2001 Women Archivists Roundtable Minutes, Washington, D.C.

Meeting Minutes

Saturday, September 1, 8:00 - 9:30 AM

The Meeting was convened at 8 AM, Saturday September 1, 2001 by Co-Chairs Lee Eltzroth (Georgia State University) and Amy Cooper (University of South Dakota).

Welcome & Introductions 
Co-Chairs Amy Cooper and Lee Eltzroth opened the meeting by introducing themselves and welcoming members to the meeting of the Women Archivists Roundtable. A list gathering names of attendees was passed around.

Minutes 
Valerie Browne (Loyla University of Chicago) moved approval of 2001 Meeting Minutes, and Roseanne Stump (Sisters of the Living Word) seconded the motion. Approval of the 2001 minutes by consensus.

2002 Conference 
Pam Hackbart-Dean of the Program Committee spoke about the 2002 conference, to be held in Birmingham, Alabama. Deadline for the submission of proposals is October 6, 2001. Members should be sure to follow the guidelines on the forms. Forms are available in the back of the bulletin as well as online at the SAA website.

Name Change 

A history of the name change, from Women's Professional Archival Issues Roundtable (WPAIR) to Women Archivists Roundtable (WAR) was presented.

Survey 

Co-Chairs presented information about the WAR Survey, available at:http://www.geocities.com/saawar/survey.html. Asked for members to encourage distribution at their institutions, and asked for further suggestions for distribution. Suggestions were made to approach regional organizations about the distribution of the survey (MAC, SGA, MARAC). Membership suggested that it would be important to get the results of the survey published in the literature. It was noted that the archives of the COSW would provide further information about women in SAA, and that those records are located at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Lee should speak with Timothy Ericson.

Website 

Co-chairs presented the new WAR website (http://www.geocities.com/saawar/) and asked for comments and suggestions. Recognition was given to Debbie Richards (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute), for her work in creating the website.

• Suggested a bibliography of articles regarding women in the archival professions. Submissions for the bibliography can be made to Amy Cooper.
• Suggested a newsletter on the website. The newsletter idea generated a lot of discussion. We need to establish whether or not someone is interested in writing or compiling a newsletter. Perhaps a joint newsletter between the Women's Caucus, Women's Collections Roundtable and WAR? A discussion ensued about whether or not a joint newsletter would provide a strong public voice on women's issues, and the membership determined that the newsletter might be best placed with the Caucus. Currently, nobody is willing to devote the time to a newsletter, and we should see how the Roundtable develops over the next couple of years. As an option, we may add a "News" section to the website, which members could post items of interest to.
• Suggested that the results of the survey be posted (unofficially) on the website. Also suggested an analysis of this year's SAA membership data and meeting attendance, to make a comparison of women and men in the field (statistics that the COSW used to keep.) Nancy Marrelli (Concordia University) and Valerie Browne volunteered to do this analysis.

WAR Listserv 
It had been suggested that WAR develop a listserv specifically for women's issues. The drawbacks of this were quick to be brought to the forefront: it would require someone at a university to provide server space, and any increase in the volume of e-mail was seen to be a severe detriment. Also, people felt that it would not be used, and that comment and feedback in this group is limited. The group determined that they would rather continue on with occasional group mailings from the Co-Chairs, and use that opportunity to engage in discussion if they desired. There is no need for a listserv at this time.

Navigator Program 
Nancy Taylor (Presbyterian Historical Society) and Toni Jeske (University of Texas, San Antonio) coordinated the Navigator Program, which is sponsored by WAR. This is designed for new members, both men and women. The program matches new meeting attendees with people who have attended one or more SAA meetings, to help provide guidance about how to get the most from a meeting. This year, there were 34 navigatees. SAA was very helpful in coordinating the information gathering and putting the information on the registration form. Nancy and Toni will be sending an informal survey to participants. Nancy and Toni will continue in organizing next year's program.

• Suggested that they write a piece for the SAA Newsletter, talking about the success of the program.
• Suggested that we get a list of first-time meeting attendees and contact them directly to increase participants in the program. This would be difficult, and may overwhelm the resources at hand. Nancy and Toni noted that they had a hard time coming up with 34 people who were willing to be navigators.
• Suggested that we develop a contact with Scott Schwartz of the Membership committee. It might be possible that the membership committee would take over this function at some point in the future.

Elections 
By-laws indicate that elections for Co-Chairs take place yearly, and that terms are staggered, so that there is always a new person and a person who has served one year. Both of the current Co-Chairs are willing to continue serving, and consensus was to keep the current Co-Chairs on for another year of service. We will take nominations for Co-Chairs prior to next year's SAA meeting.

Steering Committee
Current Steering Committee Members: Nancy Taylor, Toni Jeski, Katherine Flemming (College of Charlston) and Debbie Richards are all willing to continue to serve. We will contact Katrina Harkness (Florida State Archives) and Maria Teresa Marquez (University of New Mexico) to see if they are still interested in serving. Two new member were voted onto the steering committee by consensus vote: Marilyn Pettit (Columbia University) and Sarah Keen (student, University of Michigan).

New Business 
The floor was opened to new business:

• Question about Duke's offer last year to host a conference in the spring. Cristina Favretto was the organizing force behind it. She is, however, leaving Duke and so the conference seems to no longer be taking place. Ruth Bryan (Duke) will find out more information.
• NHPRC Fellowships are being offered in 2002, up to $10,000, with an emphasis on non-academic archivists and dealing with electronic records. Women archivists were encouraged to apply.
• Valerie Browne is working on a project for the Center for Women in Leadership in which she is identifying collecting institutions in the United States for Women's Collections. The focus is primarily on Second wave feminism. The ultimate result of the project will be a survey, a guide and a searchable database. Anyone with information about "Mapping Women's Collections" should contact Valerie Browne.
• Suggested a change to the survey deadline date to make it more available at fall regional conferences. The survey date was changed to November 15, to accommodate MARAC, MAC, NEA, Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists, etc. This change will be mounted to the website.
• Question about how active the group has been? We are a new group. COSW gathered information on women in SAA, including childcare, women as fellows, and etc. Statistics gathered by our membership and survey responses will generate further ideas for action.
• There was a recognition of the importance of gathering information on the quality of life in the profession, especially the balance between personal and professional lives. A member mentioned that she was astounded at the number of hours we are required to work now, as opposed to in the past. This has a significant impact on us, and was the topic of some discussion.
• A call was made for ideas for WAR's meeting next year. If membership has ideas for a speaker, please contact Lee or Amy. One element will be a report on the survey results.
• A call was made for us to sponsor a session, if anyone is interested. A suggestion was made that the Steering Committee appoint a liaison who can provide information about how to get a session sponsored, and how to put a program together. Nancy Marrelli is not this person, but is willing to give some advice since she has been through the process (nmareli@alcor.concordia.ca).
• Lee Eltzroth mentioned the Report to Council, which is due December 11.

Meeting adjourned, 9:30 a.m.

Submitted 10/21/01