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WHA Business Meeting

October 13, 2006


      THE 2006 MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER 5:10 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Union Station.  
      The minutes were approved without changes or corrections.  
      Executive Director, Kevin Fernlund, addressed the organization announcing the changes to the Western History Association's office this year. The official change over from UNM to UMSL was July 1, 2006 and the office has been completely transferred. The WHA banking and investment assets have all been moved to St. Louis. Originally, the bank account was established with Pioneer Bank which, shortly thereafter, was acquired by National City Bank. All insurances have been transferred from New Mexico to St. Louis and we were officially bonded as of October 1st. The new website (www.westernhistoryassociation.org) was operational as of July 1st. There have been few changes made to it. However, members may now join or renew their memberships as well as register for the annual meetings online. This is a major new service the association offers its membership and the office hopes to expand this service to include non-U. S. members. The office does plan to modify the look of the website. Last, but not least, the office has secured the accounting services of Humes & Barrington, a St. Louis firm.  
      Dr. Fernlund then announced that the 2008 or 48th Annual Meeting of the WHA will be held in Salt Lake City. Contracts have been signed with the Salt Lake City Marriott Convention Center Hotel and with the nearby 23rd Floor Event Center. Chairs have been appointed for the Local Arrangements and Program Committees for 2008.  
      Dr. Fernlund mentioned that since the move, he has had an opportunity to meet with David Rich Lewis at the Western Historical Quarterly and with Molly Holz at Montana: The Magazine of Western History. It was a pleasure to meet with these editors and their staffs, and the WHA Office looks forward to continuing the long-established relationships with both of these publications.  
      The St. Louis office was responsible for this year's program, which some members have yet to receive. The program was completed and sent to a mailing distribution center before the end of August. It was after this point we discovered problems with the bulk mailing situation. The WHA experienced a similar problem last year. The Council has approved Kevin to research all available options for making sure the program reaches the membership in a more timely fashion and Kevin will report back to the Council at the Spring meeting. The St. Louis office also issued the Fall Newsletter, which was mailed with the Program. The Newsletter contained the ballot information for the 2006 elections and Anne Hyde will report on this situation shortly.  
      The St. Louis Mercantile Library has signed an agreement in which the library will house the papers of the Western History Association on a permanent basis. All existing archival information was turned over to the Mercantile Library and Erin O'Malley, a UMSL Museum Studies graduate student, is currently working on a finding aid for the WHA collection. The association's records were delivered to the St. Louis office from Albuquerque in excellent condition. This process should move forward quickly.  
      Nominating Committee: Anne Hyde announced that since many members had not yet received their copy of the newsletter and thus had not received their ballot, the committee would extend the voting period to November 15th. Anne Hyde encouraged all members to vote and said that she would issue a report via H-West November 15th. The results will also be posted on the WHA website.  
      David Wrobel asked if the ballot available online would be accepted if printed and mailed? Anne Hyde said, yes, the online ballot would be acceptable if received by the WHA office by the November 15th deadline.  
      Dr. Fernlund read the list of deceased members who passed away during the past year: Sam Arnold, Valeen Tippetts Avery, William H. Leckie, Vine Deloria, Jr., James C. Olson, Sarah Erwin, B. Gene Ramsey, Henry Fritz, James A. Rawley, C. Robert (Bob) Haywood, Walter S. Rosenberry III, Jack Jackson, Homer Edward Socolofsky, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., Robert Jerome Younger.  
      Membership Committee: David Wrobel reviewed the membership survey which was sent to over 1,700 members. He remarked on the high, 44 percent rate of return. The survey included over 1,000 pages of data and the analysis is now available online at the WHA website. Dr. Wrobel thanked those involved with the survey, including David Rich Lewis at the WHQ and Jonathan Foster, a graduate student at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, who organized the data.  
      Financial Advisory Report: Marvin Kaiser reported on the period June 30, 2005–June 30, 2006, noting that during this time the association experienced an $8,000 growth. There was a loss of revenue, however, from the Scottsdale meeting and $15,000 was withdrawn from the investment account.  
      From June 30 to August 31st of this year, there was in increase in the market which provided a significant gain in those two months.  
      In general, there was steady growth in the endowment accounts due to the prudence of the previous Executive Director. Mr. Kaiser congratulated Dr. Paul Hutton for his financial management.  
   

Publishers
Western Historical Quarterly

 
      David Rich Lewis was pleased to report the WHQ continues to publish on time and on budget. This year was a productive year. WHQ contributing authors received many awards during 2005/2006. David Lewis acknowledges Utah State for their support to the WHQ, including $150,000 front end costs and salaries, with an additional $300,000 plus in benefits, office space, and supplies. WHQ is online at the History Cooperative, with issues up to 2001 on JSTOR. Next year the WHQ will be a part of EBSCO.  
   

