2019 Annual Meeting Minutes

Regional Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC)

Annual Meeting Minutes

August 4, 2019

12:00 – 1:15 p.m.

JW Marriott Austin, Room Grand Salon 7 (level 4)

1. Introductions
   1. Mary Rubin and Philip Skroska introduced themselves as the co-chairs.
2. Incoming and Outgoing Steering Committee
   1. Phillip Skroska - Advocacy (continuing)
   2. Whitney Miller - Disaster Planning and Recovery (came on in April, replaced Liz Francis)
   3. Michael Law - Education (came on in January, replaced Vin Novaro)
   4. Karen Trivette - Grant Development (new as of this month, replacing Laura Sullivan)
   5. Kayla Harris - Membership (cycling off, we are looking for someone to step up into this role)
   6. Mary Rubin - Public Awareness (continuing)
3. Meg Philips from NARA
   1. Meg Philips, External Affairs Liaison for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), introduced herself to the RAAC attendees and emphasized that archivists and archival associations outside of NARA can reach out to her to ask about NARA procedures or if they need a contact person for a particular project or area of expertise.
4. Joint Advocacy Working Group Report
   1. Please see the attached report.
5. Council News
   1. Melissa Gonzalez is RAAC's SAA Liaison. Unfortunately she was unable to make the meeting so Mary read here: https://www2.archivists.org/groups/saa-council/august-1-2019-council-meeting-minutes
6. New Business
   1. Bylaws
      1. The Steering Committee has been working towards creating bylaws because the organization currently has none. We would like to have formal elections, staggered co-chair positions, and the possibility of the co-chairs not chairing committees.
   2. New Strategic Assessment
      1. This year is the end of our 2016-2019 3-Year plan. We are changing from 3 year plans to 2 year plans to align with the 2 year terms of our Steering Committee members.
   3. Recommendations for Choosing & Expectations of RAAC Representatives
      1. [We used the Socrative polling service to poll our members about this point and subsequent points. Please see the attached Annual Meeting Survey results.] We are curious if members have seen the Recommendations for Choosing & Expectations of RAAC Representatives web page. It has also been mentioned in a newsletter as well. One of the expectations is to serve on a committee; however, our engagement levels with committees have varied. So we are questioning if our membership feels that they should be mandated to be on a committee or if they would rather join ad-hoc committees. In the least, minimum participation is making sure emails are forwarded to the regional organizations. 
   4. Reassessment of interest from/engagement with regionals
      1. Going forward with a new strategic assessment for RAAC, we also wanted to reassess interest from and engagement with regionals so we are asking, "What would your regional deem valuable form being a part of RAAC?" 
   5. Affiliation with SAA
      1. We also wanted to make clear that we are not a SAA group. We are our own organization. We just happen to use SAA’s hosting services for our website and use their listserv. Unfortunately, we have encountered some issues this year with the listserv. We are curious if anyone experienced any problems with our listserv or website. RAAC does not require our members to be SAA members; but if our members are kicked off after their SAA membership expires, then that is a concern for us. We are considering exploring Google Groups as a listserv function.
   6. 2020 Symposium
      1. We are considering hosting a RAAC Symposium in 2020. Previously one was held in 2016 in Atlanta before the SAA conference. It had a panel of speakers talking about regional initiatives across the different committee areas (advocacy, disaster, education, grants, membership, public awareness). We are interested in learning if a symposium is wanted and the method (online or in person) preferred. 
7. Old Business
   1. NCH
      1. There was a lively discussion around our lack of NCH membership during the 2019 calendar year. Some members expressed disappointment about it. Others questioned why NCH was our chosen organization to support. It was emphasized that RAAC would be inquiring again this year about the feasibility of rejoining NCH at the Sustaining Member level, which comes with a $4,000 price tag but grants us a member on the NCH Board. 
   2. Elections/Open Seat
      1. There was mention again of the open seat for our Membership Chair. Kathleen Smith stepped up into the position.