Council Minutes
February 12-14, 1999
Sutton Place Hotel
Vancouver, British Columbia
Friday, February 12, 1999
President Duranti called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. Friday, February
12, 1999. Present were Vice President Thomas Hickerson, Treasurer Robert Sink,
and Council members Valerie Browne, Fynnette Eaton, Anne Gilliland-Swetland,
Dennis Harrison, Peter Hirtle, Karen Jefferson, Jane Kenamore, Helen Tibbo
and Wilda Logan Willis. Also present were Executive Director Susan Fox and
Meetings Director Debra Mills.
Adoption of the Agenda
Hirtle moved and Eaton seconded the motion to adopt the agenda as amended.
PASSED.
Report of the Executive Committee
Hirtle reported on electronic votes by Council held between meetings. Council
supported issuing a statement in support of a brief filed to open records of
grand jury testimony in the Alger Hiss case; Council authorized Steve Hensen
to submit an application to the Delmas Foundation to bring together the three
major descriptive standards, ISAD(G), EAD, and RAD. This summer Hensen would
submit an NEH proposal on SAA's behalf to fund a standards officer in the Chicago
office. In addition, the Executive Committee approved an application to NCLIS
requesting support for SAA participation in international archival activities,
and a letter to the Library of Congress Copyright Office addressing distance
education issues relating to copyright. Hickerson commended Hirtle for the
speed and the articulate nature of his response to the Library of Congress.
Eaton moved and Harrison seconded the motion to accept Executive Committee
and Council actions between meetings. PASSED.
Report of the President
Duranti said she had no report.
Report of the Vice President
Hickerson said he had appointed the 2000 Program Committee, with Jackie Dooley
as Chair and the 2000 Host Committee with Steven Fisher and Joan Howard as
Co-Chairs. Debra Skaggs agreed to chair the Appointments Committee.
Report of the Treasurer
Sink reviewed SAA's reserve policy in which Council mandated a reserve of at
least six months' operating expenses. The Society currently had 21 of the 26
mandated weeks in reserve. He said the mandate also stipulated that SAA set
aside 3% of its annual budget to build the reserve (although some Council members
had questioned whether the Society really needed six months or not and whether
Council should consider a shorter time span). Sink said he planned to convene
an email list of three past treasurers to discuss reserve fund policies and
he would present those recommendations at the summer Council meeting.
Sink reviewed the FY99 budget as of 12/31/98. He said that most budget categories
should be around the 50% mark, as SAA was halfway through its fiscal year.
Some categories, however, were frontloaded, particularly the annual meeting.
He reviewed each category in detail. He said projections indicated SAA would
conclude the fiscal year with a deficit of approximately $7,000 due mainly
to decreased annual meeting attendance in Orlando. He emphasized that since
the Society was under a mandate to maintain a budgeted reserve fund, which
was not placed in the current budget, in reality the projected deficit should
be between $28,000 - $30,000. The projected $7,000 deficit did not adequately
reflect the Society's financial situation. Nonetheless, he proposed that SAA
cover the deficit from return on investments.
Hickerson questioned why the reserve contribution was not met in prior years.
Sink said that was not done because the Society did not have the funds to do
so. He said that some Council members also felt that six months reserve was
excessive and the general sense was that since the Society had 21 weeks' reserve
it was better not to show the organization in a deficit. Hickerson said that
was misleading in terms of fiscal responsibility, which in fact the Society
was not where it was two years ago. He said membership expressed a desire for
a fuller explanation of the budget at the annual business meeting. He was concerned
that members receive a very accurate picture and not to present otherwise.
He recommended striking a full balance of disclosure between membership and
among Council. Hirtle questioned whether or not Council should consider at
least adding an inflationary increase to the reserve fund. Sink said the inflation
rate was extremely small.
Sink then went on to review the FY98 auditor's report. After general discussion
and explanation of specifics in the report, Council began preparations for
a conference call with the Deputy Archivist of the U.S., Lewis Bellardo.
