Dear AHA Members,

The Nominating Committee will meet in mid-February to recommend two candidates for the following positions:

1. President-Elect (our rotation system calls for the nominees to be U.S. historians this year).
2. Vice President of the Professional Division.
3. Two places on the AHA Council, which governs the Association. (One of the outgoing Council members is a public historian. Although AHA policy does not require it, the Nominating Committee would very much appreciate suggestions of members whom we might nominate as a replacement.)
4. A member of the Professional Division, which deals with the rights and responsibilities of historians, professional conduct, the job market, the status of women and minorities, data collection, membership, and professional service prizes.
5. A member of the Research Division, which promotes research and new research tools, governs relationships with fellow professional organizations, establishes and awards research grants and fellowships, and oversees the American Historical Review and the annual meeting—including appointing the chair of the Program Committee.
6. A member of the Teaching Division, which supervises AHA educational activities and the Association's educational publications, promotes history education, and encourages new methods of instruction and cooperation in the development of curricula and other teaching activities.
7. A member of the Committee on Committees, which names members to appointive committees, including book prize committees, standing committees, and grant and fellowship committees. It also appoints AHA delegates to learned and professional societies.
8. Three places on the Nominating Committee, which nominates candidates for all the elective offices and elective committee positions.

Recommending nominees to the Nominating Committee is one of the most significant ways members can affect AHA policy and administration. The process is open. When making nominations, the committee tries to secure representation of all viewpoints, backgrounds, academic interests, all kinds of institutional affiliations as well as unaffiliated historians, and teachers at all levels of the educational system. In short, the committee aspires to have the Association governed by members as diverse as our profession.

To accomplish this goal, we need your help. Please propose yourself or any friends and colleagues who you believe can serve the Association in any of these positions. If you think the AHA has not adequately represented some constituency, then please make a special effort to bring to our attention potential candidates who will do so. If possible, send a potential candidate's c.v. and ask others to write in support. But even if you cannot find time to do so, the committee will take every recommendation very seriously and secure information itself. To help us do so, please send us your nominee's e-mail address if you can.

The only restrictions are these:

1. A nominee must be a member of the Association. If you know good citizens in the profession who you hope will serve the AHA at some point, encourage them to join. You need not check on a potential candidate's membership yourself; the committee can do so.
2. The AHA wants to avoid concentrating leadership positions in a few institutions. Therefore we will not nominate candidates from institutions that are already represented among officers and on elective committees. A list of those institutions follows. However, we maintain files of potential candidates recommended to us, so don't let this stand in the way of recommending someone for future consideration. Amherst Coll., UCLA, Bates Coll., Univ. of Delaware, Duke Univ., Glendale Community Coll., Harvard Univ., Haverford Coll., Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Johns Hopkins Univ., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michigan State Univ., Univ. of Minnesota, SUNY-Binghamton, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Seattle Community Coll., Reed Coll., Rutgers Univ., Univ. of Texas at Austin, Trinity Univ. Tex., Tulane Univ., Univ. of Virginia, and West Milford (N.J.) Township Public Schools.

Please forward your suggestions as soon as possible, with any supporting material you can provide, to the AHA Nominating Committee, c/o Sharon K. Tune, 400 A St., SE, Washington, DC 20003-3889; you may also fax to the same addressee at (202) 544-8307; or e-mail, with supporting material as attachments, to any of the committee members. Please feel free to send general comments and make general recommendations about the Nominating Committee's responsibilities to any of its members.

Sincerely,

Sara T. Nalle, William Paterson University, chair

Michael Adas, Rutgers University

Allison Blakely, Howard University

Joyce E. Chaplin, Harvard University

Peter A. Fritzsche, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Donald Teruo Hata Jr., California State University at Dominguez Hills

Gary Kates, Trinity University

Peter Kolchin, University of Delaware

Susan Schroeder, Tulane University