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Issues and Advocacy Roundtable
Society of American Archivists 72nd Annual Meeting
Hilton San Francisco-Golden Gate 2 Room
Wednesday August 27, 2008, 3:15-5:15pm
Kate Theimer, Co-Chair
Peter Gunther, Co-Chair
Diane Vogt-O'Connor, Council Liaison
Cindy Smolovik began the meeting by announcing the October 8, 2008 deadline for submitting proposals for the SUSTAINABLE ARCHIVES / AUSTIN 2009 conference. Cindy noted that proposals should be submitted via the online form found on the SAA Website. A native Texan, Cindy mentioned several reasons why Austin is a very appealing locale for the next SAA annual conference.
Next, meeting attendees around the room introduced themselves, noting their institutional affiliation.
Issues and Advocacy Roundtable (I&AR) Co-Chair Kate Theimer gave a brief history of the I&AR, noting that the Roundtable was founded at the 2005 SAA conference, which was held in New Orleans. She discussed how the Roundtable was founded as an effort to help ideas “trickle up” to SAA leadership and as way to develop a network of subject area experts for Council to draw upon when it needed information quickly. Kate mentioned that the Roundtable hasn’t been very active in these first few years, and that when she spoke to Council about the necessity of the group, the Council suggested it was fine if the group wanted to change direction. So, currently, the I&AR is in a transitional phase. Kate stated that it is the current goal of the I&AR to raise awareness about one or two issues for a finite period of time, perhaps one or two years, and then reevaluate them at the end of a predefined term.
Kate asked attendees what issues they would like to focus on, and then suggested two issues:
· Archives & the environment
· Access to healthcare for those in the archival profession
Co-chair Peter Gunther voiced his opinion that he would prefer to focus on the environment over healthcare. Peter stated that there is much to be done in relation to the environment, and that not a tremendous amount has been done in this arena. He suggested that every archivist can relate to and engage in issues relating to the environment, whereas healthcare might be more difficult to engage people in. Peter also suggested that by focusing on environmental issues, the I&AR would likely be able to capitalize on student chapter involvement. In addition to the idea of improving environmentalism in archival practices and policies, it was noted that the I&AR might be able to tap into collections that support environmental issues to raise awareness. It was also suggested that a focus on environmentalism would tie in well with the 2009 SAA conference theme of sustainability, specifically if the I&AR could work with vendors to promote greener archival products or if the I&AR could work with other sections such as Preservation to discuss how to meet basic archival requirements in a green manner.
Next the discussion turned to the issue of healthcare versus the environment as a possible focus for the I&AR. From there the conversation evolved to include related issues such as job stability in general within the archives profession. Meeting attendees discussed how healthcare and salary/salary negotiation are issues not only for those seeking employment, but for those on the hiring end as well.
From here the conversation turned to leadership issues, archival education, desired skills in the workforce, and a common field of study for those entering the archival profession. Attendees discussed how A*CENSUS addressed this issue.
A representative of IMLS attending the meeting mentioned that the average age of upper archives administrators was 51, and how many members of the archival profession are retiring much later than in years past. He suggested that people in archives and cultural heritage institutions are now waiting for longer periods of time to promote, and as a result many are moving out of the field as a response to their delay in professional development within the archives profession.
The group discussed that many students enter library programs interested in archives, but end up opting for careers in libraries as a means of professional stability. It was also noted that there are many educational channels to the archival profession (MA, MLS, experience) as opposed to the library profession (MLS, MIS, etc.).
Council Liaison Diane Vogt-O'Connor spoke next, giving an update on Council’s actions at its Monday meeting. She stated that Mark Greene is planning to attend a meeting on September 9th in Washington, D.C. with a broad group of information profession educators to discuss standards for education and accreditation of all information professionals. This group is expected to draw a select group of leaders from archives, museums, libraries, and the information technology fields. More discussion on education, accreditation, and professional competencies followed.
