DailyHebrew.com

Ever since Ron Hendel announced his departure from SBL, the bloggers are going crazy and so too is SBL with a mass email, usually reserved for monetary requests, and some heavy rhetoric (at one point correcting Hendel's preposition usage–"the Society for (not “of”) Pentecostal Studies").  One can see how the ship may be at stake, or at least risk taking on some water, if members start abandoning ship (to push the metaphor a bit!).  I, for one, will remain a member of SBL, but shall be on the lookout for hellfire and brimstone or other such frivolity!

UPDATE:

June 28, 2010

Dear Member,

We are pleased to announce that on June 10, 2010, the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion signed a Letter of Intent that outlines an agreement to hold concurrent Annual Meetings beginning in San Francisco in the fall of 2011. These meetings will

• Occur in the same city—though the venue will change from year to year;
• Occur at the same time—the weekend before the US Thanksgiving holiday;
• Feature a single, jointly managed Publishers/Software/Book Exhibit;
• Feature a single, jointly managed Employment Center;
• Feature distinct and separate AAR and SBL programs planned with open communication between the organizations;
• Encourage the organizations’ members to attend each other’s programs and events at no additional cost;
• Allow the organizations to pursue their unique, if sometimes overlapping, missions;
• Enhance cooperation, not competition, between the organizations.

The advertising for these conventions will use the city name, the year, and will identify the SBL and AAR as hosts. For example, the first of these meetings will be known as “Annual Meetings 2011 San Francisco, hosted by the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.” This name will appear on the registration gateway, on signage at the meetings, on promotional materials, and on other common elements.

A Conventions Management Committee, consisting of the Executive Directors and staff members from each organization, is developing operating policies and procedures that expand on the considerable detail that already exists in the Letter of Intent. Each year the Committee will review the most recent meetings with an eye toward making improvements in subsequent gatherings. Nine concurrent meetings are being planned for 2011 through 2019. Beginning in 2013 the organizations will begin operating on a seven-year planning horizon that includes a mechanism by which the organizations can, on an annual basis, extend the seven-year agreement for an additional year. Dates and venues of the first three concurrent Annual Meetings are as follows:

• November 19-22, 2011 San Francisco
• November 17-20, 2012 Chicago
• November 23-26, 2013 Baltimore

We believe that concurrent meetings will serve the interests of our members, will help to advance the many disciplines and areas of study we represent, and will maintain and advance the critical inquiry that characterizes the work of our societies. We invite you to join us in building this exciting new future.

Cordially,

The NY Times has a brief and relatively even-handed article on Hershel Shanks, the (in)famous (the in- or lack thereof, of course, depends on one's opinion of "Biblical Archaeology" and a host of other controversial issues) founder of BAR.

A good article particularly focusing on the early history of the Oriental Institute is online.  It focuses mainly on the expeditions in the eastern half of the Fertile Crescent. 

This BAR article is a nice summary of her 2006 Egypt and the Levant article: "Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs: Horus is Hathor? – The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai."