News & Announcements
June 26, 2019
Membership and By-Laws Updates
The ASLH Board and Executive Committee recently made a variety of decisions regarding membership policies and our by-laws upon recommendations made by our Membership Committee. These changes are designed to increase the Society’s control over and improve members’ experience with the renewal process, increase participation in our annual elections, and ensure the Law & History Review reaches our members in a timely, cost-effective manner. We are delighted to share them with the broader ASLH community.
First, the Board and Executive Committee recently voted to begin the process of managing membership for the Society ourselves–instead of relying on Cambridge University Press–through our new website. This change, which will become effective January 1, 2020, will permit the ASLH to create web portals for members to submit conference papers and grants, as well as member profiles, which will help identify book reviewers for the Law & History Review and facilitate voter turnout in our annual elections.
Second, the Board and Executive Committee also recently voted to create electronic memberships–through which members would receive digital access to the Law and History Review instead of hard copies of the journal. These electronic memberships will be discounted by $15.
Finally, the Board and Executive Committee also recently voted to change our membership cycle. The ASLH membership cycle had run for the calendar year, which meant that individuals who generally renewed their membership late in the year, just before our annual meeting, only became members for a few months before their membership expired on December 31. Because our annual elections take place in the late summer, those who followed this schedule were ineligible to vote and received Law & History Review irregularly. To address these issues, the Board and Executive Committee voted to move the ASLH membership cycle forward, such that our membership cycle will now run from October 1 through September 30.
This new policy necessitated a change in Article I, Section 4 of the Society’s by-laws, which have previously stated:
The dues of all categories of dues-paying members shall be fixed by the directors and officers. All annual dues are payable on the first day of the calendar year. Only those members who have paid their dues are entitled to rights and privileges.
The Membership Committee recommended amending Article I, Section 4 of the Society’s by-laws as follows:
The dues of all categories of dues-paying members shall be fixed by the directors and officers. All annual dues are payable on the first day of the calendar year. Only those members who have paid their dues are entitled to rights and privileges.
A resolution to amend the Society’s by-laws as recommended was subsequently unanimously approved by the Executive Committee.
To carry current members into this new membership cycle, the Board and the Executive Committee also voted to impose a one time adjustment fee of $25 for the additional nine months of membership in 2019-2020, but only on faculty members who pay annually, not on graduate students. Life members, for obvious reasons, are excluded from this adjustment fee.