CEPC 2011 Minutes DRAFT

Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct

SAA Annual Meeting, Chicago

August 23, 2011 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Hyatt Regency, Skyway 269

 

Agenda and Minutes

1.      Welcome and Introductions

a.       New committee members (appointments start 8/27/11)

                                                  i.      Paul Lasewicz, IBM

                                                ii.      Nancy Freeman, USDA

                                              iii.      Anne Graham (intern)

b.      New Council Liaison

                                                  i.      Bill Landis, UNC

c.       Thanks to outgoing members

                                                  i.      Robert Leopold

                                                ii.      Jean Green

                                              iii.      Benn Joseph (intern)

                                              iv.      Tom Hyry (Council Liaison)

d.      CEPC Chair

                                                  i.      Tim Pyatt re-appointed for another year

Note: Tim stated this would be his final year as chair and will request a new chair be appointed after the 2012 meeting. This will help with transition as Tim rotates off CEPC in 2013.

 

2.      Approval of 2010 Minutes

 

Minutes were approved as submitted.

 

3.      Update on the Code Revision

Council liaison Tom Hyry outlined process for the Committee. Once the second revision is a completed, a final report will be submitted to SAA Council through new liaison Bill Landis. It would be useful to summarize comments received as this will allow Council to get a sense of input received from membership.

4.      Discussion of comments received and updated revision

CEPC received comments from one section and one working group, the Business Archives Section and the Intellectual Property Working Group, in addition to roughly 60 comments from individuals. Over half of the comments received were positive; most of these were posted to the website. Most of the more critical comments or comments suggesting changes tended to be submitted via email. The Intellectual Properties Working Group recommended merging the Privacy Section and the Access Section. CEPC felt these are two different things each deserving its own section. IPWG also recommended that the Code include a statement about intellectual property rights. There was some concern that this would not be in keeping with an aspriational code. The challenge with a non-aspirational code is how does it apply to members in the society? SAA does not have a punishment process and does not want to add one. The decision (and charge from Council) was to keep the Code aspirational to avoid adjudication.

IPWG also suggested changing "standards" to "ideals" and/or "principles," CEPC agreed with this recommendation as it is more in keeping with Code’s aspirational quality.

Many of the individual comments received were from members looking for more granularity, which moves the Code away from being aspirational. Other comments received suggested adding more about relationships with donors and adding a diversity section. CEPC felt these comments could be addressed without adding separate sections.

CEPC did like the suggestion to change the “Access” section to “Access and Use.” Other suggestions were to merge Security and Authenticity and add a Value statement. CEPC felt that the section should remain and that the reference to the Values statement as a related document was sufficient.

Comments received also indicated an interest in examples or explanatory text with the Code, which previously was identified as problematic by legal counsel with such examples removed as part of the last Code revision. As part of its recommendation to SAA Council, CEPC will recommend that its next project should be to create an electronic resource of Ethics Case Studies (similar to existing Campus Case Studies online publication).

After the discussion of comments received, CEPC reviewed the Code section by section and made recommendation for changes. The draft second revision is attached.

5.      Schedule follow-up meeting before end on conference

Enough progress was made during the meeting that a follow-up meeting during the conference was not necessary.

6.      New Business:

a.       Proposed Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning (draft attached)

 

CEPC found the references to the Code of Ethics not to be in conflict with the revised Code. Tim said he would respond to the working group.

 

7.      Other business?

It was suggested that SAA consider doing a printed version of the Values and Code together as a poster or handout for the 2012 meeting to raise awareness of the Code (assuming it is approved by Council prior to the next annual meeting).

Also assuming work with the Code revision is complete, the agenda for next year’s CEPC meeting with be resources to accompany the Code, such as the development of case studies.

Referenced Group Meeting: