Council Minutes
January 11-12, 2002
Washington Hilton & Towers
Washington, DC
President Steve Hensen called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m. Present:
Vice President Peter Hirtle, Treasurer Elizabeth Adkins, and Council members
Thomas Battle, Danna Bell-Russel, Tom Connors, Jackie Dooley, Mark Greene,
Becky Haglund-Tousey, David Haury, Richard Pearce-Moses; Megan Sniffin-Marinoff,
Executive Director Susan Fox, Meetings Director Debra Mills Nolan, and
guests John Carlin, Lori Lisowski, and Bruce Craig.
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
Hirtle moved and Tousey seconded adoption of the agenda as revised. PASSED.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Bell-Russel moved and Greene seconded approval of the minutes as revised.
PASSED.
DISCUSSION WITH JOHN CARLIN, ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES
Council engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with John Carlin and Lori
Lisowski. Topics discussed included issues surrounding presidential papers,
the NARA budget, priorities, and strategic plan, and NHPRC funding. Carlin
then entered into a question and answer session, discussing the ratio
of funding electronic records initiatives vs. state initiatives, the possibility
of exerting national leadership in the development of descriptive standards,
and the value of NARA institutional support for staff involvement in SAA
activities.
DISCUSSION WITH BRUCE CRAIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NATIONAL COALITION
FOR HISTORY
Immediately following John Carlin, Bruce Craig, Executive Director of
the National Coalition for History [previously known as the National Coordinating
Committee for the Promotion of History (NCC)], joined the meeting to give
an update on activities. Craig reiterated Carlin's report on the NARA
budget, which received excellent funding for FY02. Craig said Carlin was
good about negotiating with the Office of Management and Budget to negotiate
higher funding levels for NHPRC. He also discussed the status of NCH's
lawsuit regarding release of Reagan records and the Presidential Records
Act. The suit seeks to compel the National Archives to abide by the terms
of the 1978 PRA and to release to the public some 68,000 pages of records
of former President Ronald Reagan, that should have been released in January,
12 years after President Reagan left office. Hirtle noted SAA's involvement
in filing an Amicus Brief with the Supreme Court regarding Eldred v. Ashcroft
on copyright extension. He asked if historians were also interested in
the issue. Craig said that he posted an article on the brief in one of
his NCC reports, but the issue did not come up at the most recent NCH
meeting at the American Historical Association's annual meeting.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Greene reported on Council actions that took place between meetings.
On the issue of Bush's Presidential Records Executive Order, Council endorsed
Congressional testimony given by Anna Nelson, a letter to Rep. Stephen
Horn, and an op-ed written by Steve Hensen published in the Washington
Post. Council also agreed to enter into an amicus brief in the Eldred
v. Ashcroft case before the Supreme Court, endorse a response drafted
by the Electronic Records and Government Records Sections in response
to NARA's Advanced Notice on Proposed Rulemaking for electronic records,
and to endorse a metadata seminar organized by the Research Libraries
Group for SAA's annual meeting in Birmingham. Council also agreed to send
a letter to Colin Powell requesting that the U.S. add a representative
from the library, archival, or information science sector to the official
U.S. delegation to the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement
of Judgments in Commercial and Civil Cases. In particular, SAA was concerned
that the Hague Convention, as currently written, would abrogate rights
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) regarding public
use of copyrighted material.
In addition, the Executive Committee endorsed the Library of Congress'
Veterans History Project, UNESCO's initiative to protect and preserve
electronic cultural heritage material, and released funds to enable the
development of a web content management system.
Adkins moved formal approval of Council and Executive Committee actions.
Greene seconded. PASSED.
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
Hensen reported on progress with the NEH CUSTARD grant to reconcile existing
North American standards with ISAD(G). The group just held its second
meeting and the progress to date exceeded best expectations. The 2002
annual meeting planning was also progressing well. He said there would
be a reception at the Civil Rights Institute with a world famous gospel
quartet and another reception, "Blues, Brews and Barbeques,"
at the Sloss Furnace. He praised the work of Alden Monroe, Chair of the
Host Committee, and that of Kris Kiesling and Bill Landis, Program Committee
Co-Chairs, in developing a very strong program that would include three
plenary sessions.
