Melissa Gonzales, Candidate for Council

Melissa G. Gonzales

Archives Manager,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

“To me, success for the organization lies in sustainability and stability, and as a Council member, I would emphasize actions to positively retain archivists in the profession by stressing the importance of improving the profession’s socioeconomic responsibilities through collaboration with SAA affinity groups and key individuals within the organization.”

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Archives Manager, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2016–present.
• Archivist/Librarian, Witte Museum, 2014–2016.
• Archivist for University, Labor and Political Collections, University of Texas at Arlington, 2012–2014.
• Processing Archivist, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, 2010–2012.
• Goliad County Archivist, Goliad County Library, 2009–2010.
• Archival Assistant, Simmons College Archives, 2007–2009.

EDUCATION

• MS, Library and Information Science, Archives Management Concentration, Simmons College.
• BA, Art History, The University of Texas at Austin.
• Archives Leadership Institute, 2014 Cohort.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Society of American Archivists: Nominating Committee; Appointments Committee; Career Development Subcommittee; Mentoring Program Subcommittee; Students and New Archives Professionals Roundtable, Chair. 
• Society of Southwest Archivists: Secretary; Executive Board; Annual Meeting Local Arrangements Committee (2015, 2018); Ad Hoc Retention Schedule Committee; Publications Committee; Membership Committee.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

• Society of American Archivists: "Moving, Moving, Moving" (2016).
• Society of Southwest Archivists: "Smooth Move: Relieving the Frustration of Moving Archives and Special Collections" (2016); "Things They Never Taught You in Graduate School" (2013); "Educate, Mentor, Lead" (2012).
• Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Association and the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association: "How the West Was Preserved: Acquiring, Preserving and Making Accessible the History of the West…" (2011).

QUESTION POSED BY THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE 

Council members’ responsibilities include providing collaborative leadership and direction for the Society and its component groups to ensure achievement of SAA’s goals. Please describe how your leadership experience will help you balance engaging the general SAA membership while being responsive to SAA’s strategic goals, including but not limited to the objectives of diversity, inclusion, and transparency.

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE

In my roles as a leader at work and within SAA, I have learned that collaboration, communication, and transparency should be close companions and are the best way to achieve goals when working in groups. I would use these tools—collaboration, communication, and transparency—to address SAA’s strategic goals, with an emphasis on solutions to the organization’s ongoing diversity and inclusiveness efforts while advocating for both the archives as a profession and professional archivists. The question “What will constitute future success?” from SAA’s 2018–2020 Strategic Goals draft should be the driving force behind these efforts. To me, success for the organization lies in sustainability and stability, and as a Council member, I would emphasize actions to positively retain archivists in the profession by stressing the importance of improving the profession’s socioeconomic responsibilities through collaboration with SAA affinity groups and key individuals within the organization. SAA could work with other organizations to promote fair compensation for archivists, including standardized professional salaries across archival job descriptions. Via transparency and inclusiveness, we can work together to pursue financial and professional support for archivists across the socioeconomic spectrum so they can continue to be part of the profession and do the work they love. Ensuring we have a diverse pool of members and leaders via recruitment can only go so far if we do not have systems in place to retain those archivists once they enter the profession. Unfortunately, we have seen many amazing archivists leave the archival world for various reasons, but mostly for those attributed to compensation and professional support, both on an institutional and organizational level. While we encourage people from diverse and marginalized communities to join the profession, we should simultaneously be generating ways to keep them invested so we can build a sustainable, diverse, and inclusive future for the organization. I appreciate your support, and I look forward to applying my energy and passion toward helping the profession and its membership as a Council member.

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