Greetings! Members and friends of the Plains Anthropological Society (PAS) met in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in October 2022 for the 79th Plains Conference. With 311 attendees, and with the Conference organizers’ decision to offer free registration to all students and tribal members, we welcomed over 133 student attendees and 26 tribal members to this year’s conference. It was great to see all the new faces. Two Distinguished Service Awards were presented at the conference banquet. The first to the late Fern Swenson, Director of the Archaeology and Historic Preservation Division of the North Dakota Historical Society. A second award was presented to Kent Buehler, retired from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey at the University of Oklahoma. We thank our hosts, the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey and The University of Oklahoma Department of Anthropology, and the conference organizers, Brandi Bethke and Sarah Trabert, for holding a great conference!
Treasurer Chris Johnston reported that the PAS remains in solid financial condition. A solid profit was made at the 2021 Conference in Boulder. With that said both the PAS and the Donna Roper Endowment Funds experienced significant drops in value in the last year due to fluctuating market conditions, distributions, and awards. The Roper Endowment Fund has distributed over $35,000 in three grant cycles, and awards using the PAS Endowment Fund will be considered in 2023. We anticipate the endowment funds will recover their losses in principal and will continue to generate income for future distributions. For a third year, the Undergraduate Student Travel Grants Award Committee dispersed $5,000 to several students for conference travel; the Board will fund the same amount in 2023. PAS also supports students through the Native American Student Award, the Student Poster Competition, and the Student Paper Award.
Plains Anthropologist (PA) print and online access remains one of the greatest benefits of PAS membership. Taylor & Francis remains the publisher who offers us the most benefits; we renewed our 5-year contract with them in 2022. The journal has experienced some publishing delays and additional submissions are needed. Bill Billeck, the PAS editor, reports that the journal will hopefully soon be back on schedule.
In 2021, the Board established the Ethics and Inclusion Committee (EIC). The EIC continues the work begun by the 2018 Sexual Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Task Force. Board-approved new requirements for membership and conference registration were put into place prior to the Boulder meeting to ensure PAS events promote inclusivity and opportunity for all. This committee developed an abstract submission statement to ensure that conference presenters uphold the PAS Code of Ethics and the Anti-Harassment Policy. All these policies are considered living documents; membership feedback is encouraged. I am happy to report there have been no ethics or inclusion complaints within the Society in the last year.
Other Board work in 2022 included a by-laws change to allow the direct election by the membership of a President for a 3-year term. The term will consist of one year as President-elect and two years as President. We plan to hold a membership vote for President as well as for three board members in 2023. Earlier this year Angela Collins took over the role of the PAS Webmaster from Courtney Ziska. We thank Courtney for her service in maintaining our online presence. Two virtual Board meetings in March and early November provided more time for committee discussions, thus shortening the First Board Meeting at the conference and enabling Board members to attend the Early Bird Party. With this change, please consider running for President or the Board! A new committee was also formed in 2022 to develop a sensitive image policy for articles and papers presented at the annual meeting. This committee is chaired by Carlton Shield Chief Gover. A call has gone out to membership to serve on this committee and help develop and implement this important policy for the PAS.
I offer sincere thanks to outgoing Board members Kelly Pool, Brandi Bethke and Richard Meyers. Kelly graciously agreed to a second year as President (2021–2022) due to the Covid-19 disruption. Thank you, Kelly for going above and beyond as President of our society for the last two years. We welcome new Board members Carlton Shield Chief Gover, Cody Newton and Veronica Mraz for their three-year terms.
Finally, please join me from October 18th to 21st at the 80th Plains Conference in Rapid City. The South Dakota State Historical Society and the Archaeological Research Center are our hosts, with Cassie Vogt and Katie Lamie as organizers. The Plains Conference hasn’t been to Rapid City since 2007 – come see what has changed since the last time. See you there!