When Hensen reported on his activities surrounding the Bush Executive
Order on Presidential Records, Pearce-Moses formally recognized the work
of Greene and Hensen in developing the Washington Post op-ed. Hensen said
it was a collaborative effort and that Connors also deserved high praise
for his work in facilitating placement of the piece in the Washington
Post.
Hensen also thanked Duke University for their support during his SAA
Presidential year. Pearce-Moses suggested that Duke would be an excellent
recipient of the Jameson Award and encouraged Council members to submit
Duke as an entry in the competition.
Hensen reported on his participation in meetings as a representative
from SAA. He attended the ICA CITRA meeting in Reykjavik, gave the plenary
address at the 30th anniversary meeting of New England Archivists, and
was recently elected to the board of the National Initiative for a Networked
Cultural Heritage (NINCH).
He said he appointed members to the Task Force on Electronic Publishing.
The task force had a very strong set of members and would hold its meeting
in early spring. The task force planned to submit a preliminary report
to Council for the summer meeting.
He said he planned to make an appointment of an SAA representative to
serve as liaison to the ALA Task Force on Accreditation. Bell-Russel urged
that whoever would be appointed should be either on or have served on
SAA's Committee on Education and Professional Development.
Hensen brought to Council attention a recently published ARL Action Agenda
for Special Collections. He saw the document as one of interest to archivists
and instructed Fox to distribute a link to the document via SAA's leadership
listserv.
He also appointed Lee Stout to an NHPRC group tasked with revising their
electronic records agenda.
REPORT OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
Hirtle reported that Michael Fox and Janice Ruth would serve as Co-Chairs
of the 2003 Program Committee, with Luke Swetland and Sue Hodson as Host
Committee Co-Chairs. One of his goals for the meeting was to increase
the number of vendors involved. He reminded Council that they had agreed
to serve as his Appointments Committee, and gave Council the assignment
of giving him information about their groups with suggestions or recommendations
about who should be appointed to fill vacancies. He said he would also
send an announcement to the SAA leadership list to encourage Sections
and Roundtables to think about who should be moving into other areas of
involvement. He asked that Council send him their responses by mid-February.
REPORT OF THE TREASURER
Adkins reviewed the FY02 budget versus actual revenue and expense. The
budget currently showed a healthy net gain, but she expected the year-end
net to be much closer to projection. Income from the annual meeting and
publications was higher than expected. Adkins noted that while Debra Nolan
had done a good job attracting donations from sponsors for receptions,
there had been an increasing trend toward more elaborate evening receptions
and SAA needed to keep costs down as far as possible. While SAA was slightly
behind in education revenues, she expected that this budget line would
meet projections by year-end. She complimented the Education Directors,
Patti O'Hara and Solveig DeSutter, for keeping costs in line. In the general
and administrative area, costs paralleled projections. She made special
note of the technology line item, which had expenses running below budget
due to outsourcing computer support costs to a programmer rather than
depending on the software vendor's expensive services.
Adkins introduced the auditors' FY02 report and recommended rejection
until they clarified accounting for lease payments. Council agreed. She
then introduced the audit management letter that recommended SAA clarify
its investment policy. Adkins said she would work with Fox and Carroll
Dendler on revisiting the policy and submitting an update at the next
Council meeting. She said she was pleased with how the Society's investments
held up under market pressure so she did not anticipate major changes
in the policy. She noted that the letter contained the fewest number of
management points in several years, a testimony to the quality of Dendler's
financial and administrative management.
The meeting then adjourned for the day.
