In order to understand the relationship between the American Catholic Historical Association and The Catholic Historical Review more fully, I am providing excerpts from the Annual Reports of the Secretary and Treasurer from the past 97 years (1915-2012). The volume and page numbers are also provided should you care to read the report in full. Should you have any questions regarding these entries, please contact me at [email protected].
Thank you.
R. Bentley Anderson, S.J.
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Volume I, Number 1, April 1915
“Introductory: The Spirit of The Catholic Historical Review”
Volume VI, Number 1, April 1920
“The American Catholic Historical Association”
New Series Volume I Number 1, April 1921
“Retrospect and Prospect”
The Review was founded in 1915, and set out with the definite purpose of stimulating a nationwide interest in American Catholic history. During the past six years, under Dr. Guilday’s careful and enthusiastic direction, it has published a remarkable series of articles, miscellanies, documents, book reviews, notes and comments, and bibliographies. It would take undue space to mention all who have contributed to the Review since April 15, 1915……
New Series Volume I Number 1, April 1921
First Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 27-30 December 1920
P.5
The group of fifty members of the American Historical Association who registered for the sessions of the First Annual Meeting, came with an enthusiasm which assured all concerned a profitable and successful program.
In April, 1920, number of the Catholic Historical Review, Dr. Guilday’s Address at the Cleveland gathering was printed. This paper gave an outline of the various aspects of the prospect and, as a keynote to the raison d’être of the Association, Dr. Guilday took for his text a paragraph from the address of Justin Winsor, given at the preliminary meeting of the American Association at Saratoga, September 9, 1884:
P.6
In June, 1921, a more detailed account of the purpose of the new national Catholic historical society appeared in the Catholic Mind of New York City. Emphasis was laid in this paper upon the fact that before the founding of the American Catholic Historical Association, there was no organization in the United States which satisfied the Catholic historical ideal as defined by the Cleveland meeting. Thirty odd years of splendid activity on the part of the American Catholic Historical Society, of Philadelphia, and of the United States Catholic Historical Society, of New York City, had prepared the way for this new Association, whose definite objective is to promote study and research in the field of general Church history.
The Constitution adopted at the Cleveland Meeting is as follows:
The name of this organization shall be The American Catholic Historical Association.
The object of this Association shall be to promote study and research in the field of Catholic history.
Any person approved by the Executive Council may become a member of this Association. The annual membership fee shall be three dollars. On payment of fifty dollars, any person, with the approval of the Executive Council, may become a life member.
P. 7
The first President, Dr. Lawrence F. Flick, the Laetare medalist of 1920, published in 1920, a paper on the Association, in which he discussed with his accustomed clarity of thought the task that lay ahead of the new historical society. ….. Dr. Flick writes, in part, as follows:
The American Catholic Historical Association is to supplement the local societies but not supplant them. Its field is not only American Catholic History but history for American Catholics. It will take in the entire domain of historical endeavor in the light of Catholic Faith. Under the auspices of [p.8] the Catholic University of America it will endeavor to unite the Catholic historical students and writers of the entire country in its own broader field and thus stimulate greater activity in the study of local history in the local organizations.
P. 9
Dr. Guilday reported that through the courtesy of Leo Rover, Esq., of Washington, D.C., the Association had been legally incorporated in the District of Columbia.
P. 13
Other problems were discussed at the Annual Business Meeting. It was voted not to incur the expense of publishing the Papers of the Public Sessions at this time, owing to the high cost of printing, and also to the fact that, as Dr. Guilday explained, a project was then being formulated to change the character of the Catholic Historical Review, of which he was the Editor. This quarterly, founded in 1915, at the Catholic University of America, had kept strictly during the past six years to the field of Church history. The writers of the papers read during the Meeting would then have a periodical in which their papers could appear. Each member of the program was left free, however, to place his paper wherever he wished.
New Series, Volume I, Number 2, July 1921
“The Increase and the Diffusion of Historical Knowledge”
P. 141
By its Constitution the American Catholic Historical Association declares its object to be “to promote study and research in the field of Catholic history.” Both study and research are to be promoted, and evidently not only among the members of the Association but in wider circles as well.
New Series, Volume II, Number 1, April 1922
Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting, December 27-30, 1921, St. Louis, MO.
P.4
After a brief introduction in English, Dr. MeMenil continued his very interesting remarks on the early days in the old French city in the language with which these early settlers were conversant. In reply to the toast The American Catholic Historical Association, Dr. Guilday, its Secretary, told briefly the story of the Association’s origin and progress. ‘The Association,” Dr. Guilday said, “came into being during Christmas week, 1919, at Cleveland, under the leadership of a group of scholars headed by Monsignor O’Reilly, then Vicar-General of the Catholic Diocese of that city. The purpose we had in establishing this national organization was study and research in the field of general Catholic History. It was fortunate that we were able to organize our society under the direction of some of the oldest members of the American Historical Association.
New Series, Volume II, Number 2, July 1922
P. 173
“Recent Activities of Catholic Historians”
In our own country we have the Catholic Historical Review (Washington, D.C., since 1915), published at the Catholic University, Washington, D.C., which aims primarily at dealing with the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, and above all to serve as a means whereby historical material may be preserved and published.
New Series, Volume III, Number 1, April 1923
Pp. 3-4
“EDITORIAL”
In our issue of April, 1921, we announced a change in the programme of the Catholic Historical Review, setting forth the reasons which impelled the broadening of its field of activities. We entered the new field with misgivings; but we cherished the hope that the larger ambitus would eventually enhance the value of the Review and enable it to make more general appeal to students of history.
…..
This issue marks another etape in the stead and encouraging progress of the Review. It is now issued as the accredited organ of the American Catholic Historical Association under the most satisfactory agreement entered into with this nation-wide organization at its annual meeting held at New Haven in the month of December. By the terms of this agreement the membership fee in the Association has been increased to five dollars annually, and each member becomes ipso facto a subscriber to the Catholic Historical Review, which assumes the obligation of [p.4] publishing the Acta of the Association. The affiliation, however, affects in nowise the policy of the Review which, in pursuance of its stated programme, will discuss as heretofore historical problems relating to the internal and external life of the Church; chronicle important events of ecclesiastical interest; and review publications which have historical or academic value.
New Series, Volume III, Volume 1, April 1923
Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting, December 27-30, 1922, New Haven, Connecticut
P. 5
At the Meeting at Washington our first President, Dr. Lawrence F. Flick, told is that the American Catholic Historical Association had come into existence at a time when scholarship was ripe for it; that the Association merely needed to do each task which fell within its easily discernible and well-defined field of labour promptly as it came along, to accomplish all that its most ardent friends could expect of it.
P. 8
The Report of the Connecticut Committee on Local Arrangements was then read by the Chairman, Bishop Murray, and was unanimously accepted as read. Among the miscellaneous matters taken up by the Council were the following:–the cooperation of the Association with the six Catholic Historical Societies of the United States and the affiliation of the Catholic Historical Review with the Association.
Pp. 9-10
The next problem taken up by the Council was the affiliation [p.10] between the Association and the Catholic Historical Review. This quarterly periodical was begun in 1915 at the Catholic University of America for the purpose of studying Catholic history of the United States. Under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Guilday, the Review followed faithfully for six years the original lines of its design and kept strictly within the field of Catholic history in this country. With the April, 1921, issue of the Review, the national field was abandoned and the Review entered upon the broader sphere of general Church history. Since that time many of the papers read at the Annual Meetings of the Association have appeared in the Review, and it was the opinion of the Executive Council that if the members of the Association were to receive the Review as part of their membership fee, the Association would benefit by the possession of an official organ. The Executive Council, therefore, at this Meeting, voted unanimously for this affiliation. To secure this, the financial arrangement proposed by the Review, i.e. the augmenting of the annual membership fee and the life membership fee was accepted. The motion passed by the Executive Council was that the annual membership fee be increased to $5 and that the life membership fee be increased to $100. The Association entered into a financial arrangement with the Review upon a basis of $3 for each member, either a life member paying $100 after January 1, 1923, or annual member paying $5 after that same date.
Pp. 26-27
The Annual Business Meeting of the Association was held on Thursday at 3:00p.m., with the President, Dr. Robert Howard Lord, in the chair. The general report for the year was read by the Secretary, Dr. Guilday, and approved. A motion was [p.27] made and passed that the recommendation of the Council regarding the affiliation to the Association of the Catholic Historical Review be accepted.
New Series, Volume IV, Number 1, April 1924
Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting, December 26-29, 1923, Columbus, Ohio
P. 8
….. Dr. Guilday said, in part: “….. It is well known that since 1889, when the reports of the American Historical Association became governmental publications, no papers on political or religious subjects have been given a place in these volumes printed at public expense. This limitation necessary under our form of government influences the choice of papers for the annual meetings of the greater associations.
“The history of the Christian Church can never be ignored. None of us, and especially the members of the American Historical Association or of the other associations meeting at this time, wish to ignore it; and so, when the American Catholic Historical Association came into existence in 1919, at the Cleveland meeting, the presence of the most prominent historical teachers and students in the country gave its founders an encouragement and a stimulus which can scarcely be translated into words. The study of Church history in the past, the grouping together of the membership of all those who are interested as students or teachers in the history of the Church, the bringing of our own Catholic history students into the light and their personal contact with their colleagues in the other local State and Historical Societies or Associations—such is the ideal we have placed before us.
New Series, Volume V, Number 1, April 1925
Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting, December 29-31, 1924, Philadelphia
P. 3
Thirty of these papers have been published in the official organ of the Association, the Catholic Historical Review. It is unnecessary to emphasize the value of this new movement in the intellectual life of the Church in the United States.
