Meeting Minutes-SAA, Chicago, 2011

Issues & Advocacy Roundtable Annual Meeting,Chicago, Illinois, August 4, 2011

Agenda

1:00: Welcome, general buiness and announcement of election results, Co-Chairs Dana Miller and Alison Stankrauff

1:15: Message from Council Liaison, Donna McCrea

1:25: Message from the SAA Program Committee, representative

1:30: Accomplishments of the Roundtable in 2010-2011

1:45: Discussion on advocacy and outreach, Steering Committee Member Laura Starratt

2:00: Discussion on SAA's "I Found It In The Archives!" contest, Steering Committee Member Courtney Chartier

2:15: Discussion, Rountable membership involvement, Co-Chairs

2:30: SAA and labor issues, Co-Chair Stankrauff

2:45: Brainstorming session for 2011-2012 activities

3:00: Adjornment

Meeting Minutes

Outgoing chair Dana Miller welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced herself. Afterwards, everyone in the room introduced themselves.

Election Results:

• [Previously elected] Alison Stankrauff will continue a second year as Chair.
• Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Laura Starratt
• Steering Committee Member (incumbent): Jeremy Brett
• Steering Committee Member (newly elected): Megan Albritton
• Steering Committee Member (newly elected): Conor Casey
• Steering Committee Member (newly elected): Matthew Francis
• Steering Committee Member (newly elected): Laurie Rizzo
• Webmaster and Steering Committee Member (newly elected): Shawn San Roman

All outgoing I&AR leadership were thanked for their service over the previous year.

SAA Council Liaison Donna McCrea reported to the council on current SAA business. Donna began by encouraging attendees to attend the 8/27/2011 SAA business meeting, and explained the importance of having quorum for the meeting. This was followed by a longer discussion on the creation of a SAA task force on meetings. Donna explained that the task force was created in part due to the labor situation for this year’s conference, and she encourage everyone with an interest to volunteer to be a part of this new group.

Dana Miller and Courtney Chartier reviewed I&AR activities during the past year. The I&AR website was updated on Drupal, and during the year new content was added including historical material and templates, and the website was used to help push advocacy on a local level. Also, the roundtable had worked with SAA Executive Director Nancy Beaumont to update an archival organizations database, which should be going live in the near future.

I&AR also participated in three letter writing campaigns, involving:

1. The labor dispute at the Chicago Hyatt Regency Hotel.
2. The deaccessioning of files from the Hungarian government archives.
3. The integration of New York City’s Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) into the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS).

I&AR nominated the NBC television show “Who Do You Think You Are?” for the SAA Jameson Award. It was then announced that the show had received the award.

We then discussed the lack of creation of an “Advocacy All-Star” List. Due to the resource intensive nature of creating and keeping up to date such a list, along with overlap with the archival organizations database, it was decided that the creation of such a list was not the best use of roundtable resources, and the project was abandoned.

Laura Starratt led a discussion on different types of archival outreach that involved I&AR leadership and general members. Different audiences mentioned during the conversation included (but were not limited to): genealogists, public school classes, tourists, alumni, and librarians. Different advocacy approaches mentioned included (but were not limited to): participating in National History Day, public tours, hosting campus and community events, and advocacy through press communications.

Sarah Buchanan from the SAA Program Committee briefed the committee about the upcoming 2012 SAA Conference in San Diego. The conference theme is “Beyond Borders,” and proposals for conference sessions are due by October 3rd. New for this year individuals are only allowed to appear on one proposal, and the Program Committee is encouraging the submission of more “lightning talk” sessions.

I&AR members presenting at the conference informed the roundtable about their sessions. Sessions mentioned included:

• 105 “Pay it Forward: Interns, Volunteers, and the Development of New Archivists and the Archives Profession” – Erin Lawrimore chairing, Laura Starratt presenting.
• 108 “Consider the Possibilities: Creating and Low-Cost Preservation Strategies in Practice” – Michelle Ganz presenting.
• 208 “Which Hat Are You Wearing: ‘You Need What? When?’” – Alison Stankrauff presenting.
• 510 “Archival Outreach 360: Archivists as Advocates” – Dana Miller and Conor Casey presenting.
• 601 “Rappin’ with a Fiddle: A 360 Perspective on Music Archives” – Courtney Chartier presenting.

Courtney Chartier reported on the “I Found it in the Archives” Program, and her institutions experience with it. Mentioned this will be the second year of the program, and as a result expected increased participation. The program runs in conjunction with American Archives month. Archives solicit entries from their patrons, and templates are available online.

Alison Stankrauff reviewed the labor issues surrounding the 2011 conference, and what could be done to help prevent the situation from occurring again in the future. This included a quick overview of the labor dispute and I&AR’s decision to still meet on site (as opposed to Human Rights and Labor roundtables). Alison emphasized the importance of the new SAA meeting task force as a way to minimize the chances of such problems occurring in the future, and encouraged individuals who care about the subject to volunteer for the new task force or its subcommittees.

Members of the roundtable discussed ideas and projects for the upcoming year.  Mentioned items included:

• Supporting the “I Found it in the Archives” Program.
• The importance of internal advocacy, and the possibility of the development of an online resource to assist members with their internal advocacy work.
• Ways to increase participation for the general membership of the roundtable, including having the steering communicate more regularly with the rest of the roundtable.

Co-chairs thanked everyone for their work, and the meeting was adjourned.

Attendance: 24

Minutes submitted by Matt Francis, 8/30/2011