JANUARY 12, 2002
Hensen called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Fox presented action plans as developed by the directors of the Meetings,
Publications, and Education departments. She said she had asked the directors
to include both a timeline and a budget for the plans in order to convey
the breadth and scope of vision in each of the programmatic areas. While
the Society did not have the resources to accomplish all that was described
in the plans, it did have some resources via the special funds to begin
work in some of the areas. She said that while she was introducing the
plans at this meeting, Council would discuss them in more detail at the
spring Planning Day.
Hirtle suggested that the education department compile a list of grant
application deadlines. Council also requested that the education directors
give a report analyzing the value of SAA's online course in electronic
records. Pearce-Moses recommended that the education office collaborate
with universities for online education, and suggested that a colleague
at the University of Illinois would be willing to come to the office and
discuss lessons learned.
Fox presented a draft education policy statement on product endorsement
for Council approval: This workshop uses [product name], kindly donated
by [manufacturer], as a tool to facilitate teaching the content of the
workshop. Use of [product name] does not constitute an endorsement of
this product."
Pearce-Moses moved and Greene seconded the motion to accept the policy.
PASSED.
Nolan discussed the 2005 annual meeting to be held in New Orleans and
said that the meeting would take place August 13-22 at the Hilton New
Orleans Riverside.
Fox concluded by reporting that the office technology system was finally
under control, due to the excellent work on the part of Carroll Dendler
to identify a consultant expert in the software system who charged a rate
far lower than that of the vendor.
NEW BUSINESS
Change in name of RLIN Users Roundtable
Dooley moved and Hirtle seconded the motion to change the name of the
RLIN Users Roundtable to the RLG Roundtable. PASSED.
Endorsement Request from Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable
Sniffin-Marinoff presented a resolution approved by the Science, Technology
and Health Care Roundtable regarding the International Union of History
and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS) taking the step of encouraging the preservation
of valuable paper and electronic records of modern science and making
them accessible for researchers. The Science Technology and Health Care
Roundtable requested that Council formally endorse the resolutions and
communicate that endorsement to the appropriate officers of IUHPS. Greene
moved and Tousey seconded Council endorsement. PASSED. Dooley encouraged
the Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable to put together an
action plan to market the resolution to scientific societies.
Endorsement Request from SAA/ARMA Joint Committee
Fox introduced a draft SAA/ARMA Joint Committee Statement of Joint Purpose
and Cooperation for Council endorsement. Bell-Russel moved to table endorsement
until a subcommittee of Council could revise some of the language in the
statement. Adkins seconded. PASSED.
Establishment of Fellows Steering Committee
Fox introduced a letter from Bill Joyce addressing concerns among SAA
Fellows that earlier fundraising initiatives may be falling by the wayside.
Fox suggested that Council establish a permanent Fellows Steering Committee
to help keep this and other Fellows initiatives on track. Greene moved
that the President appoint an ad hoc committee of Fellows that would develop
a steering committee and proposed agenda and structure for the steering
committee. Haury seconded. PASSED.
Donna Cutts Scholarship Fund
Fox requested Council approval of a second Colonial Dames Scholarship,
the Donna Cutts Scholarship Fund, as established and requested by the
Colonial Dames (Chapter III, Washington, D.C.). Greene so moved and Bell-Russel
seconded. PASSED.
SAA Student Benefits
Dooley introduced a list of existing SAA student benefits and requested
guidance on how to proceed with the issue of attracting and retaining
students within the Society. Council discussed existing benefits and potential
new benefits. Hirtle suggested that the Colonial Dames might want to sponsor
a student to the SAA annual meeting in place of subsidizing attendance
at the Modern Archives Institute.
Greene moved and Pearce-Moses seconded the motion that the Society provide
a means of recognizing student members at annual meetings, either through
a ribbon or some other form of identification. PASSED with Bell-Russel
against.
At the conclusion of the discussion Dooley said she would circulate the
list of benefits to the student chapters seeking their ideas and priorities
for new benefits.
