Sarah Polirer, Candidate for Nominating Committee Member

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

I have been a practicing Archivist for over 36 years and have worked the past 22 years for The Cigna Group. During this time, I was also an Adjunct Professor at Simmons University, in the GSLS program, teaching Managing Information in Electronic Environments (2012-2017). For the previous twelve years I was the Archivist for the NYS Office of Court Administration and prior to that a Reference Archivist at the Harvard University Archives. I have been a member of SAA since 1991 and was part of the leading group of archivists to establish the Records Management Roundtable (now Section) and became their first secretary, then vice chair, chair, outgoing chair (1996-2004). Currently, I am the outgoing chair of the Business Archives Section after serving the past two years as the incoming chair and chair. Other professional service has included SAA 2023 Appointments Committee; SAA/RBMS Joint Committee on ACRL/RBMS - SAA Task Force on the Development of Standardized Statistical Measures for the Public Services of Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries (2014-2017); President/Steering Committee ARMA - Stamford/White Plains Chapter (1999-2002); VP Archivist Round Table of Metropolitan New York (ART) (1994-1995); ART Archives Week Committee (1992-1995); MARAC program/local arrangement committees (1994,1997); NEA local arrangement committee (1988); and NYALGRO-NYC Chapter Steering Committee and Symposium committee (1995-1998).

Additionally, I have chaired numerous SAA sessions, given presentations/papers at numerous archival conferences (SAA, ICA-SBA, NEA, MARAC, NYAC), Historical Societies, local ARMA chapters, and Genealogical meetings on various aspects of archives, records management and genealogy including managing, appraising, accessing, preserving, researching records, outreach and disaster recovery. I have also led numerous training sessions on archives and records management, published in Outlook and American Archivist. In 2022, SAA published Managing Business Archives, which I edited and collaborated with other business archivists.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT (Each candidate prepared a diversity statement according to SAA guidelines.)

My entire career has always been focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. When I started my professional career, these terms were not used. I always believed everyone brought their own unique skill set, education, and life/work experience to the table. We all learn daily from each other. The stories I heard over the past few years were eye-openers and needed to be addressed beyond SAA, but SAA can be a grassroots advocate on the road to improvement/change. In today's world, DEI terms have focused on underserved, misrepresented, and maligned communities and inclusive practice where opportunities and experiences have not been apparent. Encouraging conversation, listening and providing support, and as a manger/coworker, knowing what tools are available to anyone who needs assistance. As a leader/coworker, you need to know how to work to correct the system.

While needing to work within my organization's structure, as a manager at the grassroots level, I continue with this mindset and bring compassion and creativity to hire the best person for the role to bring diverse experiences to the team, provide internships, and encourage my students to look beyond their education and bring their life experience to their organizations or future organizations.

Facing trauma is an individual personal experience. It can be external beyond the workplace or be internal in our work environments, including our collections. As managers and co-workers, we need to provide a safe work environment, but we are not mental health professionals. We can only recognize the symptoms and assist in identifying avenues for folks to engage. Part of SAA’s role as a professional organization is to highlight the issues, educate, identify gaps, and provide avenues for resources, especially if our work organization has limited resources. Educating each other to identify signs of trauma, potential trauma areas, and opportunities for assisting and managing individuals and teams with potential trauma triggers are SAA's greatest strengths.

SAA is just one piece of the larger picture and each one of us needs to be a grassroots promoter to ensure that DEI continues and to handle trauma.

QUESTION POSED BY NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The Nominating Committee plays a crucial role in shaping the pool of candidates from which the elected leadership of SAA will emerge. What motivates your desire to become a part of the Nominating Committee? What traits and backgrounds do you consider important when selecting potential candidates? Share your strategies for inspiring members to participate, and discuss how you plan to create a candidate slate that enhances diversity and inclusion.

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE

SAA is going through a generational change, time commitment challenges, post-pandemic normality, and "burnout." Strategies for inspiring members to participate are unique to each individual. Individuals should have a desire and time to perform professional service, create and think outside of the box, be able to share their experiences and recognize any gaps in their skills, and be able to enhance committees with a different perspective to ensure all voices are being heard and considered. I am motivated to encourage individuals to volunteer based on my own experiences. I personally have worked with fellow archivists, from all archival sectors and personal backgrounds, and they have enriched my role as a professional and as an individual.

It is important for all archivists to have a role in shaping SAA's future. There is a symbiotic relationship between our professional organization and the unique role that each archivist plays in their organization. Recent history has forced many of us to re-evaluate how we craft our services to our organizations and SAA needs to assist all archivists (in all work environments) to be successful. I am passionate about the integral role that Archives play in their organizational setting and how, as archivists, we can leverage the synergies of related disciplines, partnerships, and each other to move programs forward. These are our strengths that we need to continue to leverage to move into new unchartered territories.

There are many opportunities to build upon and continue with each member of SAA, respecting and embracing each other's unique experiences and understanding the limitations and opportunities each archivist has within their organization and their communities. SAA needs to continue to provide education to their membership as well as be a voice for those archivists who have limited resources and need outside support or validation for their programs to identify and improve gaps in their archival programs.

As a nominating committee member, I hope to be able to identify individuals to assist SAA in bridging gaps in 1) developing skill sets and discussions, 2) networking and mentoring, 3) understanding the challenges to reduce and eliminate the DEI gaps with compassion, respect, and creativity, 4) identifying individuals who can add different voices to the discussion. As we have seen topics/discussions change at a rapid rate, while we need to keep ongoing issues in the conversation, new issues will also demand quick responses, relying on previous work and everyone's unique experience to champion these ongoing and new efforts as they present themselves.

Serving one’s professional organization brings rewards for both the organization and the individual. Finding one’s work-life balance is difficult, but professional service brings rewards that may not immediately be imagined. Only when everyone steps up to volunteer will all voices be heard and DEI objectives realized. I hope you will give me the opportunity to serve the SAA Nominating Committee to identify everyone’s unique talents to champion ongoing and new efforts as they present themselves.

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