Approved by AHA Council, January 2, 1997

The Association’s top priority is to continue its present activities in support of research, teaching, and the dissemination of knowledge, all the while assuring that these activities are on a sound fiscal basis. These activities are to be led by the Association’s elected representatives on the Council and in the three divisions (Professional, Research, and Teaching); the agenda for the Association is to be set by the president and vice presidents working closely together. In support of this priority, the Association must

• ensure financial stability by expanding membership and developing new revenues through corporate and individual donors, grants, and projects;
• maintain staffing levels at headquarters so that work can be efficiently completed and projects that have already been undertaken can be realized;
• maintain the excellence and visibility of the American Historical Review;
• continue current programs in broadening inclusivity both in membership and in the subjects of historical research;
• increase contacts with other scholarly and professional associations, with historian-colleagues beyond the borders of the United States, with history teachers in settings beyond the traditional core constituency of college and university teaching, and with the general public; and defend the profession through forceful and effective advocacy—such defense to include protecting access to historical sources and research opportunities, defending jobs for historians, resisting current pressures toward overreliance on temporary faculty and ever more crowded classrooms, asserting the importance of both new areas and traditional fields of new scholarship when either threatens to squeeze the other out, and working to increase the funds available to support historical research.