There were 21 members in attendance.

 President’s Report:

 Brian Jones delivered the President’s report as follows.  Brian thanked the conference organizers: Terry Witkowski (program chair), Diana Twede (arrangements chair), Eric Shaw (proceedings editor), and Mary Carsky (registration and membership) for their efforts in connection with the 2003 conference, as well as Bob Nason (MSU Marketing & Logistics Dept. chair) for agreeing to host the conference and for providing financial assistance in that connection.  

Brian described changes to the CHARM web site since the 2001 conference including new resources (bibliographies, cumulative abstracts and index), explained plans to move the web site to Quinnipiac University in July 2003 (the new URL will be emailed to all members soon), and some of the ideas being worked on for updates in the next couple of years such as online registration for the 2005 conference.  

In (Treasurer) Mary Carsky’s absence, Brian gave a brief update on the Association’s financial status (bank balance of approximately $500) and plans for a Treasurer’s report to be posted following the conference once accounts have been settled.  This is anticipated by July.  Brian remarked that this was the first CHARM conference that did not rely on the host institution for a financial subsidy and that AHRIM hopes to continue that financial plan.  This was accomplished by raising the registration fee for 2003, but Brian saw no reason why the fees could not be kept at the same approximate level in the future.

 Brian gave a brief history of RIM (Retrospectives in Marketing), the AHRIM’s newsletter, noting the financial and other support provided by Michigan State University since the beginning of publication in 1986.  Since the spring of 2002 RIM had gone exclusively online with back issues to 1998 and a recent “hit count” conducted by the UPEI computer services department indicated that RIM issues are the most popular by far on the CHARM web site, averaging about 1,000 hits per month over a six month period from July 2002 to November 2002.  Since Stan Hollander had vacated his office at MSU in December, there has been no RIM issue published since the fall of 2002 and no editor to take over from Stan.  AHRIM Board member, Robert Tamilia, volunteered to take on the job and promised to try and get the first 2003 issue ready for the web site by August.  Many members expressed appreciation to Professor Tamilia for taking on this important task.  

Report of the Nominating Committee (Eric Shaw, Terry Nevett, Bill Keep):

Eric Shaw presented the nominations for executive and board for the period 2003 – 2005 as follows.

President – Brian Jones, Quinnipiac University

Secretary – Judy Foster Davis, Eastern Michigan University

Treasurer – William Keep, Quinnipiac University

Board of Directors – Russell Belk ( University of Utah ), Judy Foster Davis ( Eastern Michigan University ), Marilyn Leibrenz-Himes ( George Washington University ), and Leighann Neilson (Queen’s University)

No further nominations were forthcoming.  All those nominated were elected.

 CHARM 2005:

Two proposals were presented for hosting the 2005 CHARM, one by Jacqueline Reid and Lynn Eaton on behalf of Duke University , Durham NC ; and the second by Terry Witkowski on behalf of the University of California – Long Beach .  There followed discussion and questions and a vote by the general membership.  Since the vote resulted in a tie, the chair (Brian Jones) voted in favor of the Long Beach proposal pointing out that in 20 years CHARM had never been held west of Michigan, but adding that AHRIM hoped that Duke would become the semi-permanent home of future conferences as Michigan State University had been for the past 20 years.  The 2005 CHARM conference will be held in Long Beach , California .  The 2005 arrangements chair will be Terry Witkowski; program chair will be Eric Shaw; the proceedings editor will be announced soon.

Other Business:

A suggestion was made that some of the CHARM web site provide links to some of the resources offered by the Hartman Center at Duke University and that will be done.

Wayne Morgan suggested that he would work in cooperation with the executive to try to secure sponsorship for the 2005 CHARM from members of the Ephemera Society of America. 

Richard Germain of the University of Louisville also indicated that he would work with Terry Witkowski to secure additional financial support for the 2005 CHARM.

Blaine Branchik offered to examine redesigning parts of the CHARM web site.

 The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 pm