Washington Notes, May 1988

This final column for the 1987–88 academic year covers the “high sea­son” of the Association’s spring, which included two of the three divisional committee meetings, the Program Com­mittee’s final face-to-face planning ses­sion for December’s Annual Meeting Program, a special meeting of the Coun­cil-appointed ad hoc committee on long­ range planning, and the spring meeting of the Committee on Women Histori­ans. The September issue of Perspectives will report on the Council’s May meet­ing and the Teaching Division Commit­tee’s meeting.

Last December the Council set up an ad hoc committee, co-chaired by Presi­dent-elect Louis Harlan and Richard Kohn, with representatives from the three divisional committees and the membership at large, to look at what might be done to reinforce the Associa­tion’s role as the umbrella agency for the historical profession and to strengthen its  internal organization. The special committee convened in Washington for a one-and-a-half-day session on March 6-7. The committee’s recommendations to the Council will include a number of measures designed to increase AHA membership, broaden its outreach both within and outside of university and college history depart­ments, and enhance ties to affiliated and non-affiliated sister societies. It found the existing constitutional framework to be fully adequate for present and fore­seen needs, but suggested that at least once every decade the Council should consider a deliberate review of the Asso­ciation’s basic charter, constitution and bylaws.

The Research Division Committee convened on March 17–18 with its usual heavy spring agenda. The Committee decided on thirty-five small grants total­ling $25,000 under the Beveridge, Kraus, Littleton-Griswold, and Schmitt research grants programs. It also discussed a number of recommen­dations for honorary membership and recommended three appointments  to the Council. Honorary AHA memberships were first established in 1885 with the appointment of Leopold von Ranke and constitute the Association’s chief means of honoring distinguished for­eign historians who have been especially helpful to American scholars working in their countries’ universities and ar­chives.

The committee took several actions to make small changes in three AHA book prize guidelines and unanimously de­cided to publicize the generosity of the late Hans W. Gatzke of Yale University for his anonymous endowment of the Association’s Paul Birdsall Prize in Eu­ropean Military and Strategic History in memory of his distinguished colleague and friend.

The committee also reviewed pro­gress in developing a projected guide to manuscript sources on Hispanic history in this hemisphere prior to 1840, which are available in repositories in this coun­try. It endorsed a proposal to the Coun­cil to advance the timing of appoint­ments to the American Historical Review Board of Editors so that new board members will be able to attend the next AHA annual meeting more readily; it discussed the issue of historians’ respon­sibility for making interview materials available to other historians and agreed to explore the subject further with the Oral History Association. It then dis­cussed the acid paper problem and book preservation concerns. Finally the com­mittee suggested that the Council agree to tighten reporting requirements  for the numerous AHA delegates on advis­ory committees of various government and private entities.

The Professional Division Committee convened March 19 to consider a num­ber of topics. It reviewed several matters relating to ethical issues, hearing status reports on cases outstanding. It accept­ed enthusiastically the Research Divi­sion’s idea of working with the Oral History Association to establish guide­lines for the creation, use of, and access to interviews as historical source materi­al.

The Professional Division discussed names of possible new parliamentarians for the AHA annual meetings, since our long-time parliamentarian, Paul Con­kin, has decided to give up that responsibility. It decided to take an active role in the oversight of the Job Register and its operation at our annual meetings. (See Feb. Perspectives.)

The Program Committee for 1988 also had the second of its two regular meetings in Washington the same week­end, March 18–19. When members at­tend AHA annual meetings, unless they have themselves served on a program committee, they may not fully appreci­ate the hard, dedicated and often thank­less work put in by ten members of the Association to develop the interesting, frequently challenging, and often con­troversial program sessions for the an­nual meeting. The 1988 program is now largely roughed out by the committee, though many details will be penciled in over the next two months before the final text is turned over to AHA head­quarters for formal formatting and transmission to the printers. All indica­tions are that there will be a stimulating agenda for the substantive side of the Cincinnati annual meeting this Decem­ber.

Since the subject of the annual meet­ings and our expectations for Cincinnati this year has been mentioned, members might be interested to know some of the headquarters staff activities that pre­cede these events. As the AHA strives for hotel room prices below those of other learned societies, it operates in a very short lead time. (The leverage for the AHA with a city and hotel that does not have a convention scheduled, by the time we come along two and a half to three years before the meeting date, is enormous.) That practice involves convention bureau and hotel represen­tatives. During March, for example, headquarters staff spent a good deal of time in discussions with representatives from Cincinnati (1988), Chicago (no firm date), and New York City. Mem­bers will be interested to learn that with the Council’s blessing a contract has been signed for December 1990 with the New York Hilton.

The AHA’s Committee on Women Historians held its spring meeting in Washington on April 8. It reviewed ear­ly planning for a proposed conference on women’s history and public policy. It decided to pursue the widespread concern that an increase in unadvertised searches is taking place in academe not­ withstanding the improved job market. Concrete steps were considered to flag this issue for university and college de­partments of history. The Committee considered a detailed outline for a new edition of the AHA’s Survival Manual for Historians, which began as a guidebook for women graduate students. It will recommend the project to the Profes­sional Division Committee.