Present: Jochen Schlobach (President) Alberto Postigliola (First Vice-president) Uta Janssens (Secretary-General) Jean Mondot (Treasurer) István György Tóth (Assistant Secretary), Takaho Ando, Tomas Anfält, Dimitris Apostolopoulos, Tchane Bak, Andrew Brown, Simon Davies, Deidre Dawson, Roland Desné, Janet Godden, Sergueï Karp, Claude Lauriol, Dang Lee, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Anne-Marie Mai, Michaela Mudure, Fritz Nagel, Hisayasu Nakagawa, Birgitta Berglund-Nilsson, Maria Helena Carvalho Dos Santos, Marian Skrypek, Marie-Christine Skuncke, Anthony Strugnell, Byron R. Wells, Raia Zaimova.

1. Opening and presentation of the Agenda

The meeting opened on September 16, 1998 at 9.00 a.m. in the building of the Kyoto National Museum. The president, Jochen Schlobach, welcomed all members of the Executive Committee and stressed the importance of this first meeting of the ISECS in Asia as a symbol and a demonstration of the geographical expansion of ISECS, and he warmly thanked the Japanese Society for hosting this event.

The agenda was agreed unanimously, on the condition that the debate on the issue of the 1999 elections (point 14) should begin no later than 5 p.m., to allow enough time for the delegates to discuss this important point.

2. Approval of the Minutes of the last ordinary meeting (August 21, 1997)

The minutes of the meeting in Uppsala were approved unanimously with a slight modification in the English text under point 7, proposed by Anthony Strugnell. The last sentence of the last paragraph should begin: „Anthony Strugnell proposed that a plan be worked out…"

3. Members present, Apologies for Absence, Co-option of a new Member

Apologies, sent by the absent members, were read out (Maria Grazia Bottaro-Palumbo, Andrew Carpenter, Judith Casali de Babot, Marie-Laure Girou-Swiderski, Teresa Kostkiewiczowa, Wynand W. Mijnhardt, Giuseppe Ricuperati, Guillermo Salvatierra, Maria-Luisa Sánchez-Mejías, Ingi Sigurdsson, Barbara Stafford, Madeleine Therrien, Jürgen Voss, Wilhelm Vosskamp, Ulrike Zeuch, Zhang Zhilian).

The president especially welcomed and introduced Dang Lee and Tchane Bak, the two representatives of the Korean Society newly founded and admitted to the ISECS in 1997, for the first time present at a meeting of the Executive Committee.

In order to re-adjust the geographical balance and the research interests within the Executive Committee, a new member from the United States should have been co-opted, so as to give weight and show the importance of this large national society; but the proposed candidates since 1995 successively declining to accept the co-option, the Executive Committee finally decided not to co-opt anybody for the one remaining year until the new elections in 1999.

4. Report of the Secretary-General

Uta Janssens reported on some of the issues of her correspondence, concerning among others the proposed co-option of Margaret Jacob and the general elections of 1999: having informed the candidates that had been proposed by the Executive Committee in 1997, she asked them to confirm their candidature; she also acknowledged the incoming petitions for extra candidatures that were sent to her.

Due to the ISECS's being listed in the Yearbook of International Non-Profit Organizations, the Secretary General had to deal with innumerable offers of congress venues from all over the world.

In general, news about contacts with South America coming from the Spanish Society was not too encouraging: except for the Argentinian Society, there are no recent tentatives to get new societies off the ground. Our two Argentinian contacts, Guillermo Salvatierra and Judith Casali de Babot, sent apologies for not being able to take part in our meeting, but illustrated the life and the activities of their Society by sending a list of their members and the first number of their publication Cuadernos Del Siglo XVIII, a second number to follow in the autumn.

The Spanish as well as the Polish delegates (both unable to attend for financial reasons), also sent detailed reports of the activities of their Societies.

