2003 Women Archivists Roundtable Minutes, Los Angeles

Saturday, August 23, 2003 at 8 am
Room - Constellation 2

Agenda

Elections

• Co-Chair - Andrea Sheehan volunteered
• Steering Committee - Katherine Burger Johnson volunteered

Updates

• Navigator Program
• WAR Website

SAA Request

• SAA Publications

Future Activities

• Another Survey - Women in the Archival Profession
• Committees? - SAA Fellow, Survey, Salary Survey, Composition of Profession/SAA, Annual Conference Programs
• Ideas for activities

Statement of Goals & Objectives

[WAR] will:

• Monitor the status of women within the archival profession
• Encourage the participation of women in all phases of SAA business and other activities as well as in the archival profession as a whole
• Monitor gender balance on SAA programs
• Nominate candidates for Fellow in SAA
• Monitor the continuance of day care at the SAA Annual Meeting
• Meet annually in conjunction with the SAA meeting
• Conduct its business in accordance with the SAA's "Guidelines for SAA Roundtables"

Meeting Minutes

Welcome and Introductions
Co-chair Holly Geist introduced herself and called for meeting attendees to give brief introductions. Holly passed a list gathering names of those in attendance.

Elections
Membership unanimously approved the election of Andrea Sheehan as Co-Chair. Katherine Burger Johnson and Kathleen Feeney volunteered for the Steering Committee.

Updates
Navigator Program: Nancy Taylor provided information about the Navigator Program, a process to match experienced conference attendees with people new to the conference experience. Nancy and Toni Jeske made 22 matches this year. In an attempt to improve the program, Nancy and Toni are working with the SAA Membership Committee.

Website: Debbie Richards, the web liaison, was not able to attend the meeting. Holly mentioned that the website includes member information, such as email addresses. The discussion turned to talk of the possibility that SAA will go to an electronic only newsletter format.

2004 Program Committee: Kathy Marquis presented information on submitting a program for the 2004 conference in Boston, which are due on Oct. 7, 2003. People can submit proposals on the SAA website. A new process is in place for endorsements by Roundtables and Sections.

Council Liaison: Elaine Engst introduced herself as WAR's SAA council liaison.

SAA Publications: Heather MacNeil would like information about publications members would like to see available.

Future Activities
Survey: Holly mentioned the survey on the website and asked about creating a new survey. Elaine mentioned that SAA plans to create a survey, so WAR will submit recommendations for survey questions to Elaine: diversity, gender, specific types of archivists (such as those working for religious archives), and salary (with specific questions related to ethnicity and gender).

Ideas from By-Laws: Holly brought up nominating a woman as SAA Fellow. The group showed an interest, and proceeded to discuss requirements and restrictions on nominating a fellow, such as at least seven years of membership in SAA prior to nomination. Kathy, Elaine and Valerie offered advice on the process. Kathy Johnson suggested Danna Bell-Russell as a possible candidate. Rebecca Hankins said that the Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable, which she chairs, also had a concern with nominating Fellows, and she would act as the point person for a nominating committee, so that both groups could work together. Holly asked interested members to get together after the meeting to form a Fellow Nominating Committee.

Other Activities: Holly asked about other possible committees, mentioning the list from the by-laws. WAR members decided that the fellow committee was the only subcommittee necessary now.

After the agenda topics, WAR members discussed other topics:

• Roundtable vs. Caucus
• Over-scheduling at SAA conference
• Session Proposals

Minute notes taken by Helene Idels. Typed by Holly Geist.