Section Meeting Minutes, August 12, 2010

College and University Archives Section Meeting

Washington, D.C.

August 12, 2010

1.      Beth Kaplan, section chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting

2.      Approval of 2009 meeting minutes published in The Academic Archivist, Winter 2010

3.      Reports:

a.       Beth Kaplan gave the chair report and discussed what was accomplished by the Section this year.  Mostly this involved administrative and governance issues to position the section better for the future.  This year included:

                                                              i.      Online elections for the first time

                                                            ii.      Migrating the website to Drupal

                                                          iii.      Participating in the review of the section newsletter and website

                                                          iv.      Revising the section bylaws to make the section compliant with SAA rules.  This included a new vice-chair/chair elect system and the election of the members of the Steering Committee.

b.      Beth Kaplan thanked Steering Committee, particularly out-going members Rachel Vagts and Maria Estorino, Chris Laico (Newsletter Editor), and Claude Zachary (Website).  She also thanked Tom Rosko and Charlotte Brown for being part of the Nominating Committee.  Finally, Beth thanked the members who ran for positions and encouraged continued engagement in the section.

c.       Tom Frusciano gave the report from SAA Council.  Tom reported the issues being discussed by Council including the dues increase needed.  They will be reviewing online voting and hope to use it for other decisions like changes to the bylaws. Council has approved the revision of the EAD Roundtable’s mission to make it broader.  They are also reviewing the statement on diversity and a draft of a values statement written by the Committee of Ethics.  This ethics statement will go out to the membership for comment shortly.  Council is reviewing the guidelines for graduate programs in archival science as well.  The SAA Foundation Board is concentrating on fundraising for the celebration of the 75^th anniversary of SAA.  They hope to cultivate a culture of giving in the organization.

d.      Rachel Vagts, chair of the Nominating Committee, gave their report.

e.       Chris Laico, Newsletter Editor, was unable to attend, so Beth Kaplan gave his report.

f.       Jay Gaidmore gave the report of the website/newsletter review committee.

4.      Announcements

a.       Tim Pyatt announced the work of the Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct in creating the ethics statement.  There will be several opportunities for the membership to comment on the statement, and Tim encouraged everyone to do so.  They have also worked on a SAA values statement that is a companion to the ethics statement.  Please comment on both.

b.      Christie Peterson reported on the Reference and Processing Group, which is sponsored by the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section.  The group was created to compile and synthesize information and assessments on MPLP.  They are compiling a bibliography and will post it online.  Christie asked for assistance from the section with finding papers, presentations, etc. involved in this topic.

c.       Christie Peterson then reported on the 2011 Program Committee.  SAA will be help in 2011 in Chicago.  It is the 75^th anniversary and since it is not a joint program, they will need more submissions than in previous years.  The theme is “Archives 360” and is intended to be as broad as possible.  The due date for submissions is October 1.  College and University Archives Section will have 2 endorsements, which is considered during the process of choosing sessions.  This year is slightly different in that individuals can be part of multiple sessions during the proposal stage.

d.      Jackie Dooley reported on the OCLC Research taking place right now.  Please see: www.oclc.org/research for a complete list of the projects and activities.

e.       Lisa Mix from the University of California San Francisco spoke on the SAA Publications Board.  They recently published a new campus case study on podcasts at the University of Michigan.  They continue to look for more publications.

f.       Alex Lorch reminded the membership that the NHPRC had a space in the vendors/exhibit area and encouraged people to visit them.

5.      Following the announcements, those in attendance chose the break-out discussion group they wanted to join.  What follows are the brief reports on each group:

Priorities for the Section led by Beth Kaplan

Digital Asset Management led by Rachel Vagts

Documenting Student Organizations led by Jay Gaidmore

Donor Relations led by Heather Briston

Innovating use of technology led by Kevin Glick

Dealing with email led by Michael Shallcross