Finally, short mention was made of the change of the ISECS Technical Secretary and the special meeting of the Standing Committee in Halle on 14 February 1998 — points which will be dealt with in detail below (point 8).

5. Report of the Treasurer

The treasurer Jean Mondot, assisted by Janet Godden, gave a detailed picture of the financial situation of ISECS which is healthy and well balanced, even showing a net surplus. Since the president negotiated a new and very advantageous contract with the Voltaire Foundation, the Foundation has offered to publish the Directory of 1999 free of charge. However, inspite of the now favourable budgetary situation, we should remain vigilant about expenditure in the years to come as publishing conditions for the Directory after 1999 are still insecure.

Janet Godden stressed the point that some societies confuse the calendar year, which is the accounting year for ISECS, with the academic year of the universities, which explains the arrears of some societies. These were briefly discussed. Portugal promised to pay up; the uncertain situation of the national societies in Tunisia, South Africa, and Australia will (hopefully) be sorted out by the treasurer and the secretary general.

The president of the American Society, Margaret Jacob, in a letter concerning ISECS's finances addressed to the presidents of all national societies, stated that in view of its donation of 5000 US dollars to the organizers of the Dublin Congress, the American Society felt entitled to reduce its annual ISECS dues (bringing it down to a total of 1000 pounds instead of 1 pound per person for its 2700 members). This letter asked for due discussion at this point of the meeting.

Byron Wells, the American delegate explained the position of his society and gave reasons for the intended reduction of dues' payments. The ensuing lengthy discussion revealed the existing misunderstandings about the activities and expenditures of the Executive Committee.The president particularly brought to mind that the yearly meetings of the Executive Committee did not cost the ISECS anything; he stressed that according to the recent yearly reports of the treasurer, the dues of one pound per member were necessary to assure the well functioning of the ISECS. In this respect the attitude of the American Society seemed all the more striking, for even countries with weak currencies, like Poland and Russia, are now paying their regular dues.

A formal vote of the Executive Committee decided that the American refusal to comply with the rules of dues payment was unacceptable and he American Society was invited to pay its full dues (no votes against; 5 abstentions).

The question about ISECS's use of its funds then drew the attention of a great number of delegates. Anthony Strugnell stressed that apart from the yearly accounts of the treasurer, the ISECS ought regularly to send detailed and explicit accounts of its expenditures to all national societies, in order to prevent misunderstandings of this sort right from the start.

Several members then, among whom Jochen Schlobach, Jean Mondot and Uta Janssens, made various suggestions of how the ISECS might employ its actual surplus funds. Marie-Christine Skuncke together with Anne Marie Mai, in the name of the Swedish and Danish societies, presented a whole list of suggestions comprising the earlier ones and adding some more. The list of bonnes actions, as she called it, proposes financial aid (or partial funding) by the ISECS for the following activities:

6. Dublin (and Naples) Congress 1999

Simon Davies, in the name of Andrew Carpenter (the organizer of the 1999 Dublin Congress), presented the actual state of organization of this congress, affirming that everything is going well; up to now almost 1000 participants announced their participation in the congress. A draft programme of events was distributed and Simon Davies gave extra details about the scientific and social programmes of the Congress, about the planned excursions, and about the possibility of hotel accomodation for the delegates.

He then reported on the procedure of distributing the ISECS scholarships to retired scholars, to PhD students, and to colleagues from countries with weak currencies. 260 candidates had presented their applications, but many candidates had to be refused; nevertheless a great number will be able to participate in the congress thanks to the collected ISECS funds, and their number may even increase considering the recent favourable financial development.

Raia Zaimova asked Simon Davies about the possibilities of paying the registration fee later than the deadline, which would help those colleagues who applied for a travel grant to a foundation, the decision of which will only be known after the deadline. The Executive Committee unanimously supported this demand.

