President's Note

President's Note Baki Tezcan, OTSA President The "President's Note" briefly summarizes recent news from the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (OTSA). Time-dependent news and information are sent to members by email and/or posted to H-Turk, our H-Net network (https://networks.h-net.org/h-turk). We also share our announcements, including those for our monthly "What is up in Ottoman and Turkish Studies?" (W'OTSAp) Zoom meeting series and occasional Zoom meetings in the series Turkey Now! and The OTSA Co-Op, with non-members through monthly e-mails. If you would like to receive these announcements, please send an e-mail to our web editor, Selin Onuk, at [email protected]. OTSA is a membership organization. OTSA holds its regular members' meeting, including the announcement of awards, in conjunction with the annual Middle East Studies Association conference in the fall of each year. Annual dues entitle members to receive the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, stand for election to become Board members and officers, and to serve on OTSA committees. Annual dues and contributions fund the annual OTSA awards and cover the minimal administrative costs of the organization as well as those associated with publishing and delivering JOTSA. Recognizing that earning power varies enormously among our current and potential members, we invite you to choose the membership category that best fits your budget. There is no difference among most of the categories in the status and benefits they offer with the exception of our new "International Membership," which does not include a hard copy of our journal. If you are not currently an OTSA member and would like to join, please access our website at http://www.ottomanturkishstudiesassociation.org/ and click on "Subscribe Now" under "Membership & Donations." A warm welcome to newly joining and rejoining members. Hoş geldiniz! [End Page 5] OTSA Nominations Committee and the Expansion of OTSA's Leadership Team I would like to start by thanking my colleagues Aslı Iğsız and Seçil Yılmaz for their service to the OTSA Nominations Committee (NC). Aslı chaired the committee in her final year, which was 2021, and Seçil chaired it this year. Together with Antonis Hadjikyriacou, who was the third member of the OTSA NC last year, they proposed some revisions to the guidelines of the OTSA NC that produced our new membership category for our colleagues outside the US, as well as the proposal to add a graduate student representative to the OTSA Board that was approved by our membership with a wide majority (92.13 percent) late last year, both of which I touched upon in my notes earlier. Another important revision proposed by the OTSA NC and approved by the OTSA Board is the expansion of OTSA Board candidacy to new OTSA members who might have served our field in different ways but were not OTSA members in the past. Previously, our membership occasionally elected newer members to the Board, but this formal recognition allows the OTSA NC to pick the candidates on the annual OTSA elections ballot from a wider range of our colleagues, thus ultimately expanding the representation of newer voices, especially from the social sciences and from among our international members who work outside the US. I should also recognize Begüm Adalet, who was elected to the OTSA NC last year. This year's NC also worked with Şahika Karatepe, who was elected as the inaugural graduate student member of the OTSA Board in 2021 for a one-year term. Şahika helped the NC identify candidates for the OTSA Board's graduate student member who will be elected this year for a two-year term. Our elections to fill this position as well as a President-Elect, who will become President in November 2023, two Board members, and a new member for the NC are currently under way with two candidates running for each one of the five positions. We will announce the results at our annual meeting on December 1 in Denver. The Conclusion of the Membership Engagement on our Naming Practices As you might have read in previous "President's Note"s (JOTSA 7.2

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