Volume I – No. 2 – June 2004
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