Society of American Archivists
Committee on Education Meeting
August 11, 2010
Marriott Wardman Park – Washington, DC
Minutes
Welcome/Introductions:
Present: Katie Salzmann, Chair; Jennifer Johnson, vice chair; Amber Cushing, Susan Irwin, Julie Graham, and Abby Griner, committee members; Scott Cline, Council liaison; Heather MacNeil, Ellen Swain, and Jamie Roth, incoming committee members; Solveig De Sutter, Education Director. Present for part of the meeting Nancy McGovern, 2011 program chair. Absent: Amy Cooper Cary, Jeff Suchanek, and Helen Wong Smith.
Cline reported on issues that Council discussed at its August 9 meeting including:
- GPAS: After Council received the Committee’s suggested revisions, Council members Tibbo and Ambacher made additional revisions; specifically, regarding digital archives. Committee chairs asked Council for time to review these changes and Council agreed. The final revised draft should be submitted for Council approval at its mid-winter meeting.
- SAA Foundation: Council reviewed the mission of the SAA Foundation and identified the areas of diversity and education as logical ones for Foundation activities. Cline indicated that Council will look to the Committee on Education for ideas.
- Cline will continue as Council liaison to the Committee for two more years.
McGovern encouraged the Committee to endorse session proposals for 2011. She also stated that Brenda Gunn will ask the Committee to nominate a member to serve on the student program group. Graham volunteered.
Review and Approval of the Agenda (Irwin/Johnson)
Approval of minutes (Graham/Johnson)
Committee overview and charges:
- Salzmann welcomed incoming committee members and reviewed the charge. She stressed that the primary tasks are reviewing the needs for continuing education (shepherding, auditing, identifying gaps); assisting SAA Education staff in developing programs; providing guidance in the areas of continuing and graduate education, and exploring issues as they arise either from the work of the Committee or from Council.
- Volunteers: MacNeil volunteered to serve as Committee liaison to the Archival Educators roundtable, and Cushing agreed to continue to serve as liaison to the student forum.
- Soliciting proposals: Committee members were asked to encourage the submission of preconference proposals when talking with others at the conference. Some members volunteered to make announcements at roundtable and section meetings.
- Session evaluations: De Sutter passed out session evaluations and asked committee members to fill them out for sessions they attend. The purpose of the forms is to identify topics or presentations that would translate well to workshops, and also to identify potential instructors.
- Workshop re-allocation: The workshops shepherded by out-going members were reassigned. (Attachment A)
SAA Education Staff Report: De Sutter highlighted salient parts of the Education report and invited questions.
Updates
- Education office hours are 12-1 in the exhibit hall.
- Preconference proposal review and timeline: Johnson reminded members that the deadline for proposals is October 1. She stressed the importance of shepherds identifying four reviewers; the shepherd, another CE member, and two others. Tips for finding outside reviewers include looking at past SAA programs, current literature, or identifying colleagues.
- Mid-winter meeting dates: Council has not yet set its dates, so De Sutter is waiting to hear before polling members about dates for the Committee meeting.
FY2010 Special Activities
- Digital Archives Continuing Education Task Force (DACE): Incoming President Tibbo received 45 volunteer responses to serve on this task force, and she has appointed four members: Jackie Esposito, Mahnaz Ghaznavi, Geof Huth, and David Kay. Education and specifically Digital archives will likely be Tibbo’s presidential initiative. The task force charge is to develop a curriculum on the topic of digital archives, report to the Committee on Education with a final report and recommendations at its mid-winter meeting. Pertinent SAA committees, sections and roundtables should be asked for their input as well. One in-person meeting is scheduled for the task force, and it will take place before the February meeting so that Johnson can attend. De Sutter will send Committee members the task force’s official charge. (Attachment B)
- GPAS Revision: At the February meeting, the Committee spent a lot of time reviewing the GPAS. The revisions were submitted to Council where additional revisions were made. Council has sent the Tibbo/Ambacher revised GPAS back to the Committee for review. Johnson, incoming 2011 chair, asked that Committee members review the changes and submit comments to her and De Sutter by mid-September. De Sutter will send a non-PDF version of the GPAS to members. After Committee comments are incorporated (October) the GPAS will go once more to the archival educators for comment by December. The final version will be sent to Council for adoption at their mid-winter meeting. Further conversation centered around the concern the focus on digital archives may squeeze out History programs and that it’s important to keep these guidelines balanced.
- Directory of Graduate Archival Education: A working group explored ways to incorporate educators’ concerns about the directory into the new Drupal-based website. This is a work in progress and implementation of some of the tools envisioned by the working group will likely happen in Phase Two of the project.
- MPLP: At the February meeting, Committee member Jeff Suchanek, who audited an MPLP workshop, brought forward concerns regarding the content of the workshop; specifically, that it was being taught as a standard. A working group formed and reviewed the workbook, evaluation comments, and three members audited the workshop at different locations. It was decided that the workshop was appropriate for SAA Education as long as instructors made sure that it wasn’t taught as a solution for all processing.
Session on Education Development:
- In spite of inquiries about the session on developing workshops, no one came. The Committee brainstormed about how best to proceed, and it was decided to start by inviting current instructors to next year’s session in an attempt to build a “core” group.
Motion to adjourn (Johnson/Graham)
