active in the ASAW until they broke away to
become a separate and distinct organization.
The SAEA was officially formed in 1968 at
that year’s ASAW annual meeting. A joint
meeting of the Agricultural Economics and
Rural Sociology and Market Sections formally
adopted the constitution. The first annual
meeting was held the next year in Mobile,
Alabama. That and all subsequent meetings
have been held in conjunction with the ASAW
and now the SAAS.
The SAEA began with 519 charter members
from 33 states, the District of Columbia, and
three foreign countries. The annual dues were
$3.00 for regular membership and $1.50 for
students, and a single issue of the Journal
was priced at $7.50. The first slate of officers
was composed of Robert W. Rudd, University
of Kentucky, as President; Marshall A. Godwin,
Texas A&M, as President-Elect; A.D. Seale,
Jr., Mississippi State University, as Vice
President; and John C. Redman, University of
Kentucky, as Secretary-Treasurer. A 13-person
editorial council was named for the Journal
with J. Rod Martin, USDA and Texas A&M,
as Editor.
MOTIVATIONS, EXPECTATIONS, AND
OBJECTIVES
There is much to be gained from
understanding the history of an organization,
since it provides a useful context in which to
gauge the ongoing activities. While the
historical overview above is interesting, it
does not reveal what motivated the formation
of the SAEA. To gain some insight into the
factors that led to the organization of the
SAEA, I interviewed several charter mem-
bers and others active in the profession at the
time.
Perhaps the strongest motive for the forma-
tion of a Southern professional association
grew out of the perception that the national
association (the American Agricultural
Economics Association-AAEA) did not meet
the needs of professionals in the southern
region. This perception included several
elements: that outstanding professionals in
the South were unable to attain national
recognition for their contributions; that few
were ever officers of the Association; that
Southern researchers did not have the oppor-
tunity for the same professional exposure (in-
vitations to professional meetings, member-
ship on committees, special boards, and the
like) as those from other regions did; that
Southern members faced extreme difficulty in
getting their work published in the national
journal (the American Journal of
Agricultural Economics-AJAE); and that
the AAEA was so dominated by members
from the midwest region that it was virtually
impossible (with few exceptions) for
Southerners to break into that power struc-
ture. Thus, the argument went, to have
greater opportunity for professional develop-
ment and interaction and for publication, a
new association was necessary.
I have not attempted to determine how
widespread these perceptions were, nor the
extent to which they may have been true.
Nevertheless, they are remembered by many
as important factors at the time.
Disgruntlement with the AAEA was by no
means the only motivation for a new associa-
tion. Some motivation came from the desire
among the economists to have a distinct pro-
fessional identity in the South, to be asso-
ciated with a profession rather than just a
section of the southern agricultural workers.
Some economists and rural sociologists, as
social scientists, felt that continuing as a
section of the ASAW was not adequate and
that they needed their own professional
association.
Another major impetus for a new associa-
tion, closely related to the above, was the
perceived need for an additional publication
outlet, another specific means by which pro-
fessionals in the region could improve their
communication, specifically on applied prob-
lems of the South. People holding this view
thought a new association could be com-
plementary to the national association and
that a new applications-oriented, regionally-
focused journal would complement the AJAE
as well. Thus, a major motivating factor in the
formation of the SAEA was the desire for a
distinctive, applications-oriented journal that
would deal with issues relevant to the South
and not be merely a regional version of the
journal of the national association.
There also were strong views that the South
still lagged seriously in economic development
and that more concerted attention should be
given to problems of the rural areas and
agriculture. It was argued that professionals
in the region with common interests would
benefit from a new forum to identify, debate,
and focus research on problems unique to the
region. A new association with a distinct
regional focus thus was viewed as a means for
promoting the region.
Support for formation of a new association
56