First vice-president Alberto Postigliola reported on the organization of the two sections of the 1999 congress to be held in Naples (5-7 August 1999). Those who participate in the Dublin congress and pay their registration fee in Dublin, need not pay any registration fee in Naples; for participants at Naples only the fee is 25 pounds sterling. For these sections, supported by the the Istituto Universitario Orientale and the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, there will be a modest number of scholarships and participants from countries with weak currencies will not be requested to pay registration fees. A new circular will be sent out as soon as the financial arrangements are fully known.

7. Information Leaflet/Booklet for the Congress

István György Tóth stated that the annual bulletin of the ISECS had not found the necessary interest from the national societies; almost no material had been sent to him and therefore no new issue was forthcoming.

However, the ISECS counts on publishing a bulletin or leaflet for the Dublin congress, in order to manifest its presence and to show the participants that the ISECS is more than just 30 national societies put together. The publication is entrusted to Uta Janssens and copies will be distributed at Dublin. Relevant and suitable contributions are invited from the national societies (deadline for sending copy: end of April 1999!).

8. Technical Secretariat, agreement with the Voltaire Foundation

The president explained the changes that had occurred in the direction of the Voltaire Foundation since the last session of the Executive Committee. It was the first time in history that the standing committee (consisting of the president, first vice-president, secretary general and treasurer) had to get together in a special meeting in order to assure the continued functioning of the ISECS, and especially the functioning of the technical secretariat.

The president announced the principal decisions taken at Halle: the continuation of the technical secretariat at Oxford and the support for the electronic project proposed by Andrew Brown. He mentioned that in agreement with this decision a contract had been signed with the Voltaire Foundation (text distributed to the members of the Executive Committee). The Voltaire Foundation having appointed Janet Godden technical secretary, the president introduced her to the Executive Committee, its members giving her a warm welcome.

The president and the Committee gave equally warm thanks to the Voltaire Foundation for its offer to produce the 1999 Directory, perhaps the last one to be printed on paper, free of charge. Anthony Strugnell also expressed his satisfaction about the contract between the ISECS and the Voltaire Foundation, but proposed to revise certain formulations which from a legal point of view might lead to misunderstandings. Especially the last paragraph (about the prolongation of the agreement beyond July 1999) needed rephrasing.

The temporary contract was unanimously approved by the Executive Committee.

9. ISECS electronic project; relations with the Ferney Centre

Having distributed several brochures, describing the c18 project and giving details about the planned activities of the Ferney Centre, Andrew Brown explained the various possibilities of the electronic project enlarging on the links, indexes, research tools and discussion groups, which it might provide.

The president summed up the discussion about the relations of the ISECS with the project c18: while in the beginning it had been a question of a personal agreement with Andrew Brown, the present situation had made it seem preferable to negotiate on an institutional level with the recently founded Ferney Centre.

The project as it stands certainly provides an answer to the challenges of the electronic age for all dix-huitiémistes and to the future needs of the ISECS.

After ample discussion, the Executive Committee decided (with one abstention) to give c18 and its director Andrew Brown its full support. The standing committee was charged to discuss the finer points of an agreement between Andrew Brown, the Ferney Centre and the ISECS as soon as possible so as to allow the project to get started without delay (see annex).

10. Contents of the ISECS website

Independent of the present or future agreements, the Executive Committee stressed the importance of the ISECS‘ maintaining its own website or -sites, regularly updated and listing all ISECS members with their fields of research (as in the directory), and serving as a bulletin board for all news concerning 18th-century activities the world over.

11. North-South Seminar

Alberto Postigliola, first vice-president, introduced the subject by mentioning that the papers read at the first seminar, organized by Michel Baridon in Dijon, are already published. In the spring of 1999 a new North-South Seminar will be organized in Naples within the framework of a programme of strategical research at the Consiglio Nazionale di Ricerche. Alberto Postigliola thanked Michel Baridon, Maria Helena Carvalho dos Santos, Dimitris Apostolopoulos, and Miguel Benitez for assisting him in the preparations for this seminar.

