings for individual years.
2017 Business Meeting Agenda
Our practice has expanded to hold Open Business Meetings at the Congress (2015–). They have a booked room, with lunch provided, and a place in the published Congress Program. Customarily, these Meetings are announced by Posters set in our copyright font RGME Bembino. The Meetings are introduced and accompanied by their one-page Agendas (also set in Bembino), available both at the Meetings and as downloads on this website.
In 2020 and 2021, several of these traditions shifted, as we adapted to the cancellation of the Congress altogether in 2020 and the requirement to hold the 2021 Congress in virtual form. Although scheduled in the Congress Programs, the Business Meetings for those 2 years have no companion Posters. The 2020 Agenda circulated on its own, pending the next Meeting.
In 2021, the scheduling conflict in the assigned Congress Program between our Business Meeting and that of the Societas Magica, our customary co-sponsor for some Congress Sessions, led us to hold not only the Business Meeting as scheduled at the Congress, but also a Pre-Congress Business Meeting. The Congress Business Meeting took place as planned, as part of the Congress proceedings, albeit online and without an actual room and catering. It was available only to Registrants of the Congress. The Pre-Congress Business Meeting, arranged at short notice, took place online via Zoom on 1 May. It was thus able to gather people familiar with Research Group activities at the Congress and/or elsewhere, in a promising and refreshing development for our planning.
With these changes, the customary 1-page Agenda turned into the 2021 Agenda Report, and each Business Meeting had its own Agenda, for both the Congress and the Pre-Congress Meetings.
“Writing on the Wall” at the 2017 Congress. Photography by Mildred Budny.
Concise Agenda & Record
2017 Business Meeting Invitation
These Open Business Meetings, open to all, are accompanied by a one-page Agenda, which reports our current accomplishments, aims, needs, and wishes, with invitations to contribute to our activities, mission, and further planning.
Our practice has been to “unveil” the Agenda at its Meeting, use its plan as a guide or touchstone for the reports and discussions, and then circulate the Agenda more widely afterward, both in printed form and in downloadable form on our website. Thus they continue to serve as records, reports, and models well after the events.
In 2021, for the virtual Congress, we circulated ahead of time the customary 1-page Agenda, but called it instead the 2021 Agenda Report, and produced a companion 1-page 2021 Congress Business Meeting Agenda to focus upon the items for specific discussion.
The Agenda Report for the 2021 Business Meeting resembles the Agendas of earlier years, as it combines the elements of multiple Reports with a view to plans and potential. This version of the genre, the Agenda Report, now has a companion Agenda, which focuses upon the items for specific discussion at the Meeting.
Available Here
The Agendas (and, since 2021, the Agenda Report) for our Open Business Meetings remain available for consultation and inspiration.
How these Meetings stand within the Programs of our Congress Activities overall for each of these years is reported, and sometimes illustrated, in the Congress Reports or Announcements:
- 2021 Congress Program Announced
- 2020 Congress Program Announced
- 2019 Congress Report
- 2018 Congress Report
- 2017 Congress Report
- 2016 Congress Report
- 2015 Congress Report
Now, as the active functions of the Open Business Meetings gather momentum, we open this Page dedicated to them.
If you see more ways that the Meetings and their Page might be helpful, please let us know. After all, their momentum encourages a continuing interaction, which does not depend upon the Annual Meeting alone as a spur for suggestions, discussion, and action.
2015
2015 Business Meeting
2017
At the 2017 RGME Business Meeting. Photography © Mildred Budny.
2018
2018 Business Meeting
2019
It turns out that we don’t have photographs from the 2019 Business Meeting, although there are many photographs from the 2019 Reception, to which came most of the attendees for the Meeting. Have a look at our 2019 Congress Behind the Scenes Report.
2019 Reception and Business Meeting Invitations.
2020
In that year, the Congress was cancelled. (See 2020 Congress Program Announced.) However, we circulated the Agenda for the Business Meeting, which had to be postponed.
2021
With a Congress held wholly online, the Business Meeting took place as planned, as part of the scheduled Congress events. However, because of scheduling conflicts in the 2021 Congress Program (page 99) between the Business Meetings of the Research Group and the Societas Magica — our customary co-sponsor for some Congress Sessions — we sought better to prepare for the expected overlap in discussions about planning for the 2022 Congress by holding also a Pre-Congress Business Meeting. That approach enabled participation directly by some of our Associates who would have to attend the Societas’s Business Meeting at the Congress. It also opened the way for a new form of Business Meeting, to complement the customary Congress Business Meeting.
Therefore, both our 2021 Business Meetings have the 2021 Agenda Report as well as an Agenda specifically for the Pre-Congress and the Congress Business Meetings. Each presents a 1-page outline reporting our achievements for 2020 and 2021, and listing work-in-progress, future activities or projects, wishes, and aims.
The Agenda Report stands in the tradition of our Agendas in previous years (see above), while the Agenda in its new, 2021, form focuses upon the Items for consideration, feedback, discussion, suggestions, and advice.
- 2021 Agenda Report
- 2021 Congress Business Meeting Agenda and 2021 Pre-Congress Business Meeting Agenda
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Please join our Business Meetings, as your time permits, or visit them through our Agendas, available for download, as described above.
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