The AHA is now accepting proposals for the 2017 annual meeting, which will take place January 5–8, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. The Program Committee seeks submissions on the histories of all places, periods, and topics and on the uses of history in a wide variety of venues.

Proposals for the 131st annual meeting must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. PST, February 15, 2016. See the proposal page on the AHA website for details: http://bit.ly/1njyltx.

Think of your proposal like a grant application. Your abstract should explain why your proposal is important, what kind of conversation you hope to provoke, and how the presentations fit together to serve that goal.

Some tips for a successful proposal:

• The 2017 meeting will move to 90-minute sessions. To accommodate this change, most sessions will be limited to four speakers plus a chair. (Remember, all historians from the United States presenting at the annual meeting must be AHA members.)
• Be creative! We invite proposals for sessions in a variety of formats and encourage lively interaction among presenters and with the audience.
• While the annual meeting has a theme, the Program Committee does not consider proposals’ relation to the theme when evaluating them.
• Think of your proposal like a grant proposal. Not everyone reading it will be a specialist in your field. Your abstract should explain why your proposal is important, what kind of conversation you hope to provoke, and how the presentations fit together to serve that goal.
• A good chair moderates the discussion and stimulates conversation during the question-and-answer part of the session. Contrary to popular belief, the Program Committee does not favor proposals with well-known chairs.
• Consider proposing a poster. With creative thinking, any topic can be presented at the poster session. The key is to craft a proposal that explains how you will take advantage of the format.

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