March 8 Update

2000 Annual Meeting

Dear Colleagues:

Here's the weekly update for the upcoming St. Louis meeting. Although the mail-in (postmark) deadline for preregistration is March 16, you may still preregister online (http://www.oah.org/meetings/2000/) until March 18 -- or register on-site during the conference.

ROOM and BUILDING locations for each session and event have been posted on the OAH website:

(http://www.oah.org/meetings/2000/locations/sessionlocations.html)

The Saint Louis University (SLU) campus map is also posted on the website and will appear in the Pocket Program distributed at the annual meeting.

SHUTTLES will circulate between the Radisson, Adam's Mark, Marriott Pavillion, and Hyatt Regency hotels downtown and the Simon Recreation Center on the SLU campus. A ride on the MetroLink light rail line is a convenient and quicker means of getting from downtown to the SLU campus. MetroLink maps will be available at Registration. You can also view the maps at the OAH website (http://www.oah.org/meetings/2000/) or at http://www.bi-state.org/MetroLinkmap2.html

GUIDES will be stationed at information tables in the lobbies of the Radisson, Adam's Mark, Marriott Pavillion, and Hyatt Regency hotels to answer questions and help direct you to sessions and events.

A COMMUNITY COLLEGE session, "Teaching the American Survey," and reception will be held at the Saint Louis Community College Cosand Center, located on the corner of Clark and Broadway Streets, on Friday, March 31. Shuttle service will be provided between Saint Louis University and the Cosand Center for both events.

MUSIC: The Albany (GA) Civil Rights Movement Museum Freedom Singers will participate in the March for Freedom on Friday night preceding the awards ceremony and Presidential Address in the Christ Church Cathedral. They will also sing at the 11:30 Speakout Against Racism on Saturday. Albany native Rutha Harris, one of the original SNCC Freedom Singers in the early 1960s, is the founder and director of the group.

SHOES AND UMBRELLAS: We encourage participants to come prepared for the annual meeting. Although the weather is quite pleasant in late March and early April, it would be advisable to bring umbrellas and comfortable walking shoes.

WATCH YOUR CLOCKS: St. Louis is on Central Standard Time, but we will be switching to Central Daylight Time the Saturday night/Sunday morning of our meeting. In other words, we'll be "springing forward" an hour. This is especially important for those flying out of St. Louis on Sunday, 2 April.

ANOTHER HISTORY CONFERENCE is in town. On Friday and Saturday during our annual meeting you might want to catch some of "Recolorizing History: Not Just Black and White," the third annual conference of the Midwest Organization for the Recognition and Recording of Ethnic Heritage (MORARE). A Friday afternoon highlight will be the arrival at Union Station (1:10pm) of a 54th Massachusetts Volunteer reenactment group from Washington, DC, which will then march six blocks to City Hall to meet with the mayor. On Saturday through Sunday morning, MORARE hosts its historical heritage conference at the Marriott Pavillion Hotel and at the Park Service's Old Courthouse. Persons with OAH Annual Meeting badges will be permitted to attend MORARE sessions (if space is available). For more information, call 314/865-0708.

Other program highlights include:

** "Preserving Ethnic Heritage Sites-Working Examples," 9:15- 10:30am on Saturday;

** "We've Always Been Here: Blacks in the Military," 10:15-11:45am Sunday; and

** "Heritage Tourism: A Regional Approach," 10:15-11:45am Sunday (this latter session is a roundtable with the directors of tourism from Missouri and the six surrounding states).

RALLY SET FOR SATURDAY: Luther Ely Smith Park will be the site of the rally scheduled for Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The location was incorrect in the Pocket Program.

CONTRIBUTIONS from some members to the Special Fund have already begun to help us cover the costs of moving the meeting from the Adam's Mark Hotel to the SLU campus. We welcome all gifts large and small to meet the substantial costs of changing venues. Please send contributions to OAH Special Fund, 112 North Bryan Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana, 47408-4199.

RELATED NEWS: We were encouraged to learn this week that the Association of American University Presses has canceled its annual meeting this June at the Denver Adam's Mark Hotel.

See you in St. Louis.

--
Lee W. Formwalt
Executive Director, OAH