Hail and Farewell

The assistance I received from the editorial board of the JER made my first months as editor infinitely easier. Their experience and guidance have been invaluable, while their willingness, even eagerness, to take on a heavier load of editorial chores is yet another example of just what a remarkable community we have in SHEAR. In the past year, board members have been more actively involved in the solicitation of manuscripts, taking time during their attendance at scholarly meetings, seminars, and symposia to identify the best scholarship in the early republic and recruit it for the JER. Moreover, they cheerfully acceded to my request that an editorial board member serve as one of the three reviewers for every manuscript under consideration. I wanted this editorial board review to function more as an in-house assessment/cross-check by an informed early republic scholar familiar with the JER rather than as a specialist reading (my idea here was to try and replicate the sort of exchange Mike and John engaged in as co-editors), and even after doing the quick math—ca. 50 manuscripts per annum divided by 14 board member means that they agreed to read 3-4 manuscripts each per year—there was no demur. In some journals, membership on the editorial board can be little more than the honorific posting of a name on the masthead, but nae here. So, from the editorial office, a resounding and heartfelt thank you to Dan Cohen, Ron Formisano, Mary Kelley, Gary Kornblith, Scott Martin, Joanne Pope Melish, and Tamara Thornton, whose terms just expired, to Dan Dupre, Graham Hodges, Dan Howe, Cathy Kelly, Cathy Matson, Peter Onuf, and Peter Knupfer (ex officio), whose terms continue, and to Richard Blackett, John Brooke, David Hancock, Dallett Hemphill, Dan Littlefield, Andrew O'Shaughnessy, and Nancy Shoemaker, who needed little persuasion (I didn't even mention my Lochgelly tawse) to come aboard the board.

Friends of SHEAR

The switch to Penn Press and ViaSubscription created problems with the Sustaining Member category that adversely affected enrollment and hence revenue to SHEAR. The 2004 cohort of Sustaining Members declined by about one-third from the previous year. To clear up any lingering confusion, and to separate additional support for SHEAR from the annual membership/subscription dues payable through ViaSubscription, we have decided to replace Sustaining Membership with a new category—Friends of SHEAR.

Here's how to become a Friend of SHEAR:

1. continue to subscribe to the journal through ViaSubscription at the appropriate income-indexed rate; and
2. remit a separate check for $50 (or more, yes, by all means, more) made out to SHEAR and with "Friends of SHEAR" on the memo line, to Amy Baxter-Bellamy, Executive Coordinator, SHEAR, 3619 Locust Walk, 3^rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6213.

Yes, it will require you to make two payments and any fundraisers worth their salt will tell you that's a bad idea, but what the heck, we're SHEAR; when have we ever been conventional (quoth the editor, glancing reverentially at his framed photographs of Larson, Morrison, and the ugly-tied Amigos)? So, how many Friends are out there? I, for one, would like to think we have more Friends than we have Sustaining Members. Please prove me right. We can use all the support you can provide. And, as you probably know, any such gifts to SHEAR are tax-deductible as charitable contributions. The Friends of SHEAR will be acknowledged each year in the JER's winter issue—get on the roll.