 |
|
 |
|---|
The word "change" is one that archaeologists are pretty familiar with. After all, it is the ability to look at truly long term cultural change that is perhaps our most distinctive trait as a profession or discipline. Change in the present, in our time, can be both exciting and a little scary. It seems to me that in the past year or two there has been an accelerated pace of change all around us. Heck, Budweiser is now a foreign beer! Our organization is also experiencing some important changes in how it operates, how it communicates, and how it serves its members. Anthropologists and other social scientists sometimes point to one thousand as a key threshold in the size of a polity. A group of people that large, it is said, often requires significant structural changes. SCA blew past this threshold a few years ago and our opportunity for even further growth seems very realistic. The SCA Executive Board believes that the changes we are going through are positive ones that will improve the society as well as better serve the membership.
The organization was able to continue as before despite tremendous growth largely because of the dedication of Greg White. Acting as our volunteer Business Office Manager, Newsletter Editor, and oft times Proceedings Editor, he carried these burdens through truly Herculean efforts. Simply put, as matters in the organization became more complex, Greg solved problems and challenges by donating more of his time. Rightly so, he has decided that this is the time to fully step down by the end of the year, as he explains elsewhere in this newsletter. Please join me in wishing him the best as he takes on new challenges. I am also very happy to report that the SCA Executive Board has had a discussion with Greg about not letting him off so easy, as we would like him to continue as an official advisor to the Business Office and the Executive Board. One of our main goals is to capture his truly encyclopedic knowledge of all things SCA. The Executive Board is also pleased to report that although recent transitions have slowed production of the newsletter and the what will be a very large Volume 21 (2007 Annual Meeting) of Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, we anticipate catching up soon. One solution is this combined spring and summer edition of the Society for California Archaeology Newsletter.
The most vital component of SCA is now our new Business Office Manager, Ms. Denise Wills. I hope that many of you had the opportunity at the Burbank meeting to meet her. We are extremely fortunate to have such a skilled, dedicated, conscientious, and friendly person to keep our organization running smoothly. Look for her self introduction in this newsletter as well. The Business Office itself is now well established in Chico, sharing space with Pacific Legacy. Major efforts to consolidate the society's archives, other documents, and procedures are underway. SCA is now a large organization--by the standards of archaeological societies, we are very large indeed. The recent changes in the Business Office should ensure that SCA can continue to follow its mission and serve its members in a professional manner without losing touch with its grassroots origins. We are also better poised to handle further growth in both membership and society activities.
So where is this growth going to come from? Glad you asked! I am pretty confident that SCA can, should, and will attract increased numbers of avocationalists, Native Americans, and professionals. But I see increased participation by students as a particularly important goal for our organization. I ran for President on the platform that SCA needs to brainstorm on ways to better incorporate students into our ranks. One part of this should be how we can better serve their interests and convince even more of them to join. Student membership is the fastest growing segment of SCA and student attendees at the Annual Meeting in Burbank comprised over 27 percent of the total (ummm, and that was just officially registered attendees). This, as the governor would say, is fantastic and shows that recent efforts over the past few years (particularly those of Student Affairs Committee Chair Shannon Tushingham and former Northern Vice-President Michael Newland) have paid off. Students are now clearly a major voice of SCA. I would like to see how the organization can better help students achieve their own personal and professional goals. We also need to keep in mind that these folks are the ones who will be doing the business, curation, management, and research of California Archaeology in not so many years. We owe it to them, ourselves, and the cultural resources of the Golden State to ready them for these responsibilities as the future of the past is going to be challenging.
However, we should expect something back from students. I would like the society to better tap the energy, skills, and passion of our student members. My own students constantly remind me why I got into this craft in the first place, and they often keep me going when all else at the university appears to be headed in puzzling or disturbing directions. I could not do my own projects without them (and they would not be as much fun either), and likewise SCA needs its student members to step up, participate, be heard, and keep us all on our toes. One key part of this will be to encourage students to present their original work at the Data Share Meetings and the Annual Meeting. SCA should also encourage students to submit their papers for publication in the now online annual Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology. This new format should especially cater to their expertise with all things digital and colorful. These and other issues like student meeting registration fees, meeting accommodation costs, career development workshops, and membership drives will be major topics of SCA Board discussion at our upcoming meeting this October in Santa Cruz right before the Northern Data Share Meeting. Please send along any ideas, comments, or suggestions that you might have by the first week of October. Students, I particularly want to hear from you-please email me your ideas or comments (mwallen@csupomona.edu). I am confident that the Annual Meeting in Modesto from March 12-15 will be one that students will want to attend, so start saving up gas money.
