Annual Report of the Secretary-Treasurer

Eleven hundred and sixty people attended our annual meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas, this past November—an especially strong showing when we remember the prevailing wisdom that our attendance dips whenever we go west of the Mississippi River.

A number of factors contributed to the strong attendance. Anthony Kaye and his Program Committee did an outstanding job putting together an engaging and diverse set of panels. Among the best attended of the regular sessions were “Revisiting Reunion and Reconciliation,” “The Boundaries of Reconstruction,” and “Bad Credit: Capital, Com-modification, and Slavery in the Nineteenth Century”—underlining the point that the intertwined histories of Reconstruction, slavery, and capitalism are still running strong. (“Environmental History and the American South” was also quite popular.)

The Local Arrangements Committee, headed by John A. Kirk, had an important hand in the strength of the program as well. In addition to raising near-record funds for our opening reception, the committee helped put together many of the marquee events of the conference, including the roundtable “The Clintons in History,” convened at the Old State House; a session for teachers on teaching the Little Rock school crisis, convened at the historic Central High School; an entertaining and informative presentation called “The Bowie Knife, an Arkansas Tradition,” held at the book exhibit; and the conference kick-off event, the unveiling of Little Rock’s latest markers on its Civil Rights Heritage Trail, which was followed by a reception honoring some of the state’s leading civil rights luminaries. This event flowed beautifully into the opening plenary of the conference devoted to “Justice after the Civil Rights Movement” and set precisely the right tone for the meeting.

The organization also owes a large debt to Membership Committee chair Alecia P. Long and her team, who worked so diligently to ensure that our membership numbers remain steady. In keeping with long-term trends, membership was down a fraction of 1 percent this year, but it is hoped that the SHA’s new website and push on social media will place our organization and its goals in front of new audiences and potential members.

The Executive Council, meeting on Thursday afternoon ahead of the opening-night session, passed three motions. First, the Council agreed on a very modest increase in our conference registration fees. (Graduate fees will remain the same, at five dollars.) As a nonprofit organization, the SHA has always maintained an extremely small administrative footprint, passing those savings along to our members in the form of the lowest fees by far of any major historical organization. Unfortunately, the rising cost of everything associated with putting on a major conference has made it untenable for fees to remain the same. The small increase (the first in five years) will not only ensure that we do not bleed the principal of our operating endowment, but it will also allow us to invest in and run our own audiovisual equipment, which will free us from the hotel’s exorbitant charges and give more presenters access to technology.

Second, the Council voted to create an ad hoc committee on public history, which over the next year will meet to discuss (1) how the Association might have a greater impact on, and engagement with, the cities it visits; (2) how the SHA might field requests for expert historical advice and assistance from local, city, county, and state historical societies and agencies on issues of public memory; and (3) how the organization might support and spotlight relevant local public history initiatives.

Third, the Council voted to create a graduate student advisory board with the following responsibilities: (1) coordinating with the secretary-treasurer in the design and implementation of the SHA graduate student luncheon; (2) consulting with the secretary-treasurer’s office in the convening of the graduate student meet-and-greet during the annual meeting; (3) creating and implementing a graduate student poster session program at the annual meeting; and (4) drafting an annual report for the Executive Council. Nominations and self-nominations for the new board are being accepted through the SHA’s new website.

The SHA’s endowment account held...