News of the Organization

Fall 2003 OAH Executive Board Meeting, Boston

At its 2003 fall meeting at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel the OAH Executive Board took the following actions:

  • Approved the minutes of the 3-6 April 2003 Executive Board meeting in Memphis, TN, with one minor change.
  • Unanimously adopted a shortened version of the OAH Mission Statement (1998) that reads as follows:
    • The Organization of American Historians promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners of history.
  • Unanimously adopted the logo for the OAH that has been in use for the past two years as the official logo of the organization. (See masthead of the OAH Newsletter for example.)
  • Authorized Executive Director Lee Formwalt and President-Elect James Horton to discuss with the National Museum of American History the creation of a collaborative agreement between the two organizations, using the OAH and National Park Service cooperative agreement as a model.
  • Thanked the sixty OAH members who graciously gave of their time to deliver sixty-eight lectures from July 2002 through June 2003; and, especially, to Athan Theoharis who presented three OAH Distinguished Lectures, and to Stephen Aron, Richard Blackett, Tera W. Hunter, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Peter S. Onuf, and Susan Ware, who each gave an additional lecture during the last fiscal year.
  • Agreed to inform the membership about the increasing emphasis on “traditional history” by federal officials and others involved in the national conversation on history education and to encourage wider discussion about its ramifications. (See “From the OAH President.” )
  • Authorized the executive director to negotiate a contract with Palgrave Macmillan, Global Publishing at St. Martin’s Press to jointly produce an annual collection of best essays in American history, drawn from a variety of published sources (journals, magazines, etc.) and written with clear, lively prose that is accessible to a broad audience.
  • Accepted the Auditor’s Report for FY2003.
  • Authorized the president to appoint a committee to advise the treasurer on investments.
  • Designated the following locations for summer regional meetings: the Midwest for 2006, the Pacific Northwest or Canada for 2008, and Florida for 2010.
  • Adopted the following guidelines for presenters at OAH annual and regional meetings and directed that future annual meeting calls for papers should require applicants to explain in their proposals how they will address these guidelines:
  • The OAH Executive Board encourages presenters at meetings to break away from the conventional academic session format. The board recognizes the importance of engaging the audience in a compelling manner, and envisions future meetings that are more dynamic, innovative, and interactive. To that end, the board encourages individual session participants to present or teach their material rather than read their papers aloud. The board also encourages proposals for online sessions, roundtables, debates, poster sessions, visual and musical performances, workshops, films and other appropriate formats.
  • Voted unanimously to authorize the president to appoint a Centennial Planning Committee for the 2007 OAH Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, which will mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, precursor to the OAH.
  • Voted unanimously to restructure the Membership Committee so that it will consist of five members representing the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic; the South, the Midwest, and the West. These five members, who will choose a chair from among themselves, will be chosen by the various state chairs in their region. State chairs, appointed by the executive office on behalf of the president, will act as subcommittee members of the Membership Committee.
  • Based on a recommendation of the OAH Committee on the Status of Women, approved creation of a childcare assistance program for the OAH annual meeting, as outlined by the OAH staff, in which ten OAH members (men or women) preregistered for the meeting may apply for up to $200 of childcare/babysitting assistance. (See page A7.)
  • Voted to involve the OAH in the nomination process of the new National Portrait Gallery Paul Peck Presidential Awards. (See page 15.)
  • Voted to approve the proposal from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (IEHS) to jointly create, in memory of John Higham, a travel grant program for graduate student travel to the annual meeting, and voted to contribute $1,000 to the effort.
  • Adopted a policy on creating new prizes, awards, grants, and fellowships that will help strengthen those that already exist and limit the proliferation of smaller prizes, awards, grants, and fellowships.
  • Subsequent to the fall 2003 board meeting, the OAH Executive Board took the following actions electronically:
    • Voted to authorize the president to appoint an editor and editorial board for the best essays in history book project with Palgrave Macmillan, Global Publishing at St. Martin’s Press.
    • Voted to recommend to a Yale University graduate student and OAH member petitioner that she, not the board, present her resolution regarding the Yale administration and the Graduate Student Employee Organization to the Business Meeting of the OAH in Boston on March 28, 2004.