Major Changes to GSA Membership System:

The GSA membership data base is now online. Members have complete control over their addresses and important data for GSA membership and subscription purposes. This system will eliminate typos, double listing, cross listing, missed mailings, double mailings, and such. Members should access their individual record and update it, making certain that all information is current and applicable, and ensuring that the spelling of the name is correct. It will also be possible to enter the correct credit card for annual membership dues to be collected through our secure server. The membership database will be automatically connected to the Conference registration system in 2005, in order to ensure that members receive the members' rate for registration fees. Look for this change, and update your record as soon as possible thereafter. Please note that the systems are not yet linked. Therefore, if you made a change in the conference registration system, it did not carry over to the membership database. That will be possible next year.

Password Protection

Shortly, all members will be asked to select a new, private password for access to their personal membership files. This new password will be necessary for future access, and for future conference registration. Of course, GSA will provide a password recovery system for those who forget their newly chosen password, and this system will also be a special system. GSA members are likely to have accumulated a number of passwords by now, for many different web sites. Therefore, GSA encourages members to look at various devices and programs that offer to remember their passwords as they access selected sites. While GSA does not endorse any particular system, among the new devices on the market is the Sony "Puppy," available for Windows and Mac, which remembers passwords for all of your selected sites, and identifies the user to whom the password will be given by that person's fingerprint. So, you can input your fingerprint and then access your password if you have forgotten it. There will be an article about these new devices in the next issue of the GSA Newsletter.

Nominating Committee for 2005 GSA Elections

Incoming GSA President Katherine Roper (History, St. Mary's College) has appointed the Nominating Committee for the 2005 GSA Elections. They are:

Chair: Celia Applegate ( capg@mail.rochester.edu )

Ann Taylor Allen ( ann.allen@louisville.edu )

Richard McCormick ( mccor001@umn.edu )

There are three positions on the Executive Committee which will become vacant at the end of 2005. One position is in literature/culture, and the other two are in history/political science/social science. In addition, GSA members will also elect a Secretary-Treasurer. Members of the Association are urged to write to the Chair of the Nominations Committee with suggestions for these positions. It is important to understand that all candidates must be members of GSA in good standing, and have demonstrated commitment to the Association.

Google's New Scholar Search

Google has a new scholar search (www.scholar.google.com), which is designed to help scholars search across books, journals, papers, and more. Many academic publishers are on board for this launch. The beta version is already online. Well, I searched "Bismarck" and the first item that came up was "elevation of plasma viscosity induces sustained NO-mediated dilation in the hamster cremaster." Turns out that one of the authors was P. von Bismarck. I'd better refine my search, or google had better refine its engine. Let's see some more of it. Well, I tried "Otto von Bismarck" and came up with "The Politics and Economics of Mental Health Parity Laws." You call it.

GSA MAILING POLICY:
GSA membership is on a calendar year basis. Renewals are in December for the following year. There has never been a change in the calendar year membership basis. Members who renew late, after an issue of GSR has been mailed in bulk mail at reduced cost, will still receive all copies of the journal, the German Studies Review, even though the extra postage cost of sending the copies individually must be borne by the rest of the membership. This will NOT be the case with the Newsletter. Members who renew after the Newsletter has been bulk mailed in April will not receive a copy. The cost of individual mailing outside of the bulk process is too high, and most of the GSA information contained in the Newsletter is on the web site. Generally, only non-GSA information will be missed. A certain number of copies will be available at the Annual Conference for late-payers to pick up, but none will be mailed.

It is hoped that most GSA members will renew prior to April.

GSA Elections and Nominations
In the just completed election, Sara Lennox (German, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) was elected Vice President for the two-year term, 2005-2006, and future President. Elected to the Executive Committee were Mary Hampton (Political Science, Air Command and Staff College in Alabama), Gary Cohen (History, University of Minnesota), and Stephen Brockmann (German, Carnegie Mellon University). They were elected to three-year terms on the Executive Committee, and will serve from 2005 through 2007. The new system of balloting in conjunction with the annual dues payment has resulted in a gratifyingly higher level of voting participation.

GSA MAIN OFFICE ADDRESS:

German Studies Association
340 E. 15th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281 USA

Telephone: 480-966-2245
Telefax: 480-966-2239
E-Mail: thegsa@yahoo.com

Please do not call about membership or registration issues. It is best to e-mail. We do not return long-distance calls.

GSA Secretary-Treasurer's Office for Membership Information. Send membership forms to this address:

Prof. Gerald A. Fetz,
GSA Secretary-Treasurer
Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Montana

Missoula, MT 59812

E-Mail: FetzGA@mso.umt.edu