2005 Annual Report

Eva Gronowska (Co-President from Feb 2005-July 2005, President July 2005-present)
Andrew Fowler (Co-President from Feb 2005-July 2005)
Mark King (Vice President Feb 2005-Sept 2005)
Denise Oliansky (Secretary Feb 2005-August 2005)
Jan Durecki (Secretary briefly in Sept 2005)
Chela Weber (Secretary Sept 2005-present)
Jennifer Hassell (Treasurer Feb 2005-present)
Troy Eller (co-Webmaster August 2005-present)
Crystle Martin (co-Webmaster August 2005-present)

Summary of 2005
The SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State University has gone through a complete overhaul this year. The organization was dormant until our former secretary, Denise Oliansky, sent a message on the Library and Information Science Program electronic mailing list calling for a meeting of students interested in reviving the Society of American Archivists at Wayne State. Officers were selected and the SAA Student Chapter took off. It hosted a number of events and doubled in membership. There was an obvious demand for this type of organization at Wayne State University. The SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State has received incredible support from the Library and Information Science Program and the Walter P. Reuther Library.

Membership
It is unlikely that any of the twelve students at the initial meeting were student members of SAA Student Chapter. However, since February of 2005, the membership has grown to 13 student members listed here:
• Cynthia Bader
• Tanya Graettinger
• Jennifer Hassell
• Mark King
• Denise Oliansky
• Jan Durecki
• Troy Eller
• Chela Weber
• Diane Gardner
• Maia Mannone
• Shaunna Burmeister
• Crystle Martin
• Eva Gronowska

Further, the number of casual members pushes the membership to about 20 and the mailing list (before we moved to an electronic mailing list of our own) included 47 interested students, plus two faculty members and a staff member.

Meetings
Since February 2005, the SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State has had ten meetings. The SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State webmasters are working to create an online archive of all these minutes.

Activities
1. The students that participated in the SAA Student Chapter wasted no time planning the group’s next steps; it is an active bunch, to be sure. The SAA Student Chapter invited Dr. Philip Mason, renowned archivist, author and Distinguished Professor of History at Wayne State University, to give a talk on April 13, 2005. The event was open to anyone interested and 25 people attended.

2. The Wayne State Library and Information Science Program provided funds to the SAA Student Chapter to offer the Web Seminar “EAD Tips and Tricks” on July 19, 2005. The turnout was not as large, but seven people still attended the seminar, which was held at State Hall on Wayne State University’s campus.

Website
The website (http://www.lisp.wayne.edu/saa/), much like the organization, was in disarray when the group reorganized. Two Library and Information Students offered to work on it together. Troy Eller and Crystle Martin have collaborated to update the website, create a new design, set up an official Wayne State email account (saawsu@wayne.edu) for the organization and also set up a listserv especially for SAA members and other interested parties.

Finances
The SAA has received financial support from both the Library and Information Science Program, Wayne State Student Council and the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. The Reuther Library provides $500 each fiscal year to support the organization. Now that a solid membership has been established, the SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State is looking into fundraising possibilities. Jennifer Hassell has done an outstanding job at keeping all the finances the SAA Student Chapter deals with in order. Also, both Mrs. Hassell and Eva Gronowska have attended a budget workshop and have worked with the Dean of Students Office at Wayne State to arrange further funding. The first transaction with the DOSO included a successful budget proposal to Student Council for two members to travel to an archival conference.

Travel
Multiple members traveled to professional archival conferences this year. Maia Mannone and Cynthia Bader both went to the SAA Conference in New Orleans at the end of August. Mark King and Eva Gronowska went to the Midwest Archives Conference in September. The four hope to get together and share their experiences at a roundtable discussion.

Looking ahead
There are multiple exciting things happening with the SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State. There were multiple tours in the works, including one of the Piquette Ave. Ford Plant and also at archival institutions and special collections in Ann Arbor and Lansing. The group will set up social gatherings, study groups, roundtables and speakers, as well. The next major project the SAA Student Chapter at Wayne State is working on is a workshop specifically tailored for archival graduate students.

Further, there has been some discussion of outreach, like collaborating with the University of Michigan SAA chapter and volunteering as a group. Those have been only discussions and not yet formed into actual plans, however, contact between the two Universities’ SAA student groups has been made.