Maria Helena Carvalho dos Santos presented the possibility of organizing in November 1999 in Lisbon a seminar for young dix-huitiémistes from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. There is a great interest for the eighteenth century in these countries, as they have rich archives from this period.

According to the decision taken last year, Jochen Schlobach, Alberto Postigliola and Jean Mondot proposed to unite the traditional East-West and North-South Seminars in future to form a single International Seminar of Young Eighteenth-Century Scholars.

12. Report on the 1998 East-West Seminar in Bordeaux; prospective considerations on the Seminar (new title, new selection criteria, financing)

Jean Mondot and Jochen Schlobach reported on the East West Seminar held in Bordeaux in 1998, which united 20 young scholars displaying impressive knowledge, enthusiasm and team spirit.

An application will be made to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to support part of the 1999 Seminar to be held in Saarbrücken on the subject of The European Enlightenment in its relation to the other great eighteenth-century cultures and religions. Unfortunately, it was not possible to organize this seminar in Dublin, the venue of the next congress; on the one hand because Andrew Carpenter did not see any possibility of funding from his side and on the other, because the DFG only finances conferences which are held in Germany.

István György Tóth drew once more attention to the fact that in Eastern Europe few scholars under 40 have a PhD because the new Western PhD system has only just been introduced; therefore a PhD well under way and a convincing list of publications should be considered as equivalent qualification. Jochen Schlobach and Jean Mondot assured him that they had taken this fact already into account in the selection for 1998.

If proper financing is assured, possible venues for future seminars (from 2000 onwards) were proposed by the delegates of the American, the Swedish, the Danish, (and with reservations) the Dutch Society.

The Executive Committee voted ffrs 50.000 (francs français) as a one-time grant to the International Seminar of Young Eighteenth-Century Scholars.

13. ISECS Congress of 2003

The American Society renewed its invitation for the ISECS congress in 2003 without being able to tell at present in which American town it projects to hold this congress; the most probable venue seems to be Los Angeles. The Executive Committee unanimously welcomed this proposal, but asked the American Society to make a concrete proposal before the end of 1998, so as to enable the president, if necessary, to prepare other candidatures for presentation at the meeting of the new Committee, on 1 August 1999, which will decide definively where the congress of 2003 will take place.

14. Meetings of the Executive committee in 2000 and 2001

For the venue of the Executive Committee meeting in 2000 the American Society withdrew its proposal of Chicago; other delegates proposed to consider Geneva or Wassenaar (Netherlands), but no definite answer forthcoming the decision was postponed. National societies ready to host a meeting and a symposium of the Committee in 2000 are invited to make concrete proposals.

For the venue of the 2001 meeting the Romanian Society maintained its candidacy, but offered the town of Constanta rather than Tirgoviste.

The Executive Committee unanimously joined in with the decision taken by the standing committee (Halle, 14 February 1998) to support the Christian Wolff Congress planned for 2004 at the Enlightenment Centre of Halle (Germany), which might also be a convenient place for the E.C. meeting of that year.

The Committee took this opportunity to express its thanks to the director of the Halle Centre for having hosted the extraordianry meeting of the standing committee.

15. Various academic activities

Representatives of several societies reported on their scholarly activities, among them the delegates of the Polish, the Portugese, the Greek, and the Swiss societies presented new volumes of eighteenth-century studies.

16. New Societies

The representatives of the new Korean society briefly sketched the state of 18th-century studies in their country. They received warm encouragement from the Committee, which hopes to see more of them in future. The Portuguese and the Spanish society promised to continue their efforts in establishing closer contacts with the Argentinian Society. A new Armenian Society is establishing itself, and tentative moves towards the formation of a society are being made in Turkey and Egypt.

17. Series of International Eighteenth-Century Studies

Jochen Schlobach passed the first volume of the new ISECS series around which is published by Champion, Paris (Actes de la Table ronde sur les objets, méthodes et institutions de la recherche dix-huitiémiste, organised by Michel Delon and himself at the Münster Congress). The second volume (East-West Seminar, Paris 1996) edited by David Bell and Stéphane Pujol) is in the press.

