2006 Women Archivists Roundtable Minutes, Washington, D.C.

Minutes

Officers

Co-Chairs

Karen Walton Morse, SUNY at Buffalo Special Collections (2004-2006)

Kathleen Feeney, University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center (2005-2007)

Ginny L. Kilander, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center (2006-2008)

 Steering Committee Members

Kathleen Feeney, University of Chicago (Co-Chair)

Eileen Ielmini, University of Chicago

Kathie Johnson, University of Louisville 
Ginny L. Kilander, University of Wyoming (Co-Chair)

Karen Walton Morse, SUNY at Buffalo (Co-Chair)

Christine Schmid, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of American Jewish Archives
Andrea Sheehan, QVC, Inc. Information Services

Jennie Thomas, Albion College (Web Liaison)

Approximately 12

Co-chair/ Steering Committee

Ginny Kilander was named co-chair, 2006-2008; Eileen Ielmini was named to the steering committee.

Summary of Meeting Activities

The WAR business meeting began with an assessment of the previous year's activities and discussion of the openings for a co-chair and one-two new steering committee members. We were unable to complete the election of a co-chair at the meeting, but Ginny Kilander accepted the position shortly after her return from the SAA annual meeting.

The meeting's featured keynote speaker Maarja Krusten, Historian for the Government Accountability Office. She discussed her experiences as a government archivist and historian, including some of the changes she's seen for women in the profession. A follow-up discussion demonstrated strong support for continuing to devote a portion of WAR's annual business meeting to similar presentations by active and experienced women archivists.

The low attendance at this year's business meeting was disappointing. We believe that attendance was affected both by the fact that the meeting fell on Wednesday afternoon, before many members had arrived or begun to attend sessions and by our failure to finalize the meeting agenda in time for details to be widely distributed to members.

Projects/activities

We continue to support the Navigator Program initiated by our roundtable.  We will encourage the active involvement of our individual roundtable members and plan to assess the effectiveness/ satisfaction with the program.

WAR endorsed two sessions for SAA's 2007 annual meeting: "Ethical Fellow Travelers: Activist Organizations and the Society of American Archivists" and "Power Figures: The Roles of Women in the Development of American Museums."

We responded to the report issued by the SAA Task Force on Sessions and Roundtables.

We continue to work to encourage the participation of women in all phases of SAA business and other activities as well as in the archival profession as a whole.

Diversity initiatives

Gender diversity and equity is the main concern of our roundtable and is at the heart of most everything that we do.  We hope to increase our participation in SAA's broader diversity initiatives.

Questions/Concerns for Council attention

 Has there been any recent discussion of the need for daycare at the Annual Meeting?