Council Adopts FY14 Budget, Creates Task Force on Member Affinity Groups

At its May 15-17 meeting in Chicago, the SAA Council approved a Fiscal Year 2014 budget that projects $2,501,478 in revenues, $2,468,424 in expenses, and a net gain of $33,054 that will be used to fund a Council-designated reserve for technology.

In presenting the budget, Treasurer Mark Duffy emphasized the need for a technology reserve in the following support statement:  “The budget represents a realistic work plan for SAA that places appropriate emphasis on maintaining operations at a sustainable level while addressing the new Strategic Plan. The organization’s ability to succeed in key areas of advocacy, education, knowledge dissemination, and member services is highly dependent on staying current with communication technology and information management systems. Unlike most other strategic priorities, large technology investments cannot be accommodated within normal operating budgets. The FY14 budget projects a respectable net gain that allows staff to plan appropriately to meet member service expectations.”

In other actions, the Council:

• Adopted new Vision and Mission statements, Core Organizational Values, and Goals and Strategies for SAA’s Strategic Plan 2013 – 2018.  Draft actions associated with the Goals and Strategies will be open for member comment in mid-July. A forum about the Strategic Plan will be held at the Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans on Thursday, August 15, from noon to 1:15 pm. 

• Adopted a Standards Committee recommendation to endorse ACRL/RBMS Guidelines for Interlibrary and Exhibition Loan of Special Collections Materials. 

• Created a Task Force on Member Affinity Groups that will provide the Council with recommendations about what sorts of affinity group structures might be most effective in encouraging flexible, inclusive, and participatory opportunities for members. Click here to read the task force description and learn about volunteering.

• Discussed at length the Annual Meeting Task Force’s final report and appointed a subgroup of the Council to quickly draft a plan for continuing to move forward on the task force’s recommendations. An Annual Meeting Task Force Forum will be held in conjunction with the Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans on Thursday, August 15, from noon to 1:15 pm. 

The nine Council members who are not officers elected Bill Landis to represent them on the 2013-2014 Executive Committee. Terry Baxter and Elisabeth Kaplan were selected to serve on the 2013-2014 Nominating Committee.

All materials presented at the May meeting are available via the meeting agenda. Minutes of the meeting will be posted on the SAA website no later than 60 days after the meeting. View agendas and minutes. 

The SAA Council will meet again on Monday, August 12, from 4:00 to 9:00 pm; on Tuesday, August 13, from 8:00 am to noon; and on Saturday, August 17, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm in conjunction with the Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The deadline for proposal of agenda items for all Council meetings is four weeks prior to the start of the meeting. Forward your agenda items to SAA President Jackie Dooley (dooleyj[at]oclc.org) or Executive Director Nancy Beaumont (nbeaumont[at]archivists.org).