Dooley then introduced a proposed schedule of visits to student chapters
by Council members. She saw the visits as a valuable means to discuss
membership benefits, evaluate student response to them, and solicit their
feedback. She suggested that SAA fund whatever travel costs would be necessary
to cover the visits since many, if not most, could be accomplished via
local visits. Council agreed to visit the chapters. Dooley said she would
prepare a report for the summer Council meeting and propose an agenda
of items to cover on each visit.
Hirtle moved that Elizabeth Adkins be appointed liaison to student chapters
for the remainder of her term, effective immediately. Tousey seconded.
PASSED.
Attracting Candidates for Vice President
Pearce-Moses reported on the difficulty encountered by the Nominating
Committee in attracting a full slate of candidates to the position of
Vice President. This situation was becoming chronic and needed Council
attention. He said several individuals expressed serious interest but
the timing was not right. Other reasons cited included lack of institutional
support (both financial and human resources) and over commitment to other
projects. He also noted the issue of individuals who agreed to run would
not run a second time if their candidacy proved unsuccessful. He said
he thought this would be a good issue for the Fellows. He saw a need to
communicate the sense that running for elected office should be part of
an individual's career track. Other ideas floated included instituting
a parliamentary approach of running a single candidate, who would serve
as Chairman of the Board. It appeared the perception was that the office
of President was mythologized as an enormous commitment when it was in
fact a matter of the amount of commitment a President wanted to make to
it. While he did not want to minimize the commitment necessary, he felt
it necessary to counter the perception that it was an all consuming task.
Council agreed that the issue needed to be addressed and asked Pearce-Moses,
as a start, to develop a list of presidential duties for the Nominating
Committee to share with potential candidates. Council also discussed the
tradition of appointing the person who received the top number of votes
as Nominating Committee chair.
Hirtle moved that the Nominating Committee guidelines be changed to remove
the phrase "by lot" and state that the President will appoint
the Chair from among the three elected members; deleting all text following
the phrase "by tradition." Battle seconded. PASSED.
Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct
Council discussed an issue raised before the Committee on Ethics and
Professional Conduct (CEPC). A member of the Society requested SAA to
mediate a dispute with an institution. In examining the case, Council
decided the chair of the committee should write a letter to the affected
parties informing them that SAA had been asked to mediate and to indicate
to them that the next step in the committee guidelines is to ascertain
whether or not both parties agree to mediation. Hensen said he was impressed
with the amount of work the committee had put into the case and said he
would write the committee thanking them for their efforts. Council asked
Fox to provide a set of URLs to SAA minutes discussing the development
of CEPC guidelines and asked that the issue of the guidelines be placed
on the planning day agenda.
Committee on Education and Professional Development Guidelines
for a Graduate Program in Archival Studies
Greene presented the final revision of the CEPD Guidelines for a Graduate
Program in Archival Studies. He remarked on the collegiality of the process
and said everyone on the committee was comfortable with the totality of
the emergent guidelines. Adkins moved approval of the guidelines. Bell-Russel
seconded. PASSED.
Hirtle asked about next steps. Would they be used for accreditation purposes
of programs to meet the guidelines? Greene said that the committee, by
the middle of the process, was aware of the ALA Task Force on Accreditation.
The guidelines were created to fall within that structure, but were nonetheless
freestanding.
Greene said much of the credit for the guidelines coming out as good
as they did was due to Rand Jimerson's chairmanship. It was a model committee
experience.
Liaison to the Association for Computing in the Humanities
Dooley moved and Greene seconded that SAA establish a liaison to the
Association for Computing in the Humanities. PASSED.
Committee to Select Fellows
Council voted by ballot that Bruce Bruemmer, Fynnette Eaton, and Rand
Jimerson be appointed to serve on the Committee to Select SAA Fellows.
SAA/ARMA Joint Committee Statement
Greene moved and Battle seconded the motion to endorse the SAA/ARMA Joint
Committee Statement of Joint Purpose and Cooperation as revised. PASSED.
Next Council Meeting
Council agreed to hold its next meeting May 30 – June 1.
Adkins read the to do list.
The meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
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