I think I am one of many who misunderstood the title of this 
discussion assuming it was about a session at SHA 2013 on 
"traveling." I only realized with Alasdair's message what was the real topic.

As an active member of the SHA and a Past President I would like to 
agree with Alasdair, and perhaps others, but only up to a point. We 
already had a great meeting at York and Leicester sounds like a 
excellent location - Cardinal Woolsey is buried in Leicester and he 
spent money like all the past SHA Boards. The Board needs to leave 
flowers on his grave.

We need to normally meet in "Greater North America" (USA, Canada, and 
the West Indies) and occasionally go to Western Europe, especially 
the Islands (England, Ireland, and Scotland). If we move beyond those 
boundaries the meetings get much too expensive for everyone, not just 
for students, retired members, and underemployed members. Even in the 
USA we cannot go to Alaska or Hawaii - simply too expensive for the 
air tickets. Australia, South Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, 
are simply too far away and so too
expensive.

It would be great to meet in Cape Town, Accra, Sydney, or Buenos 
Aires but even Mexico City is probably too expensive.

Inside North America we need to keep our general 2 to 1 pattern - 
within every three meetings one should be in the Far West if 
possible. We have a large membership on the West Coast.

Finally we need to try to help our members outside of "Greater North 
America" to come to the North American meetings.

So, be thankful we have been invited to Leicester by our colleagues. 
Our following meetings are well spread out in North America - I 
think: Quebec City, Seattle, Washington D,C, and then our 2017 
anniversary meeting in Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas (= founding meeting in 1967).

Bob Schuyler

At 05:02 AM 5/5/2012, you wrote:
>As both an SHA officer and the Program Chair for Leicester I'm 
>obviously exceptionally biased, but I would reiterate what Philip 
>Levy notes (see below).
>
>On a purely personal 'speaking only for myself' level, I recognise 
>that the Leicester conference represents a significant expense for 
>many North American colleagues.
>
>But while holding the SHA conference in Leicester may present 
>challenges for some of our North American members, it represents an 
>excellent opportunity for British and continental European 
>colleagues to participate in an SHA conference, and for North 
>American and European colleagues to engage with each other in a 
>manner that's usually impossible at a North America venue that 
>usually represents a significant - often impossible - expense for Europeans.
>
>Given that this is only the second time that SHA has left North 
>America (I'm imperfectly including Jamaica as 'North American'), I 
>hardly think that 2 non-North American conferences in the almost 50 
>year history of our society represents a wholly unfair geographical 
>balance given the international nature of our discipline.
>
>And historical archaeology is genuinely international.  On a 
>personal level I've just returned from the truly excellent 
>Argentinian Historical Archaeology Congress in Buenos Aires, SPMA 
>often travels outside the UK (including conferences in North 
>America), I'm presenting in a historical archaeology session at the 
>EAA meeting in Helsinki this September, and I always enjoyed ASHA 
>conferences when I was living and working in Australia.
>
>We look forward to warmly welcoming as many as possible of our North 
>American colleagues in Leicester this coming January, and hope 
>you'll enjoy the extensive opportunities to network with colleagues 
>from other continents.  We've already received several excellent 
>symposium submissions from colleagues in both North America and 
>Europe, and this promises to be an exciting conference for everyone 
>who attends.
>
>If nothing else, we can promise you significantly better beer than 
>we usually get at an SHA conference ;)
>
>Alasdair Brooks
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Date:    Fri, 4 May 2012 14:56:13 -0400
>From:    "Levy, Philip" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: SHA Session on Traveling
>
>And, to be fair--it is cheaper this year for our British friends and
>colleagues who normally have to pony up more than we Americans do year by
>year.
>PL