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Annual Report of the Secretary-Treasurer

2022; Southern Historical Association; Volume: 88; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/soh.2022.0057

2325-6893

Stephen A. Berry,

Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

Annual Report of the Secretary-Treasurer Stephen Berry (bio) In one of my last lines from last year's secretary-treasurer's report, I noted that "the SHA looks forward to returning to in-person meetings (assuming vaccination proceeds apace) in New Orleans, November 3–6, 2021, at the Astor Crowne Plaza on the corner of Canal and Bourbon." I can't tell you how much I looked forward to that meeting. I have attended every meeting since we met on I-Drive in Orlando, my hometown, in 1993, when I was a twenty-five-year-old M.A. student. I know many of you have attended far longer and just as steadily, which brings me to the theme of my report: we adapt; we endure. We have failed to meet in-person five times during our long history: three times during World War II (1942, 1943, and 1945) and twice during COVID (2020 and 2021). What heartens me, however, is the degree to which we have always risen to the challenge. In 2020, thanks to the adaptive creativity of President Thavolia Glymph and her program co-chairs, Kendra Field, Joseph Reidy, and Randy Sparks, we managed to stage a "Virtual Memphis" program that included fourteen concurrent sessions, a virtual graduate student luncheon and book exhibit, and an opening plenary with poet Nikki Finney. The decision to cancel the 2021 in-person meeting at New Orleans was even tougher because we had less financial cover, but as President Steven Hahn noted in announcing the decision, "First and foremost, our concern was for the health and well-being of members, program participants, and their families. We have been equally concerned for the health and well-being of the people of New Orleans." The result was one of the most ambitious virtual programs ever staged by a major historical association—a program-and-a-half—with more than seventy-five virtual sessions, all captured and now available on our YouTube channel. "This year's meeting will be like none before," President Hahn promised in his announcement; "We will combine the program for the New Orleans meeting with much of the program from the Memphis meeting to make for a truly [End Page 361] remarkable virtual event." And indeed it was—because we adapt, we endure. As historians, we know there is no denying that pandemics put their stamp on the people who survive them, but at our best, as times get tough, people get tougher. As the accompanying financial report attests, the Southern Historical Association is in surprisingly good financial shape and is prepared to expand while living our values in a post-pandemic world. The eighty-eighth annual meeting of the Association will take place November 10–13, 2022, at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor and will be held in-person. For the first time in a long time, we will raise a glass and together celebrate our values as an Association. President Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and her program team, chaired by Crystal N. Feimster and Stephen Kantrowitz, have created one of the most diverse and compelling programs ever assembled, featuring an opening plenary with Nikole Hannah-Jones and a final plenary focused on history advocacy in an era of unprecedented assaults on history education. The November meeting will also debut several new innovations created by Kelly Kennington and our revamped Membership Committee, including a new first-time attendees reception, a mentoring match-up program, a second-book writers' workshop, and our new "Public Square"—a learning commons in the exhibit space that will allow local groups to display information and schedule informal presentations. Registration for the meeting opens July 1, and details can be found at https://www.thesha.org/meeting. Our profit-and-loss statement for 2021 bears the stamp of the pandemic. Our annual in-person meeting can usually be counted on to generate some revenue to offset overhead costs, but two years of COVID-induced suspensions and the additional burden of a penalty for canceling the New Orleans meeting forced us to operate in the red. The brighter news is that gains to our endowment account have more than made up for these losses, so I...