Welcome to the first issue of the AADAS News. With it we inaugurate a new era in the history of the Association for the Advancement of Dutch American Studies. Please take a look at President Robert Swierenga's article to read how we've worked to reinvigorate the association.

Richard Harms (Calvin College) and Larry Wagenaar (Joint Archives-Hope College) will be co-editing the AADAS News. It will appear twice annually and contain news and information of interest to our members such as conference details, other academic and popular events with Dutch American themes, book reviews, special offers, and updates from archival repositories.

This January you will receive the first dues notice from AADAS in many years. Beginning January 1, 2000, annual dues are $15 per person and will be used to support the publication of the newsletter, plan our biennial conferences, special mailings, and other activities of the association. Please support AADAS as we make this important transition!

Larry J. Wagenaar
Executive Director

The time has come to revitalize the Association for the Advancement of Dutch American Studies (AADAS), which has been largely moribund as a professional organization. Our wonderful biennial conferences, of course, have never let us down during the last twenty years. If you attended the 12th conference at Central College in June, you know what I mean. The papers were of a high caliber and captivating in their content. And everyone enjoyed the hospitality of the College and town of Pella. Be sure get your copy of the papers: Dutch Enterprise: Alive and Well in North America.

At the business meeting in Pella, the members unanimously voted to approve a reorganization plan for AADAS and they elected the slate of officers. As your president for the next two years, I want to share with you these exciting developments.

The background is this. In November of 1998, the Dutch American Historical Commission (DAHC), the West Michigan-based consortium of Calvin and Hope colleges and Calvin and Western Theological seminaries, created an ad hoc committee to discuss the current state of AADAS and how we might revitalize it. Since the DAHC founded AADAS in 1977, it was appropriate that it took the initiative again. The DAHC named to the committee the last elected president of AADAS, Larry Wagenaar, director of the Joint Archives of Holland and professor at Hope College, along with Richard Harms and Harry Boonstra of Calvin College and Elton Bruins and Robert Swierenga of Hope College.

Larry Wagenaar convened the ad hoc meeting on March 1, 1999, with a rough agenda, as follows: to review the frequency of AADAS conferences, to consider the possibility of publishing a newsletter for the members, to maintain a