Kate Theimer spoke again, noting that Roundtables now require a minimum of 50 people, and that everyone interested in I&AR should join online now. She noted that list membership does not count as Roundtable membership. From here she stressed the need for publicity of the I&AR. Kate informed the attendees that they can send an email to bdoyle@archivists.org if they wish to join the I&AR or any other Roundtable.
Next Nancy Beaumont, SAA Executive Director, spoke about the relationship between the new Government Affairs working group and I&AR. She suggested that a secondary goal of I&AR could still be to develop people with areas of expertise in the event there is a need for government testimony. She stated that developing and preparing experts would be much preferred in lieu of scrambling as needs arise. She suggested attendees should complete an I&AR profile online if they have such an area of expertise. She spoke about the need for more grassroots advocacy and rallying the troops. This led into a discussion of outreach, advocacy, and media training. SAA is always looking for seasoned, savvy folks that are ready to handle media and government emergencies. It was noted that perhaps these types of training sessions might be appropriate for the 2009 conference in Austin.
Kate Theimer came back to the issue of sustainability within the profession, which led a conversation about the challenges that new archivists face, the lack of opportunity for promotion within the profession, and the fact that many people are choosing to retire later in life. The issue of salaries and salary negotiation was raised, and it was suggested that the I&AR liaise with the Management Roundtable to address this issue. State archivist salaries were discussed, particularly pay equity studies amongst state archivists, and the fact that most state salaries are non-negotiable. It was suggested that the I&AR might review government pay grades and that U.S. Office of Personnel Management standards might be used as benchmarks. Lee White, Executive Director of the National Coalition for History, stated that the U.S. Department of Labor is rewriting description for archivist positions including responsibilities, skill sets, salary levels, etc., and determining whether or not archivists were classed as professionals (exempt versus non-exempt).
A debate about salary expectations amongst archivists pursued, and it was noted that archivists must be realistic about salaries in relation to the nature of employers/institutions. It was also mentioned that institutions have certain expectations of archives professionals, yet are not always willing to pay them for it. One attendee noted that he had heard it was now common knowledge that employers were hiring archivists who have a significant other that can support them because salaries within the profession are not competitive. It was noted that the ALA lobbies for minimum salaries, and that SAA strongly encourages employment announcement posters to disclose salaries in their advertisements. ALA capitalizes on the MLS degree, leverages standards and criteria as a bargaining tool. Government funding is tied to MLS and certification.
From here the I&AR reached a consensus that this issue had replaced environmentalism with professional issues for newer archivists as their main focus and attempted to settle on a name for the cause. A couple of ideas were suggested such as “Quality of Life” and “Compensation and Sustainability.” Of note, the key issues were identified as:
·
Compensation/Healthcare
·
Sustainability (people are leaving the profession)
·
Professional Recognition (particularly for younger members of the profession)
There was a call for session proposals for the SAA 2009 conference in Austin and a discussion of the kind of tools the I&AR would like to produce, such as:
·
Somewhere to send employers for information about appropriate salary levels
·
Assisting with a section on the SAA Website called “A Career in Archives” (Nancy Beaumont had brought this up as an overall SAA goal)
·
Salary expectations by institutions/regions
·
Liaise with A.C.A.
·
Salary in relation to SAA participation (without employer support, many cannot afford to attend conferences, etc.)
Lastly I&AR elections were held for the next year.
·
Kate Theimer will remain Co-Chair, and will be joined by Kheir Fakhreldin (University of Michigan) as incoming Co-Chair, both for one year.
·
Attendees Peter Gunther, Dana Miller, Heather Soyka, Kathleen Feeney, Ann Galloway, and Stasia Karel volunteered for service on the Steering Committee
·
Attendees Christina Fidler and Jenny Johnson volunteered to gather salary data, and other nebulous information to support the I&AR issue at hand.
It was agreed that the new Steering Committee would need to meet again in San Francisco to develop further plans.
The meeting closed with a call for white papers, I&AR support, and a two-year commitment to this issue. This meeting also closed with 28 attendees.
Meeting notes taken by:
Jenny Johnson
