president's column: growing pains

Barry Commoner once stated one of the fundamental laws of ecology: there's no such thing as a free lunch.  It is a law with wide application, even to professional organizations like the American Society for Environmental History.

In recent years, ASEH has seen a marked rise in the number of members participating in our annual meeting; Madison and Toronto surpassed all previous attendance records. And ASEH is full of youthful energy. The growth in our annual meetings, the proliferation of scholarship in our field, and the influx of young people into the profession are to be celebrated.

But such growth is not without cost. Less than a decade ago, ASEH could readily meet in smaller cities like Boise, Idaho and Tallahassee, Florida. Such is no longer the case. Finding a conference hotel that can accommodate a minimum of 600 people has narrowed the places where we can meet to more costly cities. It is a fact that also has consequences for the revenue streams of the society.

Compared to other professional organizations equivalent in size, ASEH is a financially lean society that historically has depended on two revenue streams to support its operation: profits from our annual meeting and subscriptions to the journal, Environmental History. The necessity of hosting meetings in larger cities, where the required minimum hotel charges are higher, eats into one revenue stream. Our local arrangement committees in the past have gone to heroic efforts in raising funds to offset the conference costs.  Thanks to the leadership of Carolyn Merchant, co-chair of this year's local arrangements committee (with Laura Watt), San Francisco will prove no exception. But fund raising is an incredible burden to place on the local arrangements committee. Similarly, with the changing nature of academic publishing, and increasing access to Environmental History through combined institutional subscriptions, we can no longer count on the journal as a growing revenue stream for the society.

 
And, yet, thanks to the remarkable administrative talents and energy of our executive director, Lisa Mighetto, ASEH continues to do more and more.  Through Lisa's foresight and adept grant-writing skills, we have expanded the number of student travel grants, secured support from the National Park Service in the form of a paid research consultant for a recent PhD, and are advancing efforts to establish paid internships for students interested in gaining work experience in public environmental history and in securing research fellowship support.  We have also been putting more resources into expanding our digital presence in ways that will be useful to our society members. Our Advisory Board on Professional Development and Public Engagement and our Digital Communications Committee are also to be commended for advancing these developments

In April of this year, after a comparative analysis of the membership and conference registration fees of other professional societies, the ASEH Executive Committee unanimously voted to increase our membership and registration fees, which have remained flat for the past five years. We did not take such a vote lightly.  We did so to ensure the long-term financial health of the society in a way that is in keeping with the large, professional organization we have become. These are difficult economic times for many of our members, and we have adopted an income-based rate increase plan to minimize its impact on those who can least afford it. 

The following dues structure has been set for the 2014 calendar year on a graduated scale, from $65-110 for non-student members, and $40 for students.  The graduated scale is as follows for non-student members:

 Under $36,000:  $65
 $36,001-60,000:  $75
 $60,001-80,000:  $90
 $80,000 and above:  $110
 
A rate of $65 will remain in effect for those earning under $36K for both 2014 and 2015. In 2015, we will increase dues an additional $10 for non-student members earning more than $36,000 (to $85-$120).

In the fall of 2013 ASEH members will receive a letter from Oxford Journals explaining how to renew using this new tiered system.

In addition, the ASEH Executive Committee voted to increase the conference registration fee from $110 in 2013 to $150 in 2014 to cover the cost of a proposal management system to streamline the program selection process and to adequately reflect actual conference expenses. Student rates will remain at $60, as they were for our 2013 conference.

We have also established a new Fundraising and Development Committee, chaired by ASEH president-elect Kathleen Brosnan, to oversee a development strategy to secure additional revenues for the society beyond membership and conference registration fees. The committee will work closely with the ASEH president and executive director in developing a strategic plan on a three-year cycle with realistic fundraising goals to meet the growing financial needs of our society and to strengthen and broaden ASEH's donor base among individual members, non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and the private sector.

ASEH is a society that has in the past relied on the remarkable volunteerism of its members to operate and to grow. And we will continue to do so. Yet, we also need to look beyond the free labor and time of our members and the generosity of our executive staff to provide the services and benefits in keeping with the demands of our professional society and growing field. We appreciate your commitment to ASEH, and the energy and ideas you bring to the continued success of our organization.

Gregg Mitman, ASEH President

member news

Congratulations to the following individuals, who received fellowships recently from the American Council of Learned Societies:
 

announcements

ASEH Samuel P. Hays Fellowship Applications

The successful candidates will work with ASEH and NPS staff to complete a history of Death Valley National Park's management and recovery of the endangered Devil's Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis). The Devil's Hole Pupfish story is unique because it is widely believed that Devil's Hole (located in Nevada) is the smallest vertebrate species habitat in the world. The Devil's Hole pupfish have been listed as endangered species since1967 and were the subject of a 1976 landmark Supreme Court ruling, Cappaert v. United States.