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Our AHA session in SanFrancisco was simply outstanding. We had a

great coffee hour that thronged with CFH members andfriends enjoying

good fellowship, renewing old acquaintances, and downing the infamous

Pierard bootleg doughnuts.

Then followed the academic session that dealt

with Jim Juhnke and Carol Hunter's newbook on non-violent approaches to

American history with Rick Kennedy, Barbara Hofmann,and Mike Hamilton

offering incisive comments and Russ Bishop riding herd on the crowd.

The

room was full and the audience stayed around to theend, with conversations

continuing afterward.

Then in Octoberwe look forward to another great time together at

Huntington College. You have all received the call for papers and I hope

many of youhave sent in proposals. I also placed the announcement on H-

Net so itwent out to the thousands of readers of the various history net list

serves. This time, we havea one-two punch--a student conference on

Wednesday, October 9, and the regular biennialmeeting to follow the next

three days. Tom Mach and Jay Green are doing a splendid job organizingthe

sessions andrecruiting papers. It is a meeting you will not want to miss. It

will be the greatest eventto occur in the fair community of Huntington,

Indiana since the dedication of the Dan Quayle Center and Museum.

The Board will also be meeting and will considerideas for

restructuring and renewing the CFH as itmoves forward into the new

century. The younger generationis assuming the leadership roles as we

older ones fade into the background, and the organization mustbe attuned

to confronting the challenges of our times.

The CFH has been around for 35

years and has done enormous good, but we must always remain open to

change and new ideas.

Finally, I want to express my appreciation toPaul Michelson and the

others at Huntingtonfor maintaining our attractive website. It has kept

people informed as to our activities and attracted new members.

Dick Pierard

Secretary-Treasurer