Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 2.1 (November 1994)

Roanoke Colonies Research Office Advisory Committee Discusses Conferences, Publications

On September 16, 1994, a meeting of the Roanoke Colonies Research Office’s Advisory Committee was held on the campus of East Carolina University. Present at the meeting were committee members David Phelps, William Powell, and David Stick; office staff members Tom Shields and Bebe Woody; and guests John Patterson, Virginia Powell, and Keats Sparrow.

The meeting began with Phelps’s telling about the Southern Coastal Heritage Program being developed at North Carolina State University. Directed by Carmine Prioli, the Southern Coastal Heritage Program will run teacher workshops, sponsor conferences, and help develop an inter-university program of study (between NCSU, ECU, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington) to promote research and teaching about Southern coastal culture. Phelps is a member of the program’s steering committee and suggested that contacts be established between the Roanoke Colonies Research Office and the Southern Coastal Heritage Program.

The next major agenda item concerned plans for future conferences. After discussion, the committee came to the consensus that a major conference be planned for the spring of 1998. The conference, it was believed, should emphasize new findings and important reinterpretations of older research with the hope of publishing select proceedings.

Ideas for a mini-conference, similar to last December’s Fort Raleigh Shoreline Conference, were also discussed. Stick suggested that a mini-conference on the topic of the personalities involved with Roanoke Island colonization be organized. The committee agreed that a one-day conference emphasizing biographical research would be useful and thought that plans for such a conference be made for late spring or early fall 1995. It was suggested that a survey form be included in the November 1994 issue of the newsletter to find out which scholars’ research might fit into such a mini-conference.

Following discussion of conferences came talk about the office’s bibliography project. Shields announced that John Sallient, moderator of IEAHCNET, the computer bulletin board of the Institute of Early American History and Culture, had agreed to make the bibliographic checklist of Roanoke Island Colonization related materials available electronically to those people with access to Internet when the checklist is ready. A paper version will also be available through the Roanoke Colonies Research Office.

The committee next discussed ways to make various papers available. It was decided that photocopies of the Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar’s occasional papers will be available through the Roanoke Colonies Research Office for the cost of photocopying and mailing. Anyone who desires originals with their staple binding and stiff paper covers will need to purchase them through the Harriot Seminar.

It was also decided to contact authors of papers from the May 1993 Roanoke Decoded symposium to see if it would be possible to make their presentations available as “occasional papers” through the office. Not enough of the presenters had papers appropriate for inclusion in a university press collection of essays, but there are several good papers that deserve distribution. Details about making Roanoke Decoded papers available via the Roanoke Colonies Research Office will be explored before the next committee meeting.

The final agenda item concerned the makeup of the advisory committee itself. With the terms of some committee members ending soon, names were solicited for possible replacements. It was also decided to reorganize the committee into two parts—the entire committee, including members from outside the region to give general advice and comments about the office’s activities, and a local executive committee made up of members able to gather frequently to help advise the office staff on specific details of its activities.

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