Standing Rules

Society of American Archivists
Business Archives Section

STANDING RULES

I.     Membership

The mission of the SAA Business Archives Section (BAS) shall be to promote the interests of business archivists, records managers and others concerned with the preservation and use of business records, and to encourage the establishment and growth of business archives in both profit-making and non-profit organizations in the United States and Canada.

II.    Objectives

1. Membership Services and Growth
   
   1. Promote SAA membership among business archivists and others concerned with business records, and encourage professional development.
   2. Foster active participation on the part of business archivists in the affairs of the Section and of SAA. Participation may include office-holding, policy, program, and publications development, research and Task Force membership.
   3. Develop leadership through Section government, committee and Task Force membership, and project management.
   4. Maintain contacts with professional organizations with similar interests, such as ARMA, the Business Archives Committee of ICA, and the Business History Conference.
2. Development of Information and Communication
   
   1. Identify and promote communication about areas of particular concern of the Section members.
   2. Serve as a forum for discussion.
   3. Encourage mutual assistance among archivists that have similar goals, problems and publics to serve.
   4. Represent within SAA the needs and interests of business archivists, including making recommendations on positions, programs and policies to Council.
   5. Act as an information resource for the public, other archivists, and individuals in the corporate world who seek to establish, improve, and/or utilize business archives.
   6. Survey the section membership as needed to determine the state of business archives.
   7. Exchange information concerning business archives with professional organizations that have similar interests (see A-4).
   8. Sponsor, write, and edit publications and articles of interest to business archivists and others concerned with business records.
3. Develop Education opportunities to fit the ever-changing needs of section members.  These include but are not limited to the BAS Colloquium, the Business Archives Workshop (offered through SAA Education Program), Section-wide conference calls, social media programs, etc.
4. Encourage corporations and other institutions to establish and maintain effective, well-managed archives, including recommending the hiring of archivists and consultants whom have professional credentials.
5. Each year, contribute to the SAA Program Committee suggestions that address the issues and information needs of business archivists.

III. Governance 

These standing rules of the Business Archives Section shall serve as a supplement to the SAA Section Bylaws, which govern all SAA sections. Please refer to Section IX. Sections of the SAA Governance Manual for information on membership, section election procedures, reporting requirements, and more.

