[…] at The Henry Ford, John Heitmann, Professor of History at the University of Dayton, and former board member, Arthur Jones, our ad hoc conference committee has decided to stay with the biennial format and are already busy planning a symposium cum conference in the spring of 2012. We will have a more complete report by our board meeting next spring, being hosted by our Vice President, Doug Leighton, in London, Ontatio. We will begin publicizing this as early as April, and the committee will be calling for papers. I hope many of you will attend and participate as we get back to this solo act. SAH itself is also doing a lot of work to strengthen its ability to remain an all-volunteer organization, and with that to live within its budget. As we all remember, for years we had the administrative leadership of the aptly self-titled Factotum, Kit Foster—for free, or at least for nothing more than bare, and I must say very economy- minded, expenses. In order to come close to the smooth operation that centralized leadership gives, we are fi nding it important to streamline the process.Except for Stanley steam cars, I am not so much a content person as a process person, so I am using my time as President to refi ne the infrastructure that makes our awards, committees and publishing programs work as smoothly as possible. I’ve got a great group of offi cers, interested in the same ends as we strive to do separately what Kit took care of all by himself. I won’t bore you with that detail, but do want you to know that it is happening! Another piece of streamlining will be a new website, which we hope to have under construction as soon as this winter. This will make it easier to update and add information, as well as give secure access to members- only sections. The fi nal part of my report brings […]