Building Toward Our 100th Anniversary

John Dichtl

The OAH continues to grow in size and range of ac tivities, and, hopefully, in responsiveness to the needs of historians. Membership has reached its highest level (8,700) in four years, ending a slight downward trend after the peak years of 1992-1995. The graduate student portion of membership (17 percent) also appears to be returning to the levels seen in the early to mid-1990s, while precollegiate teacher membership has almost doubled during the past decade to become 8.7 percent of membership.

Recognizing changes in OAH membership and the profession, the executive board has created a committee to review the OAH Constitution and Bylaws. Outgoing OAH Treasurer Gale Peterson (chair), Linda Shopes, and Frederick E. Hoxie will draft a proposed revision of the constitution and bylaws for the membership to consider in time for the organization's one-hundredth anniversary in 2007. Originally written in the 1960s, the constitution and bylaws was repeatedly amended, and was last approved in toto by the membership in November 1988. The constitution and bylaws has been modified more than thirty times since then. The committee will take into account these changes, the OAH's Mission Statement adopted in 1998, and the executive board's work on a new strategic plan for organization.

After its November 2002 business meeting, the executive board met for an additional two days to consider the evolution of the organization and to map out goals for the next five years. Board members discussed how the OAH can best fulfill its mission of promoting history teaching and scholarship at all levels and in all settings. They outlined a strategic plan, which is in draft form now and consists of four goals: 1) increase the OAH's connections with members and with broader audiences beyond the historical profession; 2) expand the OAH's leadership at all levels of history education; 3) make the OAH annual meeting a more innovative and interactive experience; and 4) strengthen the organization's financial standing to ensure the success of current and new programs.

The OAH office and board already are tackling the fourth goal by devoting more energy to development efforts. We hope to raise funds for current programs while laying a strong base for new activities that serve the OAH's mission, such as hiring staff to help coordinate the organization's growing number of K-16 history education projects and assist in enhancing the OAH web site. Some of you might have noticed descriptions in the past few months of the new charitable giving levels and bequest society in the OAH Newsletter, Journal of American History, and on the OAH web site. Responses have been very encouraging; the end-of-the-year campaign generated more than twice the funds than any previous year. In August, the office began contacting members about joining the new OAH Bequest Society in which individuals reserve a place in their estate plans for the organization, and this drive is off to a promising start as well. The Distinguished Lectureship program, another fundraising effort, has also grown this year. Already sixty-four lectures have been delivered or reserved, compared to forty-six for all of last year. We are grateful to the 156 historians who are on this year's lectureship list, to those who have given or will give lectures in 2002-2003, and to all who have made contributions or bequests to the OAH.

Thanks to a growing number of collaborative relationships with other historical and educational organizations, the OAH is reaching more precollegiate teachers. As reported in the November Newsletter, we are acting with several other groups on conferences, teaching publications, and other resources for teachers, in addition to establishing connections among precollegiate and college/university educators. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History recently provided OAH with $10,000 to fund fifty travel fellowships for teachers to attend the 2003 Annual Meeting in Memphis. Gilder Lehrman also is providing support for the OAH Magazine of History and the radio show Talking History. As Leah Arroyo outlines on page 13, the two organizations are discussing ways to further expand the growing number of History High Schools across the country. The OAH Executive Board also approved the continuation of an exchange of teaching publications for another year with the National Council for History Education (NCHE). In addition, the NCHE and nine other groups are cosponsors of the OAH-AHA-NCSS conference on K-16 teaching, "Innovations in Collaboration"(26-28 June 2003, in Alexandria, Virginia ). The printed program for this conference is now available and can be viewed online at <http://www.oah.org/teaching/innovate.html>.

Just around the corner (27-28 February) is the 2003 Richard D. McKinzie Symposium for precollegiate teachers at the University of Missouri Kansas City, where OAH President Ira Berlin will deliver the keynote address on the meeting's theme, "American Slavery in History and Memory,"to several hundred teachers from Missouri and nearby states. Incoming OAH President-elect James O. Horton and 2003 Program Cochair David Blight will join Berlin as plenary speakers and workshop leaders.

Our office is also expecting a large turnout of teachers at the 2003 Annual Meeting in Memphis. In addition to the Gilder Lehrman Travel Fellowships for teachers already mentioned, we are working with state curriculum coordinators in Tennessee and neighboring states to get the word out to educators who might not have heard of the OAH. Also, we are helping the Teaching American History Grant (TAHG) administrators at the U.S. Department of Education to create a miniconference in conjunction with the OAH annual meeting for approximately 300-500 TAHG program leaders from all over the country. We hope the proximity of that conference to the OAH's will encourage stronger ties among K-16 teachers faculty and historians.

A joint committee of the OAH and AHA has been hard at work on addressing problems faced by historians who teach part-time or as adjuncts. Last year the committee completed a survey of part-time and adjunct faculty that found, among other vivid details, that 75 percent earned less than $20,000 from teaching, 67 percent were employed in such a capacity because they were unable to find a full-time college or university position, many feel they face age discrimination, and less than 20 percent had access to health insurance, sick leave, or professional development funds. On average, part-time faculty are paid $2,855 per class. The Joint OAH-AHA Committee on Part-Time and Adjunct Employment has drafted a set of recommendations for history departments on counting, hiring, and compensating part-time faculty. (See Maxine N. Lurie's article on page 9.) Both the OAH Executive Board and the AHA Council are considering these recommendations.

Another area of collaboration, launched almost three years ago, continues to bear fruit. The History Cooperative began as an online publishing project of the OAH, AHA, National Academy Press, and the University of Illinois Press, but has grown beyond the JAH and the American Historical Review to include ten other journals. Labour/Le Travail (Canada) and Labour History (Australia) were the first journals from outside the United States to join the cooperative, and last month the Oregon Historical Quarterly became the first state journal. As the number of titles and back issues increases, the site traffic has grown dramatically since last summer, with well over 100,000 visitors per month and a peak of 168,000 last October.

With the help of strong collaborations and numerous OAH volunteers and contributors--the hundreds of lectureship speakers, committee and board members, annual meeting participants, and JAH, Magazine, and Newsletter authors--OAH will continue to accomplish remarkable things.