Design Records Section Steering Committee Mission Statement
Updated October 2019 to reflect the name change from Architectural Records Section (ArchRS) to Design Records Section (DRS).
Created by the Steering Committee and Co-Chairs, August 2014
The mission of the Design Records Section Steering Committee is to support the Co-Chairs in leading and providing strategic direction for the Roundtable. The Steering Committee’s responsibilities include:
- Advise and assist the Co-Chairs regarding policy formulation, study/discussion groups, temporary committees and task forces, and goal-oriented projects.
- Provide feedback on the proposed agenda for the Section’s annual meeting.
- Share information with Section members.
- Collaborate with the Co-Chairs to develop and solicit Annual Meeting session proposals.
- Liaise with other groups with related interests.
- Attend annual steering committee planning meetings virtually or in-person at the SAA Annual Meeting.
- Conduct an annual review of resource relevance on the DRS website and any auxiliary websites.
The most senior Steering Committee member is responsible for organizing meetings of the Steering Committee.
Goals for the Design Records Section
Created by the Steering Committee and Co-Chairs, August 2014
Goals for the Design Records Section, to be completed before the 2015 Annual Meeting:
- Create reliable archival supply vendor directory and add to DRS website or new wiki.
- Review, update and expand existing Resources list on SAA’s DRS site and mirror on other DRS web components.
- Identify and compile current and/or relevant literature on the digital preservation of architectural records with a special focus on case studies and the practical implementation of these recommendations in “average” repositories. Publish findings to DRS web components.
Goals for the Design Records Section, to be completed before the 2017 Annual Meeting:
- Establish partnerships with other key SAA sections and roundtables.
- Explore the possibility of establishing a presence in other sections and roundtable publications (i.e., re-establishing a presence in the Visual Materials Section newsletter VIEWS or posting to Electronic Records Section blog).
- Explore the possibility of a joint SAA program with Visual Materials Section, Electronic Records Section, or other relevant group.
- Investigate SAA architectural records management educational workshop and add digital records management to the program, or the more general educational sessions like #1515 “Cataloging the Universe of Visual Materials.”
- Establish alliances with design records partners outside of SAA (possibilities include: Society of Architectural Historians, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records (COPAR), the Architecture Section of the Art Library Society of North America (ARLIS) , Association of Architecture School Librarians (AASL), and the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM)).
- Identify individuals in DRS with affiliations in complementary professional organizations and provide a mechanism for them to report back to DRS members on that group’s activities.
- Feed news from complementary professional organizations to the DRS web presence.
Goals for the Design Records Section, to be completed before the 2019 Annual Meeting:
- Continue to cultivate partnerships with other key SAA sections and roundtables. These alliances will enable us to serve the needs of our increasingly diverse members in a more holistic way. Many of our members are responsible for collections other than design records and spend only a fraction of their time preserving design collections, so it will be crucial to provide integrated, well-rounded professional development opportunities, resources, and networks.
- Explore the possibility of a formal partnership with one or more complementary professional organizations outside of SAA. Establish formal continuity and sustainability plans for alliances.
- Could entail having a representative from their organization as part of our annual SAA meeting and vice versa.
- Could entail a joint educational opportunity.
- Institute a plan to ensure that the Design Records Section’s national and global professional alliances beyond SAA remain stable and fruitful from year to year.
- Continue to support and, as necessary, help steer the CAD/BIM Task Force’s work to research, innovate, and publish solutions for preserving born-digital design records, in partnership with national and global efforts focused on software and file format preservation within the archives profession and beyond.
- Stay in touch with and aware of rapidly evolving record creation and usage practices within firms in order to anticipate future collection stewardship challenges.
- Work with SAA and other design records partners to develop an educational opportunity on the subject of preserving born-digital design records. Open access to the training to interested parties beyond the confines of the Section and SAA.
