The results of the 2019 Society for Industrial Archeology Board of Directors election are as follows:

NEW BOARD MEMBERS 

Seth Price

Seth Price’s interest in industrial archeology began through watching trains and finding ghost towns in the New Mexico desert. He joined the SIA in 2007, was a student volunteer at the 2010 and 2011 annual conferences and attended several other conferences and fall tours. He also reviewed a book on explosives in 2011 for IA. He served on the SIA board as an appointed interim director in 2017 and early 2018.

Seth holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech (2005), an MS in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from New Mexico Tech (2010) and a BS in Broadcast and Operational Meteorology from Mississippi State (2016). He works as an instructor/laboratory associate in the Chemical Engineering Department at New Mexico Tech, ands serves as a tutor at Magdalena Municipal Schools and St. Mary’s Catholic School in Belen. He also does curriculum development consulting and has developed several online engineering classes for various institutions.

Seth is also a licensed amateur radio operator (N3MRA), runs a small storm chasing tour business, tinkers with cars and electronics, and shoots competitively. He maintains a number of blogs, including http://westernghosttowns.wordpress.com which discusses SIA-related topics.

Bob Newbery

Bob is a professional historian, with a BA from Stanford and an MA from the University of Wisconsin. He focused on historic preservation for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for 32 years. While at WisDOT he was the managing editor of the 3-volume series, Historic Highway Bridges in Wisconsin and the principal author of Volume 2, Truss Bridges. Since retiring, He has continued to use my research and historic preservation skills in the employ of a transportation engineering firm headquartered in Wisconsin. He is a passionate advocate for National History Day, an academic enhancement program for Middle and High School students.

Bob attended my first SIA Annual Conference in Cleveland in 1986. There he was befriended by Mary McCahon, who led him to the path of full SIA addiction. He was the paper chair for the Annual Conferences in 2005 (Milwaukee) and 2006 (St. Louis). He believes the Society currently faces three issues: the Friday tours, social media, and recruitment of younger members. Each issue will require creative brainstorming, careful analysis, and attentiveness to the ideas of the entire membership. The latter issue would certainly benefit from some overlap with National History Day.

TREASURER

Nanci Batchelor

Nanci Batchelor works for the accounting firm of WithumSmith+Brown in Princeton, New Jersey. As SIA Treasurer since 1987, Nanci has diligently managed the Society’s financial affairs and insurance needs. She coordinated the last revision of the Society’s by-laws. A former Roebling Chapter president, Nanci helped organize the 1985 Annual Conference in Newark, NJ, the 1987 Fall Tour of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and the 2002 Annual Conference in Brooklyn.

SECRETARY

James Bouchard

James Bouchard is a long time SIA member, a former SIA board member, and was a co-organizer of the SIA 2003 convention in Montreal. James and his wife Diana are regular participants in the SIA tours and conferences. James has been a volunteer at Exporail, the Canadian Railroad Museum since the 70’s and a board member of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association since the 90’s. James is currently the Secretary of the CRHA and has been secretary for several other organizations. After retiring in 2010 from full time work, he started part time again in 2011 and is enjoying it more.

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE MEMBER

Diana Bouchard

Diana Bouchard discovered IA at the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont, joined the SIA in 1981, and has been an avid tour participant since 1985. She was on the organizing committee for the 2003 Annual Conference in her home city of Montreal, Quebec, and has served a term on the SIA Board. She is also a member of AQPI (Association québécoise pour le patrimoine industriel), the Quebec-based organization that functions as the local IA presence in Montreal. She worked for 26 years for the Pulp & Paper Research Institute of Canada (now FPInnovations), which enabled her to explore intimately an industry rich in history and IA. Diana is now semi-retired and combines home-based scientific editing and translation work with a range of other activities and enthusiasms, always including IA. She shares many of the latter with her husband, James, also a very active SIA member.

As a member of the Nominating Committee, Diana plans to seek out and encourage potential officers and committee members who are ready to lead SIA’s sometimes-turbulent journey into an uncertain but promising future. She is  especially looking for those who are open to new experiments and new collaborations, but who will maintain good and fruitful relationships with the more traditional IA community.