NCPH seeks site proposals for its annual meeting beginning in the year 2013 and beyond.
Proposals—long or short, polished or unpolished—are welcome. NCPH staff will work with you on developing a formal bid to bring the NCPH conference to your city. Proposals must be initiated and submitted, however, by an NCPH member(s) interested in serving as the chair of the Local Arrangements Committee and as a member of the Program Committee. Please include the following information:
- A brief statement of why the site is appropriate for the NCPH annual meeting.
- A brief statement by the individual(s) making the proposal about their interest in building collaboration in and connecting the conference to the local community, as well as about their willingness to lead the Local Arrangements Committee.
- Information about a hotel or combination of hotels (preferably historic) in the area that are centrally located (downtown, near historic sites, near public transportation and restaurants, etc.); have sufficient sleeping rooms (at least 200 rooms); have sufficient meeting space (for 5-7 concurrent/breakout sessions, 40-table exhibit hall, and one or more 300-person plenary events); and have availability dates generally between March 20 and April 20 that avoid religious holidays. [Oftentimes, the local convention and visitors bureau (CVB) can do this legwork for you. Also, hotels sales staff should be eager to provide this kind of information to you or the CVB.]
- Information about the support of local officials, institutions, organizations, and agencies who will work together to plan a successful conference. This local network may be asked to provide financial sponsorship or in-kind support, such as complimentary or discounted offsite meeting spaces. Letters of intent would strengthen the proposal.
- An outline of potential arrangements for any offsite meeting facilities, possible tours/field trips, and transportation, with approximate costs. Please contact us for more details.
- Any other information that might strengthen the proposal
A representative(s) of the host institution(s) may be invited to present the site proposal at the spring meeting of the NCPH Board of Directors. Proposals are due in the NCPH Executive Office by September 1, 2010.
The NCPH Executive Office looks forward to working with you; please contact us at 317-274-2716 or by email.
One of our primary objectives is to promote professionalism and best practices in public history. This includes offering professional development opportunities to members and others. Our annual meeting affords an excellent opportunity to do this. Workshops have been common at most of our conferences; they should become a regular component. With careful planning and input from members, stimulating workshops could be offered before, during, and after the meeting. If they work well at the conference and deal with a topic of wide interest, NCPH should seek to offer workshops beyond the conference.
Another of our objectives is to provide leadership in addressing the myriad of issues inherent in public history, both from the perspective of practitioners and the publics we serve. In part, this entails developing partnerships and relationships with other organizations, professions, professionals, and communities. Future annual meetings can achieve this by directly incorporating into the program local public history organizations and their audiences. This is something we already do, but we need to improve on this effort.
Read more of NCPH President Bill Bryans’s comments about the purpose of the conference and considerations for future sites on page 5 in the June 2007 issue of Public History News.