President's Corner
Lu Ann de Cunzo
Spring 2008
As I begin my 30th year as an SHA member, I feel extremely fortunate to serve as president at this moment in the society’s history. We have a strong and stable foundation— of people, programs, services, and, increasingly, resources—and are poised for future growth. As archaeologists do, I have looked back as I think ahead, to SHA’s many accomplishments over the past three decades, and the changes in our society and our profession.
Three phenomena within historical archaeology are shaping our future: 1) our acknowledgment of the global nature of our practice as the archaeology of the modern world and of the recent past; 2) changes in the relationships between scholars and publics, as we rethink the nature of archaeological authority, and begin to embrace collaborative research; and 3) technological innovations that are transforming our means of communication and interaction, including Web 2.0 on the immediate horizon and unimagined other virtual realities in the years to come.
In the past 30 years, SHA has grown in the number and diversity of our members, programs, services, and resources. We have struggled through the changes in organizational structure necessary to accommodate this growth and to allow for more—these changes are not now, and never will be, complete. Throughout this time, SHA has been central to my professional growth, and provided memories I treasure. This is what SHA has offered us all and must continue to offer. It is what has provided continuity over the decades. SHA is an organization built on the contributions of volunteers. For many of us, voluntarism is what keeps our growing conference a personal annual meeting of old friends and new colleagues. Our society continues its strong tradition of commitment, caring, and even passion about what we do. This is something to be proud of personally and collectively. In 2007 alone, at least 250 individuals gave their time, energy, ideas, and resources to make SHA. You have our thanks, and I am honored to serve with you all.
The 2008 annual conference team recently demonstrated just how able and committed our volunteers are. The Albuquerque meetings were a great success and on behalf of SHA, I extend our thanks and congratulations to Conference Chair Howard Higgins, Local Arrangements Chair David Phillips, Program Chair Terry Klein, Assistant Program Chair Stephanie Ford, Terrestrial Program Chair Paul Shackel, Underwater Program Chair Gregory Cook, Volunteer Coordinators Phillip Young and Harding Polk, Public Session Coordinator Carol Ellick, Silent Auction Coordinator Karen Dunning, SHA Workshop Coordinator Jamie Brandon, and their staff and many volunteers. Along with our Headquarters staff members led by SHA Executive Director Karen Hutchison and Kate Fitzgerald, they ensured that the meetings ran like a well-oiled machine. Neither snow nor movie filming (well, maybe Matt Damon, but only momentarily) diverted them from their task. More than 1,000 people attended the meetings with more than 525 papers, posters, and forums presented. The dinner reception at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, complete with mariachi band, was a highlight of the conference, as were the tours to Acoma and other heritage sites. The delighted faces and excited conversation of children that filled the Public Session hall was the kind of moment that we live for, as they are the future caretakers of our heritage.
In the coming year, we at SHA are looking to the future too as we begin a strategic planning process. The first step involves a Members’ Needs Assessment in which I strongly encourage you all to participate. The officers and board, editors, and committee chairs need all our members’ voices to contribute insights into the challenges facing us, our profession, and the resources we protect and study. Our core question is what SHA’s place can and should be in making the profession of historical archaeology what we believe it should be. We will invite our members to complete an assessment survey online or to request a printed copy to fill out and return later in February. Our planning consultant, Association Research, Inc., will have the results tabulated for board consideration at our mid-year meeting. Each committee will also participate in the needs assessment process. The details of our strategic planning process are not finalized, but the needs assessments will not be the only opportunity for your voice to be heard. I will report more fully in future columns and in other communications.
A second agenda item for 2008 relates to our new editorial structure of Journal Editor, Website Editor, Co-Publications Editor, and Newsletter Editor. This structure will require a constitutional and bylaws change. President-Elect and outgoing Newsletter Editor William Lees will chair a task force to draft those changes. Pending review and approval by a By-laws Committee and then the Board of Directors, they should come before the membership for a vote during our annual election. Over the next few years, as our strategic planning initiative identifies big goals and how best to achieve them, we may propose other changes to our core documents. This is a serious undertaking, which the Board will consider with due care and thought.
Another part of the question, “Where is SHA going?” is literally, where are we going for our annual conferences after Toronto, Ontario, in 2009, and Amelia Island, Florida, in 2010? SHA’s ongoing internationalization initiative is occurring at a time during which the United States’ economic position in the world is changing, and we are learning valuable economic lessons as we try to plan meetings in international venues. We are seeking invitations from local committees in the U.S. and abroad, and will announce our plans as soon as they are finalized.
Let me conclude this first column with notes of thanks to the many volunteers who have served SHA in the past year, especially our board members, officers, editors, committee chairs and members, as well as our Headquarters staff at MSP. Several individuals and groups deserve special thanks. First, to our outgoing President Doug Scott, whose service as our first 4-year presidential officer demonstrated his commitment to SHA, and his success in the past 2 years affirms the rightness of our decision to adopt a 2-year presidency. Terry Klein and J. W. Joseph, who, as our new Journal Editor, will not be going very far, have completed 3-year terms as Directors of the Society. Outgoing Associate Editors William Turnbaugh, Glen Farris, and Judy Turnbaugh, outgoing Editor Rebecca Allen, who with her editorial team brought SHA’s publications program into the 21st century, and William Lees, outgoing Newsletter Editor and incoming President-Elect, have served the society selflessly. I also thank outgoing ACUA Chair, Mark Staniforth, for all he has taught us about underwater issues and the international perspective he brought to the SHA board. They have all earned our gratitude for the many accomplishments of SHA under their leadership. In 2007 and 2008, the society sponsored two extremely successful conferences. The past few years have also witnessed the successful expansion of the SHA publications program, and I thank you all for guiding us through this growth. The officers and board have also taken a pro-active role in national and international initiatives to protect, preserve, and learn from our archaeological heritage. This ensured that SHA had a voice at the Preserve America conference, in the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, on Capitol Hill, and in many other efforts to educate individuals and groups about the historical and cultural value of archaeological resources.
Over the past year, SHA has also benefited from the efforts of our Treasurer Sara Mascia, who has kept her eye on the balance sheet; Secretary Michael Nassaney, who has recorded our deliberations for the future; and our government affairs consultant Nellie Longsworth, who is helping SHA to be THE voice of archaeological heritage in Washington, D.C. Kelly Dixon, Chris Merritt, and Spectral Fusion continue to perform miracles for us on the World Wide Web, creating a bigger and better website than anything we could have imagined, and one which continues to grow. Annalies Corbin has completed her first year as Co-publications Editor, and asks us all to look forward to seeing new SHA–University Press of Florida and SHA–University of Nebraska Press publications soon. At Headquarters, Karen Hutchison and her team at MSP have handled our affairs with professionalism and aplomb.
Inter-Society Relations Committee chair Martha Zierden completed two terms chairing our largest committee and a crucial link to the organizational world beyond SHA. Parliamentarian Roderick Sprague, who has served SHA in so many capacities, is also stepping down from this post after a generation of service, and we thank him for ensuring that our meetings over the years have been conducted with more than a modicum of parliamentary order!
I also welcome the following new members of the SHA leadership team: Directors Robyn Woodward and Charles Cheek, ACUA Chair Matthew Russell, Journal Editor Joe Joseph and Co-Editor Mary Beth Reed, Newsletter Editor Alasdair Brooks, Inter-Society Relations Committee Chair John H. Jameson, Jr., and Parliamentarian Vergil Noble.
The coming year promises to be a full and productive one, and I look forward to serving SHA.