P. 9
During the year the Secretary of the Association published at the expense of one of the members a brochure on the Association, entitled A Chronicle of the First Five Year (1919-1924). This pamphlet contains an account of the founding of our organization, a statement of the mutual relations between the Association and the American Historical Association, the place of our Association in the active group of Catholic historical societies devoted to American Church history, a list of all the papers read at the last four Annual Meetings, and other necessary information.
The object of the American Catholic Historical Association is the promotion of historical studies and historical research in the field of general Catholic history. Its purpose is to incorporate under one head all those ecclesiastics and layman who are seeking to spread among Americans of all creeds a more profound knowledge of Church history and an increased spirit of veneration for the great past of the Church.
New Series, Volume VI, Number 1, April 1926
(nothing to report)
New Series, Volume VII, Number 1, April 1927
Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, December 27-28, 1926, Philadelphia
P. 19
It was quite obvious at the outset that the organization of the American Catholic Historical Association would appear to some to be unnecessary, owing to the existence of this historical group [i.e., American Historical Association], national in name and devoted for so many years past to the progress of historical study in the United States. This delicate problem the founders of the new association met quite openly and honestly at Cleveland, 1919.
Pp. 23-24
Over half of these papers have appeared in the Catholic Historical Review, the official organ of the [p.24] Association….
P. 25
It may be well, before glancing into the future, to stress the fact that the American Catholic Historical Association is the only society in the world founded by Catholic devoting itself exclusively to the study of general or world-wide Church history.
New Series, Volume VIII, April 1928, Number 1
Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1927, Washington, D.C.
Pp. 3-4
These papers which make up the contents of this issue of the Catholic Historical Review, had as their general theme the historical development of the Church’s attitude toward some of the principal intellectual problems of the present day—higher education institutions for the Catholic clergy; the history of [p.4] scholastic philosophy in Catholic schools; the position taken by the Church toward freedom of thought and speech; …..
P. 10
The American Catholic Historical Association may not fulfill its purpose, if it strives to become a popular organization. ….. That ideal [i.e., the ideal of the ACHA] is higher historical scholarship, profound historical research, the objective presentation of historical truth, and a calm dispassionate study of the Church’s greatest past.
P. 11
An Institute of Historical Research, situated near the new magnificent Mullen Memorial Library which will soon be opened at the Catholic University of America, and within such a reasonable distance of the Library of Congress, is the ideal which should occupy a dominant place in the minds of all the members of the Association
Such an Institute, properly equipped and endowed, would focus the attention of Catholic and non-Catholic alike upon the preeminent place which must always be accorded to the history of Catholicism in the world. It would be the home of the Association and its official organ, the Catholic Historical Review. It would be a Mecca for visiting scholars from all parts of the world.
Volume XV (N.S. IX) Number 1, April 1929
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting, December 27-31, 1928, Indianapolis
P. 5
Dr. Guilday said, in part:
…..Over half of these papers have appeared in print, most of them in the pages of our official quarterly, the Catholic Historical Review.
The founders of the Association had several purposes in mind when they decided to create this learned society. Among these were the following: (1) the recognition that in English-speaking lands the great terrain of misunderstanding and controversy between Catholics and non-Catholics has ever been the field of history; (2) the desire to create one central organization for the historical activities of all Catholics, cleric and lay, in the United States; (3) the increase of knowledge in the historical past of the Church among Catholics and no-Catholics by publishing the results of the individual scholar’s study; and (4) the mutual help and encouragement Catholics and non-Catholic scholar would receive from these annual gatherings where all can meet under the aegis of history and find common grounds for respect, reverence and esteem for the great Mother Church of the ages.
P. 6
There are many national Catholic learned societies centred [sic] in the University, and as a sign of the sincere interest in our own work, you should know that as soon as the magnificent new Mullen Library was opened, the present Rector, Monsignor Ryan, set aside one of the most spacious rooms as the permanent headquarters of our Association.
Those who remember the resolution taken at our last Annual Business Meeting will not relinquish their hope that out of these permanent headquarters will one day from the Institute of Historical Research which was projected at that time.
P. 7
Such an Institute, properly equipped and endowed would focus the attention of Catholic and non-Catholic alike upon the preeminent place which must always be accorded to the history of Catholicism in the world. It would be the home of the Association and of its official organ, the Catholic Historical Review. It would be a mecca [sic] for visiting scholars from all parts of the world.
Volume XVI, (N.S. X), Number 1, April 1930
The Tenth Annual Meeting, December 27-28, 1929, Washington, D.C.
P. 30
Our annual meetings have been held in such widely separated cities.… Over 125 papers have been read at these meetings, …. More than half of these essays have appeared in print, most of them in the pages of our official quarterly, the Catholic Historical Review.
P. 35
There is no doubt that the moment has come in the life of the Association to secure if possible a notable increase in our membership. The success of the past ten years warrants our making a nation-wide appeal for the adhesion of students, teachers and educational institutions to our ranks. The growth since 1919 has been steady, and to some extent, a satisfactory one, since from the start we have followed a conservative policy in choosing those whom we wished to have with us. In view of the new project which has been entrusted to the Association, we must depend upon a much larger representation, in order that there may be no hampering of our activities. The ideal membership would be one sufficiently large to endow the Publications of the Association and a series of reprints of old Catholic books and translations of the best European historical works, as well as to endow the Catholic Historical Review and an annual volume of Papers and Proceedings of the Association.
Volume XVII, (N.S. XI), Number 1, April 1931
Eleventh Annual Meeting, December 28-31, 1930, Boston
P. 46
The problems we faced at our foundation in 1919 are practically the same as those we are meeting today. Our aims have not become more definite, or that has hardly been necessary. Our purpose is to make the Church better known by stimulating study and research in our own ranks and by defending the historical past of the Catholic Faith from unworthy or unskilled opponents.
P. 47
The Catholic Historical Review has been the official organ of the Association since 1922. Under the former editor, the Rev. Patrick W. Browne, our relations with the administration of the Review were all that could be desired. Two years ago when Dr. Browne was obliged to relinquish his post on account of ill-health, Monsignor Ryan, the Rector of the University, placed the editorial management in the hands of three officers of the Association: Drs. Stock, Stratemeier, and Guilday; so that in the full meaning of the word, the Review is the official organ of the Association. Its editors have, however, considered for some time the advisability of choosing form out the membership an Advisory Board for the double purpose of bringing the Review and the Association into closer relationship and of obtaining, as occasion requires, assistance in determining the policy of the Review.
P. 48
The outstanding aim of the Association is to do its share impartially and whole-heartedly in creating and in augmenting a love for the history of the Catholic Church of this and other lands.
Volume XVIII, (N.S. XII), Number 1, April 1932
Twelfth Annual Meeting, December 27-30, 1931, Minneapolis
P. 80
The secretary was instructed to place on the minutes of the meeting a resolution of thanks to the administration of the Catholic Historical Review for its cooperation with the Association during this past year.
P. 89
It must be remembered that the main purpose in founding the Association in 1919 was to create at the University a central bureau of information for all, teachers, students, and writers, interested in the history of the Catholic Church throughout the world.
P. 95
The next matter discussed was the cost of production [of the CHR]. Experiments in economy were being tried both by the American Historical Review and by Speculum, but it was agreed that even a change of printers was no guarantee of permanent economy, since the new printer could always raise the price. The general experience was that it costs about $6.00 a page to produce an historical review.
Volume XIX, (N.S. XIII), Number 1, April 1933
Thirteenth Annual Meeting, December 26-29, 1932, Toronto
P. 58
4. Report of the Committee on Publications (Leo F. Stock, Ph.D., chairman):
Your Committee respectfully submit [sic] the following report for the year 1932:
Three projects have been successfully sponsored by the Association:
The Catholic Historical Review, official organ of the Association, will with the January issue, have completed its eighteenth year. We take pride in asserting that never has it reached a higher level of scholarship than at present.
Volume XX, (N.S. XIV), Number 1, April 1934
Fourteenth Annual Meeting, December 28 and 29, 1933, Pittsburgh
Pp. 45-46
All the local Catholic historical societies in the United States had made a notable advance in arousing this nation-wide interest in the [p.46] Catholic history of the United States by the year 191, when a group of scholars met at Cleveland to found this Association, the object of which was to be the broader, the world-wide field of the Catholic history of all lands, of all times, and of all aspects of the historical Catholic past.
The Association is now entering upon its fifteenth year of service to the increase and diffusion of historical knowledge. Our annual meetings during that period have shown a marked advance in the scope of the work we set out to accomplish in 1919. Over one hundred and fifty papers by Catholic and non-Catholic scholars have been read in these annual assemblies, and most of these have been published in the official organ of the Association—the Catholic Historical Review.
P. 47
Our relations with the Catholic Historical Review continue to be satisfactory.
Volume XXI, (N.S. XV), Number 1, April 1935
Fifteenth Annual Meeting, December 26-29, 1934, Washington
P. 67
The founders of the American Catholic Historical Association had several purposes in mind when they formed themselves into an organization: first, the recognition that in English-speaking lands a great field of misunderstanding and consequent controversy between Catholics and non-Catholics has been and is the field of history; second, the desire to have one central organization for the historical activities of all Catholics, cleric and lay, in the United States; third, the increase of knowledge in the historical past of the Church both among Catholics and non-Catholics; and fourth: the mutual help and encouragement Catholic and non-Catholic scholars would receive from these annual gatherings where all may meet under the aegis of history and find common ground for respect, one for another, and esteem for the Catholic Church.
