By Rhonda Blair

The big event of the past quarter was, of course, the conference. Held in Seattle and co-sponsored with the Congress on Research in Dance, this year's gathering was a great success. There were fine plenaries, a great range of working groups, and some “new additions” – the concurrent paper panels. This was a great innovation; I so appreciated getting to hear more fine papers than could be accommodated within the plenary spots alone. Attendance was the highest ever for any ASTR conference – 625. All of those who worked to organize this gathering, particularly Anthea Kraut, Nadine George, Stacy Wolf, and, as always, Nancy Erickson, deserve our great thanks. Two reminders: The 2011 Conference, “Economies of Theatre,” will be held at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, November 17–20.  The call for working session papers will be posted here on the Web site soon.The 2012 conference will be held Nov. 1–4 in Nashville at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel; Patricia Ybarra and Patrick Anderson are Program Committee co-chairs.

Publications and Web site

Publications chair Susan Bennett negotiated a renewed contract with Cambridge UP for Theatre Survey. The terms are wonderfully favorable to the Society, and we're delighted to be continuing our relationship with CUP. Part of this will be the addition of a third issue of Theatre Survey, which will allow the editors to deal more effectively with the large number of high quality submissions they receive each year; the editors are in discussions about how and when to make this happen.

We have also revised our membership-year policy so that Theatre Survey will be sent to recipients for a calendar year, allowing people a grace period for membership renewal that will align with the typical conference registration dates; this should address most, if not all, of the issues regarding consistent receipt of the journal. Bennett, Web site editor Matt Omasta, Kimi Johnson, and Nancy Erickson continue to assess the new Web site. I continue to appreciate the thoughtful and substantial work that Matt and his associate editors are doing with the site, and webmaster Jim Groom's work in running the technical aspects. The ad hoc committee on the Web site, chaired by Brandi Catanese, was disbanded with thanks for the good work they did on helping get the new site launched.

Membership Survey

As those of you who were at the Annual Meeting know, chair Scott Magelssen and the ad hoc Committee on Membership Assessment submitted their official report to the Executive Committee, and an edited version of the report is now posted on the Web site for all members here. The committee did first rate work, providing the officers, Executive Committee, and membership with insight into who we are and our goals for the Society. I think we might consider conducting a survey such as this on a regular basis, to help the Society keep track of changes, needs, and desires among the members over the time.

Ad Hoc Committee on New Paradigms in Graduate Education

I constituted this ad hoc committee last fall to think about how ASTR might address some of the systemic issues facing the academic profession. I believe ASTR does a good job of supporting individuals, but each of us works and lives within institutional and social environments, many of which are stressed fiscally or programmatically (it's hard to separate these ...). Chair Heather Nathans and I are considering a number of initiatives to support graduate education that this committee might take up. I hope to have more specifics in late spring.

Fundraising Committee

Tracy Davis is chairing this committee. I am delighted that she has taken this on, continuing to lead the initiative she began during her presidency. It's important work; the funds we raise through general and targeted initiatives provide basic support for all of our fellowships and awards. As you know, Tracy has done targeted mailings to raise funds for the newly named Helen Krich Chinoy Dissertation Research Fellowships and Oscar G. Brockett Essay Prize. This has borne some fruit, particularly for the Chinoy award. I encourage each of you to make a contribution, targeted or not – even the smallest gift helps.

Fellowships and Awards

(Beware – more on fundraising lurks in this section ...) My thanks to all of you who have agreed to serve on one of these committees this year, and my thanks to all who served this past year; it was great to see such strong group of awardees recognized in November. The three-year committee terms require a significant investment of time and energy, and these awards wouldn't happen without the work of the committees and the Director, Dorothy Chansky. As some of you might have noted, though we continue to recognize people through awards, we have not been able consistently to fund all of the awards that have been funded in the past (the market has affected us all). If you would like to be a part of restoring the funding, again, please make a contribution.

American Theatre Archive Project

The ad hoc Committee on Archives continues to amass volunteers from the ranks of ASTR and affiliate organizations; regional and local teams are working on this project. The committee has applied for a National Endowment for the Arts grant, which we hope to hear about in the next months. This project has the potential to make a significant and lasting contribution to the preservation of American theatre materials. If you would like to know more about or be part of this, contact co-chairs This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Nominating Committee

Chair John Lutterbie and his committee presented an excellent slate of candidates to the Executive Committee, and we have approved it. Members will be receiving the slate for voting later this spring. I am delighted with the roster, and I hope the membership will be, too; it's a strong group of candidates, and the committee has my great thanks for their good work.