| UPCOMING EVENTS |
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2010 Humanities on the Hill
Washington, DC
March 2-4, 2010
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Dear Colleagues,
In this year in which we have quite a lot to be thankful for, we want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday!
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News from the Federation
A few more followup notes from the conference in Omaha...we have now posted Bob Kerrey's Capps Lecture on the Federation website. You will recall that you can also read the presentation given by NEH Chairman Jim Leach at our Friday luncheon by visiting the NEH website.
If you would like to offer your comments on conference sessions and activities, you can do so by completing the evaluation form. Your comments will be very helpful to the 2010 planning committee as they continue to shape plans for next year's conference in Albuquerque.
One of the conference workshop sessions, "Freedom Riders: A Collaborative Opportunity," offered participants an opportunity to view a powerful clip of the American Experience documentary film on the civil rights movement and to discuss the range of ways the councils could use the resources of the film and its outreach components to develop programs around this important historical event. The session also touched on collaborative opportunities in general between councils and the American Experience series. Peggy Burke, Director of Foundation Development at WGBH, which produced American Experience, is interested in follow-up communication with council representatives who attended the session, as well as those who were unable to participate but would like to learn more about the "Freedom Riders" project and other possibilities for collaboration. Please contact Peggy (617/300-3432, margaret_burke@wgbh.org) to share your responses to the session and the project or to ask questions about this and other partnership opportunities.
In response to a couple of requests, we have posted a press release about council board or staff member attendance at the conference for those of you who might wish to send information to your local newspapers. Particularly if you adapt the text to include mention of programs supported by your council, it offers one more opportunity to get the name of the council into the local press.
Next week John Matthews will send an invitation, with log-in and password, to each staff member of each member council to visit the Federation's data website. The datasite houses our reports and resources library. If you would like your board members to also have access, please send John a list of your board members with their email addresses. Staff member contact information is included in the staff directory that all councils have access to, but we do not share board member information.
We have now posted two versions of a thank you message to members of Congress on our "Taking Action" site. One version is a simple thank you to the members who voted to approve the FY 2010 Interior Appropriations bill that included the increase. The other, for those who did not vote for passage of the bill, will simply note how important these additional funds for NEH and the state humanities councils are for enriching the lives of their constituents. As the explanatory note says, the system is linked to the vote tally so will automatically generate the correct message for each member. As I have said, there are many issues within any appropriations bill that could cause a member to vote against its passage, so it is unwise to automatically assume that a vote against the bill indicates a lack of support for the humanities. For that reason, even the note to members who did not vote to approve the bill avoids expressing disappointment and instead focuses on how important the increase will be for citizens of the state. For both messages we will provide a box to allow you the option of adding your own description of how the additional funds will be used in your state.
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News from the Hill
We were thrilled with the news in late October that the Interior bill had been finalized, but action on several other FY 2010 appropriations bills continues to drag on. Funding bills in addition to Interior that have been completed and signed by the President include Agriculture, Energy and Water, and Homeland Security. Defense, Transportation-HUD, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Military Construction-VA are ready for House-Senate conference and approval by both chambers. It appears that Transportation-HUD and Commerce-Justice-Science could be finalized as individual bills and that the FY 2010 Defense appropriations bill will be used as the vehicle for an omnibus bill that will include funding for the three remaining bills-Financial Services, Labor-HHS, and State-Foreign Operations.
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News from the NEH
Today NEH Jim Leach spoke at the National Press Club, in a weekly event that is broadcast live. In his presentation Chairman Leach talked about the importance of the humanities in a democracy, noting that "little is more costly to society than shortchanging the humanities." In a lively question-and-answer period following his address, he commented on a wide variety of topics, from the overall state of the humanities today and his views on funding for the humanities to the economic situation and his experience with banking issues when he served in Congress. Members of the National Press Club can view the presentation by going to the member section of the NPC website. Others may purchase a transcript or tape by contacting the National Press Club archives at 202/662-7598 or emailing mjustsen@press.org .
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I hope you will all have a good weekend!
Esther
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