Scarcely any phase of the historical past of the Church has been overlooked. ….. More than half of all these 175 essays have been printed in the official organ of the Association, the Catholic Historical Review.
The record for a society so young and occupying such an important field is surely a favorable one. The Association has proved both its necessity and its value as an agency in the promotion of historical truth. Its leaders indeed may be numbered among the filii lucis of this generation. They have carried to men and women of all creeds the light, showing both the truth and the importance of Catholic Church history.
P. 78
Since a greater number of these historical papers has been printed in the Catholic Historical Review, which since 1922 has been the official organ of the Association, I gladly take this opportunity of offering our gratitude to its former Editor, Rev. Dr. Patrick W. Browne of the Catholic University of America….
Volume XXII, (N.S. XVI), Number 1, April 1936
Sixteenth Annual Meeting, December 26-28, 1935, Boston
P. 45
Report of the Committee on Publications (dr. Leo F. Stock):
In addition to the Catholic Historical Review the Association’s publications fall into two series: Papers and Documents.
P. 50
Into that experience goes the vivid memories of the sessions of the American Historical Association which I attended from 1914 to 1919, when the best historical scholars of the country, among them a grand old man who is held in affectionate regard by all of us—Professor Charles Homer Haskins of Harvard University, advised me that the only way to meet the disadvantages which lay heavily on the diffusion of historical knowledge about the past of the Catholic Church was to form our own Association.
This we did in 1919. ….. The main purpose of our Association was to create a bridge between Catholic and non-Catholic historical scholars, and the future annalist of our society will be enabled, out of our own archival records, to write eloquently of the unfailing courtesy and cooperation we have received from the members of these other groups, in no way devoted to Catholic Church history.
Volume XXIII, (N.S. XVII), Number 1, April 1937
Seventeenth Annual Meeting, December 29-31, 1936, Providence, Rhode Island
P. 51
Our relations with the Catholic Historical Review, the official organ of the Association, have been all that could be desired.
P. 54
To these publications should be added the Catholic Historical Review, founded at the Catholic University of America in 1915 for the express purpose of creating a wider interest in our American Catholic past…..
P. 59
The founding of the American Church History Seminar and the Catholic Historical Review at the Catholic University of America in 1914-1915, though too close to our own day to be given a proper evaluation, may be taken as a further step in the advancement of scientific study and research in the field of American Catholic history, “The time has come,” wrote Bishop Shahan who founded the Review, “in the development of Catholicity in the United States when it should be represented by a publication, national in scope and character, on a scale corresponding to the importance which Catholicity has assumed in the life of the nation.”
Volume XXIV, (N.S. XVIII), Number 1, April 1938
Eighteenth Annual Meeting, December 29-31, 1937, Philadelphia
P. 62
The Catholic Historical Review, our official organ, has, we think, been somewhat improved in content, by an attempted reorganization of editorial jurisdiction which, if followed, will result not only in greater efficiency but particularly in the quality and variety of the various departments.
Volume XXV, (N.S. XIX), Number 1, April 1939
Nineteenth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1938, Chicago
P. 62
2. Report of the Committee on Publications (Dr. Leo F. Stock):
The Committee on publications respectfully submits the following report.
The Catholic Historical Review will begin, with the April, 1939, issue, its 25th volume. It is not to be expected that the management of our quarterly should be beyond criticism, or that the result should meet perfectly the needs and expectations of all classes or our readers.
During the next four years the Review had gained so many readers throughout the country that a decision was reached to establish an association for the purpose of creating a wider and deeper interest in the study of Catholic Church history in general and of the United States in particular.
Volume XXVI, (N.S. XX), Number 1, April 1940
Twentieth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1939, Washington, D.C.
P. 82
2. Report of the Committee on Publications (Dr. Leo F. Stock)
For the benefit of new members as well as to recall the facts to the older members, it should be stated that the Association sponsors three publications: (1) The Catholic Historical Review which, issued to members in April, July, October, and January, is the official organ of the Association;…..
Volume XXVII, Number 1, April 1941
Twenty-first Annual Meeting, December 27-30, 1940, New York City
[nothing to report]
Volume XXVIII, Number 1, April 1942
Twenty-second Annual Meeting, December 29-31, 1941,Chicago
P. 71
The regular meeting of the Executive Council convened at nine o’clock on the first morning, Monday, December 29. To that body was read the following letter of Monsignor Guilday, Secretary of the Association:
To the Officers and Members of the Executive Council:
Twenty-two years ago, on December 30, 1919, in response to an invitation which I sent out to prominent Catholic writers in the field of history, some sixty priests, nuns, and members of the laity met at Cleveland, Ohio and founded the American Catholic Historical Association.
The main purpose of the Association has been to create and sustain a nation-wide interest in Catholic Church history. ….. The Catholic Historical Review, the official organ of the Association, is accepted by scholars as one of the foremost quarterlies in the country.
Volume XXIX, Number 1, April 1943
Twenty-third Annual Meeting, January 16, 1943, Washington, D.C.
P. 69
When Monsignor Guilday made his address at the inaugural session of this Association in Cleveland on December 30, 1919, he spoke to a barely fifty people who had answered the call for the formation of a Catholic historical society.
P. 71
I should like to report to you the status of our journal, the Catholic Historical Review. I am happy to tell you that the books of the journal were audited, and Father Magner, Secretary-Treasurer of the Review, reported at the quarterly meeting of the editorial board on October 21, 1942, that our year’s business closed with a cash balance of $330.
Volume XXX, Number 1, April 1944
Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting, December 29-30, 1943, New York City
P. 45
The news on the Catholic Historical Review, official organ of the Association, is good.
P. 46
Of the fifteen articles and contributions to the miscellany section of the Review published during the last calendar year, only three were papers read, or intended to be read, at annual meetings. This speaks well for the independent contributions submitted apart from papers read at the annual meetings.
Volume XXXI, Number 1, April 1945
Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-29, 1944, Chicago
P. 85
Report of the Secretary:
A distinctly Catholic organization with the definite object of promoting interest in Catholic history both in this and other lands, of this and other ages, seems necessary, if the Church is to be recognized in her true position as the sacred and perpetual mother of all that is best and holiest in modern civilization.1
With these words at the first session of the American Catholic Historical Association in Cleveland twenty-five years ago this coming Saturday, Monsignor Guilday launched the project which fifty some responsive Catholic historians took up at that inaugural meeting and within the following year made a reality.
P. 86
It would be overlooking, too, a real debt of gratitude if I were to omit the names of the two faithful and ever-helpful associate editors of the Catholic Historical Review. If your official organ meets in any way your critical and scholarly appreciation, you owe it in good measure to…..
The American Catholic Historical Association: A Survey of Twenty-five Years
p. 391
In this connection it is good to remember that since 1921 the Catholic Historical Review has been the organ of the Association. Before that date the Review was exclusively for writings on American church history. With its new relationship it made itself available for the papers of the Association. This, of course, notably increased the association’s power to attract writers in our field and has enhanced its ability to carry on as an outlet for historiographical talent.
Volume XXXII, Number 1, April 1946
Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, December 15, 1945, Washington, D.C.
Report of the Secretary [pp.62-68]
P. 60
Disbursements:
Office Expenses:
Rent of office space and telephone service $75
Supplies and service $105.82
Secretary – Salary $835.72
Pp. 66-67
The second major item in our report concerns the Catholic Historical Review, the official organ of the Association.
In my letter of December 1, which gave notice of this meeting today, I spoke of a deficit in the operating expenses of the Review which had been met by the Catholic University of America. The two prin-[p.67]cipal items which have caused this annual deficit during the past two years have been rising costs of printing and the necessity of a higher salary for the office of secretary. By cutting the number of pages to a limit of 128 per issue and by having the Association increase from 60c to 80c per quarter the amount paid to the Review from the annual dues of the members, we have been able to reduce the deficit considerably and we hope that we may soon arrive at a point where the Review may be able to put itself on a self-sustaining basis. I wished to describe this situation in some detail so that you will know the reason why the Review has been reduced in size during the last year and also why a larger share of your annual dues had been taken by the Review.
Volume XXXIII, Number 1, April 1947
Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting, December 27-29, 1946, New York City
Report of the Secretary [pp.35-42]
P. 40
The second principal matter of business for the secretary to report to you concerns the affairs of our official organ, the Catholic Historical Review. ….. It is well-nigh impossible to keep ahead of the rising cost in printing by a mere increase in subscriptions. We can only hope that we may soon see the end of these increased printing costs so that in future years the Review may be put again on a paying basis. These deficits have been met by the Catholic University of America Press, which publishes our journal, but I know I speak the mind of all of you when I say it is not the whish of the Association to have that burden bourne [sic] by the Press any longer than is absolutely necessary.
P. 41
Space has not been wanting for scholarly articles on the history of the Church or on Catholic subjects in our journal, but there have been all too few who have made any effort to avail themselves of it.
Volume XXXIV, Number 1, April 1948
Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting, December 27-29, 1947, Cleveland
P. 30
Each year the secretary reports to our business meeting the general condition of our quarterly journal, the Catholic Historical Review. A year ago in New York I stated that on October 1, 1946, the deficit in the finances of the Review stood at $145.01. In the intervening months the costs of printing have in no way been reduced; in fact, they have increased.
Volume XXXV, Number 1, April 1949
Twenty-ninth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1948, Washington, D.C.
