I. Conference: We are extending the deadline for submissions to November 1. So
if you couldn't get something in by the original deadline, you have a second
chance. Please also forward the CFP
(http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~comitatu/conference2008.html) to anyone you know (graduate and undergrad) who might be interested in submitting an abstract.

II. Silent Auction: The silent auction is our major source of fundraising, so
that we have funds for the conference and other items, such as the pizza for
last night's meeting. This year's auction will take place from Tuesday, November
27 through Thursday, November 29. Right now, we need to focus on collecting
donations for the auction. When you're thinking about what to donate, think of
items that other people would be excited about (other people = other students,
faculty, and staff, mostly in the English department as the auction binder will
be available in Heavilon) and want to bid on (for example, a beautiful coffee
table book rather than a ratty Penguin paperback). Our most successful auctions
have been when people get into bidding wars over an item and drive up the price.
Since the timing is before Christmas, think of items that people might want to
bid on to give as Christmas gifts (handcrafted items might be nice and I know
we'll already be receiving some of those). I'll send out more details soon (I'll
make an inventory of the items we currently have so you can get an idea of what
kinds of items to donate), but the deadline to donate is Friday, November 16.

III. Filing Cabinet: Our original idea was that the filing cabinet would contain
copies of articles that someone no longer individually needed. The system for
keeping track of those articles, however, has turned out to be more than we
bargained for. Thus, the new plan for the filing cabinet is to keep copies of
items such as prelim reading lists and samples of the dissertation prospectus
(for graduate students) and other items that would be of use to medieval studies
students. We'd like to know, therefore, what items would be of use for
undergraduates – one suggestion was samples of personal statements for graduate
school applications. If you have some suggestions of items you'd like to see
included in the filing cabinet, please contact any of the officers.

IV. Record of Medieval Studies Graduates: We'd like to make a listing of past
graduates of both the graduate and undergraduate programs in Medieval Studies –
a "where are they now" type of list. Not only can this be helpful for current
students ("what exactly can you do with an undergraduate degree in MARS?"), it
could also be used as a recruitment tool for prospective students.

V. Suggestions for Other Activities: We've decided to start a monthly social
activity. Ryan has volunteered to host a game night at his house in the upcoming
weeks, so watch for an announcement coming soon. If you have suggestions about
future monthly socials, please contact any of the officers.

1. T-Shirts/Sweatshirts: Prof. Astell has had t-shirts and sweatshirts made for those who are MARS majors/minors and also graduate students in medieval or renaissance studies. She handed out the shirts to those people at the meeting. If you are a MARS major/minor or a graduate student, make sure to get your shirt (contact Prof. Astell) and wear it with pride!

2. Filing Cabinet:  We are now taking contributions for the filing cabinet. We are accepting articles (especially from ILL), old prelims, prospectuses, and teaching materials. The filing cabinet is outside of Professor Astell’s office on the 2nd floor of Heavilon. A contributions box will be located on top of the filing cabinet. Any and all contributions will be greatly appreciated! (The filing cabinet should be ready for use by the fall.)

3. Elections: Karen will be sending out an email this week asking for nominations. Karen and Richard will be staying on as our Comitatus co-presidents; however, the positions for VP, Secretary, and Treasurer are now open. Nominations (you can nominate yourself or someone else) must be in by next Thursday via the discussion list (comitatusdiscussion@lists.purdue.edu). April 9th and 10th will be the election days. There will be a box located in the main office where ballots can be dropped off. Karen will be leaving ballots in the mailboxes of all of the graduate members, and she will email ballots to the undergraduate members to print out. Votes will be counted on April 10th after 4:00 pm.

The VP is responsible for the reading groups, is head of the conference committee, and coordinates publicity. The secretary is responsible for membership, mailing lists, meeting minutes (along with any other general writing, i.e., thank you notes), the bulletin board, and possibly the website. The treasurer is responsible for the Comitatus accounts (both at PEFCU and the university). The treasurer’s name will appear on our account and will be responsible for depositing money and keeping track of the checkbook and petty cash. Please feel free to contact any of the current officers with any questions you may have about the positions. We look forward to seeing your nominations!

4. Conference: We are now accepting suggestions for the 2008 Comitatus Conference. Please send any theme and speaker suggestions to the discussion list (comitatusdiscussion@lists.purdue.edu) by next Thursday.  One suggested theme that we have so far is Super Freke: Constructions of Masculinity. We appreciate any suggestions you may have.

5. Kalamazoo: Professor Hughes will be getting a van to take to Kalamazoo this year. The van will leave Purdue Thursday and will leave Kalamazoo sometime Sunday afternoon. Please email Ryan if you are interested in getting a ride (rnaughto@purdue.edu). Please email Professor Armstrong (darmstrong@purdue.edu) if you are going to Kalamazoo and would like to work the Arthuriana booth. Your $80.00 registration fee will be waived if you work at the booth. Hotels are booking up quickly, but the dorms are still available. Professor Armstrong suggests that staying in the dorms is a great idea if you are a student. You can choose to stay in the dorms when registering.

6. Recruitment:  Please feel free to invite all students, especially undergrads, who are interested in Medieval Studies to get involved in Comitatus. We welcome all and are always happy to have new faces! (Point them to the website – http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~comitatu – and email Karen to be added to the mailing lists.)

