Uniform Guidelines for SAA Websites and Online Communications

Overview

The explosive and continuing growth of electronic communications technology presents SAA with the opportunity to better serve its members and to enhance collaboration between and among internal and external audiences.  SAA establishes these guidelines as a means to encourage the effective development, dissemination, and sharing of resources throughout the Society, to regularize the functions and operations of SAA's component groups, and to otherwise facilitate the efforts of member leaders.  These guidelines apply to the online information resources sponsored and/or maintained by the SAA office and to all websites, e-mail discussion lists, wikis, blogs, document sharing sites, and social networks sponsored and/or maintained by official SAA component groups.

Definitions

SAA network:  The entire collection of websites, e-mail discussion lists, wikis, blogs, document sharing sites, and social networks sponsored and/or maintained by the Society of American Archivists and its component groups.

SAA main website:  The collection of documents maintained by the SAA office residing on its Web server(s) at http://www.archivists.org (a.k.a. the "Extranet") and http://saa.archivists.org (a.k.a. the "Intranet").

SAA content management system (CMS):  The Web database application maintained by the SAA office and used to administer content published to http://www.archivists.org.

SAA list server:  The server application maintained by the SAA office, residing at http://forums.archivists.org, and hosting officially sponsored e-mail discussion lists.

SAA component group website:  A subdirectory of the main website for use by an official component group.

SAA auxiliary site:  An independently hosted website, e-mail discussion list, wiki, blog, document sharing utility, or social network containing content sponsored and/or maintained by teh SAA office or by an official component group.

Guidelines

A.  General Guidelines

Documents published by the SAA Council, by the SAA office, or by any SAA component group are official publications of the Society, whether they are posted to the main website, to a component group website, or to an auxiliary website. As such, these publications are subject to the records retention provisions outlined in Article VII of SAA’s Constitution. Individual comments regarding publications posted by members at large (and/or members of the public) to any portion of the SAA network do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Society and are not regarded as SAA publications.

The content of all pages on the SAA website shall be related to the functions and mission of the Society of American Archivists, namely to serve the education and information needs of our members and provide leadership to help ensure the identification, preservation, and use of the nation’s historic record.

The entire SAA network, as defined above, is subject to the SAA Code of Conduct.

B.  SAA Main Website

All documents published to SAA's main website are subject to the approval of the Executive Director.  All submissions and/or suggestions for additions to the SAA main website shall be forwarded for consideration to the Executive Director or the Executive Director's designated staff representative(s).

The Executive Director or designee is responsible for the overall design, coding, formatting, and maintenance of the contents of the SAA main website.  The Executive Director or designee should follow an appropriate style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style.

Links should be made from the main website to component group websites and to other professional associations of archivists or allied professions.  Links to external sites comprising directories of archival websites, non-SAA web publications of archival interest, and such also are desirable.  Links will not be made to websites describing individual archival repositories or their holdings.

SAA will maintain links to all auxiliary SAA student chapter websites.

C.  SAA Component Group Websites

A complete list of official component groups will be published by the SAA office on the main website. Each component group will also have a homepage on the main website containing key leadership information, including a statement of the group’s charge and/or purpose, goals and/or duties, group bylaws (if applicable), links to official rosters of the group’s leaders and/or members, a link to the group’s official e-mail discussion list, and a link to the component group website, if applicable.

The SAA office will provide all SAA boards, committees, sections, roundtables, and working groups with a component group website that may be administered by authorized group leaders via SAA’s content management system. Group leaders are responsible for updating information maintained on component group websites. Subcommittees and task forces may also request a component group website, provision of which will be subject to approval by the Executive Director and dependent on the group’s articulation of a clear statement of purpose for the site that is directly germane to the responsibilities and concerns of that group.

Content published to component group websites will follow an appropriate style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style. Key leadership information published to the main website should not be republished to component group websites. Personal contact information of members and member leaders, including e-mail addresses, may not be published to any site that is accessible to Web crawlers and/or spam harvesters.