P. 44
The meeting of the Executive Council of the Association took place on Wednesday afternoon, December 29, when it became the unpleasant duty of the council to raise the annual dues of the members for 1949 to the sum of $7.00 and the registration fee at annual meetings to $1.00. These increases were made with great reluctance, but the council were agreed that there was no alternative in view of the tremendous increases in the cost of printing of the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW with which the Association has been faced during the last year.
P. 51
I wish, indeed, that the secretary might report to you the same cheerful news in regard to our quarterly journal, the CAHTOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW. There has been, unfortunately, no decline in subscriptions apart from membership in the Association. ….. The trouble does not lie, therefore, with declining memberships and subscriptions; it lies rather with the increased costs of printing.
I think it only proper that the fact should be put before you so that you will understand the reasons when, during the coming year, word will reach you that the annual dies of the Association have been raised. On December 6 of this year Father Magner, treasurer of the REVIEW, reported to Monsignor Cartwright and myself that the printer had informed him that beginning with the issue of October, 1948, the costs of printing the REVIEW would be raised “approximately 18%.” Moreover, he stated that this increase would entail a deficit in the amount of the REVIEW as carried by the Catholic University of America. Father Magner consequently asked us to raise the amount due the REVIEW from each member of the Association from the present 80c per issue, paid since 1945, to the sum of $1.00 per issue. Unless this amount were paid to the REVIEW the University, he said, would be faced with a considerable deficit during the year 1948-1949. While we regretted the necessity of giving over so much of our operating income for the costs of the quarterly journal, we recognize the justice of the request and agreed to the increase.
Although it is to be hoped that the allotting of $4.00 from each member’s annual dues of $5.00 to the REVIEW will meet the threatened deficit in its finances, that increase has now brought an equally serious threat to the Association’s financial security.
P. 52
….. …it is with the greatest reluctance that I must tell you that the Association has had no alternative but to raise the annual dues to $7.00 per member during the coming year. We all earnestly hope that this necessity may prove only temporary in character, but the present trend in the printing industry does not give us much reason for optimism.
Volume XXXVI, Number 1, April 1950
Thirtieth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1949, Boston
P. 36 Report of the Secretary
For the first time since I have had the honor of serving as your secretary I am compelled to report a drop in the Association’s membership. At Washington on December 29, 1949, the treasurer, Monsignor Cartwright, informed the Executive Council of a serious decline in income due to the exceedingly high costs of printing the Catholic Historical Review. It was decided by the council at that time that the situation necessitated a raise from $5.00 to $7.00 in the annual dues and a raise from 50c to $1.00 for registration at the annual meetings. As I said in my report of the meeting for 1949, published in the April, 1949, issue of the Review, this change was made with great reluctance, but it was the consensus of the council that that until the printing costs would show a decrease there was no other alternative for keeping the finances of the Association on a sound basis. ….. Thus while we lost in membership we have gained in revenue and we will hope that the day is not far distant when we can return to the former figure of $5.00 a year for dues which the Association established at the beginning of its life.
Pp. 40-41
In my report of a year ago I explained the manner in which the finances of our quarterly journal were conducted and I shall not, therefore, repeat here what was published in the April 1949, issue of the Review (pp. 51-52). I am happy to say that while the income from the Review is still not good as we would like to see it, the accounts of the journal were closed for the year on June 30, 1949, with a surplus of $296.25 which was due, of course, to the increased revenue which the Association was able to give to the Review form the individual members’ fee. As to the distribution of the journal we have at present a total of 438 subscriptions, 124 exchanges, and 843 who get the Review through their membership dues. ….. [p.41] I might say that some of our members in dropping out of the Association entered a subscription to the Review and these doubtless account for quite a number among the increased subscriptions.
Volume XXXVII, Number 1, April 1951
Thirtieth-first Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1950, Chicago
Report of the Secretary
P. 28
The gains which the Association has made over the last decade can best be appreciated if I tell you that on December 15, 1940, the total number of members reported was 690 whereas today we have 859 members. This increase of 169 marks a solid advance and it is balanced by the fact that in 1942—the first year of the decade for which we have exact statistics—the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVEW had 276 subscribers whereas today it has 446, a gain of 170. When we total the members with those who are only subscribers to the REVIEW and then add the 130 exchanges it means that our quarterly journal is not reaching an all-time high of 1,435 persons and institutions. It is not yet all that we might wish for it, but I think you will be gratified to learn that we are not only holding our own but gaining some ground each year.
P. 32
The affairs of the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW are, I am glad to say, likewise in good condition. We have overcome the deficit of last year and are now able to pay our own way as we go with a very slight margin. Printing costs are still ruinously high and for that reason there is no immediate prospect of reducing the dues to the old figure of $5.00 a year or moving the subscription rate back to $4.00 annually; but we have not forgotten the promise mad e a year ago to do that as soon as circumstances permit. If we but had the necessary funds we could, for example, launch a work which cries out to be done by a groups such as our own, namely, to supervise and install markers at some of the chief sites of American Catholic history….
Volume XXXVIII, Number 1, April 1952
Thirtieth-second Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1951, New York City
Report of the Secretary
P. 34
I am happy to say that the affairs of our quarterly journal the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, have also gone well during 1951 in spite of the continuing high costs of printing and other handicaps. We have today 451 subscribers to the REVIEW, apart from those who receive it as members of the Association, and this figure is five above last year’s total of 446.
Volume XXXIX, Number 1, April 1953
Thirtieth-third Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1952, Washington, D.C.
Report of the Secretary
P. 46
During the course of 1952 the list of subscribers to the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW who do not, however, hold membership in the Association, was increased by over four last year’s figure to a present total of 455, and the number of exchanges between the REVIEW and other journals was increased by eight to a total of 142.
, Number 1, April 1954
Thirtieth-fourth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1953, Chicago
P. 61
During the past year the number of institutions and individuals who subscribe to the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW—apart from the members of the Association—came out to the same total as that of the 1952 figure, namely, 455. ….. The addition of members, subscribers, and exchanges brings a grand total of 1,610, to whom our quarterly journal now goes out, an increase of 111 over 1,499 reported in December, 1952.
Volume 41, Number 1, April 1955
Thirtieth-fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1954, Washington, D.C.
P. 24
It remains, nonetheless, a pathetic fact that a national society such as ours can draw only about 150 people to an annual meeting, and that efforts to enlist the membership of even a number of professional Catholic historians in some of our universities, colleges and seminaries has met with no success.
Volume 42, Number 1, April 1956
Thirtieth-sixth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1955, Washington, D.C.
Pp. 1-14
“The Catholic Historical Review—Forty Years” by Carl Wittke [Dean of the Graduate School of Western Reserve University]
[N.B.The full text is an additional attachment.]
P. 3
Still another reason for launching the new enterprise undoubtedly was a desire to add to the intellectual reputation and stature of American Catholicism, to promote sounder scholarship, and to help destroy what leading American Catholics have termed “the ghetto mentality” of inferiority and isolation prevalent for a long time among so many of their religionists.
P. 7
With the passing years the REVIEW steadily expanded its scope of interest. The American Catholic Historical Association was organized in Cleveland in 1919, at the time of the annual convention of the American Historical Association. … Once again, Peter Guilday was the driving force which brought the new organization to life. The Association made the REVIEW its official organ, and beginning with 1921, Volume VII, the journal widened its scope of interest to include the history of the Church throughout the world.
The policy of accepting papers, read at Association meetings, practically automatically for publication in the REVIEW, came to an end in 1941, largely because too many were of inferior quality. Since that time they have been accepted only if the editorial staff of the REVIEW regarded them as of superior merit.
Pp. 61-62
Matters have also gone well for our quarterly journal during the past year with the subscriptions having increased from 477 in 1954 to our current total of 496. … The CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW is now going out to 1.625 persons and institutions, an over-all increase of 417 from the 1,208 reported to you ten years ago this time. ….. This year marked an improvement in quality of the articles submitted, and it was by reason of the exceedingly cramped space of 128 pages per issue—to which we must adhere for financial reasons—that we were compelled to decline several good articles….
I do not wish to burden you with too many statistics, but I am anxious that you should have in your possession some facts to illustrate how the rise in prices has effected the operation of the Association and its quarterly journal during the past five years. I shall confine myself to two brief sets of figures: first, the printing costs for the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW from 1952 up to and including 1955; second, the expenses incurred by the annual meetings, the chief item of which, it should be noted, is again for printing. The annual printing bills for the REVIEW during the past five years have been as follows:
1951 … $4,358.58
1952 … $4,606.71
1953 … $4,902.57
1954 … $5,001.93
1955 … $5,160.17
In other words, the Association has paid out in five years the sum of $24,029.96 for the printing of its quarterly with the costs rising steadily to the point where for 1955 it cost over $800 more than it did in 1951 [p.62] for printing exactly the same sized journal.
The full text is reproduced below.
Volume 43, Number 1, April 1957
Thirtieth-seventh Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1956, St. Louis
P. 55
Insofar as the fortune of the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW during the 1956 is concerned it has been on the whole a good one, although the ominous shadow of rising printing costs and other expenses—reflected in the report of Monsignor Cartwright our treasurer—leaves little room for complacency. ….. The costs of printing the REVIEW continue to be our principal worry and, in fact, the issue of October, 1956, brought the highest figure that I can recall: $1,349.83. Just where we will end if this trend continues, I hesitate to say. Bust at present time we are solvent, thank God, and we will hope that increased support from new members and subscribers during 1957 may carry us over without the necessity of having to raise the annual dues again.
