President 

Description

Do you want to support book history scholarship, ensure SHARP’s values inform all activities, and help to ensure SHARP’s future? Do you have good knowledge of the organization, perhaps from long-term participation in SHARP events or prior involvement in a Working Group, on the Board, or on the EC itself? Are you good at project managing, planning, and strategic thinking? Do you have experience of leading and working with teams? If so, then this might be the role for you! The President ensures the smooth running of the organization by liaising with EC colleagues and the Board of Directors. Strategic planning regarding the scope and nature of SHARP’s activities and the organization’s financial health are core to the Presidential role. Among the President’s regular tasks are: preparing the annual budget in collaboration with the Treasurer; writing the annual report; running the Annual General Meeting; preparing the agenda for the EC meetings in collaboration with the Secretary; regularly liaising with the Chair of the Board of Directors via email and virtual meetings; onboarding new EC members; conducting formal annual reviews with staff (Executive Director and Executive Assistant). Those are among the predictable jobs—it is worth noting that the President should be able to handle the unexpected.

Workload

Average hours per week: 6. Busiest weeks in the year: 10.

Constitutional Description

The President has general supervision of the affairs of the Society and keeps the members and officers fully informed about its activities. Such information includes a written annual report. He or she presides at all meetings of the members and of the Executive Council. The President has the power to sign alone, in the name of the Society, all contracts authorized either generally or specifically by the Executive Council.

Treasurer

Description

The Treasurer keeps or causes to be kept full and accurate accounts of all income, receipts, payments, and other disbursements of the Society’s funds, and deposits or causes to be deposited all moneys and other valuable effects of the Society in the name and to the credit of the Society in such banks or depositories as the Executive Council may designate in coordination with the treasurer. In addition, the Treasurer works with an accountant to prepare SHARP’s annual US Tax filing. At the Annual General Meeting of the members and the Board of Directors, the Treasurer renders a statement of the Society’s accounts and also may include additional information on any significant changes to the society’s financial arrangements as may deemed by the President and the Executive committee as in need of disclosure to the membership. He or she will also, at reasonable times and upon request, exhibit the Society’s books and accounts to any member of the Board of Directors or the Executive Council. The Treasurer also coordinates annually with the Society’s President to prepare a draft of the Society’s budget for the next fiscal year, to be presented to the EC for consideration and approval, and then to the Board for the same. The Treasurer must be a United States resident to facilitate US banking arrangements and to meet requirements flowing from the Society’s New York State Certificate of Incorporation to be legally authorized to file the US tax returns of the Society.

Workload

Average time commitment: 4–6 hours a week; for limited short periods surrounding annual budget preparation, tax filing deadlines, and the annual SHARP conference and associated Annual General Meeting, it can run to 10 hours a week.

Constitutional Description

The Treasurer keeps or causes to be kept full and accurate accounts of the receipts and disbursements of the Society, and deposits or causes to be deposited all moneys and other valuable effects of the Society in the name and to the credit of the Society in such banks or depositories as the Executive Council may designate.  At the annual meetings of the members and the Board of Directors, the Treasurer renders a statement of the Corporation’s accounts.  He or she will at reasonable times exhibit the Society’s books and accounts to any member of the Board of Directors or the Executive Council.  The Treasurer must be a United States resident to facilitate US banking arrangements and to meet the Society’s New York Certificate of Incorporation requirements as one of its registered officers.

Membership Secretary

Workload

This role typically involves two to three hours of work per week, more if there are special projects such as a membership working group.

Constitutional Description

The Membership Secretary is responsible for managing the recruitment and retention of the Society’s individual members, serving as a liaison with the publisher’s membership services, and facilitating and maintaining affiliate relationships with other scholarly organizations promoting book history. He or she keeps or causes to be kept up-to-date records of the Society’s membership and mailing lists, and manages its liaisons with scholarly organizations.

Director of Publications

Description

SHARP’s publishing is among the most important work that it does as an organization. Book History is our scholarly face, publishing peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary work with a global reach. Lingua Franca translates the best of book historical scholarship written outside of the English language via an open-access platform. SHARP News, also freely available online, provides a public humanities service through book reviews, pedagogy tips, and informal feature articles. The Director of Publications helps facilitate all this work.

Being Director of Publications involves a lot of communication and possibilities for project management and support. This role ensures that all three of our publications are the best they can be, first and most importantly by chairing the search committees for all the chief editorial positions. Secondly, when our publications wish to make big changes in editorial stances or scope, or when they experience a crisis, they consult with Publications, who in turn liaises with the Executive Council. Finally, the role can be expanded by new initiatives; for example, in 2024–2025, the Director of Publications is working with the Lingua Franca editors and the Director of Electronic Resources to explore the issues of becoming indexed and moving to an open-access platform specific to journal publishing. 

Workload

Usually 3–4 hours/week, up to 5–6 for a week or so during searches.

Constitutional Description

The Director of Publications oversees all the Society’s publications and acts as the liaison between their editors and the officers of the Society.

Director of Electronic Resources

Description

This is a good role for someone who is detail-oriented and comfortable with digital platforms. It’s an opportunity to help shape the public face of SHARP as a welcoming place to study book history.

This role is responsible for overseeing all of SHARP’s digital platforms. This includes our websites (SHARPweb, SHARP News, Lingua Franca, and Book History Unbound) and SHARP-L, as well as the digital resources we use for running SHARP (Google Workspace) and for communication (social media and newsletter platforms). Overseeing these resources means having a general familiarity with their operations, but it does not necessarily mean digging into their guts, although you should have a working knowledge of WordPress and Google products.

The next Director of Electronic Resources will have the opportunity to manage the upgrade of Lingua Franca‘s website either through appointing or hiring someone else to rebuild it or to do the upgrade themselves. They will also be able to pursue recommendations from the Electronic Resources Working Group about creating a new resource introducing key book history resources. SHARPweb just went through a major overhaul and should need only routine updating; SHARP News manages their own website, aside from software updates; SHARP-L has its own group of moderators overseen by the Executive Directors; and we recently shifted to a Google Workspace that is largely self-administering.

Workload

An average of 3–4 hours a week; more if you’re actively building a resource yourself.

Constitutional Description

The Director for Electronic Resources oversees the Society’s online activities, as well as any other electronic or digital communications. At the discretion of the Executive Council, the Director may personally serve as the manager of the Society’s website, listserv and/or social media and appoint, with Executive Council approval, members to manage particular resources. In no instance shall such appointees serve more than twelve years in any single role.

Board Chair

Description

The Chair of SHARP’s Board of Directors works closely with the President and other officers of the organization so as to ensure the Board can fulfill its constitutionally mandated oversight role. The Chair calls votes and leads discussion amongst Board members when occasion requires (this may be done virtually), and is responsible for organizing at least one synchronous meeting of the Board per year, either in person at the conference or virtually. Informally, the Chair may act as something of an advisor to the President; that said, the Chair must also ensure that the Board maintains its autonomy.

Strong organization and communications skills are a must. A detail-oriented awareness of the breadth and particulars of SHARP’s international activities as an organization, including budget, is also essential. The day-to-day commitment is generally light, and is mostly managed by email. 

Workload

1 hour per week or less

Constitutional Description

Following each two-year cycle of elections, the Chair of the Board will be elected by the directors from among their number; the Chair presides over Board meetings and serves as liaison with the other officers.