SAA Council Approves Guidelines for SAA Fellow Nominations, Plans for 2020 Annual Meeting

March 11, 2020—During its March 6 conference call, the SAA Council:

• Approved revised guidelines for the Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows to provide a clearer decision-making structure and guidance—to both nominators and committee evaluators—that is adequate, fair, comprehensive, transparent, and flexible;

• Selected Louis Jones, Terry Baxter, and Wilda Logan to serve on the 2020 Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows;

• Reviewed the current fiscal year 2020 financials and discussed how the COVID-19 outbreak is affecting SAA’s education offerings this spring; and
• Discussed plans for the 2020 Annual Meeting, including an Executive Leadership Forum, Council listening session, and live streaming of portions of the meeting.

The Council also discussed the following brief updates:

• The Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force had a productive and inspiring meeting in Chicago on February 19 and will have a final report for the Council by March 31. The Council and task force members are grateful to LYRASIS for their financial support of and participation in the meeting.
• Vice President/President-Elect Rachel Vagts confirmed that she is completing appointments to the Archival Compensation Task Force so that the group may convene and begin its work by the end of March.
• Council members Eric Chin, Ricky Punzalan, and Audra Eagle Yun plan to initiate conversations with all sections to reflect on their current health and paths forward for restructuring SAA’s member affinity groups.
• SAA Finance/Administration Director Peter Carlson provided an update on progress to provide incentives in the SAA Career Center for job listings that include salary information, noting that the plan is to provide a 20-25% incentive that should be implemented within the next two months.
• President Meredith Evans reported that SAA has reached the second round in the IMLS grant application process, a great step forward in our efforts to secure funding to conduct A*CENSUS II.

If you have questions or concerns about these Council actions, feel free to contact SAA President Meredith Evans (president@archivists.org) or Executive Director Nancy Beaumont (nbeaumont@archivists.org). Complete minutes from this conference call will be available on the SAA website soon.

The next meeting of the SAA Council will take place from Tuesday, May 12, through Thursday, May 14, in Chicago. (This meeting may be held virtually, as SAA monitors developments regarding COVID-19.) If you’d like to have an item considered for inclusion on the agenda, submit it to Evans and/or Beaumont no later than Tuesday, April 21.