The Urban History Newsletter

From the Executive Secretary

 Minutes of the Board Meeting:  Urban History Association

January 4, 2008

Omni Chairman’s Room

Washington, D.C.

 The meeting was called to order by presiding officer UHA President Arnold Hirsch at 9:30 a.m.  He offered a welcome to those attending.

 Membership secretary Brad Hunt then presented his membership report.  The UHA had 438 members as of September 30, 2007, up from 381 at that point in 2006. 

 Our renewals are somewhat behind last year’s levels at this point in the renewal cycle.  As of December 27, we have 202 memberships lapsing at the end of the year; last year at this time we had 149 yet to be renewed.  This might not be surprising given that renewal rates in the past have been low among those who joined at the UHA conference.

 However, even without the conference, we had many new members join in 2007 – roughly 81 members joined outside of the conference, mostly through our web site.  Their renewal rates will be telling, and I can report on this in April.  

 Hunt will be sending a USPS mailing to all non-renewed members on January 3.  At the end of January, an e-mail will go to non-renewing members.  At the end of February, a second USPS mailing will go to those still not renewed.  In April, he will distribute a list of non-renewing members to the board for follow up.

 Following the membership report, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Janet Bednarek presented the annual report:

Annual Report of Executive Secretary-Treasurer

Organizationally, probably the most important development during 2007 was the creation of an Executive Committee consisting of the president, president-elect and the immediate past president.  This committee was charged with examining the organization’s by-laws and recommending any changes, if needed.  The results of their deliberations (two by-law amendments) were forwarded to the board in advance of the annual meeting.  Assuming a quorum, the by-laws will be voted on at the annual meeting of the board in Washington, D.C. in January 2008.

 The financial situation continues to improve.  In addition to our checking account, we now have three additional specialized accounts:  Jackson Prize Fund Account; Life Membership Fund Account; and Conference Fund.  All grew during 2007.  The most recent details I have on each account (September 30, 2007, only quarterly statements are issued) indicate the following:

 Jackson Fund:  $14,303.21

Life Membership Account:  $4816.13

Conference Fund:  $6,275.55

 Our checking account balance as of December 14, 2007 (and should be the balance as of 30 December as no additional checks were written during 2007) was $26,684.90.  That is about $1000 less than at the end of 2006.  However, I had made deposits related to our annual dinner during December 2006.  I made no such deposits during December 2007.  This was primarily due to the fact that Brad Hunt set up a system by which people could make and pay for reservations on-line.  The vast majority of people making reservations for the dinner used this new system.  Only a handful of people made their reservations by check this year.  The monies in that paypal account will be transferred to our checking account in early 2008. 

 Brad has also collected monies for membership renewals and JUH subscriptions.  Those are also in a paypal account and will be transferred to our checking account in early 2008.

 Kenneth Jackson contacted me late in 2007 and said that he is continuing to raise money to fund the Jackson Prize.  On behalf of the UHA, I extended many thanks to him for his efforts.

 Finally, we continue to be successful in controlling some of our “fixed costs.”  Jeff Strickland, newsletter editor, has found ways to bring the newsletter costs down.  He is also presenting a proposal to switch to an electronic distribution of our newsletter at the annual board meeting.  Brad Hunt continues to use electronic communication with much of the membership during the annual renewal cycle.  These have saved us on mailing and printing costs.

 Planning for the 2008 conference has gone well.  The hotel has been reserved and the call for papers has been distributed.  A second round of electronic distribution of the CFP will happen in early 2008.  The CFP will also appear in the February issue of the SACRPH newsletter.

 The relationship between the Urban History Association and the Journal of Urban History had a few bumps over the last year, but eventually everything worked out.  Most of the trouble came due to turnover in personnel at SAGE.  That situation seems to have stabilized and we anticipate smoother operations during 2008. 

 Prize committees:  My thanks go to all those who served on the prize committees this year and special thanks to Alan Lessoff for putting together the committees.  (He has also generously offered to do so again in 2008).  We will need three committee this year:  Jackson Prize, Article Prize and Dissertation Prize.  If Alan does the same great job this year he did last, we should have the prize committees named by February and the announcements distributed shortly thereafter.

 Nominations committee:  The nomination committee this year included Ray Mohl (chair), Roger Lotchin, and Michael Katz.  My thanks to them for taking on this important task.

