Prof. Martyn Lyons

When I came to the presidency in 2008, the Australian Historical Association was in very good shape, with a strong membership, successful conferences and a scholarly journal that was expanding all the time. I believe, as I step down, that I am leaving it at least in equally good shape and possibly in an even stronger position than before. Our membership has grown to 693 members as from 22 June. Of these 158 are postgraduates, in other words more than 22 percent of our total membership. One of the features of the last few years has been our success in persuading History postgraduates that the Association has something to offer them. We can go further – we can still increase our affiliate membership, for instance, and the executive committee would like to see every History department in the country take out an affiliate membership. We

An increase in membership fees from 2011 is recommended this year by the executive committee. There was no increase last year, but the level of fees will inevitably creep upwards, and we envisage an annual increase in future. Costs are always rising, the main costs being printing History Australia, and maintaining the secretariat, which costs us over $40,000 per year.

I turn next to our recent conferences. Our 2009 conference at the University of the Sunshine Coast was successful and also profitable (as all our conferences must be), thanks to the work of our organiser, Joanne Scott. Congratulations to our hosts Jean Chetkovich and her team for organising this excellent event in Perth. In 2011, our regional conference will convene in Launceston, thanks to the efforts of Tom Dunning of the University of Tasmania. I am happy to announce that the main 2012 conference will be held in Adelaide, under the auspices of the History Discipline at the University of Adelaide, currently chaired by Rob Foster.

One distinguishing feature of AHA conferences is now the mentoring of postgraduate presenters, who, we hope, will develop their conference papers into draft articles to be submitted to History Australia. We are able to select ten postgraduates whose conference and travel expenses are paid from the grant we have been awarded by CAL – the Copyright Agency Limited. I would like to thank our Treasurer Erik Eklund for his initiative and efforts in securing this grant for the AHA. Its continued implementation relies on the editors of History Australia and a number of volunteer mentors, who have notably included Graeme Davidson (2009) and Richard Bosworth (2010).

The AHA awards a number of significant prizes, and they will be presented at the conference dinner in a few hours' time. In the last 18 months, we have completed an overhaul of our prizes, with several aims in mind: to tighten up the criteria wherever necessary, and more work is still needed in this area; to minimise administration and postage costs; and to put our accounts in order. We are now on the way to making our prizes self-sustaining. We want each prize henceforth to pay for its own administration, instead of drawing funds away from our operating account. This has meant cutting some administrative costs. For example, if a book is entered for a prize, we will no longer mail it back to the entrant after judging. And in addition, we will not be able in future to offer honoraria to judges, instead we will have to rely on their expertise and time pro bono. The AHA is very grateful to all prize judges in 2010 for their conscientious efforts and prompt decision-making.

Our scholarly journal, History Australia, now appears in three issues per year, thanks to the editors Penny Russell and Richard White. Our aim remains to produce the best work available in Australian history, but to include high quality contributions in other fields wherever possible. I would also like to propose a vote of thanks to the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI) at the University of Sydney for the invaluable support it has provided to the editorial office. Long may it continue to do so.

As far as the ERA journal rankings are concerned, we were unsuccessful in trying to improve our ranking from B to A. On the other hand, the rankings of several other Australian journals changed in relation to each other. The ranking gap between History Australia and Australian Historical Studies has thereby narrowed. So although we failed to achieve our main objective, the news on this front was not all disappointing.

On behalf of the AHA, we have been active in several advocacy roles, which I want to emphasise because this work is often carried out 'invisibly': –

• The National History Curriculum: we gave feedback on the first version of the curriculum, first-drafted by Marilyn Lake, which apparently had some effect. We have followed up with a further response on the new curriculum draft, when it opened for comment from the general public as a whole. Overall, we support the move to make History a free-standing subject with designated classroom hours.
  
  
• The ALTC Teaching Standards Project: History was chosen as a demonstration discipline and the AHA has nominated 6 members of the Discipline Reference Group, whose work is now under way. The AHA has thus a major role on forming the group. The draft standards have been launched at this Perth conference, and feedback is now solicited. The DRG is due to report at the end of 2010 on the benchmarking of academic teaching quality.
  
  
• The proposed closure of local branches of the National Archives in Darwin, Adelaide and Hobart: we registered our concerns with Senator Joe Ludwig, and circulated a petition which individual members could support against the closures. The campaign, led by archivists and librarians, had some impact. Branches will be closed as predicted, but according to Canberra documents will be 'co-located' with other regional institutions. It remains to be seen how this promise of co-location materialises. I would like to thank past president David Carment for keeping us informed of developments, and we have made a special effort on this important matter to keep our membership up to date with developments.
  
  
• Sydney City Historian: together with History Council of NSW, we urged Sydney Council to make progress on replacing Shirley Fitzgerald. Last week Lisa Murray was appointed to the position.
  
  
• We celebrated 100 years of the Mitchell Library, at a reception at Government House, Sydney, where Matthew Newtown (of Underbelly fame) made a surprise appearance to read extracts from the letters of Septimus Rowe, the Mitchell's latest significant (and I gather slightly controversial) acquisition.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW for hosting the secretariat and providing some funding for us over the last two years;

Our extremely active Vice-President (Marilyn Lake), our Past President, Treasurer and Secretary and all the members of the executive committee;

Jayne Persian and Carolyn Brewer, our keen and committed Secretariat;

Penny Russell and Richard White for looking after History Australia;

Anthea Hyslop and Janet Doust, our Public Officers past and present.

David Carment, our liaison person on archive committees;

Grace Karskens, our heritage officer, who helps us with liaison with the National Trust.

Thanks for entrusting me with the AHA Presidency for two years. It's been a pleasure to work with committed and enthusiastic colleagues, and it's been a challenge to get involved in one or two things outside my comfort zone. I would like to wish our next President and the AHA as a whole very good fortune in the future.