News of the Organization

Action Items of the OAH Executive Board

At its Spring 2008 meeting at the Hilton New York, March 27—March 30, the OAH Executive Board took the following actions:

• Approved unanimously the minutes of the fall executive board meeting in Newark, New Jersey, October 19—21, 2007.
• Approved unanimously to replace the current Bylaw 3 c 5 with: “OAH Magazine of History Editorial Board. This board shall advise the Editor of the OAH Magazine of History and shall have between nine and twelve members, who may serve terms of one, two, or three years. The Editorial Board shall be appointed by the Executive Board on recommendation of the Executive Director and the Editor in writing prior to the Executive Board meeting.”
• Approved Journal of American History Editor Edward T. Linenthal’s appointment recommendation of John Belohlavek, University of South Florida, for the Louis Pelzer Memorial Award Committee.
• Approved the following OAH Policy on the Selection of Prize Winners: “Although on occasion award committees will find it difficult to break a tie between the top two submissions, committees should do whatever is necessary to award one prize and avoid splitting the award between cowinners. The Executive Board, the Leadership Council, and the Executive Office are all working to enhance the prestige and value of OAH prizes and awards and have adopted a policy limiting the establishment of new awards to a minimum of $2,000.”
• Approved the adoption of the following policy concerning Memorials for Distinguished Members of OAH: “The Board, while wishing to honor distinguished members, recognizes that the growth of the profession and our own mortality means that the OAH is in danger of being overwhelmed by awards and prizes. We urge our members to think of other ways–scholarships, fellowships, and gifts–to commemorate deceased members. The Board reserves the final decision on the creation of prizes, but we also seek a fair and democratic way to propose such prizes. Every initiative for honoring distinguished members should come from OAH members, not from the Executive Board. Nominations should take the form of a letter to the Board from a memorial committee of at least twenty current OAH members and normally be sent within a year of the person’s death. The letter should suggest the form of the intended memorial and, if fundraising is involved, the mechanism for raising funds and the targeted amount. The OAH Board would, then, vote to accept or reject the nomination. In order to provide a timely reply, voting would usually be done by email.” The names of members who died the previous year will be read at the awards ceremony each year at the annual meeting.
• Approved the Recommendation of the Distinguished Service Award Committee that “after a period of five years from the end of their presidency, former presidents of the OAH be eligible for consideration as candidates for the Roy Rosenzweig OAH Distinguished Service Award.”
• Approved the FY 2009 budget with a 4.5 percent salary increase for professional staff.
• Approved the creation of six new executive board committees on Organization, Education, Profession, Publications, Public History, and Scholarship.

2008 OAH Election Results

OAH President: Pete Daniel, National Museum of American History; OAH President-Elect: Elaine Tyler May, University of Minnesota. OAH Executive Board: James Grossman, The Newberry Library, Theda Perdue, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and William Cronon, University of Wisconsin-Madison. OAH Nominating Board: Spencer Crew, George Mason University; Nancy MacLean, Northwestern University; and Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University. Total ballots cast: 756.

Revisions to the OAH Constitution in 2007 allow for the creation of a new office of OAH Vice President, who shall become OAH President-Elect at the end of his/her term. (For more information, see the May 2007 OAH Newsletter, "Proposed Revisions to OAH Constitution", p 14. Online: < http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2007may/ revisions.html>.) The OAH Vice President serves two years on the executive board before becoming president, and two years after serving as president. The OAH Nominating Board selected David Hollinger, University of California Berkeley, as vice president for 2008-2009 and Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University, as vice president for 2009-2010. Hollinger will serve as president in 2010-2011 and Kessler-Harris will be president in 2011-2012. 

OAH Revisits Strategic Plan

The Organization of American Historians' current Strategic Plan (available at <http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2003may/strategicplan.html>) was developed in 2002 to guide the association through 2008. Accordingly, last year, then OAH president Nell Irvin Painter appointed a subcommittee of the executive board to develop a new five-year plan. The committee is chaired by president Pete Daniel; and includes Linda Shopes as cochair, David Trask, and president-elect Elaine Tyler May. They are joined by retiring board member and incoming OAH Vice President Alice Kessler-Harris, Journal of American History Associate Editor Stephen Andrews, and Leadership Advisory Committee Cochair Jay Goodgold.

The Strategic Planning Committee welcomes ideas and suggestions from all OAH members on matters broadly related to directions they would like to see the organization move towards in the next five years. It solicited input from OAH committees at the recent annual meeting and is planning a survey and other means of communicating with the membership in coming months. It hopes to complete its work by Fall 2009.  Comments can be directed to any of the committee members or to Linda Shopes at <lshopes at aol dot com>. Periodic updates on the planning process will also appear in the OAH Newsletter.

OAH Members Receive Honors

2008 Guggenheim Fellowships

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. The 2008 Guggenheim Fellows include OAH Distinguished Lecturers Leon Fink, University of Illinois at Chicago; Woody Holton, University of Richmond, and Joanne Meyerowitz, Yale University as well as OAH member Daniel Horowitz.

American Antiquarian Society

The OAH congratulates the following members who have been elected to the American Antiquarian Society: Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University; Saul Cornell, The Ohio State University; Timothy Gilfoyle, Loyola University; Harvey Green, Northeastern University; William Hart, Middlebury College; David Jaffee, The City College of New York, CUNY; Stephen Mihm, University of Georgia; and Shane White, University of Sydney.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The following OAH members will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October: Nancy F. Cott, Harvard University; Earl Lewis, Emory University; and Daniel Rodgers, Princeton University.