American Association for the History of Medicine: Report of the Ninety-Third Annual Meeting

The American Association for the History of Medicine was scheduled to meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 7–10, 2020. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic the officers, council, and 2020 Local Arrangements Committee cancelled the meeting on March 13, 2020. A virtual AAHM Council meeting and the annual business meeting were held on May 7 and May 9, respectively. 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 the names of all the presenters, may be found on the AAHM website at https://histmed.org/meetings.html.

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

May 7, 2020

The regular annual meeting of the AAHM Council was held via Zoom and called to order by President Susan Lederer at 1:00 p.m. All officers and council members were present. Council approved the minutes of the 2019 meeting as published in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 93, No. 3, pp. 401–445. Council reviewed, discussed, and accepted the reports of the secretary, treasurer, and the association's standing and ad hoc committees. Council discussed and passed motions on the issues summarized on p. 493–94.

Report of the Secretary

The Office of the Secretary remains actively involved in communication with members, students, and the general public. During the past year, the AAHM official email distribution list was moved to a server at Virginia Commonwealth University in the hopes of improving the receipt of communications from the association. The moderated list with a no-reply to the list option is utilized only to inform members of AAHM business. All other notices, announcements, calls for papers, awards, grants, and fellowships are directed to the website blog and/or the Facebook page. The association migrated its website to a secure server in early 2020 (https://histmed.org). After more than two years of negotiations with the Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP), the association's membership services provider and our web services host, AAHM now has a portal available for members-only content. In the coming year, we hope to make this a more robust section of the website for the benefit of the membership.

Council held a virtual meeting on September 11, 2019, where it approved a by-law change to create a standing committee on diversity and inclusion. The membership will vote on the change at the annual meeting. Council also authorized the secretary to secure a credit card for the association. In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain goods and services without having the ability to pay at the time of purchase. Council discussed the merits of a proposed clinically oriented publication with a focus on history brought forward by council member Justin Barr. The group raised numerous questions and requested feedback from the AAHM Publications Committee. Council made no firm commitment but agreed to continue exploring the issue. Council continued its future planning by holding a lengthy discussion about the annual meeting programs. A number of ideas were generated during the discussion and will be shared with future program committees.

In the fall, council formally accepted the invitation from Clarkson University to hold the 2022 annual meeting in Saratoga Springs. The association secured contracts at the Saratoga Hilton and the adjoining Saratoga Springs City Center in the Broadway historical district. Council accepted the invitation of the University of Kansas, following the endorsement of the Annual Meeting Committee, to hold the 2023 annual meeting in Kansas City. AAHM continues to benefit from its association with the Chesapeake Health Education Center (CHEP) and our meeting planner, Carly Spiewak.

On March 13, 2020, the officers, council, and the Ann Arbor Local Arrangements Committee made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 annual meeting because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There had been considerable deliberations about the fate of...