From the OAH President

Planning Takes Center Stage

Elaine Tyler May

The annual conference in Seattle was a great success, reminding us that the OAH is thriving in the midst of challenging times. In spite of the dismal economy and the remoteness of the Pacific Northwest for many of our members who had to travel great distances to get there, attendance was better than expected. The rich program included many lively sessions, and Seattle was abuzz with historians meeting, greeting, and reconnecting in a beautiful and interesting city. Even the weather was good to us, providing a good bit of sunshine and blue skies that revealed stunning snow-covered mountains, along with Seattle’s famous gentle rain.

Our organization is in the midst of major transitions. After ten years as executive director, Lee Formwalt will be leaving this summer. Lee guided the OAH through some very difficult times, including the relocation of two of our conferences, as well as some exciting times as we began to build the “big tent” to include a broader membership of history professionals in a wide range of fields. I want to take this opportunity to thank Lee for his leadership and for his enormous help to me as I came on board and learned the ins and outs of the OAH operation.

Other transitions reflect the broader changes in the nation and the world. There is no escaping the impact of the economic crisis. We need to think long and hard about ways to keep the OAH strong and vital with fewer resources. But there are opportunities as well. The new administration in Washington is friendly to our enterprise. Already we have seen the lifting of restrictions that will allow freer access and more transparency to official records. We will soon have a new Archivist of the United States. Education is high on the national agenda. These initiatives will support our professional efforts in research, teaching, and academic as well as public history.

The digital revolution also presents us with great opportunities, as Pete Daniel articulated in his last OAH Newsletter column. We do not yet know where this revolution will take us, but it extends beyond our own website and internet presence into the world of book and journal publishing, teaching, and research. Stay tuned.

With so many changes taking place in our profession and our world, we have embarked on a new strategic plan that is currently in the works. Linda Shopes and Pete Daniel are cochairing the committee, supported by the expert assistance of OAH staff member Michael Regoli. The draft of the strategic plan presented to the executive board at its March meeting outlined six broad goals:

• to sustain and strengthen the production and dissemination of historical scholarship
• to create a larger and more inclusive OAH
• to broaden and deepen the OAH’s commitment to outstanding instruction in American history
• to meet the challenge of the revolution in information technology
• to communicate the OAH’s missions, programs, and achievements to the profession and a larger public
• to create an integrated, sustainable, and efficient organization for the twenty-first century.

At our meeting in Seattle we had a lively session on the strategic plan, where many of you came and offered your ideas and suggestions.

As part of the planning process, David Trask and Stephen Andrews put together a survey of the members. Nearly one thousand of our members responded to the survey. Below, I will share some of the preliminary findings that came out of the survey. A more detailed summary will appear in the August OAH Newsletter.

In response to the question, “Why did you join the OAH?” the two top responses were “To be part of a community of historians” (seventy-six percent) and “To receive the Journal of American History” (seventy-three percent). Respondents rated “support of historical study and research” and the JAH as “very important” to their continued membership, along with support for teaching, public history, and the annual meeting. These findings indicate that our members value the core activities of the organization.

Reflecting the broadening base of our membership, fifty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as four-year college or university faculty, and forty-three percent identified themselves as historians working in other settings, such as public historians, community college professors and precollegiate teachers, editors and others in the publishing industry, and independent scholars. These numbers reflect the ongoing efforts to bring diverse constituencies into the “big tent” of the OAH.

We also learned there is more we can do to improve the OAH’s digital presence and use of electronic media. Only sixty-eight percent of those who responded to the survey use the OAH website more than once a semester, while thirty percent use it at least once a month. We are exploring ways to make more use of the digital possibilities available to the OAH, and we welcome any suggestions from our members on how we might advance these efforts.

When asked what they most valued about being a historian, the wide-ranging responses clustered into three general areas: the personal satisfactions derived from the study of history, the comradeship of a shared professional endeavor, and a sense of reward when working with the general public such as teaching or informing public opinion. In response to the question about the role of professional organizations in their work as a historian, the overwhelming majority, eighty-one percent, stated that they were vital for keeping up to date on scholarship, having access to the latest research via meetings and publications, and for providing settings for networking. Seventy percent of respondents said that the OAH met their expectations for a professional organization. There was overall support for expanding the base of the OAH to include a more diverse membership.

The strategic planning committee will continue its work over the next several months and will present its plan to the OAH Executive Board for approval in November. We encourage all of you to participate in this process by bringing your ideas to the attention of the committee. Please send any ideas and suggestions to <strategic at oah dot org>.

I wish to thank Linda Shopes, Pete Daniel, David Trask, Stephen Andrews, Michael Regoli, and all the members of the committee for their hard work.