It is now possible to preregister and book accommodations for the 123rd Annual Meeting in New York, January 2-5, 2009.

Members should preregister through a link on the member services page, in order to take advantage of member rates. Nonmembers can join the AHA now, or preregister here.

Registering for the meeting and reserving a hotel room are linked for this year’s annual meeting. After preregistering for the meeting, attendees will receive an acknowledgment of preregistration that will include information on making a hotel reservation, either by customized hotel web sites or by calling the hotels directly. Annual Meeting attendees must first complete the meeting registration process before making a hotel reservation at the AHA’s meeting rates.

This new process is designed to ensure that the deeply discounted AHA meeting rates (as low as $129 a night) are reserved for those who support the Annual Meeting—its attendees and exhibitors—and not for tourists and others who want to book a room in New York City for New Year’s Eve weekend.

As you begin to make travel and hotel arrangements to attend the 2009 Annual Meeting, please note the shift from the traditional Thursday through Sunday meeting to 2009’s Friday through Monday meeting: January 2–5.  Here are the dates and times for 2009 annual meeting events:

Friday, January 2

• Noon – Meeting registration counters open
• 12:30 p.m. – Job Center opens
• 3:00 p.m. – Exhibit Hall opens
• 1:00–3:00 p.m. – Sessions
• 3:30–5:30 p.m. – Sessions
• 7:30 p.m. – Plenary Session

Saturday, January 4

• 9:30–11:30 a.m. – Sessions
• 2:30–4:30 p.m. – Sessions
• 8:00 p.m. – General Meeting, including the awarding of 2008 prizes and Gabrielle Spiegel’s (John Hopkins Univ.) presidential address, “The Task of the Historian.”

Sunday, January 4

• 9:00–11:00 a.m. – Sessions
• 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. – Sessions
• 2:30–4:30 p.m. – Sessions
• 4:45 p.m. – AHA Business Meeting

Monday, January 5

• 8:30–10:30 a.m. – Sessions
• 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. – Sessions

See the AHA’s Annual Meeting web page for information on hotels, venue locations, preregistration and onsite registration rates, exhibit hall details, ground transportation costs from the three airports, and preliminary Job Center dates and deadlines.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.