Group leaders will have primary creative control over the design and content of their component group websites, provided that no website may conflict with the SAA main website or with SAA policies and practices relating to publication, privacy and confidentiality, and ethical conduct. Groups are strongly encouraged to utilize the main website theme (e.g., header, footer, site search utility, and navigation elements) in order to promote usability and effective document retrieval. Groups that elect to design and display a custom theme must display:

• The uniform SAA logo, in accordance with the policies articulated in the Guidelines for Use of the SAA Logo;
• A prominent link to the component group website and/or the main website;
• An appropriate disclaimer stating that SAA does not assume responsibility for the opinions and views published on the auxiliary site; and
• If necessary, an appropriate disclaimer stating that references to commercial interests (such as vendor listings or advertisements) does not imply any endorsement by SAA.

D.  E-mail Discussion Lists

The SAA office will provide all SAA boards, committees, sections, roundtables, and working groups with one or more e-mail discussion lists:

• Boards, committees, subcommittees, task forces, and working groups will be provided with a private list for use by active members of the component group, the Council liaison, and staff liaisons.
• Sections and roundtables will be provided with a private list for use by the section and roundtable officers/convener, steering committee members, Council liaison, and staff liaisons.
• Sections will be supplied with a dual-function announcement list and electronic discussion list. Section members will automatically be subscribed to the announcement function, which section leaders may use for broadcasting official news. Section members may voluntarily modify their list subscriptions to participate in open discussions with other members of the section. Section members may unsubscribe.
• Roundtables will be supplied with an electronic discussion list to which all roundtable members will automatically be subscribed upon joining the group. Roundtable members may unsubscribe.
• Active members of SAA boards, committees, subcommittees, task forces, working groups, section steering committees, and roundtable steering committees will automatically be subscribed to the SAA Leader List, a moderated announcement list used by the Executive Director to communicate leadership information to the component groups. Submissions are subject to the approval of the Executive Director.
• The SAA office will be responsible for managing list software, troubleshooting member subscriptions, and working with officers to maintain accurate subscription lists and policy compliance. As subscriptions to electronic lists will be one of several criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of sections and roundtables, SAA staff will report annually on the number of electronic list subscribers, including those subscribers to roundtable lists who are not members of SAA.

E. SAA Component Group Use of Social Media and External Websites (Auxiliary Sites) [Revised July 2012.]

SAA component groups may create accounts on social networks (such as Facebook and Twitter) and use social media tools (such as wikis, blogs and document-sharing sites). When considering establishing a new resource, component groups should be aware of the alternatives available to them and the associated roles and responsibilities.

SAA’s goals in establishing component group microsites within the Drupal content management system were as follows:

• To provide component groups with a standardized and easily maintained system that would ensure continuity of the record through leadership changes.
• To provide SAA members with a highly informative, easy-to-use, and comprehensive website for the Society as a whole.

SAA recognizes, however, that component groups may have needs that cannot be met within the Drupal microsite environment. When this is the case, a component group may make use of other social media tools to accomplish its communication objectives.

Component groups wishing to create or populate an external web resource (including a social media account) must adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Notify the group’s Council liaison of each social media account or external resource that it creates.
2. Have a clear understanding of the group’s purpose in establishing the resource and develop a plan for how the resource will be used and what types of material will be shared via the resource.
3. Maintain on the group’s SAA microsite active links to all such external resources used by the group.
4. On the microsite list of links to external social media and website resources, identify the active group member serving as the administrator of each account.
5. Ensure that access privileges (user accounts and passwords) are transferred to new leaders in a timely manner.
6. Be aware that SAA staff cannot provide support (such as maintenance, training, permissions, or archiving) for resources published on a third-party server.
7. Maintain key governance information (such as bylaws and minutes) on the group’s SAA microsite where it can be maintained and preserved by SAA.
8. Be aware that content published on external sites or using social media accounts may be subject to the records retention provisions outlined in Article VII of the SAA Constitution.
9. Display on external sites a prominent link to the component group’s SAA microsite.
10. Display on external sites an appropriate disclaimer stating that SAA does not assume responsibility for the opinions and views published on the external site or social media account.

Component groups must display the uniform logo on all social media sites and external websites, in accordance with the policies articulated in Guidelines for Use of the SAA Logo.

These guidelines apply to both new and existing social media accounts and external websites. Component groups should review all existing accounts and websites and discuss them with their Council liaisons to ensure that they comply with these guidelines.

Adopted by the SAA Council:  June 8, 1997; Revised:  March 2007, February 2010, July 2012, July 2014; May 2016