Volume 44, Number 1, April 1958
Thirtieth-eighth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1957, New York City
P. 25
In regard to our quarterly journal, I am happy to tell you that 1957 has witnessed a rather notable gain in subscriptions.
Volume 45, Number 1, April 1959
Thirtieth-ninth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1958, Washington, D.C.
P. 36
On the whole the affairs of the Association’s quarterly journal have likewise gone well over the past twelve months.
Volume 46, Number 1, April 1960
Fortieth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1959, Chicago
P. 40
Let me say a few words about the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, our official organ….
Volume 47, Number 1, April 1961
Forty-first Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1960, New York City
P. 21
Report of the Secretary:–
This is the twentieth time that I have come before the Association’s annual business meeting to report upon its affairs. In these reports I have pictured the situation of the membership, quarterly journal, and the activities of various committees in terms of statistics. …. And the pertinence of this remark was brought home to me about the same time when Mrs. Carney, our devoted office secretary, once more told me of her lurking suspicion that a careful audit would uncover a discrepancy in our membership lists. I promised her that early in the new year I would—at long last—heed her plea and assist her in this audit so that the statistics that are presented hereafter will be incapable of proving something that “isn’t true.” But even Mrs. Carney admits that we are not very far from the correct totals in the statistics that I am presenting to you here today….
P. 25
In regard to our quarterly journal….
Volume 48, Number 1, April 1962
Forty-second Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1961
P. 64
It has long been Monsignor Ellis’ custom to include in the annual report some data pertaining to the Association’s official organ, the CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, of which he remains managing editor. I have obtained form him, therefore, the following information, which, we hope, will please the subscribers.
Volume 49, Number 1, April 1963
Forty-third Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1962
P. 80
Advances may be noted also in regard to the Association’s official organ, the Catholic Historical Review.
Volume 50, Number 1, April 1964
Forty-fourth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1963
P. 64
If we were to seek the cause of this decrease in our rolls, I would admit that the fee for membership may be a deterrent, but I would not attribute much influence to the raising of the annual dues by two dollars two and a half years ago.
P. 65
At this point it had been the custom to insert into the annual Report of the secretary some data relating to the Association’s official organ, the Catholic Historical Review.
Volume 51, Number 1, April 1965
Forty-fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1964, Washington, D.C.
P. 57
The last area in which I shall point to progress realized during the past year is that of the Association’s official organ, The Catholic Historical Review.
Volume 52, Number 1, April 1966
Forty-sixth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1965, San Francisco
P. 98
It has been the custom to join to the report of the secretary a few facts about the Association’s official organ, the Catholic Historical Review. ….. The added expense for the fold band on the cover and the ninety-six additional pages in the January issue were borne by the Catholic University of America Press.
Volume 53, Number 1, April 1967
Forty-seventh Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1966, New York City
P. 85
To lighten my burden of my editorial work for the Catholic Historical Review, the administration of the Catholic University of America had assigned me a graduate assistant, Mr. John Quentin Feller, who is a doctoral candidate in history.
Following an old custom, I would like to subjoin a brief report on the Association’s official organ, the Catholic Historical Review.
Volume 54, Number 1, April 1968
Forty-eighth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1967, Toronto
P. 97
The Association is also exerting its elevating influence on the world of learning through its official organ, the Catholic Historical Review.
Volume 55, Number 1, April 1969
Forty-ninth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1968, [Chicago], New York City
P. 55
In spite of these cheering signs, however, maintaining our membership continues to be a serious problem. We have not ceased to cast our net far and wide.
P. 58
The rest of this report I shall devote to the Association’s official organ, the Catholic Historical Review.
P. 60
To the current Volume LIV we have had the financial means to add 120 pages. Eighty of these were made possible by the subvention of the Catholic University of America, but no further help can be expected from this source. The other forty pages were paid for by the contributions which we solicited from the members.
P. 61
When the fee for annual dues was increased from nine dollars to ten by action of the Executive Committee last year, and the rate for direct subscribers was correspondingly increased, it was hoped that a sufficient surplus would be realized to permit a modest expansion of the journal. In the meantime, however, the costs of printing have continued to rise so steeply that we cannot afford any change in the present number of pages our of the budget of the Review.
Volume 56, Number 1, April 1970
Fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1969, Washington, D.C.
P. 95
Professor Byrnes [president of the ACHA in 1961] also made concrete suggestions regarding the Association’s organ [The Catholic Historical Review]. The structure of the annual meeting, regional meetings, sponsorships of research, and contact with other American and foreign scholars.
Pp. 105-106
As we celebrate at this meeting the fiftieth of the founding of the American Catholic Historical Association,2 we try to imagine the group of some fifty American Catholics who heeded Peter Guilday’s in-[p.106]vitation by going to Cleveland during Christmas Week of 1919 and heard his presentation of the need of a “distinctly Catholic organization with the definite object of promoting interest in Catholic history both in this and other lands, of this and other ages.”3
Moved by the young scholar’s fervent rhetorical and induced by his persuasive reasoning, the found fathers adopted a constitution of which the second article read: “The object of this Association shall be to promote study and research in the field of Catholic history.” A little later Father Guilday, who at first was archivist of the Association but soon became secretary, explained its purpose in these words: “It set out to incorporate under one head all those ecclesiastics and laymen who are seeking to spread among Americans of all creeds a more profound knowledge of church history and an increased spirit of veneration for the great past of our Faith.”4
P. 108
It speaks poorly of the enthusiasm and consciousness which Jameson mentioned to admit that the membership had never approached the figures he envisioned. It came close in 1961, when I reported a total of 1,333. The reason for our failing so short of the mark set by our mentor is not that the Association has failed to enroll enough new members byt rather that it has failed to keep enough of them on its rolls. … Even allowing for necessary resignations and additional deaths, we would still have nearly three thousand members today.
P. 112
Turning now to the Association’s official organ, I would like to point out that the current volume that the current volume, which will be completed with the January issue, will contain 736 pages plus the annual index, or 128 more than are provided for by our budget. … We owe this expansion solely to the generosity of those who have been able to show in a material way their appreciation of the journal.
The Executive Council has appropriated a subsidy to make the April issue commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association.
Volume 57, Number 1, April 1971
Fifth-first Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1970, Boston
P. 53
In contrast to the fluctuating membership of the Association, the number of direct subscribers to the Catholic Historical Review has steadily mounted over the years.
Volume 58, Number 1, April 1972
Fifth-second Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1971, New York City
P. 78
Passing now from the Association to its official organ, I can submit a more consistently cheering report. ….. Hence, we now have 2,121 paid subscriptions.
P. 79
I invited these persons to become direct subscribers to the Review rather than members of the Association not because I thought that they would be more favorably impressed by the subscription rate of nine dollars than by the membership fee of ten, but because I believed that some would be more willing to pay for a learned journal than to support an association; I hope, however, that eventually those who have responded to my letter will convert their direct subscriptions into memberships.
P. 80
We have been enabled to publish such an extraordinary number of reviews this year by the addition of 130 pages to the 608 …. Provided for in the budget of the Catholic University of America Press.
Volume 59, Number 1, April 1973
Fifth-third Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1972, New Orleans
P. 49
Now we pass directly to the related figures of the Association’s organ, the Catholic Historical Review. The number of direct subscribers—mostly institutions and libraries—is 1,033.
Volume 60, Number 1, April 1974
Fifth-fourth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1973, San Francisco
P. 77
The Association’s regularly publishing activity, the Catholic Historical Review, has had a prosperous year. More than $3,600 dollars were contributed for the expansion of the four issues and for the dedication of the July issue to Reverend Monsignor Francis Dvornik.
Volume 61, Number 2, April 1975 [change in the volume numbering]
Fifth-fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1974, Chicago
P. 256
We hope that our membership will not be adversely affected by the increase in the dues that the higher cost of printing the Catholic Historical Review has necessitated and the Executive Council has ordered. Beginning in January, 1975, members will pay only $22.50 more per year, while the Association will pay $2.10 more for their subscription to the journal.
Volume 62, Number 2, April 1976
Fifth-sixth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1975, Atlanta
P. 256
Turning now to the Catholic Historical Review, we must add the direct subscribers to the current members of the Association to arrive at the paid circulation … stood at 1,952 on that date [October 1].
Volume 63, Number 2, April 1977
Fifth-seventh Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1976, Washington, D.C.
P. 262
For the Association’s official journal this year has been marked by an expansion in size effected mainly in the special issue for the Bicentennial….
Volume 64, Number 2, April 1978
Fifth-eighth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1977, Dallas
P. 225
The Association’s journal for 1977 has not equaled in length the exceptional volume published in the Bicentennial year, but it does exceed by eighty pages the 608 allowed by our budget (plus the introductory matter and the annual index). The addition of these pages had been made possible by the donations, large and small, of numerous persons4 whom I would lie to assure of our cordial thanks.
Volume 65, Number 2, April 1979
Fifth-ninth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1978, San Francisco
P. 264
In addition to the three members who have died, six have resigned and 109 have failed to pay the annual dues. These numbers again demonstrate that inducing persons to become members is only half of the task; retaining them in the Association is equally difficult. Hence, we beg all, whether they are recently enrolled or long standing, to suggest fresh ways in which the Association can serve its members. … We trust that the unavoidable increase of the annual fee for membership from $12.50 to $15.00, which goes into effect for those who receive invoices in the current quarter, will not adversely affect our roles, especially since a reduced fee ($10.00) has been set for retired persons who have been members for at least twenty consecutive years.
P. 265
More than sixty-three members of the Association5 during this year have made contributions of various sizes toward the expansion of the journal, the Catholic Historical Review.
