Dear Colleagues,
As Dan wrote in his November letter to members (printed in the January SAA Archaeological Record), the SAA Board will raise registration rates for the 2024 meeting. We want to give you the details, before the call for submissions opens, and explain the reasoning for this increase.
The board last raised meeting registration rates for the 2021 meeting. Since then, the Consumer Price Index has averaged almost 5% inflation per year. An inflation-related increase in our meeting rates will cover normal products and services, and, more importantly, will allow us to focus SAA funds on member-requested programs that are essential to creating a more inclusive and diverse meeting. In 2024, those programs will include childcare and virtual components.
As you submit papers and posters for the 2024 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, be aware that the member registration rate is going from $200 to $230. Regular registration rates will continue to subsidize the student and international registration rates, which will increase by $5, from $100 to $105 and from $130 to $135, respectively.
We are pleased to share that Meeting Access Grants, a new inclusivity-focused measure, were successfully implemented at the 2023 meeting—the SAA was able to provide grants to 20 of the 90 applicants. The board hopes to award more grants as we move forward; as you probably know, this fund was a particular project of our former president, Deb Nichols, and we are very pleased to announce that thanks to a generous donation from her family, the fund will be endowed, named the Deborah L. Nichols Meeting Access Grants Endowment, and start generating support in 2025. If you are able, both the endowment and the 2024 Meeting Access Fund could really use your help to include more members in the annual meeting.
We hope to see all of you in New Orleans next year. As always, we welcome your suggestions, concerns, questions, and feedback.
Sincerely,
