Journal of Latin American Geography

William E. Doolittle was most deservingly selected as a co-recipient of the CLAG Outstanding Service Award for 2004. He has been a part of CLAG since its inception and has served us well both up-front and behind the scenes, most recently as Executive Director from 1997-2003.

During his tenure as Executive Director, Bill was central in moving us forward as an organization. He hired an attorney and got us incorporated as a Texas corporation. He worked to maintain a three-year rotation for board terms and elections. He worked with Yearbook editors to insure that the annual volume was completed on time, and thus renewal notices were sent on a regular basis. He also worked with designers, distributors, the editors, the Board, and the printer in converting from the Yearbook to the Journal of Latin American Geography.

Bill also played a major role in organizing several CLAG meetings and numerous CLAG field trips. He took the lead in organizing the 1989 meeting in Querétaro and co-organized the 1994 meeting in Cuidad Juárez with a colleague from the Society of Mexican Geographers. He co-organized a field trip through Copper Canyon for that meeting, led a trip to San Antonio for the Austin meeting, and co-organized a field trip through Sonora for the Tucson meeting. There have been numerous additional trips for which he served as a driver or in another significant support role.

Bill is committed to opening leadership opportunities for women, especially as the proportion of women members of CLAG has increased. He worked effectively to seek nominations of women to serve on the Board so that at one point, the Board was 50% female and had a female Chair. Even as early as 2001, he initiated conversations with me about someday serving as Executive Director.

As I am learning, much of the work of an Executive Director is behind the scenes - dealing with member concerns, nominations and elections, communicating with board committees, working with UT Press, filing CLAG's taxes. Bill served faithfully in this role, setting an incredible standard for those of us who follow. He is always available to answer my myriad questions about CLAG procedures that are not necessarily spelled out in our bylaws but for which there is an institutional history. And since we are still sorting out the legal logistics of now being a Texas corporation managed in New York City, Bill continues the regular task of forwarding me CLAG's mail, and now again as department chair, he is continuing to maintain the UT-based CLAG account. [End Page 134]

There are so many additional ways in which Bill Doolittle has served us in CLAG, both individually and corporately. It is with this brief, but by no means exhaustive review of his work that I am honored to present to William E. Doolittle the 2004 Outstanding Service Award in recognition of years of distinguished service to the organization.