CPWG Annual Report 2010

Working Group on Cultural Property
Report to Society of American Archivists Council
May 10, 2010

Since the Working Group on Cultural Property was only organized over the past two months, the Group has not yet had a chance to meet.  This report therefore details the forming of the Working Group and our agenda for the August 2010 meeting.

Formation:
In late February 2010, Jeannette Bastian was asked to chair the new Working Group on Cultural Property and also to form a committee.  With the advice and assistance of the SAA Vice-President, Helen Tibbo and SAA Executive Director Nancy Beaumont, Bastian assembled a Working Group representing those constituencies within SAA and the archival profession that might bring a variety of perspectives to the discussion.  This process took several months and the Working Group was finally assembled by late April.

The eleven members of the Working Group are:

• Jeannette Bastian, Chair, Simmons College
• Elizabeth Banks, National Park Service
• Lisa Calahan, The Black Metropolis Research Consortium
• Robert  Leopold, Smithsonian Institution
• Philip Mooney, The Coca-Cola Company      
• Lisa Nguyen, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University
• Jennifer  O’Neal, Smithsonian Institution
• Marisol Ramos, University of Connecticut
• Sharon Thibodeau, National Archives and Records Administration
• Kelvin White, University of Oklahoma
• Helen Tibbo, Council Liaison, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Draft Agenda:
The Working Group has agreed on the following agenda for its first meeting on August 11, 2010.  This agenda should lead to the development of a work plan to deliver to Council by December 2010.

Agenda Items:   

1. Introductions
2. SAA Charge
3. Definitions and Parameters of Cultural Property for the Working Group:
4. Issues, Goals and Outcomes:
   1. What are the issues (both those in the charge and contingent issues) that the CPWG wants to consider
   2. What are the outcomes we will work towards.
5. Aligning the Working Group with similar groups within SAA .
6. Communication and dissemination:  How we will gather information from SAA membership, invite opinions, reach consensus, i.e. public forums, presentations.
7. Projects: i.e. An annotated bibliography, sponsoring SAA presentations, etc.

Submitted by: Jeannette A. Bastian, May 10, 2010.