To this end it holds a number of meetings throughout the school year, sponsors lectures, discussions, film nights and displays.
As if dropping from some point in the future, perhaps the 1980s, maybe the 1990s or could it be last week, the opening sentence declared 'Whether we like it or not History as a subject in the schools appears to be under attack.
In addition to the editorial which has been quoted, this first issue contained articles by Wes Blackmore, then the Senior History Master at Yarra Valley Church of England Grammar School, Professor N. D. Harper and Lloyd Evans.
Agora underwent a number of change formats over the next forty odd years before it became the glossy quarterly we recognise today.
The 1970s, despite concerns about the threat to History in schools voiced in the late 1960s, feature continuing growth and expansion of the association's activities although the decade appears to have culminated in crisis.
In 1975, when the VHA moved to premises at 85 Howard St., North Melbourne, which it shared with the Geography Teachers Association, membership had risen to 945, and was to reach 1144 by 1979.
Moves were made to set up a national association of History teachers, and the VHA was given the task of drawing up a draft constitution for the proposed body, which was to have been launched at Sydney University in May 1973.
While the 1970s membership figures and student lecture numbers suggest a thriving organisation, 1978–79 was described in the president's Report as a 'challenging year' during which it 'survived financial crisis'.
In the early 1990s the threat seemed to be coming from 'Australian Studies'; the HTAV mobilised to meet it by running conferences on how it could be used to increase the amount of History being taught.
Despite the financial constraints of the 1990s, under the successive leaderships of John Cantwell and Jacqualine Hollingworth, the HTAV continued to provide for the needs of its membership and the wider History teaching community.
As an organisation it represented teachers of History in the development of the Victorian Certificate of Education, the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) and it successor the CSFII and more recently AUSVELS.
It also continued to support classroom teachers by publishing an array of resources, Agora and conducting professional development and student lectures.