Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS)

I. Purpose

The Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of EAD and EAC-CPF, including all schemas and related code, as well as the development of future companion standards, such as the proposed Encoded Archival Context for Functions. Its membership will be sufficient to encompass the necessary domain expertise for each standard and schema development, and will include broad international representation including SAA members and other professionals from the international archival community. The members of the committee will foster the thoughtful evolution of archival encoding standards on behalf of and in consultation with the global archival community and in close collaboration with the International Council on Archives Experts Group on Archival Description.

II. Committee Selection, Size, and Length of Term

The technical subcommittee shall be composed of between fifteen and twenty-five members (excluding two co-chairs) appointed by the SAA Vice President / President-Elect for staggered three-year terms so that a minimum of three individuals are appointed by the Vice President each year. The committee will reflect the international nature of the standards it develops, and will include balanced representation from its user communities.  A majority of the committee members will be members of SAA unless sufficient expertise is not available within the SAA membership, in which case the composition of the committee may be adjusted at the discretion of the Council. All members shall demonstrate significant knowledge of and experience with archival schemas generally, and with EAD and EAC-CPF specifically. The chairs and members of TS-EAS may be reappointed.

The Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards co-chairs will be appointed by the SAA Vice President / President-Elect, and serve as the primary contact between TS-EAS, SAA, the Standards Committee, and other related organizations. At least one co-chair will be a member of SAA.

Ex officio members of TS-EAS shall include the following if they are not regular members of the subcommittee:

• Co-chairs of the Standards Committee;
• Chair or co-chairs of the EAS Section;
• Representative from International Council on Archives Experts Group on Archival Description, Committee on Best Practices and Standards, or other groups as appropriate.
• Representatives from institutions hosting technical documentation for standards maintained by TS-EAS (e.g., Library of Congress for EAD and the Staatsbibliotek zu Berlin for EAC-CPF).

III. Reporting Procedures

The co-chairs of TS-EAS shall report at least annually to the chairs of the SAA Standards Committee. They will coordinate meeting logistics at the SAA annual meeting and elsewhere, establish TS-EAS priorities and agendas, work with related SAA section leaders, and oversee and support the work of various TS-EAS standard leads. If extramural funding is obtained by SAA, the co-chairs shall provide all necessary narrative reports to the SAA office in order that the reporting requirements of SAA and the funding source are met.

IV. Duties and Responsibilities

Within TS-EAS, a member will be designated by the co-chairs as the lead for each standard being maintained or developed. Each standard lead will be responsible, with the support of the co-chairs, for soliciting and compiling comments, logging bugs, leading discussion of proposed changes, articulating and justifying changes to the international community, and coordinating as necessary with other standard leads. There will also be a lead for schema design who will be responsible, with the support of the co-chairs, for coordinating work on schemas and related code and maintaining appropriate GitHub repositories.  The TS-EAS co-chairs will also designate a committee member to serve as a secretary, responsible for taking and distributing meeting minutes. 

Additional ad hoc subgroups within TS-EAS may be formed to address specific issues on a project basis (e.g., a tag library editorial team).

VI. Meetings

TS-EAS shall carry out its charge primarily via electronic mail, regular mail, and on-line meetings. To ensure the inclusion of all members, TS-EAS shall meet in a hybrid setting at the SAA annual meeting and as necessary with funding from SAA or from extramural sources (with prior approval by the SAA Council).

Approved by the SAA Council: November 2015, Revised May 2023