American Association for the History of Medicine: Report of the Eighty-Sixth Annual Meeting

The eighty-sixth annual meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine was held in Atlanta, Georgia, May 16–19, 2013, at the Emory Conference Center Hotel. The following summary has been prepared by Jodi L. Koste and is intended for the information of the members of the association. The official minutes and reports are preserved in the Office of the Secretary. The final meeting program, featuring the titles of the papers and names of all presenters, may be found on the AAHM website at http://www.histmed.org/atlantameeting.html.

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Council of the American Association for the History of Medicine, Inc

May 16, 2013

A regular meeting of the council of the AAHM was called to order by President Nancy Tomes at 1:05 p.m. in the Hickory Meeting Room of the Emory Conference Center Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. All members of the council were present except Julie Fairman, Wendy Kline, and Elizabeth Watkins. Lisa Bob, council class of 2016, was welcomed as an observer.

The council reviewed and approved the minutes of the meeting held April 26, 2012, as published in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 86, No. 3, 2012, 424–62. The council reviewed, discussed, and accepted the following reports of the secretary, treasurer, and the association’s standing and ad hoc committees.

Report of the Secretary (Jodi Koste)

The Office of the Secretary has handled many issues related to membership, annual meeting planning, and the general operation of the association in the last year. Various groups of the officers held periodic conference calls to address the pressing concerns of the association.

Virtual AAHM Council Meeting: On October 4, 2012, the AAHM Council attempted its first virtual meeting. We initially tried to convene using Adobe Connect, a commercial conferencing software for the web. The feedback and extraneous noise on the line drove us to continue by conventional conference call. Council should explore other options for holding virtual meetings so that it may address issues of concern in the period between annual meetings. During the October virtual meeting the council discussed plans for the Ad Hoc Membership Committee, the status of the endowment campaign, and the strategy for securing CME for the 2013 annual meeting. Council formally accepted the invitation from the Program in the History of Medicine at the University of Minnesota to host the 2016 meeting in Minneapolis. Council approved a recommendation from the Annual Meeting Committee to offer additional discounted registration rates for AAHM student members.

Membership: In spite of our close contact and work with our membership fulfillment provider, Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP), we had another less-than-successful membership renewal campaign. The staff at JHUP failed to issue the written and electronic reminders according to our schedule and specifications. When the new membership year began on January 1, 2013, there were 352 fewer members on the active roster, resulting in a 33% loss of the 2012 membership during the renewal process. As late as March 15, 2013, fewer than fifty had rejoined. By the end of April 2013 membership had increased to 960, just twenty-three members short of the April 2012 figure of 983. Membership as of the end of April 2013 was 960. This includes 131 student members, 824 members from the United States, and 136 members from outside of the United States. Students have comprised from 12% to 14% of the membership in the last two years. We will continue to work with JHUP to improve the renewal process and look to the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Membership Committee to both sustain and enhance our membership.

CME: In 2012 council voted to reinstate the Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Medical Education. Over the last year this group, the AAHM Officers, members of the Local Arrangements Committee, and others helped to address the issue of securing CME credit for the 2013 annual meeting. Under the leadership of AAHM President Nancy Tomes and with the assistance of Jacalyn Duffin, Bruce Fye, Howard Kushner, and [End Page 437...