Steven here once more to sum-up the final day of OHA @ OKC! Before I do however I want to thank the entire OHR Editorial team for allowing me to invade their somewhat-personal space both on Twitter and this blog for the past few days. It was a pleasure working with Kathy, Troy, David, Doug and Jen at the conference. They were very gracious hosts and hopefully the relationships forged this past week will be enhanced by the many annual meetings to come. In addition, a special shout-out to the real OHR Editorial Assistant Caitlin for providing the behind-the-scenes support needed to pull this all off!

Sunday saw the final panels of the annual conference at Oklahoma City, OK, in addition to the breakfast business meeting. During the meal OHA Executive Director Cliff Kuhn reported on the stability of the organization and the plans for next year’s meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, the various committee chairs submitted reports, and in general a discussion on the need for greater online participation in elections was held. The highlight of the meeting however was not the transition of presidential leadership from Mary Larson to Stephen Sloan as some *cough* might have you believe. Instead it was the presentation to Mary by Stephen of a special token of appreciation for her tireless efforts the past two years at the helm of the OHA. Congratulations and thank you Mary!

As I mentioned earlier however, there were still several great panel presentations Sunday morning. My choice was Myth, Memory and Metal: New Oral Histories of the U.S. Military. Having just finished working on a WWII-themed project myself, it was interesting to me to listen to other historians speak to how best to approach this category of interviewees.

After the final session it was wonderful to see so many now-familiar faces in the hotel lobby still engaged in discussions and well-wishing. Of the many positives on this new experience of mine, the openness and collegiality of the attendees at the OKC annual meeting was by far the greatest takeaway. I was made to feel like part of the family, and because of this, I haven’t the slightest trepidation about venturing forth to the next conference in Madison. In fact I’m so excited I have seven devised seven distinct panel ideas already! (not kidding…)

So thanks again to all those I worked with, presented beside or came to know during OHA @ OKC, and I hope to see you all next year!

I’ve been a bit silent on the blog here due mainly to the mad rush of panel presentations I’ve attended the past couple of days. At the same time it has been great to see friends and coworkers pop up at various times. I must say it can be quite amazing how hard it can be to schedule rendevous with such an action-packed program.

I hope everyone is following our Twitter feed @oralhistreview as it has been my best tool live-blogging the action. If not, here are some of the highlights:

– Friday morning’s Newcomers’ Breakfast not only allowed me to converse with my fellow neophytes, but also begin to acertain what many first-time attendees are searching for this year, and what might be offered next years to accomedate the more common themes.

– In the Archiving Oral History panel I learned of Nancy MacKay’s impressive work surveying the greater OH scene, mainly domestically but also with some international flavor, in order to give us an idea where our oral histories are and what are being done to them. I’m very interested to see what can be done with her vision of creating a dynamic online component for the data, and perhaps I might see what I can do to aid that endeavor 😉

– The Campus OH Roundtable sparked a good discussion on the pros/cons of video interviews, but my favorite soundbite still came from Troy Reeves and his 4 Cs of Campus Programs: Collect, Curate, Communicate & Collaborate.

– Our keynote speaker Friday was Wade Goodwyn from NPR. After some troubling reminiscences on the Waco and OKC disasters, Wade focused more on a topic that I personally feel needs more attention from all fields: the corporatization of the US incarceration industry. I can just feel a good Emerging Crisis grant application or two stemming from Wade’s call to action from our discipline…

– I was proud of co-worker Michelle Holland’s presentation in the New Answers to Old Questions panel of the newly updated Baylor University Institute for Oral History (BUIOH) Style Guide. I know many in our field already take advantage of the decades of experience that has been poured into this guide, but I encourage those unfamiliar to give it a look at www.baylor.edu/oralhistory

– My friend former co-worker at the BUIOH Priscilla Martinez flew in last night so I spent the evening catching up with her. She presented this morning in the Myth, Memory and Malice in the Making of Mexican-American Cultural Identities panel. This was an awesome collection of three PhD candidates presenting wonderful work on a section of US History that in many ways has been swept under the rug or forgotten entirely. I personally hope OHA highlights this sort of minority-based research more in the future, perhaps with a corresponding award category?

That’s it for now – off to a panel soon on Hydraulic Fracturing (really excited about this one!). Please enjoy the action shots below!