A new way to connect with your colleagues.

As we all adapt to new ways of working and communicating, AASLH is happy to introduce today Affinity Community Forums, a new way for you to connect with your colleagues around the country.

Beginning today, both members and nonmembers will have access to these new online spaces where history practitioners can ask questions, share advice, and stay up-to-date with their peers in a specific area of interest or professional practice.

AASLH has long supported various Affinity Communities—informal digital and in-person groups that provide resources, advice, and networking to those interested in particular aspects or niches of public history work. Led by a committee of AASLH member volunteers, the communities serve as outlets and sounding boards for their members, who work or volunteer with a diverse range of historical organizations across the country. Through AASLH and these communities, members stay up-to-date with developments and trends in their area and create programming that serves their audience in the form of Annual Meeting sessions, webinars, in-person workshops, and more. They also advocate for the value of their area to the wider field, and provide guidance for AASLH as we seek to provide meaningful training and resources for these topics.

The introduction of these new forums will help make AASLH Affinity Communities more accessible and strengthen the connections among their members.

Browse the list of communities and follow the instructions below to join. Note: A community showing may show “0 Registered Members” even if it has many participants! This message appears because AASLH does not share members’ contact information with other members in the Membership Center.

How do I join an Affinity Community and participate in the forums?

Anyone can view the Affinity Community Forums. To join the community and post in the forums, you will need an individual-level AASLH account. This includes active AASLH individual members, those who have staff accounts at active institutional members, academic student and faculty accounts at active Academic Program Members, and even nonmember accounts.

Institutional members, including Partners, must create staff profiles for their employees, volunteers, and board members if you want them to be able to join and participate in AASLH Affinity Communities. There is no charge for creating staff profiles and no cap on how many staff profiles can be attached to your institution.

  • Please refer to the Creating Staff Members flyer for information on how to add these profiles: download.aaslh.org/Creating+Staff+Profiles.pdf.
  • Academic Programs can refer to the Creating Faculty and Student Profiles flyer to create profiles for people in their programs: download.aaslh.org/Creating+Faculty+and+Student+Profiles.pdf.
  • Lapsed AASLH members or people who have never had an AASLH account are welcome to create a nonmember account from the Membership Center page. There is no charge for creating a nonmember account.

Sign in to the AASLH Membership Center to get started!

To sign in to your individual account, go to aaslh.site-ym.com/login.aspx to login to the Membership Center. Links to reset your password or join AASLH are also available at that page. If you do not remember your username, please email [email protected].

Once logged in, choose the Communities tab to navigate to the community you would like to join. There is no limit to how many Affinity Communities you join.

To join the group, select Join Group at the top of the page. You will then be able to participate in the forum discussions. Even if you do not plan on participating in the forums, we recommend you join the Community so you don’t miss out on important community announcements.

You can sign up to be notified of new posts on a single thread or on the whole forum by clicking either “Forum Actions” or “Thread Actions” at the top right and selecting “Subscribe to Instant Updates.”

Got ideas for a new affinity group or questions about the existing ones? Contact the AASLH office at [email protected].