Conducted via e-mail from June 25, 2014, to December 19, 2014, and at the Council Meeting on January 2 and 5, 2015.

Through e-mail conversation from June 25, 2014, to December 19, 2014, the Council of the American Historical Association made the following decisions or actions:

• Approved the nomination of John Martin (Duke Univ.) to serve on the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review.
• Issued a statement endorsing a bill proposed by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to expand student loan forgiveness to adjunct faculty.
• Issued a statement in support of the College Board’s revised framework for the Advanced Placement US history course.
• Appointed Peter Jelavich (Johns Hopkins Univ.) as AHA delegate to the Friends of the German Historical Institute. Jelavich will serve as chair for this three-year term.
• Approved a statement of support for the Council on Graduate Schools’ Resolution on Deadlines for Accepting Offers of Admission.
• Approved the AHA to be a petitioner in a suit brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to unseal the records of a 1942 grand jury proceeding concerning the US government’s investigation of the Chicago Tribune for publishing a story regarding the Japanese military’s plan to attack US forces at Midway in advance of the historic battle. The story appeared to be based on a leaked top-secret Navy dispatch.
• Agreed to cast the AHA’s vote to approve the National Coalition for History’s endorsement of the amended version of bill S.398 to create a commission to study the potential creation of a National Women’s History Museum.
• Approved a statement protesting the New York State Board of Regents’ proposed modification to the Regents Examinations allowing students to choose between Global History and Geography or US History and Government. The statement encouraged the Board of Regents to consider a method by which both Global History and Geography and US History and Government remain vital components of the curriculum and the Regent’s Exam.
• Approved a change to AHA Bylaws, Article IV, Section 3.c.ii, clarifying the make-up of the selection committee for the editor of the American Historical Review. The bylaws now reflect that the search committee consists of: “in the case of the editor of the American Historical Review: the vice-president for research, a current or past member of the Board of Editors or a past member of the AHA Research Division, and two faculty members nominated by the journal’s host department or university.”

At the meeting of the Council of the American Historical Association, held January 2 and 5, 2015, in New York, the Council made the following decisions or actions:

• Approved the June 2014 Council meeting minutes.
• Approved the June–December 2014 interim Council meeting minutes.
• Approved nominations from the Committee on Committees, which included the 2015 appointments to various AHA prize and other committees.
• Approved the appointments of Anand A. Yang (Univ. of Washington) and Edda L. Fields-Black (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) as the 2017 Program Committee chair and co-chair, respectively.
• Approved the selection of the 2015 Honorary Foreign Member (to be announced at a later date).
• Approved discussion time limits for the January 4, 2015, Business Meeting of the American Historical Association.
• Authorized AHA President Jan Goldstein to set time limits as the need arises at the January 4, 2015, Business Meeting of the American Historical Association.
• Approved the formation of an ad hoc Advisory Review committee to generate a list of AHA members willing and qualified to review state social science standards upon request.
• Approved the revised member taxonomy categories.
• Approved the creation of a treasurer position on the AHA Council. Changes to the bylaws with respect to this position can be found in Article IV, Sections 1–4.
• Approved the nomination of Chris McNickle as AHA treasurer, to serve for a term not to exceed five years.
• Approved revisions to sections 6E and 6G of the Annual Meeting Guidelines to expand the Program Committee by two additional members.
• Approved a revision to item 3.1 of the Annual Meeting Guidelines, “Allocation of Sessions,” authorizing the executive director to organize two sessions on timely issues as they arise.
• Approved AHA membership in Scholars at Risk, an advocacy organization that researches allegations from scholars whose academic freedom has been restricted.
• Authorized incoming president Vicki Ruiz to write a letter of concern to the National Endowment of the Humanities regarding the cancellation of foreign-based NEH summer seminars and institutes.
• Approved a reconstitution of the Two-Year College Task Force to evaluate and report on the AHA’s actions and activities regarding community colleges.
• Reviewed the 2014 Form 990 for the American Historical Association.
• Received the Fiscal Year 2013–14 Audit.
• Approved Alex Lichtenstein as interim editor of the American Historical Review for one year following Robert Schneider’s departure in July 2015.
• Approved the application for affiliation from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.