Volume I – No. 1 – March 2004
If you receive this first T2M Newsletter you must belong to the fine fleur of transport and mobility historians, or you should, as we intend to distribute this also at conferences where we expect potential members to be present. To all of those who have forgotten and to all of those who weren’t there, let me shortly recapitulate the bureaucratic path we took since our conference in November 2003 in Eindhoven. On that memorable Saturday of November 8th, we nearly unanimously voted in favour of a MOTION stipulating the following: that we found an International T2M Association; that the Eindhoven Program Committee, expanded with some new members, would continue its existence as provisional Executive Committee (EC); that the European Center for Mobility Documentation (ECMD) should act as provisional secretariat; that the EC should prepare a regular members’ meeting at our next conference in Dearborn; and that membership (including a special membership for PhD students) should include the Journal of Transport History, at least for the coming year.

This EC convened the next morning and decided to install a couple of commissions to execute decisions formulated in the motion. It also voted me as its chair, for which I am very grateful indeed. One of these commissions is now busy preparing concept statutes, another is working on a draft for a document regarding the relationship between T2M and its journal, and all EC members agreed to do their best to raise money locally for several purposes, such as secretariat’s costs, PhD travel funds, and a third annual issue of the journal. One small success we already booked: the ECMD managed to get funding for its secretarial costs for the current year from the Dutch Ministry of Traffic and Water Management and from the organization of European automobile manufacturers (ACEA) in Brussels. On May 12th, the EC will have its second meeting in Paris where all these issues will be discussed and where we will prepare the members’ meeting in Dearborn. No doubt we will inform you in our next Newsletter planned to appear shortly before the Summer holidays. By that time we will open a listserve for discussion among our members on our statutes in order to be well-prepared for the Dearborn meeting.

Meanwhile, let us not forget that Bruce Pietrykowski and his Michigan team are busy preparing our second conference. Please see the Call for Papers in this Newsletter and please make sure that you submit your paper and session proposals in time. Session proposals are most welcome, especially in conjunction with colleagues from adjacent disciplines who are not yet a member. Last month, I visited (with Editor Peter Lyth) Manchester University Press to hand over our membership list. In April you should receive your first free JTH issue. I hope we will reach a membership of 150 by the time the first keynote speaker in Dearborn arises to address the audience. Good luck, Bruce!

The members of the provisional Executive Committee are: dr. Laurent Bonnaud, Centre Roland Mousnier, Paris-Sorbonne; dr. Hans-Liudger Dienel, Centre for Technology and Society, Technical University Berlin, and chair, Transport History Group, German Business History Association; prof. dr. Colin Divall (National Railway Museum & University of York, UK); Paul van Heesvelde, Ministry of the Flemish Community, Brussels, Belgium; dr. Peter Lyth, Editor, Journal of Transport History; dr. Clay McShane, Northeastern University, Boston, USA; dr. Michèle Merger, CNRS Institut d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, Paris and Chair, COST 340; dr.ing. Gijs Mom, Foundation for the History of Technology and chair, ECMD, Eindhoven University of Technology (chair of prov. Executive Committee); dr. Bruce Pietrykowski, Social Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA; dr. Larry Shumsky, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA; dr. Margaret Walsh, School of American & Canadian Studies, Nottingham University; dr. Peter Staal, Director, ECMD, Eindhoven University of Technology (secretary).
Gijs Mom

Volume I – No. 2 – June 2004
Message from the Chair
Last month, on May 12th, the provisional Executive Committee met in Paris to discuss a multitude of reports prepared by several subcommissions on issues mentioned in the motion as accepted during our first conference in Eindhoven. As Chair, I was impressed by the willingness of all EC members to travel to Paris and to pay the travel costs out of their own pocket (among them three American members). Apparently the founding of T2M has unleashed an enthusiasm, which I think is not only surprising but also heart warming. Mobility is on the move!

The EC managed to formulate concept statutes, discussed at length the relationship between our Association and the Journal and decided, pending a decision of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Transport History, to lower the student membership fee further to 25, as of 1 January 2005. This is half the amount of the ‘normal’ membership, and a direct result of our discussions in Eindhoven. I am very pleased that we managed to get such a quick result on this important issue, especially as general opinion in Eindhoven was that one of T2M’s major emphasizes should be upon attracting younger scholars.

The EC in Paris also discussed the midyear report by the Secretariat in Eindhoven, and the efforts which have been invested in setting up a website (t2m.org) and a watertight membership administration, so important for sending the Journal to the members on a regular basis. Another point of discussion was the official ballot for a definitive EC, to be performed by the members during the months immediately prior to our next meeting in Dearborn. During that meeting, the statutes should also be discussed. To help with this process, a special listserv will be opened on September 1st, 2004, where members can take part in the discussion about the statutes. We also intend to start the official ballot for the EC by the beginning of September, probably by sending a personal ballot form to every member by email.

Also, the Programme Committee for our second conference in Dearborn met in Paris. No doubt, its active Chair, dr. Bruce Pietrykowski, will tell you more elsewhere in this Newsletter, but I cannot help expressing my utmost satisfaction by the surprising number of submissions for this second conference. Some of us had doubts as to whether having an annual conference would not put too much stress on the ‘production’ of new research reports in our field, but it seems that an annual ‘harvest’ of about 100 papers is feasible for the years to come.

In order to break even, a conference of about 150 papers seems to be the ideal format for the moment, so we intend to cooperate with adjacent fields of scholarship for the next issues of our annual conference. So, for 2005, we are seeking an interested partner for our third conference to be held somewhere in Europe. I cannot disclose the intended partner yet, as negotiations have still to be initiated, but I hope to announce an interesting conference theme and venue during the official dinner on Saturday, 5 November 2004, in Dearborn.

Gijs Mom