IV. Officers

1. The officers of the Section shall be the Chair, Vice Chair, Immediate Past Chair, Secretary, Education Chair, Content Editor, Vice Content Editor, and Member-at-Large.
2. Only members of the Society of American Archivists and of this Section may serve as officers. The Society maintains the list of Section members.
3. Each officer serves a period of one year, starting at the conclusion of the annual section meeting and ending at the conclusion of the next year’s section meeting.  At the conclusion of the annual section meeting the Vice Chair becomes the Chair, the Chair becomes the Immediate Past Chair, and the Vice Content Editor becomes the Content Editor.  
4. Should an officer be unable to complete a term of office, the Steering Committee will appoint a person to serve the remainder of the term. In the case of the current Vice Chair, a permanent replacement will be elected by a special online election and will assume the duties of Vice Chair following announcement of election results. 
5. The Chair directs the overall business of the section.  They will preside and set the agenda at all meetings of the Section, develop a slate of future candidates for the next election, serve as liaison with the SAA and its Council and other Sections, will accept nominations for the section’s position of Early-Career Members, will appoint committees as the need arises, will render the section Annual Report and any other appropriate reports on such matters as deemed pertinent or identified by the officers and relevant committees. At the conclusion of the annual section meeting, the Chair becomes the immediate Past Chair.
6. The Vice Chair is Chair Elect and tasked to plan the upcoming colloquium and mixer with the assistance of the Steering Committee.  The Vice Chair will also perform any of the duties of the Chair if they are unavailable or unable to serve.  The Vice Chair will serve a one-year term and at the conclusion of their first annual section meeting will become the Chair.
7. The Immediate Past Chair provides continuity for the section and serves on the steering committee for a term of one year concluding at the annual section meeting. The Immediate Past Chair will assume such responsibilities as may be assigned by the Chair. The Immediate Past Chair will be responsible for maintaining the Business Archives Advocacy Toolkit and monitoring general advocacy efforts as related to business archivists, their repositories or their collections, with the assistance of the Member-At-Large.
8. The Secretary will record the proceedings of the annual meeting, work with the outgoing Chair to prepare the section Annual Report, prepare minutes of Steering Committee meetings, and perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Chair.  The Secretary will serve a one-year term commencing at the conclusion of the section annual meeting and concludes at the conclusion of the annual business meeting. 
9. The Content Editor will oversee the editorial duties of the Section which include publishing the Section newsletter, social media content, and content for the Section microsite on the SAA website.  Content Editor will also determine the division of labor needed to lead the section’s editorial efforts and in general prepare the Vice Content Editor to assume the role of Content Editor.  Content to be solicited should include but not limited to relevant and interesting business archives perspectives on classic archival areas and techniques, business archives job postings, and examples of new and potentially impactful technologies or services.
10. The Vice Content Editor works closely with the Content Editor to fulfill the editorial needs of the Section.  The Vice Content Editor will serve a two-year term and at the conclusion of their first annual section meeting will become the Content Editor.
11. The Education Chair is responsible for the promotion of business archives to students, new professionals, and others interested in becoming a business archivist, and will act as liaison to the Students and New Professionals Section. The Education Chair will lead educational efforts and opportunities of interest to the Section, including management of the BAS Mentorship program, and will solicit volunteer assistance with these programs as needed.  The Education Chair will co-lead the Early-Career Member Committee with the Member-at-Large.  The Education Chair will serve a one-year term commencing at the conclusion of the section annual meeting and concludes at the conclusion of the annual section meeting.
12. Member-at-Large will co-lead the Early-Career Member Committee with the Education Chair and assist the Immediate Past Chair with maintaining the Advocacy Toolkit and monitoring general advocacy efforts as related to business archivists, their repositories or their collections.  The Member-at-Large will serve a one-year term commencing at the conclusion of the section annual meeting and concludes at the conclusion of the annual business meeting. 

V. Committees

1. The Business Archives Section maintains the Steering Committee, and if applicable the Early-Career Member Committee. The Steering Committee’s purpose is to move forward the business of the section. The Early-Career Member Committee’s purpose is to provide perspective on how the section can best reach out to and educate early-career archivists and students on the opportunities within business archives.
2. The Chair or Steering Committee may appoint committees as needed, and shall define the role of any committee. Only members of the Society of American Archivists and the Section may be appointed committee members. Appointed adhoc committees shall report to the membership through the Business Archives Section microsite on the SAA website and report at the annual section business meeting.
3. All standing committees should meet regularly and post meeting minutes to the membership on the Business Archives Section microsite no more than 14 days subsequent a committee meeting.
4. Section Steering Committee
   
   1. Purpose is to move forward the business of the section and serve in an advisory capacity to the Chair.  Members may be assigned specific responsibilities by the Chair beyond those listed in Section IV of BAS Standing Rules.
   2. Shall consist of the elected officers as well as the Early-Career members.  The Chair will call meetings of the Steering Committee and sets the agenda for meetings.  
5. Early-Career Member Committee
   
   1. The Early-Career Member Committee’s primary purpose is to provide perspective and assist the Steering Committee with identifying needs of early-career members and recommending services that raise the awareness of employment opportunities in business archives. This may include, but is not limited to, working with editorial staff to create content for social media channels and section newsletter, hosting a section quarterly conference call, supporting the work of the Education Chair, or by assisting in the planning of annual BAS events. The committee will create an action plan designed to address that year’s particular needs.
   2. The Section’s Early-Career Members are chosen by the Steering Committee from nominations/volunteers from the SAA Early-Career Members Mentoring program.  If there are no nominees or volunteers in a particular year the Early-Career Members committee will not be seated for that year.
   3. Early-Career Members participate fully in all Steering Committee meetings.  

