Vince Lee, Candidate for Nominating Committee

"I'm submitting my candidacy to be a member of SAA's Nominating Committee. I come to the committee bringing experience from my service as a member of the 2024 SAA Planning Committee for the Chicago conference as well as being a former Chair for SAA's Committee On Public Awareness (COPA). I also served as Chair for the Nominating Committee for the Society of Southwest Archivist. I would bring to the committee my experience and service in various roles in both organizations as well as my organizational skills in working on a team to reach out and put together a slate of candidates in the coming year. It would be my honor to once again serve the members of SAA."

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Vince Lee is a Certified Archivist and the Archivist for the Carey C. Shuart Women's Archive and Research Collection, Houston and Texas History, and the Architecture and Planning Collection at the University of Houston Libraries-Special Collections. Vince served as a member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Programming Committee and was formerly the chair for the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Committee on Public Awareness (COPA). His research interests include the role women have played in forming Houston and Texas history. Wearing the hat of public historian alongside archivist, he has presented at the annual conferences for the Society of American Archivists, Society of Southwest Archivists, contributed articles to the Houston History Magazine and a chapter in Where Are All the Librarians of Color? The Experiences of People of Color in Academia.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT

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

As the former archivist for the LGBTQ+ Research Collection at the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections, I have worked along Houston's elders and LGBTQ+ community members and they have done a lot of the legwork in preserving their history. This despite being what can be perceived as an outsider -a Chinese American heterosexual male who did not have the lived experience or positionality of what it is to be a part of Houston's LGBTQ+ community. What I did learn in my engagements as an Ally with the community is that we accepted each other for who we are and what we can each bring to the table. It's also the empathy to genuinely listen to each other and work to the best of my ability as an archivist to work with preserving their materials, making them accessible, and having the agency to share the materials in an instructional support setting. Diversity encompasses more than gender, race, and national origin. Diversity to me means working with where people are and where they are coming from. Sometimes this leads to situations in which we don't understand each other, that which challenges our preconceived notions and viewpoints, and even when those discussions and interactions are uncomfortable. That we need to each make the effort to stretch and get out of our comfort zones-that's how each of us grows and bring each other along together.

QUESTION POSED BY NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The Nominating Committee plays a crucial role in shaping the elected leadership of SAA. Share your strategies for inspiring members to participate in running for leadership positions and engaging in the election process. How will you ensure a slate of candidates that support an awareness of the role of power, positionality, inclusion, and belonging in our Society? 

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE

The Nominating Committee plays a crucial role in shaping the elected leadership of SAA. Share your strategies for inspiring members to participate in running for leadership positions and engaging in the election process. How will you ensure a slate of candidates that support an awareness of the role of power, positionality, inclusion, and belonging in our Society? Everyone has a voice and a story to tell. Whether a chair or a committee member, it's incumbent to not only talk but to actively listen and have an honest discussion with others to see where they are coming from-what are their strengths, experiences, stories, and passions. Part of that is active listening and engagement. I want to find out who my committee members are, what have been some of their successes whether in the profession or outside in their hobbies. We each have hopes, dreams, and networks of people we interact with and it's from these intersections of life that possibilities can arise-whether through mentoring up and coming students or young professionals who may exhibit traits that we think could be a leader to fill roles that are needed in SAA. Everyone on the committee needs a voice and we need to be intentional that no one person or group of persons dominate the conversation that could potentially alienate or exclude other viewpoints. We need to also listen to those discussions that are different from ours, that may challenge our perspectives and make us uncomfortable. That is a check against groupthink or automatic consensus. We need to keep firmly in mind that the concepts of diversity and inclusion within our work is not a destination we can merely check off once our slate of candidates is assembled, but that it is a continual iterative process. As individuals we will always fall short.

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