7. Professor Astell’s Farewell:  The MARS faculty is hosting a gathering for Prof. Astell on April 30th at Loeb House Inn from 6-8 pm. Please come join us to bid a very special professor farewell.

Welcome Back Comitati!

We had our first meeting of the semester at the Lafayette Brewing
Company and discussed many important activities that will be taking place this
year. Please feel free to contact any of the officers with your questions. All of our email addresses are located at the bottom of this email. The list of things discussed at the meeting are as follows:

1. Conference
2. Future Meetings
3. Reading Groups
4. Filing Cabinet
5. Kudos Page
6. Special Needs and Requests

1. The Comitatus annual conference will be held on February 23rd and 24th. Our plenary speaker this year is Professor Patricia Clare Ingham from Indiana University. The schedule is available on our website (http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~comitatu/conference2007.html). There will be a reception on that Friday evening (to be held at Case's house - thank you, Case!), and we will all be going to lunch as a group on that Saturday between panels.  Please come and support the Medieval Studies Program!

2. As many of you know, there was a lack of general meetings/socials last semester (Karen and Richard apologize for this). We would like to make it a point to meet once a month at a dinner location where we can discuss club business and enjoy good company and food. We want to make sure to include everyone and were thinking that Wednesday might work for the majority (Thursday is also still an option). Please contact Karen or Richard if Wednesday does not work for you.

3. Exciting things are happening with the reading groups this semester. Ryan Naughton and Rebecca Goldenberg will be holding two separate reading groups, alternating every other week. Rebecca will be continuing with romances while Ryan will be focusing on Medieval History. Ryan and Rebecca will be sending emails out to the group with a plan of focus. Please feel free to contact Rebecca with suggested topics! 

4. Comitatus has a filing cabinet outside of room 204A. We are collecting old prospectuses, prelim. reading lists, teaching examples, helpful articles,
published articles of students, and other relevant information. Please place any materials on top of the cabinet so that we may file them correctly.  Karen and Richard will be working on an on-line bibliography for the filing cabinet sometime this year. This is a wonderful opportunity to share resources and to learn from one another. Please help us make the best of this fantastic idea!

5. The Accomplishments page on the Comitatus website is beginning to look a little vacant. Please send Karen any of your accomplishments or the accomplishments of others. We are proud of our students and want to show it! The Accomplishments page is located at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~comitatu/kudos.html.

6. We spent some time at the meeting discussing special needs and requests. We want all of you to know that we are open to any ideas and suggestions you may have for Comitatus. We are also here to help one another; therefore, please feel free to contact any one of the officers with questions about Comitatus or Purdue in general.

We certainly covered a lot of material at the meeting, and we had a wonderful turnout. Please keep your eyes open for emails that will inform you of future events, and do not hesitate to contact any of the officers. Have a great Spring Semester!

Karen Robinson      President       robins22@purdue.edu
Richard Sévère      President       rsevere@purdue.edu
Rebecca Goldenberg  Vice President  rgolden1@purdue.edu
Kristin Leaman      Secretary       leamankb@purdue.edu
Joy Santee          Treasurer       jsantee@purdue.edu

As many of you know, Comitatus had our first meeting of the year on August 24, 2006. Many people were not able to make it to the meeting due to scheduling conflicts. So, here is a list of things we talked about at the meeting.

1. Picnic
2. Silent Auction
3. Comitatus Conference
4. Abstract Workshop
5. Reading Group

The Comitatus picnic is going to be held at Happy Hollow Park in Shelter #3 on
September 30th from 11-4pm. Karen will be sending an email out concerning
RSVPs and a sign up sheet for food. The park will be a great family
atmosphere for all of you who have family. :) Please feel free to contact Kristin
for directions or any other questions you may have.

The Comitatus silent auction will be taking place between November 28th-30th.
This is our main source of income for the year. Please help us by donating
anything you feel would be appropriate for the auction (email Kristin if you're not sure what might be appropriate). Donations need to be in by November 10th. Please either make arrangements with Kristin or leave donations in the gray cabinets inside the door of HEAV 329 (you'll see that donations have already started to come in - thank you to everyone who has donated so far!). During the silent auction, from November 28th-30th a binder containing pictures of all the donations and space for bidding will be placed in the 3rd floor lounge of Heavilon.

The fifth annual Conference for Medieval Studies, sponsored by Comitatus, will
be held at Purdue University from February 23-24. The theme is "On the Edge: Representations of Liminality in Medieval Europe." Patricia Clare Ingham, Indiana University, will be the plenary speaker. Please support Comitatus by sending in an abstract.  If you have any questions about the conference please visit
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~comitatu/conference2007.html or contact one of the Comitatus officers.

Comitatus is here to help those of you who may feel apprehensive about your
abstract writing skills. We are planning an abstract work shop on September
11th. Please contact Karen for more information about time and location.

It is time to start our reading group for the semester. Rebecca has suggested
possibly reading the Gawain Romances for many of the PhDs who have prelim
reading to accomplish as well as anyone else who might be interested. Please contact Rebecca with any suggestions that would make the reading group more helpful to you!

We certainly have a lot going on this year!  Please feel free to contact Kristin or
any of the other officers with ANY questions you may have. We are here to
help you in any way that we can. Have a great semester!