VI. Election of Officers

The Chair, Steering Committee or a working committee appointed by the steering committee shall prepare a slate of candidates for election reflecting the diversity of the Section’s membership. Nominations for all positions may include self-nominations, and shall be solicited on the section web page, section social media, and/or list serv prior to the deadline for submitting the Section’s ballot to SAA. The final slate of candidates shall be communicated to section membership via the Section microsite. 

1. All candidates will provide a brief statement to the section, detailing their platform.  Candidates' statements will be posted to the BAS microsite prior to the election for review by section membership.
2. Elections shall be conducted online and in accordance with guidelines for section elections as specified in Section IX of the SAA Governance Manual. Availability of the online ballot and deadline for voting shall be announced by the Chair to all section members via the section’s listserv and website.
3. All officers must be members in good standing of the Society of American Archivists.
4. Elected officers may serve only one office at a time. The current Vice Chair or Immediate Past Chair cannot run for Vice Chair simultaneously.
   
   1. The Content Editor can run for a successive term however if there is a sitting Vice Content Editor who will assume the office of Content Editor at the conclusion the annual meeting, then the two-year term process should be respected.  However, if there is not a sitting Vice Editor the Content Editor will remain Content Editor for the duration of their new two-year term.
5. The Secretary, Education Chair, and Member-at-Large can serve successive terms as these officers serve one-year terms.
6. There is no limit on the number of times a section member can run successively for different positions.  
7. Should an officer be unable to complete a term of office, the Steering Committee will appoint a person to serve the remainder of the term. In the case of the current Vice Chair, a permanent replacement will be elected by a special online election.  That person will then assume the duties of Vice Chair following announcement of election results. 

VII. Section Annual Business Meeting

1. The Section shall meet annually at the time and place of the SAA annual meeting at a time determined by SAA staff.
2. A business meeting will hear new business, although because the time of the meeting is limited, the chair may table any petition until the next meeting at his/her discretion.
3. The section meetings are intended to be informal. However, the chair individually or the steering committee collectively may invoke the rules of parliamentary procedure at any time during the meeting.
4. The section will use the same parliamentary rules as stipulated in the bylaws of the Society of American Archivists.

VIII. Amendments

1. To ensure alignment with SAA’s governance documents, any amendments to the section’s standing rules should be reviewed by the executive director (or her/his designee) and the section’s Council liaison by May 1, before they are put forward in a referendum for vote by the section membership. Proposed amendments to the section’s standing rules will appear on the section’s annual election ballot for final approval by a simple majority of voters. Any adopted amendments should be posted promptly to the section’s official microsite and be noted in the section’s next annual report to the Council. Any revisions to the section’s name or mission/description must be submitted to the Council for final approval. For more information on amendment procedures, see Section IX of the SAA Governance Manual.
2. Any members of the Section may propose amendments to these standing rules in writing to the Chair at least four months prior to the annual meeting. The Chair shall circulate the proposed amendments to the Steering Committee for their consideration. If a majority of the Steering Committee concurs with the proposals, they shall be submitted to the membership for online voting as part of the regular annual election process. The Chair will notify the membership of the proposed changes and the impending vote via the Section list serv. Results will be announced at the annual section meeting.
3. In the event that the majority of the Steering Committee does not approve the proposed amendments, the petitioner will be notified and given the opportunity to present their proposal(s) to section membership via the BAS microsite in writing or video.  The proposed amendment will be included in the section’s online ballot but will require a two-thirds majority of all votes for adoption.
4. Changes cannot be made unless a quorum of at least twenty-five (25) section members participate in the online voting process.

IX. Reporting

An annual report will be submitted to SAA Council and made available to the Business Archives Section at large.

Adopted by the membership, August 2007; revisions approved by the membership, August 2009.  Updated per the member affinity group transition approved by the Council, August 2016.Updated April 2020.   

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