Shortly to appear are also the Transactions of the Uppsala Colloquium according to reports from Marie-Christine Skuncke.

Jochen Schlobach reminded the Committee of the good conditions offered by Champion for this series (7% on the net sale price). The exceptional subsidy of 2000 pounds sterling, granted as a starting present by the Executive Committee at the Athens meeting, serves to reduce the price of the first four volumes. The profits to be expected from the series will be used to get further volumes in this collection started.

18. Transactions of the 1999 Congress

The Voltaire Foundation, which hesitated to publish the Transactions of the 1999 Congress in its series ‚Studies on Voltaire‘, was earnestly entreated not to interrupt the continuity of appearing in this series; Anthony Strugnell promised that the Voltaire Foundation would reconsider its decision.

But whatever the outcome, the Foundation is willing to publish the Transactions as extra volumes (in the usual form of summaries). The Committee approved this agreement with the Voltaire Foundation.

It also decided to invite the organizers of sections or round tables to propose coherent volumes for publication in the International Eighteenth Century Studies (see point 17).

19. 1999 Elections: final list of candidates, voting procedure, Election Commission

The list drawn up after long deliberations — taking into account the equilibrium to be maintained between regions, disciplines, the sexes and languages — by the commission appointed by vote at Uppsala to prepare the next elections (Roland Desné, Haydn Mason, Jeffrey Smitten, Uta Janssens, Jochen Schlobach), was presented by the president.

Nine extra nominations for various posts, supported by a sufficient number of signatures from ISECS members, were received (most of them arriving in the last minute).

Based on the French version of the ISECS Bylaws (Règlement intérieur A 3), which allows the Executive Committee to "complète éventuellement [sa propre liste], à la majorité des deux tiers", the commission and the president proposed to vote on each of the new candidatures, so as not to endanger the balance reached in the original list; they recommended to begin with the candidatures of Benoît Melançon and Jean-Claude Bonnet (the first for a vice-presidency filling the place given up by Andrew Carpenter, and the second for member at large), expressing disfavour for the other candidates.

After a heated discussion, which mainly ran on the interpretation of article 10 of the Constitution according to its French and English version, the Executive Committee reached the conviction that all candidatures received in time had to be added to the list.

Following the proposal of Deidre Dawson, the Executive Committe moreover added Pierre Morère to the candidates for one of the vice-presidencies.

The result is the following list:

(On the voting bulletin the candidates for all posts of officers, except the President's, shall appear again among the candidates for members at large.)

Not enough time remaining to establish the details of the voting procedure and to nominate three members for the election commission, the Executive Committee authorized the standing committee to deal with these points at another time (see Annex).

20. Any other business

There was no other business.

The meeting was dissolved at 6 p.m., when the building was closed.

(Jochen Schlobach)

Minutes: Uta Janssens, István G. Tóth

Annex to the Kyoto Minutes

Ad hoc meeting of the Standing Committee at the occasion of the colloquium organized by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences in collaboration with the ISECS, Beijing, 22 September 1998, 10 p.m.

The President, First Vice-president, Secretary general and Treasurer discussed the unfinished business of the Kyoto meeting, regarding the project c18 (point 9) and the elections (point 19).

9. Project c18

The Standing Committee decided to submit -- with a few modifications -- the contract between the ISECS and the Ferney Centre, which was presented at the Kyoto meeting. The president was charged to present the text to Andrew Brown and to sign it when agreement is reached.

19. Procedures for the ballot

The Standing Committee approved the procedures for the ballot, providing a more accurate phrasing of the accompanying text, which now reads as follows:

The Standing Committee appointed the following members to the Election Commission: Roland Desné, Uta Janssens, Byron R. Wells.

The meeting was closed at midnight.