The Board of Directors of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA) and the Council of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) hereby acknowledge the commonality of purpose between our two organizations. This commonality of purpose reflects the fact that SAA and ARMA are recognized as two of the most widely respected professional bodies in the records community in North America. We commit ourselves to maximizing cooperation, communication and collaboration on issues of joint concern. In making this commitment we recognize that there is a greater likelihood of success in tackling such issues if we pool our energies and resources and share our ideas.
Specifically, in the near future we commit ourselves to cooperation and collaboration in the following areas:
- Explore options to encourage dual memberships;
- Cooperate in defining reciprocal arrangements for annual conferences, including:
- reciprocal members' rate reductions in registration fees
- reciprocal provision of trade exhibit booths and brochure mailouts
- free registration for the Presidents of the respective organizations
- free advertising of conferences in our respective publications;
- Encourage cooperation in political lobbying and public policy issues, especially in relation to the issuing of joint statements and media releases;
- Continue and where possible increase cooperation in the area of standards development and promulgation;
- Encourage information sharing and communication and collaboration between counterpart officers on our respective committees of national governance for the developing more effective synergy on common issues;
- Encourage cooperation in the area of continuing professional development including investigating the possibility of holding joint symposiums;
- Encourage departments of both associations to increase the number of joint workshops and seminars, with the fees for such joint events being set at levels that would be accommodating to the members of both organizations;
- Explore development of a joint campaign aimed at promoting the benefits and importance of recordkeeping, both short and long term, targeting such enterprises as corporate America, higher education, nonprofit and government organizations in North America;
- Explore working together to forge strategic alliances with other associations on a national and international level that have an interest in records, information management and documentary heritage matters;
- Encourage the publicizing of reports about activities of our respective organizations in the publications of the other organization;
- Encourage the Joint Committee to conduct a formal review of progress on this Statement annually.
—Approved by Council, April 2003