 An issue was raised, however, that might need some action in 2008.  Two voting members pointed out that all the nominees this year were Americanists.  They further pointed out that most of the board now consists of Americanists.  Returning members of the nominating committee will be Roger Lotchin and Michael Katz.  It might make sense to ask a non-Americanist to fill the third position on that committee. 

 Another issue involved notifying the membership of the nomination process.  In the past, calls for nominations had been included with the fall mailing (newsletter).  However, that timing has not worked in recent years.  I would suggest that we put the call for nominations (including self-nominations) in the March newsletter and on the website.  This will mean that the nominations committee will have to organize itself earlier than in the recent past, but I think it would be good in terms of helping identify potential board members.

 And speaking of the board, I want to thank those board members whose terms expire at the end of this meeting.  They are:  Michael Ebner/Lake Forest College (who will be our president-elect following this meeting) ; Arnold Hirsch/University of New Orleans (who will also be our immediate past president following this meeting), Alexander von Hoffman/Harvard University; A. Scott Henderson/Furman University; Alison Isenberg/Rutgers University; Becky Nicolaides/ University of California-San Diego; and  Dominic Pacyga/Columbia University.

 Thanks to Brad Hunt for his services as membership secretary.  He continues to experiment with ways to conduct more of the business of the organization electronically.  This year, as mentioned above, he initiated a process by which reservations and payments for the annual dinner could be handled electronically.  And he also provided means to conduct the annual voting electronically.  We are really lucky to have someone with his skills as part of our organizations.

 Thanks to Jeff Strickland for his services as the newsletter editor.  Jeff is currently enjoying a post-doc fellowship in Michigan.  He could have bowed out of his responsibility for the newsletter under those happy circumstances, but I am thankful that he did not. 

(End of report.)

 As the chair of the nominating committee was unable to attend the meeting, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Bednarek offered the results of the UHA election.  All candidates were elected as each received a clear majority of the votes cast.  The results were as follows:

 President:  Martin Melosi

President-Elect:  Michael Ebner

Board Members (terms to 2010):  Nancy H. Kwak, Louise Nelson Dyble, Robert Fairbanks, Matthew Lassiter, Komozi Woodard, Kevin Kruse, and Jordan Stanger-Ross.

 In old business, the board voted unanimously to continue UHA support ($350) to the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History.  It was suggested that the March newsletter include information on the nature and activities of the NCCPH.

 In new business, the board voted unanimously to accept two amendments to the organization’s bylaws.  The texts of the proposed amendments were distributed to the board members in advance of the meeting.  The first amendment concerned the amendment of the bylaws.  The existing bylaws stated that the board could amend the bylaws, but did not include procedures.  The amendment outlines the procedures for amendment of the bylaws.  The second amendment allows for the President to call for an electronic or otherwise written vote by board members on issues.  Under the existing bylaws, such votes could only take place at meetings of the board.  Now, if needed, the President can call for a written vote (submitted electronically or by mail).

 Board member Owen Gutfreund gave a short presentation on the session sponsored by the UHA at the upcoming OAH conference in New York City in March 2008.

 President-elect Martin Melosi gave a short presentation on the session, sponsored by the UHA, that has been proposed for the next AHA conference in New York City in January 2009.

 Melosi then offered some information on the upcoming Urban History Association Conference in Houston, TX, in November 2008.  He asked that Michael Katz and Joseph Heathcott keep in touch with him in regards to the special session on Hope VI public housing planned for the conference.  The call for papers went out in late October.  Bednarek reported that it will be posted again to H-Urban in January 2008 (and perhaps again in February).  It will also be published in the Society for American City and Regional Planning History’s February newsletter.  The conference fund has about $6000 in it.  Melosi said that he and other conference planners will discuss how to best use those and other funds to offer support to graduate students and foreign scholars to attend the conference. 

 In items from the floor, as mentioned above, Newsletter Editor Jeff Strickland again asked the board to consider moving to an electronic distribution of the newsletter.  The board decided to have the executive committee look at this issue and make a report at a future meeting.

 Also, questions were raised about on-line access to the Journal of Urban History. Were print subscribers eligible to gain on-line access?  Could individuals with subscriptions who did not have institutional affiliations receive access to the full-text archives?  Bednarek said that she would raise those questions with Sage and report back to the board.

 The meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.

 Respectively submitted,

Janet R. Daly Bednarek

Executive Secretary-Treasurer, UHA