News of the Organization

Actions of the Fall 2007 OAH Executive Board Meeting

Action Items of the OAH Executive Board

The following actions were taken by email by the executive board subsequent to its spring 2007 meeting:

• By email on April 14, 2007, the executive board did not approve the University of Missouri Kansas City's request for OAH to: 

  1. sponsor Talking History
  2. issue a letter of non-tangible support
  3. nominate three people to serve on an advisory board

• By email on June 9, 2007, the executive board voted to approve the selection of Crowe Chizek and Company LLC of Indianapolis as the new auditor for OAH.

• By email on July 18, 2007, the executive board approved the following three actions:

  1. the cutting of $196,415 in expenses from the FY 2008 Annual Budget
  2. the hiring of  Financial Consultant Tim Murphy of Nonprofit Financial Solutions as a part-time CFO at a cost of $29,000 for the balance of the fiscal year, plus costs not now known of new software and its implementation
  3. the hiring of a permanent accountant to replace Sheri Sherrill, in accordance with IU policies and salaries, to be supervised by a search committee consisting of Lee Formwalt (executive director), Tim Murphy (part-time CFO), Phillip Guerty (assistant executive director), Michael Regoli (director of publications and CTO), Ginger Foutz (membership director) and Nancy Croker (JAH production manager).

• By email on July 28, 2007, the executive board accepted the invitation of the National Council on Public History (NCPH) to join them and the AHA in creating a joint Working Group on Evaluating Public History Scholarship.

• By email on September 5, 2007, the executive board approved the following bylaw changes that it had made in Minneapolis on March 28, 2007:

• The time for the annual meeting was expanded to between March 1 and May 15.

• A Committee on Committees was created, to be appointed by the president-elect, which will make appointments to the OAH service and award committees, subject to the approval of the executive board.

• Additional duties of the executive director and the editor of the Journal of American History have been included in the bylaws.

• Service Committees will report to committees of the executive board created under Article VI of the constitution. 

• The treasurer was made a voting member of the finance committee.

• The executive director and the Journal of American History editor were made nonvoting members of the executive board.

• The OAH Magazine of History Advisory Board will consist of five to ten appointed members. 

• The teaching committee will be composed of five to seven members.

• The Joint OAH/American Historical Association (AHA) Committee on Part-Time and Adjunct Employment is now included in the bylaws.

• The Lawrence W. Levine Award Committee was established in order to select the best book annually in American cultural history.

For the revised constitution and bylaws, visit: <http://www.oah.org/about/constitution.html>

• By email on September 14, 2007, the executive board selected the recipient of the 2008 OAH Friend of History Award who will be announced at the annual meeting in New York on March 29, 2008.

Fall 2007 Action Items of the
OAH Executive Board

At its 2007 fall meeting in Newark, New Jersey, the OAH Executive Board took the following actions:

• Approved the minutes from the March 29-April 1, 2007 executive board meeting in Minneapolis as well as the minutes of actions taken subsequent to the meeting.

• Selected the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award who will be announced at the annual meeting in New York on March 29, 2008.

• Thanked ninety-one OAH members who graciously gave their time to deliver more than one hundred OAH Distinguished lectures from July 2006 through June 2007; and especially Raymond O. Arsenault, Thomas Bender, Elizabeth K. Borgwardt, Roger Daniels, Alan Dawley, John E. Ferling, Paul Finkelman, Woody Holton, Heather Huyck, Gregory H. Nobles, Athan Theoharis, and Laurel T. Ulrich who delivered more than one lecture.

• Adopted an OAH Staff Credit Card Policy.

• Approved a proposal from Bedford/St. Martins for a book of historiographical essays based on the April 2006 Centennial issue of the OAH Magazine of History.

• Approved Journal of American History Editor Edward T. Linenthal's recommendation for appointment of the following to the Journal of American History Editorial Board: Paul Boyer, Dylan Penningroth, Alison Games, and Dee Andrews.

• Adopted the American Historical Association's Statement on Professional Conduct.

• Approved an OAH Conflicts of Interest Policy for executive board members and staff.

• Thanked new OAH CFO Tim Murphy for his report on the transition of the OAH business office including: the hiring of business manager Scott Dobereiner, preparing for the 2007 audit, implementing new accounting software, evaluating and improving the use of the NOAH membership software, developing cash flow forecasts, and producing monthly financial statements with the new system and software.

• Recognized the deep loss to the American history profession caused by the death of Roy Rosenzweig and approved naming the OAH Distinguished Service Award, the OAH Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award.

• Appointed an ad hoc committee to establish a process for honoring certain distinguished members of the profession.