CANDIDATES FOR ARCS SECTION OFFICES

CANDIDATE FOR VICE-CHAIR/CHAIR-ELECT: Janet Hauck, CA
I would like to nominate myself, Janet Hauck, CA, for the position of Vice Chair/Chair Elect of the Archives of Religious Collections Section of SAA. I am very interested, as well as highly qualified, for this position. I am currently in my 18th year as the University Archivist at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, where, along with our institutional records, I curate the Pacific Northwest Protestantism Collection. This collection is comprised of 1,000 linear feet of historic records from over 60 Protestant churches and organizations across the five-state region of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. The collection is actively growing, and serves the research needs of many church members and academics, especially those who study the unique nature of religion in this least-churched region of the country.
During my time at Whitworth University, I have been both a member of SAA and ARCS, as well as my regional association, Northwest Archivists. I have recently held leadership positions in Northwest Archivists, serving during 2011-14 consecutively as President-Elect, President, and Past-President, where I learned first-hand about the operation of an executive board. In 2013-14, I was the NWA Conference Local Arrangements Committee Chair for our annual meeting in Spokane, and from 2014-16, I have served in leadership at Whitworth on the Faculty Executive Board as Faculty Secretary. I have been commended for my work in each of these roles, and would relish the opportunity to serve ARCS in a similar fashion, particularly as Vice Chair/Chair Elect.

The Whitworth University Archives was a founding member, in 2002, of the Northwest Digital Archives database (now Archives West.) This affiliation has allowed the materials in our Pacific Northwest Protestantism Collection to become widely known, and has attracted researchers from around the country and world. Recent academic work has been carried out in the records of a local Japanese-American church, some of whose members were sent to WWII internment camps, as well as the records of First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, one of the first Protestant churches founded in the early days of the new Washington Territory. I personally have had the opportunity to study this collection, as well, resulting in an SAA 2012 presentation entitled “Beyond Regional Borders: How Region Informs Religion and Vice Versa.”

As one can see, I am both an archivist of a religious collection, and an involved member of the archival community at large. I look forward the potential of serving ARCS as Vice Chair/Chair Elect in 2016-18.

CANDIDATE FOR MEMBER AT LARGE: Melanie Maxwell
Melanie Maxwell is a Records Analyst at The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta.   She has been in the archives profession for several years, working in academic, business and now religious archives.  She is on track to soon complete her Masters of Archival Studies from Clayton State University.

I have been a member of the Society of American Archivists for several years but I am looking forward to an opportunity to be more participatory in the organization.  I am new to religious archives, and I hope the position of Member-at-Large of the Archivists of Religious Collections Section Steering Committee will allow me to engage with other professionals in the field.  I hope to contribute my varied experience in archives thus far to the committee.

CANDIDATE FOR MEMBER-AT-LARGE: Dainan Skeem
Dainan Skeem is the curator of the 21st Century Mormon & Western Manuscripts collection at Brigham Young University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections with responsibilities for documenting the current century’s history of the LDS church, Utah, and the West. He was previously employed as an archivist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa with responsibilities for the University Archives’ manuscript collections, including the Japanese American Veterans Collection. He also worked as an archivist at the Hawaii State Archives right after graduating with his MLISc from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2007. While in Hawaii, he served as a board member of the Association of Hawaii Archivists from 2009-1013, taking on the role of President-Elect/President in 2012-2013. He is a certified archivist with the Academy of Certified Archivists and obtained the Digital Archives Specialist certificate with the Society of American Archivists.

Having served as a board member and officer of the regional archives association in Hawaii, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with my peers to advance the archival profession. I am excited for the chance to serve a larger membership as a member-at-large of the ARCS steering committee. I will gladly help carry out the objectives of the Section, from facilitating and encouraging discussion of religious archival matters to being an advocate for religious archival interests to helping integrate new members in the field and develop leadership in the Section. In the past five years there have only been a few panels devoted to religious topics at SAA. I want to help the members of ARCS share more about their repositories and the unique challenges faced by religious archives and collections. I will look for ways to facilitate poster sessions, panel ideas, and meet ups at the conference. I look forward to serving and getting to know the members of the Section.