RSS: Reception Study Society*
Article
I: Purpose
The Reception Study Society (RSS) is a non-profit organization which seeks to promote informal and formal exchanges between scholars in several related fields: reader-response criticism and pedagogy, reception study, history of reading and the book, audience, communication, and media studies, and any other studies engaging these primary areas. Bringing together theorists, scholars, and teachers from all of these areas, this association will promote a much-needed cross-disciplinary dialogue among all areas of reception studies, advancing teaching as well as research. Over the last twenty-five years, scholarship in these areas has exploded, with important expansions of research and new theoretical, historical, and textual studies. Although associations such as Sharp (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) examine one or two of these areas, the advances and developments in specific fields have remained largely disconnected. The RSS is the only association to promote dialog and discussion among all the diverse areas and scholars of reception study.
The RSS provides several benefits to its members:
1) The RSS will organize a conference
every two years. The RSS will also
arrange for panels and other presentations at scholarly conferences which, like
The Midwest Modern Language Association or the American Literature Association,
allow RSS participation in their programs.
2) The RSS will maintain a website which provides information about past and
future conferences, as well as upcoming RSS panels and members’ publications.
3) The RSS will produce an annual journal which is posted on its website and which promotes the dialog sought by the RSS. The Executive Board, together with the Editorial Board, selects the editors of the journal and decides its policies.
Article II: Membership
1) Membership in the RSS shall be open to all scholars, teachers, students, and other individuals interested in the study of reception, audiences, and reading.
2) Individuals and institutions shall become members of the Society by paying annual dues as determined by the Executive Board. Categories of membership shall be specified by the Executive Board (see the membership form).
3) Payment of annual dues shall entitle
the Individual Member to participate in its panels and conferences, to vote in
the elections of the Society, and to be nominated for election as one of the
Society's officers or as a member of one of its committees.
Article III: Officers
1)
The Reception Study Society is governed by an Executive Board which includes
the Director, President, Vice-President, and two representatives (list of current officers). Only members of
the Society are eligible to serve as officers. No person may simultaneously
serve as more than one officer.
2) The members of the RSS vote on the officers, including the Director.
They are nominated at the bi-annual convention, and they serve terms of two years. Elections of the officers are conducted either at the regular meeting of the RSS or by mail.
3)
With the Director’s assistance, the Executive Board organizes the conferences,
ensuring that the Society’s three primary areas -- literature, book history,
and media -- are well represented. It suggests and votes on speakers,
distributes the call for papers, accepts paper proposals, organizes panels,
sets up the conference schedule, and sets the dates and chooses the place of
future conferences. The host institution
provides the facilities and arranges the receptions, banquets,
transportation, and housing.
4) The Executive Board shall meet at least
once every other calendar year, at the biennial conference. The purpose of this meeting will be for
budgeting, planning, review of society operations, etc. Outside of formal
meetings, Executive Board members may consult via mail, electronic mail, or telephone
as needed.
5) The Director, with the Executive Board’s agreement, sets and collects the dues, proposes constitutional amendments to be ratified by the membership, maintains the website, and distributes the funds for conference facilities, speakers, and participants and for other financial needs, including the dissolution of the organization.
Article IV: Procedures and policies
1) The organization is formed exclusively for charitable, educational, and literary purposes within the meaning of section 501c3 of tax form 557. The organization is limited to these purposes and meets the organizational test.
2) Upon the dissolution of the organization, assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes with the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government, for a public purpose. Any such assets not disposed of shall be disposed of by the Court of Common Pleas of the country in which the principal office of the organization is then located, exclusively for such purposes or to such organization or organizations, as said Court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.
3) Amendments to this constitution must be approved either by two-thirds of the members present at the biennial conference or by a vote of two-thirds or the members responding to a mail ballot.
For more information, please contact Philip
Goldstein at pgold@udel.edu or at the
* This constitution was first established in 2006.