At its meetings held in Washington, D.C., on January 3 and 6, 2008 (during the 122nd annual meeting), the AHA's Council reached the following decisions:

• Commended Convention Director Sharon K. Tune on her 20th meeting as manager.
  
• Approved the minutes of the June 2007 Council meeting and a summary of interim discussions and decisions conducted by listserv.
  
• Agreed that the three division vice presidents will serve on the board of the National History Center ex officio as voting members, to better coordinate the relationship between the two organizations.
  
• Formed a development advisory committee to initiate a capital campaign, which will be jointly chaired by AHA President Gabrielle Spiegel and National History Center Director Wm. Roger Louis.
  
• Approved the audit report for the 2006–07 fiscal year.
  
• Approved the slate of committee members for 2008.
  
• Accepted revisions to the Guidelines for Affiliation, and accepted the Society for the History of Children and Youth as a new affiliated society.
  
• Approved the new mission statement of the Professional Division.
  
• Approved formation of a new Task Force on Disabilities.
  
• Approved revision to section 3.2 of the annual meeting guidelines, which will now read:
  
  
  • 3.2) Selection and Participation: Participation at the annual meeting is subject to the following conditions:
    
    
    • A. All participants, except for foreign scholars and those from other disciplines, must be current members of the Association.
      
    • B. Participants may present only one paper of original research per year; and serve in one other capacity at the annual meeting, such as serving as chair or commentator on another panel, or participating in professionally-oriented sessions.
      
    • C. The full diversity of the membership should be represented in the annual meeting program, taking into consideration the principles articulated in the "Statement on Diversity in AHA Nominations and Appointments," which states that selections "should be consistent with the principle of diversity including such considerations as: work context, including secondary schools, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, graduate institutions, public history, and independent research; as well as employment status, such as full-time, part-time, and temporary; gender; race and ethnicity; age; rank, including junior as well as senior historians; regional distribution; and area of specialization, where pertinent to the position."
      
    • D. In keeping with the Statement on Diversity, issues of diversity and representation should be addressed insofar as possible within individual panels and in the context of the entire meeting.
      
• Removed the criteria from the John H. Dunning Prize that limited awards to "a young scholar."
  
• Approved a proposal to assist early-career historians at colleges and universities that do not support research, through summer seminars, research funding, mentorship, and a close review of the balance between tenure requirements and expectations in history departments.
  
• Approved language clarifying the criteria for the Beveridge Family Teaching Prize.
  
• Received the final report from the Working Group for the Future of the AHA.
  
• Approved language streamlining the nominating process for the Asher Prize.
  
• Agreed to place proposed constitutional amendments before the full membership for approval by electronic ballot.
  
• Asked the executive committee to review the annual meeting press policy, and to report back to Council at its June meeting.
  
• Asked staff to distribute the Committee on Minority Historians' report on "Equity for Minority Historians in the Academic Workplace" to departments.
  
• Approved the nomination of Jane Kamensky (Brandeis University) as chair of the 2010 program committee.
  
• Added two new categories in the membership taxonomy ("Maritime including Naval" history and "Print Culture").
  
• Approved a subvention/grant of $2,000 to the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research in Nicosia, Cyprus, in support of its efforts to create a multifaceted Educational Center and Home for Cooperation in the UN buffer zone in Cyprus.
  
• Provisionally approved a letter to the U.S. State Department expressing concern about the status and treatment of records from United Nations' war crimes tribunals.
  
• Approved a letter to the Justice Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Archives expressing concern about the status of archival materials related to interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.