P. 267
In addition to the members of the Association, 950 institutions or individuals this year have subscriptions to the Review for which they pay the Catholic University of America Press either directly or through agencies. Thus we have a total paid circulation of 2,075, or seventy-three more than were reported a year ago. ….. The editors wish to acknowledge most gratefully the continued support of the Catholic University Press of America, which has once again provided the necessary subsidy.
Volume 66, Number 2, April 1980
Sixtieth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1979, New York City
P. 240
Perhaps in the past twelve months the rise in the membership fee from $12.50 to $15.00 accounts for some of the failures to remain in the Association.
P. 241
Turning now to the Association’s journal, I first would like to draw your attention to the fact…. This expansion of seventeen percent was made possible by contributions amounting o a total of $3,054.50.
Volume 67, Number 2, April 1981
Sixty-first Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1980, Washington, D.C.
Pp. 265-266
On the other hand, we have lost more members than we have gained. ….. This decrease is undeni[p.266]ably an unhealthy sign which should impel us to apply a prompt and effective remedy. We can only hope that the increase in the membership fees which was necessitated mainly by the rising cost of printing the journal and which has gone into effect for those whose membership is renewable in January, 1981, will not cause a serious complication in the Association’s condition.
Supporting a more positive prognosis is another vital function in which many members of the Association, namely, the production of its quarterly journal. ….. This abundance of reviews has been made possible in 1980 by the addition of 112 pages to the 608 provided for in our budget, and this expansion in turn is due to the generosity of our members who have contributed a total of $2,824 in individual amounts ranging from five dollars to five hundred dollars.
Volume 68, Number 2, April 1982
Sixty-second Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1981, Los Angeles
P. 276
In the remainder of this report I deal with the Association’s journal.
P. 278
Our total paid circulation, which is determined at the time of our third issue (July), is 1,900…. ….. Thus our total circulation amounts to 2,068. We hope that the recent recruitment of more non-Catholic members will also result in an increase of direct subscriptions from the institutions with which many of them are affiliated.
Volume 69, Number 2, April 1983
Sixty-third Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1982, Washington, D.C.
P. 258
Coming at last to the celebrated “bottom line,” we must subtract the net loss of thirty-five members from the 1,048. It is obvious that to maintain its health, the Association must overcome this anemia in the coming year. The officers and councilors beg all the other members to take part in this endeavor.
The decrease in membership naturally affects also the number of subscriptions tot eh Association’s journal.
P. 259
We can also take pleasure in noting a considerable increase in the amount of money contributed toward the expansion of the Catholic Historical Review. ….. With this money we have added 140 pages to the 608 … provided for in our budget, which is determined by the Catholic University Press of America.
Pp. 259-260
If we consider that the Catholic University of America Press has been charging direct subscribers only sixteen dollars for a volume of more than 630 pages (and [p.260] has been receiving even less after the agencies deduct their discount), we can easily understand that it has invariably suffered a loss for several years. Hence, it has been obliged to raise the subscriptions fee to eighteen dollars per annum. This moderate increment will reduce, but will not eliminate, the deficit; we fear that to set a higher price, however, would drive away some current subscribers and deter many prospective ones. Even the new rate is still exceedingly low for a specialized journal of this size.
Volume 70, Number 2, April 1984
Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1983, San Francisco
P. 274
The Association continues to ne made present both to outsiders and to its won members through the Catholic Historical Review as its journal and in turn provides more than half of the latter’s subscribers. In addition to the 1,052 members, there are 881 direct subscriptions …, making a total of 1,933 paid subscriptions.
Volume 71, Number 2, April 1985
Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1984, Chicago
P. 271
Many members of the Association have also helped to produce the current volume (LXX) [sic] of its journal by their writing. ….. Members of the Association6 have also contributed much of the money that we have collected for the purpose of expanding the Catholic Historical Review….
P. 272
Since the publisher, the Catholic University of America Press, however, had to absorb the deficit of $5,542.64 for the fiscal year that ended on August 31, and since the expenses, not only for printing but also for the Review’s half of the salary in the editorial office, will rise next year, it had been deemed necessary to increase the subscription rate. The increment, however, is so modest—only two dollars—that it is not likely to have an adverse effect on the circulation. The Catholic University, of course, also supports the Review in other ways for which no monetary value is calculated, particularly by the provision of office space and by the reduction of the teaching obligations of the editor and the junior associate editor. Unfortunately, because of extensive alterations being carried out in Mullen Memorial Library, we have had to vacate the room (305) in the southwest corner of the third floor that the Review and Association occupied since the building was erected in 1928. Just last week we moved the office to rooms (318) in the middle of the same floor….
P. 273
Turning now to the treasurer’s work, I am pleased to report that we have ended the year with a small surplus even without counting the income received from our investments…. This favorable outcome is due partly to the rise in the number of members but mainly to the fact that the office secretary receives no salary from the Association. When Miss Wolf retires, however, it will be necessary to revert to the old practice of paying one-half of the secretary’s salary. Furthermore, since the subscription rate of the Association’s journal had been raised by two dollars, we shall have to pay $1.60 more per years for each member, in other words, $16.00 instead of $14.40. For these reasons, as well as increases of other expenses—especially for printed material and postage—the Executive Council has thought it unavoidable to raise the annual dies for the fist time in four years. By making the increment sizable, the Council hopes not only to defray the higher costs of operation but also to preclude the necessity of changing the fee again in the foreseeable future, thus avoiding the annoyance of frequent increases.
Volume 72, Number 2, April 1986
Sixty-sixth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1985, New York City
P. 250
The association’s journal has enjoyed a good year.
P. 252
The association’s financial condition has been improved by the augmentation of the dues…. ….. Next year, however, when it will be necessary to pay the association’s half of the office secretary’s salary for the full twelve months (rather than for only nine and a half, as was the case in 1985) and to pay $17.60 instead of $16.00 for each member’s subscription to the Catholic Historical Review, it will probably be unavoidable to draw more of the income from investments unless the number of members rises notably.
Volume 73, Number 2, April 1987
Sixty-seventh Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1986, Chicago
P. 236
May they enjoy the benefits of membership for many years. In all, there are now seventy life members, of whom fifty-five are individuals and fifteen, unfortunately, are institutions that paid one hundred dollars around 1930, when the officers of the Association apparently wished to build up it investments. It goes without saying that we no longer accept institutions as life members.
P. 237
A major occupation of the Executive Office this yea, besides the regular business, has been the conversion of our membership list to a computer. This step seemed to be necessary, or at least highly desirable, for several reasons.
P. 238
A computer would obviate all these difficulties and in addition would be useful in issuing statements for annual dues, for posting payments, and for preparing the list of new members…. ….. ….I asked the Executive Council by mail to approve the recommended purchase of an IBM PC-XT, model 5160…. ….. in order to pay for the computer system, which in all cost $5,364.40.
P. 239
Eventually we will also enter into the computer the members’ areas of special knowledge in which they are qualified to review books for the Association’s journal.
P. 241
Financially, the Association has not been able to satisfy all its obligations from its cash receipts but has had to draw on the income from its investments. With the consent of the Executive Council, as I mentioned before, in order to purchase the computer system, I redeemed our two certificates of deposit….
We will again count on some of the income from investments to make up for the operational deficit in 1987.
Volume 74, Number 2, April 1988
Sixty-eighth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1987, Washington, D.C.
P. 284
Turning now to the Association’s journal, I can give a gratifying report.
P. 286
From this point on I will speak as treasurer of the Association. The unusually large number of new life memberships which I mentioned before has enabled us to end the year with an operational surplus without having had to use any of the income generated by our investments. If the fees for these life memberships, however, had been added to our investments, as they should have been, we would have ended the year with an operational deficit of $2,615.51. This shortfall could be supplied, of course, from our investment income, but it is not advisable to take from such income more than the equivalent of the annual dues for the life members, which would be approximately $2000. These observations again illustrate the importance of developing the membership in order to raise more funds with which the fixed costs, such as the office secretary’s salary, can be paid.
Volume 75, Number 2, April 1989
Sixty-ninth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1988, Cincinnati
P. 277
Our computer enables us to analyze this total [i.e., membership] by categories.
P. 278
As far as the financial situation of the Association is concerned, I would like to comment on the statement that I have prepared. If we were to rescind from the amounts received and expended for the expansion of the Catholic Historical Review, for which the Association is only the fiduciary, we would perceive more clearly that the revenues from the annual dues and other sources (investments excluded) fall short of the operating expenses by $3,293.74. This deficit is supplied by the income from our investments, and it is proper that we should use $1,925 (or $25.00 for each of the seventy-five life members) for this purpose. The difference between $3,293.74 and $1,925.00, that is $1,368.74, however, suggests that either we must increase our membership substantially or we must increase the dues. The rest of the income from investments should be reinvested in order to provide the means for any new project that Association may wish to undertake.
P. 279
For the Association’s journal this has been a good year.
Volume 76, Number 2, April 1990
Seventieth Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1989, San Francisco
P. 305
Another innovation of this year is the establishment of a new fund named in memory of the late secretary in the executive office of the Association and editorial office of the Catholic Historical Review, Miss Anne M. Wolf. One of her many friends and admirers, the Reverend Carl J. Peters, professor of theology in the Catholic University of America and a life member of the Association, has given in two installments an unrestricted gift of $4,000, and the Executive Council has decided to accept it as a permanent endowment. …..we agreed that the income from the fund should be expended for one or the other two purposes: (1) to fund publication of articles which would exceed the regular annual budget or the Review and (2) to permit acceptance of articles that surpass our normal limit on length by paying for additional pages.
