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AGENDA items numbered in boldface
1. Welcome and introduction of Steering Committee
Chair Nancy Lenoil {(7/29/2017 - 8/18/2018), California State Archives} called the meeting to order at 4:15 as sign-in sheets were sent around the room. She opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and introducing the current members of the Steering Committee:
2. Approve minutes of the last meeting on July 26, 2017, in Portland, Oregon*
The minutes of the last meeting were introduced for approval {*A copy of the 2017 meeting minutes had been made available for review on the Section’s web page at https://www2.archivists.org/groups/archives-management-section/meeting-minutes-and-presentations}. No additions or corrections were offered. A motion was made for the minutes to be approved; the motion was seconded. A vote was taken to approve and all approved with no dissenters.
3. Reports from Council and Other Groups
Carrie Daniels, University of Louisville, spoke on behalf of the editorial board of American Archivist. Thinking about ways to stay involved with the professional archival conversation after the annual meeting ends, she said that one way is to contribute articles for publication, and she offered flyers with information on how to do that. Carrie also encouraged attendees to attend the Write Away! breakfast the following morning at 7:30 for more information. She also said that if you had an idea that you thought had not been covered yet, she and the other board members would be happy to hear of it, so let them know in person or vie email. Another way to become engaged with the American Archivist is to become involved as a peer reviewer; you can sign up for this, giving details about your areas of expertise, by registering via the “About” tab on their website.
Audra Yun, Archives Management’s Council Liaison, reported on recent Council meetings. At its August 13 meeting in Washington, DC, the SAA Council passed two resolutions to honor people; these will be discussed at the membership meeting on Friday. They endorsed Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, a document that had been considered by previous Councils. Council also approved revisions to its “Principles and Priorities for Continuously Improving the SAA Annual Meeting” that include the addition of two bullets relative to meeting location (selecting meeting locations governed by laws, regulations, and practices that support the values and ethics of SAA) and panel composition (ensuring individual, institutional, and geographic, diversity and inclusivity). Council approved a motion to form a six-member task force to develop guidelines for staff use in considering vendor exhibits, sponsorships, and advertising. The task force will be appointed by September 1 and will have a final report due for consideration at the November 2018 Council meeting. They discussed a revision of the best practices for internships as a component of graduate archival education, and an update from the task force on accessibility, which is reviewing and revising best practices in accessibility. They will meet again in November.
4. Program: "How Managers Can Be Mentors and Mentees"
Nancy introduced this program, “How Managers Can Be Mentors and Mentees,” as deriving out of last year’s poll of Archives Management Section members, who answered that they most wanted guidance in learning how to be a manager in their archive. Nancy spoke with the Mentoring subcommittee about the possible misconception that most mentoring relationships were between new archivists and seasoned archivists, and indicated that many current managers were somewhat experienced archivists who were just new to the role of being a manager. This program will present speakers who will give several different viewpoints of the situation.
Holly Dolan, from Denton County, Texas, spoke about her experiences of being a mentee while advancing through in her career. First as a student working in a library, in charge of her student association when she got her MLIS, every single librarian around her was a mentor. She assumed that everyone around her would be a mentor. After graduation, she accepted a job in records management and assumed that her new supervisor would be a mentor as well, but the relationship just did not develop that way. Then, her supervisor left and she was put in charge. She realized that she didn’t have anyone to support her or help her to make decisions; she realized that she needed to learn how to be a manager of people. She signed up for SAA’s Mentoring program in order to have someone to talk to when she had questions, or just to get someone else’s experienced opinion on a matter. She has a scheduled monthly conference call with her mentor, during which they discuss whatever management issues have arisen (e.g., how connected should I stay when I go on vacation - should I check emails? or, I chewed out someone at work today; how do I reconcile it professionally? How do you reprimand someone without making it personal?). Holly has found mentoring to be extremely useful and valuable, and she highly recommends that anyone who feels that they might need some extra guidance should sign up for the program. Additionally, seasoned archivists should consider signing up to become peer mentors as well.
Michelle Sweetser, incoming chair of the Membership Committee, of which Mentoring Program is a Subcommittee, then spoke about the success of the Mentoring Program, which has enabled 600 partnerships over the past 20 years, 150 alone over the past year. SAA members are encouraged to participate as either mentors or mentees. Interested parties are matched up according to subject interests or geographic locations, and can be tailored to other characteristics, such as gender or level of experience. Once matched, the mentor and mentee determine their expectations and how to best structure their relationship. SAA recommends that the mentoring relationship be sustained for at least a year, and then may be continued at the interest of the participants. Michelle added that the responsibility of making the mentoring assignments rotates among the committee members every month, and that at any given time, there is usually a waiting list of both mentees and mentors (currently at 17 mentees and 7 mentors). They hope to possibly use listservs to advertise for mentors/mentees in specific locales. Introductions are made via email, and then the specifics are left up to the mentors/mentees. The program checks in at six months to see how the relationship is working, and the average relationship is expected to last a year but can last as long as is mutually beneficial.
