| President's Message From the President: A New Journal for the Society for California Archaeology! | ||
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How about some good news for a change?!? I think I have some for the Society for California Archaeology. The SCA Executive Board has just voted to sign a contract to start our own journal with Left Coast Press, Inc. This promises to be a major addition to California archaeology that will stand alongside our newsletter and our annual meeting proceedings. Without a doubt, it will raise our standards of excellence even higher as a significant portion of each issue of the journal will be devoted to peer reviewed articles and reports. This is an important step in our growth and one that we are clearly ready for as even a casual perusal of the pages of American Antiquity (the flagship publication of American archaeology) over the past decade or so shows. Members of our organization seem to publish in nearly every other issue. I am particularly struck by the high level of research conducted in the context of California cultural resource management. Clearly, California is leading the way on many important international issues in archaeology. We now have an important new outlet to present our work, ideas, challenges, and successes to a global audience.
How about even better news? This new SCA publication will not force us to raise membership dues. Costs to us are low and will be paid for by significant reduction of expenses we formerly incurred through production and mailing the hard copy volumes of Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology (as these are now published online), and by shifting some of the articles, reports, and news items that we are accustomed to seeing in The Society for California Archaeology Newsletter to the journal. Rest assured, the newsletter will continue. It will, however, be cheaper to produce and distribute to the membership. We can also expect late newsletters to be a thing of the past (though I guess one could argue that nearly everything we do is a thing of the past!). Something for nothing, how can that be? Left Coast Press Inc., based in Walnut Creek, is a relatively young press, but one with outstanding experience and leadership in the international publication of archaeology and related disciplines. Publisher Dr. Mitch Allen, who has a PhD in archaeology from UCLA, has an amazing record. After working for Sage Publications for many years, he started the extremely successful AltaMira Press with which I am sure you are all familiar. Left Coast Press, Inc. is only a few years old but has already published over 100 books (the majority by archaeologists). Moreover, the press has several journals with similar missions to ours, such as Heritage Management and the Museum History Journal. The press will fully undertake production, distribution, marketing, and warehousing of our journal. SCA will have ownership, copyright, and editorial control of the journal through our editor and editorial board. Left Coast Press Inc. will distribute each issue to all of our members, but will also seek subscriptions from non-members, specifically targeting libraries and other institutions as well as archaeologists worldwide who are interested in our work. Marketing of the journal will encourage readers to join SCA and our organization will be paid royalties from any non-member subscriptions. There will also be an electronic edition of the journal available that all SCA members can access as well. The contract is for seven years, and to reiterate, SCA will be the sole owner of the journal. It's ours. This is admittedly an ambitious initiative, and such a venture requires strong leadership and editorial guidance. I am very pleased to announce that the editor of the new journal will be Dr. Terry Jones of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. SCA could not ask for a more qualified person as demonstrated by his extensive publications, his international reputation, and perhaps most clearly by his editorial leadership in the successful publication of California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity which brought together the work of over 40 California archaeologists. Dr. Jones and the SCA Executive Board are in the process of assembling what will be a large editorial board to assist in the solicitation and review of manuscripts. There are still heaps of details to work out. Over the next month or so we will be working to finalize a title, establish associate editorial positions, and the structure of the journal. Most likely, there will be two issues published in 2009, with the intent to move up to four issues in future years if we get enough decent manuscripts. An official call for papers will be issued in the December Newsletter, through a Newsflash email, and posted online on our web site. In the meantime, get out your pens and start thinking about crafting that piece you have long thought about on that project you did a couple of years ago. Let's get our work, ideas, challenges, and successes out there for the benefit of California archaeology. As I mentioned in my last column, the SCA Executive Board has also developed a proposed new mission statement of our organization. Members will be asked to vote on this proposal later this fall at the same time as the officer elections. Be sure to read Steve Horne's article on the proposal in this newsletter. Given our new publication, it seems like a very appropriate time to take stock of our mission statement. One change that I strongly support is the idea that SCA should help to foster professional development in California archaeology and cultural resource management. Read it over and see what you think. As usual, fall is a busy time for SCA given Archaeology Month in October, elections for officers, and the two data sharing meetings. In this newsletter you will find the candidate statements for the offices of President, Southern Vice-President, and Treasurer. Please read them and be sure to vote. Ballots will be mailed out to the membership in November. If you know these folks, be sure to thank them for their willingness to step up and serve. By the time you read this, we will have already had our Northern Data Sharing Meeting at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Jennifer Farquhar has put together what looks like a great meeting and social event. I can't wait to camp at the beach and enjoy an evening of fun and conversation with a bunch of archaeologists-what could be better? With a bit of luck and a good tailwind you might just get this before the Southern Data Sharing Meeting at the brand new CSU Channel Islands on October 25. Be sure to see the details on this meeting in this newsletter. Looking a little further down the road, but not much mind you, we have our upcoming Annual Meeting in Modesto in early March. Given the early date, the call for papers and due dates will be coming up a bit earlier than we are used to-so be sure to note them. Make sure you read the update in this Newsletter, Program Chair Kathleen Hull and Local Arrangements Chair Amanda Martinez are already hard at work on what will be a fantastic meeting. I am also happy to report that thanks to the hard work of the Committee for Advanced Annual Meeting Planning, and especially Donna Gillette, I just signed a contract for our 2011 Annual Meeting. This was a tricky one since that is the year that the Society for American Archaeology is going to have its Annual Meeting in Sacramento, right in the middle of the spring. After consulting with SAA officials, we deemed it most advisable to avoid this event temporally and geographically. We finally settled on what will be another early meeting during the second week of March in Rohnert Park at the Doubletree Hotel Sonoma Wine Country. I visited the hotel in August and I think it will be a great venue for us with easy transportation access and a wealth of things to do in the region. As you have seen in a Newsflash, the deadline for submissions to this year's volume of the Proceedings is November 1st. We have a good number so far, but we would love to see more of you take advantage of the new online format to present your work in color to a larger audience. The 2007 volume is still in production, but hopefully will be printed and mailed later this fall. Thanks for your patience, major changes in the Business Office this year and our new initiatives slowed us down, but we'll get there! Here I am at the end of my line and I have not talked about students yet! I must be distracted by this journal deal! Nevertheless, the SCA Executive Board and I are on top of this issue. We are going to be talking about it at our fall board meeting in Santa Cruz. Once again, our main objective is to increase student participation in SCA as well as to tap their energy, enthusiasm, and skills a bit more. We could use their help on a wide variety of fronts, and this need is likely to increase. I expect this effort to be the major theme of my December column, and there will certainly be some tangible results from our discussions regarding students at the Annual Meeting in Modesto this coming March. Students---you really want to come to this one and we want you there! We are going to try to provide you with many opportunities to learn and be involved. Fellow faculty, please take note and encourage your folks to attend, or even better, to present their work. Again, be sure to take note of the early submission deadlines this year! |
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 Mark Allen SCA President, 2008-2009 
Visit Left Coast Press  Terry Jones Editor of the new SCA Journal, California Archaeology  Steve Horne 
 Get a commemorative tattoo at the 2009 SCA Annual Meeting! 
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