Kentucky Association of Teachers of History

Members of the KATH Board met in February and March to get ready for this fall’s 41st Annual Meeting. KATH President Megan Mummy presided.

The Board continues to discuss the need for KATH to broaden its reach amongst Historians in Kentucky. The President used the H-Kentucky network to call for more Board members, and nearly all the positions on the Board that were not filled at the 2015 Annual Meeting have now been filled. The following committees have been formed

• Conference Program and Speakers Committee – President-elect Brent Taylor leads; Eric Jackson and Jarrett Nantz, members
• Conference Location and Logistics Committee – President Megan Mummey leads; Kate Hesseldenz and Amanda Higgins, members
• Papers and Awards Committee – Past president Angela Ash leads; Cheryl Caskey (at KHS) will help again with the Tolson Award submissions; Robin West will handle the Betts Award; Melissa McEuen will manage the Clark Award; and, Melanie Goan will chair the Herring Award committee; Randolph Hollingsworth will assist where needed
• Nominating Committee – Secretary Lorie Maltby leads; Leslie McCarty and Howard Muncy, members
• Funding and Finance Committee – Treasurer Alana Cain Scott leads; Doug Fulkerson and Deonte Hollowell, members (Megan will work with Alana to see if we can still apply for the KHC mini-grant)

The KATH newsletter will be revived by Amanda – she and Megan will work on developing a new model for this important communication strategy for history educators in Kentucky. New promotional materials will be developed by Kate for regular dissemination by the Board. Brent will update the pre-conference flier once the theme, date and keynote are finalized.

For the KATH Annual Meeting in 2016, the Board has settled on using the University of Kentucky’s William T. Young Library. The library has an auditorium and small meeting rooms that are free for the President to reserve. We want to use a historic house for the Friday night reception. Megan will contact folks at Ashland to see if they will donate their space to KATH for that evening’s get-together. Randolph will ask to reserve the Gaines Center on UK’s campus, if needed. Megan will look into having some sort of exhibit hosted by UK Special Collections that addresses the theme.

The Board agreed that this year’s topic should focus on presidential elections. A keynote speaker could introduce the topic and make it useful for social studies teachers, postsecondary scholars, public historians, librarians and archivists alike. A group of secondary teachers could offer a roundtable on how they teach during an election year (a call needs to go out via Kentucky Teacher and H-Announce). Another speaker would focus in on Kentucky and presidential history. Lunch would include the regular KATH Business Meeting which includes nominating the new slate of Board members and celebrating the faculty sponsors while handing out the KATH student writing awards.

The date of the 2016 Annual Meeting is still being negotiated. KATH does not want to have its meeting coincide with the Ohio Valley, the Southern or the KY Council of the Social Studies conferences.