2004-2005 Annual Report

Labor Archives Roundtable 

Annual Report 2004-2005 

December 20, 2005 

Labor Archives Roundtable

Mission:  The Labor Archives Roundtable promotes communication among archivists 

and institutions concerned with records in the field of labor and develops cooperative 

strategies and guidelines to ensure comprehensive documentation of the labor movement 

Officers, 2004-2005 

Chair, Jim Quigel, Head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Penn State 

Vice Chair, Lauren Kata, Archivist, Southern Labor Archives, Georgia State University 

Report from Annual Meeting

The Labor Archives Roundtable hosted its annual membership meeting at the Society of 

American Archivists Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 17, 2005, 

from 5pm – 7pm, with approximately 30 attendees.  Highlights of the meeting included: 

• the election of new officers for 2005-2006:  Chair, Lauren Kata, Southern 

Labor Archives, Georgia State University, and Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, 

Alan Stein, New Orleans Public Library 

• Featured Speaker: Sibal Holt, First African American and First woman to 

head the Louisiana AFL-CIO.  Ms. Holt spoke about the history of the 

labor movement in Louisiana, her views on the recent AFL-CIO split, her 

personal experiences working for the AFL-CIO, and the future of politics 

and organizing 

• Special Guest: Hans Naess, Chair of the ICA/Section for Business and 

Labor Archives.  Mr. Naess proposed the establishment of a new ICA 

section for Labor Archives (separate from Business Archives) as part of an 

envisioned Social Movement Archives Section affiliated with ICA.   

Meeting summary and outline of projects and activities—completed, on-going, and new: 

1. Quick introductions by attendees.  The membership list was circulated for 

corrections and additions. 

2. Presentation by Tom Hyry, representing the Program Committee.  Tom discussed 

new process for submitting session proposals. 

3. Message from SAA Diversity Committee representative Marnie Atkins. 

4. Presentation/Quick Introduction from Peter Gottlieb, SAA Council Liaison to the 

LAR. 5. Featured Speaker: Sibal Holt, President of Louisiana AFL-CIO, “The History of the 

Labor Movement in Louisiana.” 

6. Presentation and proposal by Hans Naess, ICA Business and Labor Archives 

Section, re: establishment of Social Movement Archives affiliated with ICA.  

Updated report: 

a. As a follow-up to the proposal from Hans Eyvind Naess, Chair, ICA/ 

Section for Business and Labor Archives, to obtain SAA-LAR agreement 

and participation in establishing a new ICA/Social Movements Section 

and possibly sending an appointed LAR representative to attend ICA 

meetings and joint SAA-ICA symposia, I forwarded the proposal to SAA 

administrator Nancy Beaumont and requested some clarification on a 

number of points before the LAR can take action.  These points included:  

1) Authorization from the SAA or the LAR to align with the new Social 

Movements Archives Section while cutting ties with the Business 

Archives Section at ICA conferences and symposia;   

2) Exploring how SAA-LAR representatives may be appointed and funded 

to attend ICA Conferences;  

3) Contacting the SAA Business Archives Section to see how it appoints 

and funds its designated representatives to ICA conferences;  

4) What additional funds may be required to maintain a membership 

within ICA?   

Jim Quigel will contact Nancy Beaumont to follow-up these points and 

report back to the LAR Chair, Lauren Kata and the LAR membership. The 

proposed ICA/Social Movements Archives Section fits more naturally 

within the scope of the collection development and documentation 

strategy objectives of the SAA-LAR and will enable the LAR to 

participate more fully in the work of the ICA and this proposed new 

section. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Jim Quigel 

12/18/2005 

7. Election of new officers.  Lauren Kata assumed role as Chair, Alan Stein 

unanimously elected Vice Chair/Chair-Elect.  Congratulations to both.   

8. Update on ongoing and new activities: 

a. Michael Nash, Chair of LAR Sub-Committee to update How to Keep 

Union Records, gave the following report: 

i. permission has been granted by the George Meany Center to 

publish this update in electronic format  ii. progress made so far: chapter outline has been drafted and 

assignments given 

iii. authors of each chapter will submit their drafts by the end of 

December; proposed deadline for draft of the entire publication is 

August 2007 (next SAA LAR meeting) 

iv. those involved in this project were to be meeting after the LAR 

meeting that evening 

b. Pam Hackbart-Dean, Coordinator of IAM-sponsored Labor Archives 

Retreat: Pam reported on an upcoming “Labor Archives Retreat,” hosted 

by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, at 

their Education Center in Placid Harbor, Maryland.  The Retreat will take 

place February 22-24, 2006, and the program will include a project 

showcase and roundtable discussions on processing labor collections, what 

unions want from us, mergers and other ethical concerns, community 

outreach, and sustaining communications among labor archives.  More 

information will be available in the coming months on the LAR website: 

http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/labor/Index.asp  

c. LAR listserv: those interested in keeping in communication with each 

other on issues pertinent to Labor Archives should subscribe to the LAR 

listserv, hosted by Cornell University.  An email with instructions will be 

sent out after the SAA Conference.   

Respectfully submitted, 

Jim Quigel, Chair, Labor Archives Roundtable / 2004-2005 

Lauren Kata, Chair, Labor Archives Roundtable / 2005-2006