P. 308
As treasurer I cannot present an entirely gratifying report. Because of the decline in over-all membership and the increase in student membership (which is costly to the Association), we received less in annual dues; at the same time the office expenses have increased, mainly through the higher salary paid my secretary. ….. It would not be unreasonable, therefore, to increase the annual dues by five dollars, but we can afford to postpone this disagreeable decision for another year.
P. 309
The third and last part of this report I will devote, as usual, to the Catholic Historical Review.
P. 311
The John D. Lucas Printing Company of Baltimore, which will continue to produce the journal, has engaged a new composition firm, namely, the BG Composition Company of Baltimore, beginning with the forthcoming January issue.
Volume 77, Number 2, April 1991
Seventy-first Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1990, New York City
P. 272
As treasurer, I must point out that although the financial statement for the year ended on December 15 shows a net operational loss of nearly $3,000, the amount is actually twice as large, because the Catholic University of America has not yet bulled the Association for the half of the office secretary’s salary that it must pay. ….. In addition, I must announce that the Catholic University of America Press, which has been incurring considerable losses from the publication of the Catholic Historical Review for several years, has decided to increase the subscription fee from $25 to $30 per year beginning in January, 1992. Even though the Association will continue to be allowed a discount of twenty percent, it will have to pay not $4.00 more for each member’s subscription, but $7.40 more, because by a special concession our price was not changed when the rate for direct subscribers was raised from $22 to $25 three years ago. Fir these reasons, as I hinted in my last report, it became inevitable that the membership fees would have to be increased. The Executive Council at its meeting yesterday took the necessary action… Even the increased revenue we expect from the membership fees will not, of course, make up the entire operational loss, but a higher rise in one step might be counter-productive.
P. 273
Lastly, I would like to report, as usual, on the Association’s journal.
Volume 78, Number 2, April 1992
Seventy-second Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1991, Chicago
P. 245
Turning lastly to our journal, …..
Volume 79, Number 2, April 1993
Seventy-third Annual Meeting, December 28-30, 1992, Washington, D.C.
P. 279
As Treasurer I can report that the increase in the annual dues, which went into effect a year ago, has yielded needed revenues.
P. 280
Out of the thirty dollars received from each ordinary member only six dollars are left after the subscription to the Review is subtracted, and if there are only 950 ordinary members, only $5,700 will be available for other expenses, which this year amounted to $14,414. It will certainly be necessary, therefore, to draw heavily (perhaps $10,000) from Alex. Brown Cash Reserve Fund, Prime Series, in which most of the dividends, interest, and capital gains are invested temporarily.
P. P. 281
Lastly, I will report on the Association’s journal.
Volume 80, Number 2, April 1994
Seventy-fourth Annual Meeting, January 6-9, 1994
P. 308
Turning now to our financial condition, I regret to report that we suffered a net operational loss of $12,187.64…. To meet expenses, I had to withdraw $13,000 from the Alex. Brown Cash Reserve Fund, Prime Series…..
P. 309
Until dues are raised again, we will continue to be obliged to use most of our investment income to support the deficit in our operating budget.
P. 310
The third (last) part of this report is concerned, as usual, with the Association’s journal.
P. 313
The new business manager of the Catholic Historical Review, Mr. Gordon A. Conner, will insert in the January issue the statement of ownership regarding management and circulation required by the United States Postal System of those who use the second-class mailing privilege.
Volume 81, Number 2, April 1995
Seventy-fifth Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 1995
P. 238
As treasurer I have less agreeable results to report. We have suffered an even larger net operational loss than in 1993.
P. 239
It should borne in mind that fewer than one thousand members pay thirty dollars per year, and our expenses for everything other than the subscriptions to the Catholic Historical Review are $21,000. Moreover, beginning next year, the Association will have to pay more to the Catholic University of America Press for each subscription to the Review, because the Press is raising its rates in order to defray the increased costs of printing (especially of labor and paper) lest it require an even larger subvention than it now receives from the university. Hence, an increase of our dues, which were last raised in 1992 but not sufficiently, seems to be unavoidable….
P. 240
In all respects but one it has been a prosperous year for the Association’s journal.
Volume 82, Number 2, April 1996
Seventy-sixth Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 1996, Atlanta
P. 235
Turning now to our finances, I am obliged to mote that although the increase in fees for all three categories of annual membership…, which became effective with those who were billed after January issue was distributed, has eased our plight for this year, we still had to supplement our income from that principal source with more than two-thirds of the dividends paid on the stocks that our brokerage firm…. In 1995, moreover, we were still buying the subscriptions to the Catholic Historical Review from the Catholic University of America Press at the old rate of twenty-four dollars per member (thirty dollars less the discount of twenty per cent). Beginning with the forthcoming January issue, however, we will be charged twenty-eight dollars per member (thirty-five dollars minus the same discount). ….. It is evident that another increase in membership fees cannot long be postponed, but it appeared to the Executive Council last year to be risky to raise the dues by ten dollars (thirty-three and one-third percent) at one blow….
Volume 83, Number 2, April 1997
Seventy-seventh Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 1997, New York City
P. 264
In spite of these highly creditable activities, in which some non-members participating and are participating, the Association has declined in size during 1996.
P. 265
….we can now claim only 1,112.
P. 266
Our expenses ($53,318) have exceeded our revenues from membership fees and several minor sources ($42,721) by nearly $10,600. ….. Still we may ask ourselves whether it is proper to use more than eight thousand dollars of our investment income merely to cover our ordinary expenses.
P. 268
In our eighty-second volume we have published thirteen articles….
Volume 84, Number 2, April 1998
Seventy-eighth Annual Meeting, January 8-11, 1998, Seattle
P. 292
As treasurer I wish to point out that the Association has again suffered a net operational loss of more than $13,000, which has been made up by the income from investments. …. Ideally the annual dues should be increased by ten dollars, simply to balance the operating budget. To add to the urgency, however, the director of the Catholic University of America Press, Dr. David J. McGonalge, and the business manager of the Catholic Historical Review, Mr. Gordon A. Conner, have been compelled to raise the subscription rate to forty dollars beginning in 1998, because the John D. Lucas Printing Company of Baltimore has increased its charges and because other expenses, such as salaries, have also risen. The Press will continue to allow the Association a discount of twenty percent, but even so, will charge it thirty-two dollars per year for each member’s subscription. Other costs for the Association are also rising steadily, especially the annual increment in the office secretary’s salary and benefits, half of which is paid by the Association. Hence, it is inevitable that the dues in all categories of membership, which have remained fixed since 1995, should be increased.
P. 293
For the Association’s journal 1997 was a remarkable year.
Volume 85, Number 2, April 1999
Seventy-ninth Annual Meeting, January 8-10, 1999, Washington, D.C.
P. 246
We appreciate their [i.e., Lifetime Members’] financial support as well as the confidence in the Association and its journal that it betokens, and wish them long lives.
Consequently, our total membership has risen from 1,105 to 1,109.
In the executive office of the Association (and the editorial office of the Catholic Historical Review) we have purchased a new computer and printer to replace the old, original ones, which have served since 1986….
P. 247
As treasurer I must point out the net operational loss of more than $21,000 for 1998…. Once again we had to make up the loss with income from our investments.
Volume 87, Number 2, April 2001
Eighty-first Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2001, Boston
P. 293
After long, regrettable, but unavoidable delays the Association’s web site is finally being put on line. It has been designed by Mrs. Cherish-Elizabeth Mendez, the webmaster of the Catholic University of America. I ask members, once they are apprised of the address, to give me their criticisms and suggestions for improving it. It was not ready in tie to carry the program of this annual meeting, but it will carry that of our forthcoming spring meeting and the programs of all future meetings as well as the tables of contents of the successive issues of the Catholic Historical Review.
Financially the Association is sound although this year it suffered a net operating loss of nearly $15,000, which is $4,000 more than it suffered in the preceding year.
P. 294
As editor of the Catholic Historical Review I wish to draw attention to several facts. Volume LXXVI (for the year 2000) consists of 756 page…. ….. There were forty-two more pages in Arabic numerals than in the preceding volume and 148 more than were provided for in our budget. The addition of those pages was made possible by the contributions we received for that purpose totaling nearly $8,000.
P. 297
The most significant innovation that I have to report as editor is that the Review has been incorporated into Project Muse, the online database of journals that is produced by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Project Muse now includes journals published by the university presses of …. ….. Subscriptions are available to libraries.
The director of the Catholic University Press of America, Dr. David J. McGonagle, has signed a legal agreement with Project Muse for a three-year period. The Catholic Historical Review will be online beginning with the current January issue. Each issue should appear on Muse before the printed copies are mailed. This service will obviously be beneficial to scholars; I hope it will also be financially advantageous for our journal.
Volume 88, Number 2, April 2002
Eighty-second Annual Meeting, January 4-6, 2002
P. 303
The Association’s website was placed on the Internet early in the year. It was designed by the webmaster of Catholic University of America … with the help of graphics that I supplied…. However, it is not yet complete; I intend to add the names of …. The website has carried, among other data, the complete programs of our spring meeting in Toronto and of this annual meeting. I will welcome suggestions of other kinds of information that can be included.
P. 304
As treasurer I regret to report that the Association suffered a new operational loss of $16,652.91 in 2001. This was $1,746 more than the loss in 2000. To offset this loss we not only applied the dividends and interest from our investments but also redeemed 800 shares of our T. Rose Price GNMA Fund. Obviously, selling off our assets is not a sound fiscal practice. ….. The director of the Catholic University of America Press, Dr. David J. McGonagle, moreover, has found it necessary to increase the subscription rate tot eh Catholic Historical Review from $40 to $42. With our discount of twenty percent we now have to pay $33.60 for each member’s subscription. It would seem to be time, therefore, to increase the dues for all categories of membership.
