I believe Joe Joseph is correct on the editors always being voting members
of the SHA Board of Directors.  What Bob Schuyler was refereeing to was an
attempt to make the editors *ex officio* non-voting members of the board
that took place in the fall of 2001.  Fortunately, that effort failed.  I
expressed my opinion on that in the *SHA Newsletter* Volume 34 number 3,
page 3, part of which reads:



“The second area where I disagree with Armstrong’s proposal is that of
making the newsletter and journal editors *ex officio* non-voting members of
the board.  I feel that this would be a mistake for a number of reasons.



1.                  The long service of our editors means that they have
become the institutional memory of the Society for Historical
Archaeology.  Most
board members are there for three years and gone.  In the past we had an
elected board member who only made it to one meeting during their three-year
term.  Institutional memory is very important in avoiding pitfalls and
learning from past mistakes.

2.                  Because the editors have a long history in dealing with
members who submit articles and newsletter items, they have a better feel
for who can and will deliver what they offer as opposed to those who just
blow smoke.

3.                  With the possible exception of the president (and not
always so) the editors spend more time working for the SHA than almost all
board members.  It seems strange to want to take away their board membership
to save the cost of their attendance at the meetings.



Beyond these considerations, think about what else the editors bring to the
table.



      Institutional support has saved the SHA a great deal of money of the
years in terms of such things as free office space, clerical help, and free
storage space.  From 1969 to 1981, the *SHA Newsletter* was edited by Parks
Canada Employees.  Parks Canada contributed a great deal of unpaid labor and
materials over that period.  Since 1982 the Newsletter has been based with
Norm Barka at the College of William and Mary.  *Historical Archaeology *has
been based with Ronn Michael at California State University of Pennsylvania
since 1978.  I am sure that what the university has contributed goes beyond
just office space.  Another way of looking at this situation is that our
editors have brought a good part of the food to the banquet and now the
organization is going to stiff them the cost of attending the meetings and
take away their vote?  I think that is a sad way to do business.”



The reply goes on for some more paragraphs, but it is not necessary to
present them here.  Four past presidents signed on to my opinion sent to the
*SHA Newsletter*.  Fortunately, their vote was not taken away from them.  I
still feel that the editors of *Historical Archaeology *and the *SHA
Newsletter* should be voting member of the board and should not be voted on
after being selected by the board.



Peace,

George L. Miller


On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Robert L. Schuyler <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:

> I am resending this message because my original heading may have made
>> HISTARCH member think it was an earlier message. See our Editor's clear
>> statement on this issue and correction for my royally screwed up summation
>> of the issue in my first post.
>>
>
>  I also want to make it clear that, with this correct information, all the
> SHA editors and also "your's truly" fully supports the suggested change
> being voted on by July 15th.
>
>  My opposition to the suggested new "Purpose Statement" (Preface to the SHA
> Constitution) still, however, stands and I urge we vote down this section of
> the changes.
>
>   Bob Schuyler
>
> From: Joe Joseph <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Histarch Post
>> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:18:05 -0400
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Dr. Schuyler - Under the current By-Laws, both the Journal and Newsletter
>> Editor are voting members of the Board.  Always have been to the best of my
>> knowledge.  With the four editor structure, the proposed amendments would
>> allow the members to select which editor they wanted to serve in the voting
>> position from the two candidates in each tract: Research (Journal and
>> Co-Pubs) and Communication (Newsletter and Website). There would be no
>> changing in the Editorial vote on the Board and rather that appointed voting
>> Board member Editors, these would now be elected positions.
>>
>> J. W. (Joe) Joseph, PhD, RPA
>> Editor, Historical Archaeology
>> The Journal of the Society for Historical Archaeology
>> www.sha.org
>>
>> New South Associates
>> 6150 East Ponce de Leon Avenue
>> Stone Mountain, GA  30083
>>
>> [log in to unmask]
>> (770) 498-4155 ext 102
>>
>