The organization must be a community of historians, with a formal organizational structure, an identifiable membership, and a commitment to maintaining connections among historians. There must be clear evidence that the organization monitors, protects, and ensures high quality in both the means and the products of its communications with its members. Evidence must be given that affiliation will benefit both the affiliated society and the AHA by establishing a partnership in the doing of history. The Association will not consider for affiliation any organization that discriminates on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, sexual preference, religion, ideology, political affiliation, age, physical handicap, or marital status, as stated in the AHA's Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct . Teaching is understood as encompassing a wide range of communication in varied settings, museums and historic sites as well as classrooms, and as involving visual materials and artifacts as well as words.
Research is understood as the discovery and exchange of new information and interpretations.
Benefit to the affiliate might include, for example, joint publishing ventures with the AHA, access to historians with related experiences through sessions at the annual meeting, expanded publicity for affiliates' programs through Perspectives , the offering of joint prizes and awards, and the like. Benefit to the AHA might include the ability to reach a wider circle of audiences for marketing and communication, access to specialized expertise of Affiliates, and the like. Copies of the newsletters or other periodical publications and record of conferences. A one page description of your organization addressing the four required criteria for affiliation. The committee will review all applications, usually by mail, and make recommendations to the Council, which will act at its next semi-annual meeting.