SAA Council Ratifies Standards Recommendations, Approves America250 Task Force Creation

• Approved the minutes of the August 14, 2024 Council meeting. 

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the assignment of responsibility for maintenance of the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy to SAA’s Reference, Access, and Outreach Section. (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the assignment of responsibility for maintenance of the Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries to SAA’s Reference, Access, and Outreach Section. (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the revision proposal for the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy submitted by the Reference, Access, and Outreach section. (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the adoption of the revised Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities. (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the extension of the revision cycle of the Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities from 3 to 5 years.  (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Standards recommendation for the assignment of responsibility for maintenance of the Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities to the Accessibility and Disability Section of SAA.  (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval to extend the TS-AFG charge to run through the end of the 2024–2025 year (all of whom have been serving on the TS since at least 2020). (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction)  

• Ratified the Council's approval of the Dictionary Working Group’s revisions to its standing rules. (1124-II-B-CouncilInterimAction) 

• Ratified the SAA Executive Council's approval of allowing SAA Council member Bryan Whitledge six months to finish his obligations to the TS-AFG by completing the written section. Bryan will not be a voting member of the TS-AFG and will recuse himself from any Council vote/action impacting TS-AFG. (1124-II-C-ExecCommInterimActions) 

• The America250 Task Force was approved, and a special call for volunteers will be issued in the second quarter of FY25. 

• National Coalition for History will dissolve effective December 31, 2025. The Society is in the process of seeking services to support advocacy efforts.  

• Discussed possible approaches for providing sustained funding for members of the Native American Archives Section to support membership, conference registration, and travel expenses. (1124-III-F-NAAS) 

• Approved the Podcast Working Group with language changes (project coordinator to chair).

• Approved CORDA’s request to review the application and rubric for the IMLS grant; the SAA Council approved the request based on the updated language provided to CORDA on November 19th. (1124-IV-D-CORDA) 

• Approved the Archival Accessioning Best Practices v.1.0 as an SAA standard and that maintenance of the standard be assigned to the Acquisitions, Accessioning, and Appraisal section with the next revision due in 2027. (1124-IV-D-1-Stands) 

• Approved proposals to revise the Archival Continuing Education Guidelines (1124-IV-D-2-Stands) and the Best Practices for Internships as a Component of Graduate Archival Education. (1124-IV-D-3-Stands) 

• Approved Hui’s actions in exploring in greater depth ways to craft impactful and forward-looking modes of collaboration with allied organizations. (1124-IV-E-HUICOL) 

• Reviewed and addressed comments in the section and committee annual reports. 

• Heard general presentations from the Society’s legal and financial advisors on their work supporting the Society.  

• Discussed the recent Wall Street Journal article and agreed to reach out to AOTUS’s office regarding possible mechanisms to discuss further with SAA membership. 

View the agenda and materials from the Fall meeting. Meeting minutes will be available via the SAA website.

If you have questions about these Council actions, contact SAA President Tomaro I. Taylor (president@archivists.org), Chief Executive Officer Jacqualine Price Osafo (SAACEO@archivists.org), or SAA's Governance team (saagovernance@archivists.org).

The Winter Council Meeting will be held Feburary 11 and 12, 2025. Agenda items and reports are due by January 13 to saagovernance@archivists.org. You can register for that meeting here.

The Spring Council Meeting will be held May 12 and 15, 2025. Agenda items and reports are due by April 14 to saagovernance@archivists.org. You can register for that meeting here.