Let me also take this opportunity to plug the rapidly approaching Data Share Meetings this October. As was intended, both of them will take place during Archaeology Month. Make sure you check out the notice on all these activities in this newsletter by Northern Vice-President Jennifer Farquhar and Southern Vice-President Jennifer Perry. I will be at both meetings and look forward to the opportunity to meet and talk with as many members as possible. Hey students, this will be a great opportunity for you to communicate directly with the Executive Board, so make your plans to join us in Santa Cruz, Camarillo, or even better both! Better yet, plan to present your research as these informal settings are ideal places to develop professionally. Everyone, please coordinate your Archaeology Month events with Coordinator Laura Leach-Palm.
Next, let's turn to the Society's publications. First of all, many thanks to Don Laylander for his dedicated work on our web page www.scahome.org. Don made several helpful organizational changes during his tenure and he was extremely quick to post updates or announcements. Our new webmaster is Stella D'Oro, and she has many ideas on how to further improve our main avenue for communication. Members are going to see even more useful information on there very soon as we work on publishing past Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology online, as well as embark on publishing all future Proceedings online to take advantage of greatly enhanced scholarly access, improved digital capacity, lower costs, and greener practice. Be sure to read Steve Horne's column on these new opportunities. Lastly, since 2007, the Executive Board has been discussing and consulting about the possibilities of pursuing an additional publication that might take on some of the roles of the newsletter. Its main purpose would be as a vehicle for our members to publish research, methodological papers, cultural resource management issues, and other types of articles. Stay tuned on this front, I will present an update on this in the fall newsletter.
Plans are well underway for the 2009 Annual Meeting in Modesto. The program committee has been up and running since early this year and has many interesting, informative, and entertaining sessions and events in store for us. The Local Arrangements Chair is Amanda Martinez and the Program Chair is Kathleen Hull. Be sure to see their first announcement elsewhere in this newsletter for further details. Feel free to contact them as they are both working hard to produce an outstanding meeting. Keep in mind that the upcoming meeting is very early: March 12-15, so calls for papers, sessions, workshops, volunteers, and of course donations will be going out early. Modesto has a great central location and costs will be somewhat lower than some of our more urbane settings. Throw in the outstanding program that Kathleen is putting together and the well organized local arrangements that Mandi is providing and we are going to have a great time in Modesto!
Let me also take this opportunity to say thank you to the other members of the SCA Executive Board. The society is very fortunate to have this group of dedicated folks who are willing to work hard to get us through significant transitions as well as develop new programs and activities. We just had an incredibly productive two day Board Meeting in Chico and it is wonderful to be on such a team. I particularly want to thank Past-President Steve Horne who is working overtime on many important issues for SCA. During a strategic planning session we discussed whether minor changes in the SCA Mission statement might be warranted. We drafted a proposed new version and intend to put this forward to the membership for a vote this fall during the Executive Board elections. The fall newsletter will formally present this proposal to the membership.
Well, I see by the word count tool that I am about at the end of my line. I think I covered the main topics that are hot ones in the world of SCA. The most important message I think is that this is an exciting time for our society and thanks to work of many very smart and dedicated people, we are getting better all the time. Enjoy the rest of the summer, get those reports written, and get set for our upcoming fall and winter activities. Let me end by saying thank you for electing me to serve as President, I am learning so much about the history and practice of California Archaeology, meeting truly awesome people, and hopefully will be able to make some progress on some issues that I strongly believe in. See you in Santa Cruz, Camarillo, and Modesto!
Mark W. Allen
Home - - - What's New - - - About SCA - - - About California Archaeology