Montana The Magazine of Western History

 
      Molly Holz reported things are running smoothly at the magazine. There was a 10,300 magazine print run and she thanked the twenty-one members of the Editorial Board. Molly also thanked Kevin Fernlund for his recent visit to Helena. The magazine added several redesigns during the past year, including a larger type set. The magazine also published more historical commentary and Molly welcomed ideas. Montana articles also appeared in some syndicated services this year. There was a contest for best student essays to communicate with younger scholars. The magazine received eighteen submissions. There were 124 articles submitted of which half were social history. There are over 100 active manuscripts. Molly Holz said the magazine has submitted an application to JSTOR but has not received a reply as of this meeting.  
   

Conventions:

 
      Dr. Fernlund acknowledges the quality of this year's program and welcomed the presence of the Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. At this time, approximately 748 attendees have registered but this number is incomplete.  
      David Wrobel acknowledged this year's Program Chairs, Annette Atkins and Marc Rodriquez, and congratulated them both on a job well done.  
      The St. Louis Local Arrangements Co-Chairs Carlos Schwantes and John Hoover were acknowledged for their efforts in planning the lovely reception at the Mercantile Library and the local tours.  
      Charles Rankin, Oklahoma City Co-Chair, announced that the three Co-Chairs, Albert Hurtado, John Marshall, and Charles Rankin, have put together a traditional program schedule. The opening reception is scheduled for Wednesday at the new Oklahoma History Center, with a Thursday evening visit to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Some tours may include the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the Fort Sill Historic Landmark & Museum, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial, with a possible walking tour led by Bob Blackburn. The Conference hotel is the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel, with additional rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott.  
      Thirty-six session proposals have been received, and fifty-five papers. Oklahoma City program innovations include: (1) Honor a Senior Scholar; (2) Native Historians' College Session (added on a regular basis); and (3) Pairing Junior Scholars and Senior Scholars (three applicants).  
   

Salt Lake 2008 Conference:

 
      Virginia Scharff, the President-Elect, announced that Gregory Thompson and Brian Cannon will co-chair the Local Arrangements Committee and Pablo Mitchell and Karen Merrill will be leading the Program Committee.  
   

Old Business:

 
      The Constitutional Amendment to revise Article V, Section I, to expand the Council was passed by a majority vote.  
      The Council discussed changing the Nominating Committee's two-year terms to three-year terms and will discuss the matter further at the Spring Meeting.  
      Louis Warren's proposal of October 15th, 2005, meeting was passed and discussed. The proposal suggests a change in the annual banquet to a mega-reception. President Walter Nugent reported that such a change will alter the negotiating ability of the Executive Director at hotels as the contracts usually state a food and beverage minimum expenditure as part of the contract. We are already locked into the contract for 2007 but have some flexibility under the 2008 contracts.  
      David Edmunds announced that his idea for the 2007 banquet was to contract with the Native American Women's Club of Tulsa for the guest speaker. These women perform a thirty-minute presentation on the history of Native American women's clothing.  
      Virginia Scharff announced she is sympathetic to the membership and would research the feasibility of such a reception in Salt Lake in 2008.  
      The membership agreed there are two different issues regarding such a change: the first is expense and the second is the speaker. President Nugent suggested his preference was to leave the idea to the council to discuss further.  
      Discussion from the membership included the idea that local arrangements could be charged with contracting local entertainment for a reception. It was pointed out that this idea has been tried but the membership's idea of entertainment is too diverse.  
      It was suggested that two ticketed events in one day is too much and that perhaps the President's role should include being speaker at the annual banquet.  
      The decision was to allow the council to investigate the feasibility of a mega-reception vs. annual banquet and the results will be discussed at the next meeting.  
      There was no new business.  
      Meeting was adjourned.  
      The Western Historical Quarterly extends special thanks to the following people for serving as referees of manuscripts from 1 July 2005–30 June 2006:

  
      David W. Adams, David Arnold, Brad Asher, Steven Bachelor, Alwyn Barr, Hal S. Barron, Katherine Benton-Cohen, John Bodnar, John P. Bowes, Kathleen Brosnan, Roberto R. Calderon, Sue Fawn Chung, Nancy Cook, Thomas W. Cowger, Geoffrey Cunfer, Susan M. Deeds, Leah Dilworth, Brian W. Dippie, Kevin J. Fernlund, Chris Friday, Dee Garceau-Hagen, Andrea Geiger, Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Emily Greenwald, Steven W. Hackel, Peter Hansen, Gretchen Harvey, John Herron, Carol L. Higham, Paivi Höikkala, Cindy I-Fen Cheng, Robert W. Keller, Martha Knack, Jason Krupar, Erika Lee, Susan Lobo, Thomas J. Lyon, John D. Márquez, Kevin Marsh, Ronald T. McCoy, Clyde A. Milner II, Eric J. Morser, Roger L. Nichols, Jim Norris, Jeffrey Powers-Beck, John Putman, Benjamin Rader, Catherine S. Ramírez, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Zac Robinson, Hal K. Rothman, Robert W. Rydell, James Smallwood, Duane Smith, Stephen Tatum, Coll Thrush, Daniel H. Usner, Christopher Waldrep, John C. Walsh, Kathleen Weiler, Elliott West, John S. Whitehead, H. Mark Wild, Suzanne Zeller  

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ISSN 1939-8603

 



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