One suggestion was made for the Mentoring Subcommittee: the use of the word ‘protégé’ rather than ‘mentee’ on the website gives the impression that only very young candidates are expected to avail themselves of the Mentoring Program. This might dissuade a large percentage of peer mentoring relationships from developing, as many mid-career archivists who suddenly find themselves in management positions (or established archivists who find themselves in the position of needing advice about new managers that they have inherited) would not consider themselves ‘protégés’.
The question was asked about mismatched pairs - how does one ‘divorce’ an ill-suited mentor/mentee? Notify the Mentoring Subcommittee as soon as it is apparent that the relationship is not going to be fruitful, to save everyone’s time and efforts. They will attempt to make another match.
One member commented that he has been in numerous mentoring relationships and sometimes, the mentee only wanted to ask one or two questions, and that’s all that they needed. Other times, the mentee wanted more follow-up. Every relationship is different.
5. Discussion of a "Management Track"
At last year’s meeting, the topic of Management Training was also raised. Rosemary Pleva Flynn and Nancy have been in discussions with SAA with an Archives Management Track.
Rosemary Flynn teaches workshops for SAA, many project management related, and was pleased to have attended the morning’s session at which many people said that they would support an Archives Management track. She led a brainstorming session to learn the preferred format for learning:
1. Format:
All day bootcamp
Small groups with human interaction
Regional workshops?
Half-day colloquium pre-SAA?
Section can co-host? Section can request funding from between $500-$5000 in funding; Deadline is December 1 for Letter of intent.
(Webinars are not as useful because management needs human interaction)
The SAA Course Management System can pull out courses like a college delivery system – we might possibly offer a mix of webinars of preliminary training online then the human meeting for the in-depth personal interaction.
Rosemary summarized that she was hearing that we might want to offer one track for people wanting to become managers and then a second track for established managers. The question is then, what content would go into both tracks?
2. Topics:
What needs to be added to round out the catalog (that already exists in the catalog on archives management)?
One idea for a topic is how to manage people of any age – whether you’re a manager or just a staff member, or how to manage a volunteer program.
After a rambling discussion about what ought to go into and what doesn’t need to be covered in an Archives Management Track, and more discussion regarding the issuing of Certification/Certificates, Mott Linn suggested that people look to the Academy of Certified Archivists’s role delineation statement for management for tasks and roles.
Ultimately, because no consensus could be reached on the contents of topics to include, the suggestion of surveying the membership arose. If we put together a survey on mid-career archivists and training, will people participate in it? Will David get help this coming year when he goes looking for it within the Section? The members in attendance said that they would participate.
We, as a Section, need to advocate for Management programming every year at the annual meeting.
There was widespread support for the idea of sponsoring a colloquium at an annual meeting. With the colloquium, we would have a general topic for discussion, followed by break-out sessions led by more experienced managers discussing different topics. If each of these break-out sessions was recorded and turned into webinars, SAA could get two-for-one service out of the colloquium…
Rosemary thanked everyone for their input, said she would take the comments back to continue to work with them, and she encouraged anyone who was interested in teaching workshops or leading a session on a particular topic, to please contact her as well.
6. and 7. Discussion of what members want and potential future initiatives from the AM Section
Nancy thanked Rosemary for leading the discussion, and said that, as David had indicated, it seems that the Section has made it known that they want to pursue the development of a Management Track, to develop webinars, and possibly to sponsor a colloquium. We will see where it goes.
8. Introduction of new officers and steering committee members
Nancy wrapped up the meeting by thanking the outgoing Steering Committee members:
Coming in taking their places will be:
Nancy announced the officer results of the 2018-2019 election:
Section Chair:
Vice Chair / Chair-Elect:
Secretary:
9. Adjournment
Nancy officially passed the leadership of the Section over to David Benjamin.
David thanked Nancy for her work this past year, thanked everyone for participating today and earlier at the session this morning, and he looks forward to working with everyone this coming year. He asked members to feel free to send him an email (david.benjamin@ucf.edu) if they wanted to discuss anything with him. All of the Section leaders’ emails are on the Archives Management Section webpage.
He said that as a new manager, he knows how scary it can be, and that there is a lot that can be learned from experienced people out there. He looks forward to working on the idea like the Section sponsoring events like a bootcamp, because it’s important.
Ann Case asked that everyone please sign the attendance roster before they leave.
Nancy said that she and Rosemary would continue on with SAA with the idea of Archives Management track and with the survey, and she encourages anyone interested in mentoring, on either side, to take advantage of that opportunity.
The meeting ended at 5:29 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann E. Smith Case
Recording Secretary
