Meeting Minutes: August 18, 2005, New Orleans, LA

Co-chairs: Kate Colligan, Univ. of Pittsburgh, and Ellen Swain, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

SAA Annual Conference, August 18, 2005, 4:00-5:30

Present:

Jennifer Schaffner, UCLA; Andrea Sheehan, Educational
Testing Service (ETS); Tom Dillard, University of Arkansas; Fernanda
Perrone, Rutgers; Sarah Keen, Cornell; Susan Tucker, Tulane; Linda
Blaser, NARA; Linda Daniel, Duke; Susan Woodland, Hadassah; Curtis
Lyons, Virginia Commonwealth; Margaret Jessup, Smith; Megan Guglielmi,
University of Maryland; Rebecca Johnson Melvin, University of Delaware;
Jennifer Gunter King, Mount Holyoke College; Kathryn Jacob, Radcliffe;
Janice Ruth, Library of Congress; Cristela Garcia Spitz, University of
Pittsburgh; Jennie Cole, Princeton; Janna Robinson, University of
Maryland; Susan Watson, American Red Cross; Cassie Pyle, University of
Pittsburgh; Susan Malbin, IMLS; Jessica Lacher-Feldman, University of
Alabama; Melissa Smith, Tulane; Marilyn Morgan, Radcliffe; Marna
Gerrand, Georgia State University; Johanna Carll, Radcliffe; Anke Voss,
Illinois Wesleyan University; Kate Colligan (Co-chair), University of
Pittsburgh; and Ellen Swain (Co-chair), University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.

Business Meeting:

Kate Colligan (Co-chair) called the business meeting to order at 4pm.
After speakers made announcements concerning the SAA diversity
committee and 2006 program committee, Anke Voss reported on an SAA
publication opportunity she is pursuing concerning the state of women's
collections and archives across the globe. The work will be an edited
reader comprised of chapters from international authors. If interested
in more information, please contact Anke at avoss@iwu.edu.

Ellen Swain (Co-chair) reported that in March 2005, SAA provided all
roundtables with listserv capabilities. The WCRT listserv can be used
to post announcements from leadership and members, discuss women's
collections issues, and foster collaboration among members.

Since 2002, Sarah Keen has served as the WCRT web liaison. She hopes
to turn over this responsibility to another member and serve the RT in
other capacities. We thank Sarah for her great work for and dedication
to WCRT!

Ellen Swain reported that WCRT members from Illinois and Iowa met at
the Midwest Archives Conference in Chicago in April to discuss a pilot
project that would update IL and IA holdings in Andrea Hinding's 1979
women's collections guide.

Kate Colligan provided an overview of the discussion at the WCRT
Working Group meeting held the previous day, Wednesday, August 17. The
meeting focused on brainstorming for 2006 SAA session proposals and on
discussing the possibility of a women's collections pre-conference
half/full day workshop at SAA 2006 on administration issues. Themes for
sessions included: collecting on the political right; hidden women's
collections in political, literary, and family archives; documenting
and using material culture to understand women's experience; and
traveling exhibits. Issues discussed for the workshop included: donor
relations and funding; grant writing for women's collections; regional
collecting, and collecting policy. Kate Colligan will circulate a more
detailed list of proposal and workshop ideas after the meeting.

Program:

After the business meeting concluded, Susan Tucker provided an
excellent program on documenting southern food ways which included
discussion of the work of the Newcomb Center for Research on Women at
Tulane University. Attendees were treated to samples of creole cream
cheese and meat.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30pm. Submitted by Ellen Swain.