Small groups of dedicated people can achieve great things together, and our impact multiplies when we work collectively instead of in isolation. I am reminded of this every day, working on a small staff that accomplishes significant feats. But as I write this column in November, teamwork’s benefits are especially evident in our work around the AHA annual meeting. Our ability to bring to fruition something as large and complex as the conference is a testament to collaboration and to our belief that we all have something important to contribute. No staff member alone can make the event happen, and the meeting is better for the diversity of ideas and approaches we each bring to the table.
The annual meeting is the most complex event we host but far from the only time we bring our members together. We organize numerous online programs, host regional teaching and learning conferences, facilitate asynchronous exchanges through our Member Forum, and travel far and wide to meet with departments, partner organizations, and others invested in the AHA’s mission. Added to this are many other efforts, past and present, including our affiliated societies program and subgrant programs such as Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources and NEH SHARP grants, to support other organizations working in service of the discipline. All these activities advance one of the AHA’s central priorities: creating spaces where our members can gather around shared interests, form connections, and exchange and build on ideas that keep our discipline vibrant. They also reflect a broader truth: The challenges facing history and historians are larger than any single person or organization can manage alone, and our work is strongest when done in partnership with others.
We launched the Community Action and Resource Exchange (CARE) network on November 6 as part of a larger call to action focused on encouraging members to participate in the AHA’s work and use its programs and platforms to connect with other historians. CARE consists of working groups whose participants convene in online, in-person, and asynchronous settings to discuss issues of common professional interest and develop strategies to address those needs and challenges. Created and led entirely by AHA members, these groups are intended to extend the Association’s long tradition of convening historians by offering an additional structure through which members can generate and share insights that benefit their colleagues. In return, CARE offers participants opportunities for professional growth through shared problem-solving, as well as meaningful professional service that transcends institutional boundaries. At its heart, CARE invites members to build the kinds of coalitions the AHA itself relies on—coalitions that allow us to respond to pressing issues with collective strength.
CARE also reflects and supports the AHA’s broader vision for a collaborative, welcoming, and well-connected discipline. Historians often work in settings in which they feel siloed, separated by geography, industry, professional expectations, research agendas, differing resources, or other barriers. In convening AHA members working across institutional boundaries, CARE is designed to counter those constraints and model a kind of collaborative approach necessary to meeting the many challenges facing the discipline. In addition, by providing lower-barrier entry points for participation and enabling members to form groups organized around emerging concerns, CARE provides a mechanism AHA members can use to respond to evolving, sometimes urgent needs. Working groups may choose to focus on issues needing immediate engagement, providing members with a way to mobilize quickly in times of particular need.
Most importantly, CARE reinforces an important truth: that we and our work are stronger when we learn from and collaborate with one another. Whether members create a working group to troubleshoot a specific professional issue, address an emerging advocacy concern, or simply find community in a shared interest, they are contributing to a system of mutual support that extends far beyond the annual meeting.
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