Governance

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any professional association. SAA is a member-driven organization that relies on its 300+ volunteers each year for leadership, guidance, and content expertise.

SAA’s governing body is the Council, a group of twelve individuals who are elected by the general membership. The Council is responsible for SAA’s financial stability and growth and for its strategic direction. It works closely with the SAA staff to ensure that members’ voices are heard.

The Council may appoint committees, working groups, or task forces to provide information and advice or to complete specific projects. Collectively these are known as “appointed groups.” In addition, the Council may approve petitions to form “sections” or student chapters, which are special-interest or member affinity groups.  An important task assigned to all Council members is to serve as liaisons to SAA component groups, including boards, committees, working groups, and sections. 

See the chart below for a summary of the connections between and among SAA’s groups:

For more information on these groups and their subsets, please see the SAA constitution and bylaws, Governance Manual, or the complete groups list.

In the interest of transparency, all Council meetings are open to members and all meeting agendas and materials are publicly available. See the upcoming meeting agenda to find out when and where the next Council meeting will be held and what will be discussed.

SAA is the sole corporate member of the Society of American Archivists Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that is the nation’s leading source of nonprofit funding dedicated to the interests of archives and archivists.