P. 305
Turning now to the Association’s official organ, I am pleased to report that he volume for 2001 (LXXXVII) consists of 816 pages….
Volume 89, Number 2, April 2003
Eighty-third Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2003, Chicago
P. 268
Another matter internal to the office should also be reported. The director of the Catholic University of America Press, which publishes the Catholic Historical Review, Dr. David J. McGonagle, has toiled for several months to convert our antiquated data-base for the Association’s membership files from the original program called Memex to Access. Many wrinkles had to be ironed out; in the meantime…. ….. The Access program , when dully customized, will indeed be more efficient.
The Association’s web site. I regret to admit, has not yet been developed as fully as I had envisioned, partly because the web mistress who designed it has left the host institution …. and partly because the secretaries have been overburdened with other work. We aim eventually to put the complete membership directory on line.
P. 270
Now as editor of the Association’s journal I report that the volume for 2002 (LXXXVIII) contains 855 pages of text…. although it is not the longest volume ever published, it exceeds by 247 pages provided for by the budget.
Volume 90, Number 2, April 2004
Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting, January 9-11, 2004, Washington, D.C.
P. 282
When we subtract the sixty-two members gained from the 107 lost, we find our membership reduced by forty-five, leaving us with only 961 members.
The new program for the data base of our membership files, Access, about which I report last year, has not yet been cleansed of all impurities…. I also regret our difficulties in keeping our web site up to date. Since it is hosted by the Catholic University of America, we are to some extent dependent on the good offices of the webmaster.
We have again suffered a net operational loss of nearly ten thousand dollars, which has necessitated the sale of some stock. This loss is smaller than the losses reported in the two preceding years, because 2003 was the first year in which we have felt the full benefit of the increases in the various categories of dues decreed by the Executive Council in 2002. Obviously, an increase in membership would help to defray the fixed expenses.
P. 285
The director of the Catholic University of America Press, Dr. David J. McGonagle, has decided to increase the subscription rate for institutions in the United States and Canada from $45 to $50, for foreign institutions, $55, and for foreign institutions to $55, and for foreign individuals to $50. Hence, the Association will not have to pay more for the subscriptions of its American and Canadian members. …. Dr. McGonagle continues to assist the Association by overseeing our data base in the program to which he converted it.
Volume 91, Number 2, April 2005
Eighty-fifth Annual Meeting, January 7-9, 2005, Seattle
P. 330
One year ago the Executive Council appointed Professor Leslie W. Tentler assistant secretary and treasurer of the Association with the expectation of advancing her to the office of secretary and treasurer at this annual meeting. ….. A new candidate for the assistant secretaryship and treasureship has been thought.
Volume 92, Number 2, April 2006
Eighty-sixth Annual Meeting, January 5-8, 2006, Philadelphia
P. 259
As treasurer I can report partly good and partly unfavorable conclusions at the end of our fiscal year. The increases in the annual fees for ordinary and retired members tat the Executive Council decreed last year are only now having their full effects…. Then the decline in membership reduced the revenue from dues, on which we are mainly dependent. As I mentioned last year, the Catholic University Press has been constrained by raising costs to raise the price of each copy of the Review that we buy for our members to nine dollars. Meanwhile most of the other expenses have remained constant…. ….. We continue to receive virtually free telephone and fax service from the Catholic University of America and to pay no rent for the office space shared with the Review and no charge for the Internet connection or the technical services provided by the University.
P. 263
Now I beg the members to give my successor as secretary and treasurer, Dr. Timothy Meagher, the same support as they have given me, and I, of course, will assist him in any way in which I can and he desires.
Volume 93, Number 2, April 2007
Eighty-seventy Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2007, Atlanta
P. 355
As Treasurer, while the slower decline in membership and the surge in the value of our endowment are more gratifying, still the Association faces some important decisions about how it will conduct business over the long term. First, the Association will have to address some rising costs. The office secretary’s salary has risen slightly but annual meeting costs are rising significantly.
P. 356
The endowment thus has been a vital source of income for the Association in meeting its costs. … This last year, the Association sold off $9,000 of investments…. Since I knew I would be stepping down from the Treasurer’s post and returning it to Monsignor Trisco, I left it to him, far more experienced than I, to determine what further sales of investments the Association should make to meet these obligations.
Volume 94, Number 2, April 2008
Eighty-eighth Annual Meeting, January 3-6, 2008
P. 286
In addition, significant steps were taken to upgrade the web site of the Association, establish a database, increase the membership through an active subcommittee, and establish general policies governing investments. It was also announced that Monsignor Trisco, who had graciously agreed to serve as Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for another year in January 2007, would be succeeded by Father Paul Robichaud, C.S.P., should all things develop….
Volume 95, Number 2, April 2009
Eighty-ninth Annual Meeting, January 2-5, 2009, New York City
P. 290
The Executive Council initiated two undertakings at its meeting in January 2008 that have been carried forward in the past year. One of them was a new Wed site…. The other project was a new constitution and bylaws….
P. 292
The other main topic of discussion at the Executive Council’s special meeting in St. Louis was the creation of an interactive Web site that would supersede the existing static Web site hosted free of charge by The Catholic University of America. ….. All the members of the Executive Council recognized the desirability of a more elaborate Web site, but some thought that the cost for design and installation–$23,000—exceeded the means of a small organization that already has to face an annual operating deficit of more than $25,000.
P. 293
In our data base we also have the names and addresses of nearly 1,600 former members, whose return to an active status we ardently desire.
P. 296
In the financial statement that follows this report the operational loss, which was redeemed by transferring funds from our diminished investments, was $25,591, which is $2,090higher than it was in 2007. We took in $7.645 more in membership fees this year, partly because at its meeting in September the Executive Council raised the annual dues for ordinary members from $50 to $60…. ….. In the coming year the Association will need to find ways of defraying, in addition, the new, heavy expenses that I explained earlier.
When I retired from the office of secretary and treasurer three years ago, it turned out to be for only one year. This time I am confident that my new successor, Father Robichaud, will persevere not only for the three-year term for which he has been appointed but far beyond 2012.
P. 308
[from the 2008 Constitution]
Article VIII: Publications
VIII. 1: The Catholic Historical Review is the official organ of the Association.
VIII. 2: The Association may publish books or pamphlets as determined by the Executive Council.
Volume 96, Number 2, April 2010
Ninetieth Annual Meeting, January 7-10, 2010, San Diego
P. 298
The membership of the Association stands at 829 of whom sixty-five are life members, 598 are ordinary members, 110 are retired members, and fifty-four are student members. One of the difficulties in estimating membership is that each member’s starting or ending date varies. ….. Hopefully the new Web site, where the majority of members may renew online, may assist us in dealing with some aspects of this issue.
I am particularly happy to announce our new Web site…. This will mark a major change in the way we do business within the association. Among the benefits of the new site will be the ability of members to renew and new members to join the association online as well as register for upcoming conferences.
P. 301
Editor’s Report
Volume XCV (2009) of The Catholic Historical Review came to 950 pages. …. The editor is grateful to those who generously contributed to the fund for adding extra pages.
Volume 97, Number 2, April 2011
Ninetieth Annual Meeting, January 6-9, 2011, Boston
P. 317 [President’s Report]
The Ad Hoc Committee for the Structure of the ACHA Office.
With Paul Robichaud, C.S. P., replacing Trisco as executive secretary/treasurer, the situation changed. ….. While he retains a niche and mailing address at the ACHA offices in CUA’s Mullen Library, he has effectively moved his working space to Office of Paulist History at St. Paul’s College, also his personal residence. In addition, The Catholic University of America no longer hosts the ACHA Web site, which means that the ACHA must pay for maintaining the site. The current financing of the office staff has created some financial stress as well.
P. 318
Ongoing financial challenges have confronted the Association due to the downturn of the economy. Thanks to the generosity of The Catholic University of America and Trisco, the true costs of running the Association (that is, accounting for the indirect subsidies of the university) have not been evident for many years. But unless the ACHA can arrange a similar cost-sharing arrangement with CUA or another academic institution, the Association will need additional revenue to operate. Raising dues is one option.
The ACHA has run deficits for many years, which may have been partially absorbed by returns on investments. But without these returns, the ACHA had been forced to liquidate some stock—an undesirable solution for the long-[p.317]term health of the Association. The ACHA faces rising expenses for the CHR and the maintenance of the Web site, a just compensation for the ACHA administrative offices, and some rethinking about expenditures for office services. ….. The increasing costs of producing the CHR should be negotiated with the new director of The Catholic University of America Press. However, it should be noted that, as the CUA Press owns CHR, the Association only has limited input into its decisions.
P. 320
The CHR is still the primary venue for the scholarly talents of ACHA members and others who have contributed to Catholic studies. The Association does not own the CHR, but it has an active stake in its success.
P. 324
Deficit. Some ACHA members may not realize that for more than a decade, the Association has run an annual deficit. In 1998 the deficit reached $21,000 and in 2004, $23,000. ….. The ACHA’s greatest single expense is its payments to CUA Press, which owns The Catholic Historical Review (the journal is provided as a benefit of ACHA membership).
Sadly, little is left to run the Association, as membership dies often come close to matching the cost of the journal. With each deficit, a small amount of ACHA stock holdings must be liquidated.
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