Conference Call with Deputy Archivist Lewis Bellardo
Council introduced themselves to Bellardo and Duranti thanked him for his
time. Bellardo gave a report, followed by a question and answer session with
Council. Bellardo said that NARA continued to address electronic records issues
and was working with a number of agencies to see what kind of questions they
wanted NARA to address. He said they were also looking to colleagues outside
of government for comment. NARA was working with the Department of Defense
(DOD), not in a regulatory sense, but to begin to move forward on electronic
records issues and to try to develop technical capabilities. He said NARA endorsed
DOD's requirement document (which DOD referred to as a standard) with some
caveats for other agencies to consider.
The GRS20 issue continues to unfold. He said that NARA promulgated a series
of GRS administrative files that exist across government. Not all, but many
went through public comment and NARA met with Mike Tankersley of Public Citizen
to come up with a better set of instructions. At some point in the next several
months NARA would be issuing an IT schedule for public comment within IT departments.
The Electronic Records Working Group (ERWG) had recommended that NARA rethink
the schedule, the agency did that, and now the schedule was in an internal
NARA review stage. He said he hoped to get the schedule out for Chief Information
Officer (CIO) council members to look at informally in order to determine whether
that would represent how they do the work in their departments. The next phase
would be to issue a bulletin to begin internal discussions within government.
Once that happens a major process takes place. The bulletin issued in March
would address how agencies should schedule their electronic records, with the
assumption that the court would support that approach. The next move would
be to move forward out from under court jurisdiction. It wouldn't be immediate,
but Bellardo was optimistic that would be the case. NARA had not received a
verdict from the court of appeals but NARA wanted to move forward with the
bulletin in any case.
Bellardo expected by the end of the fiscal year NARA would have a more aggressive
records management program working to help solve record management problems.
When NARA gained independence it gave up record management responsibilities
and had not been able to give agencies the support they needed. At this point
NARA was starting some pilot programs and hoped that if they were successful
they could be expanded in the following year.
Bellardo reported that plans were going forward for Archives I. NARA received
funding for design work and some work was also going forward for design work
in Alaska, with space being the major initiative. They were in the process
of developing some standards that would have to be promulgated before the reimbursable
records program went into effect in October. This would address how records
center regulations would look. He said there would be a meeting with representatives
of the industry, people NARA would be competing with but would be responsible
for regulating. Following that meeting NARA would issue a regulation which
would be open for public comment then the final regulation would be issued
before the reimbursable program would go into effect.
At this point Bellardo opened the discussion for question and answer. Duranti
noted that he did not mention the issue of education, which was looming large
in current Council discussions. She asked if he would give a report on NARA's
review of its internal training program.
Bellardo said they had been reviewing the program. This year's goals and
objectives were to study the issues and to gather input from others. He said
it was not easy to move forward, but he was aware of the concerns and interests
of the archival community and the historical community. Those concerns were
not congruent. He said he would like to see an archives and records specialty
that would allow NARA to draw upon skills of technology, library and archival
education backgrounds more broadly than in the past. The inside training program
needed to be rethought as well.
Hirtle said he heard rumors that NARA was starting to rethink the definition
of an archivist specifically that NARA was thinking about revising the F14
manual, both issues of great interest to SAA. He asked Bellardo if there was
any truth to the rumors and if so if SAA could participate in the dialogue.
Bellardo said it was still too early to know whether or not NARA would revise
the classification. If they did, it would directly involve the agency with
the Office of Personnel Management and therefore would not be a quick process.
In any case he said SAA would be consulted. He welcomed a formal position statement
articulating what skills and attributes qualify an archivist. He also welcomed
individual feedback on the issue.
Hirtle said that the issue of a formal definition of an archivist was an
ongoing part of Council discussions. He suggested that NARA also involve SAA's
CEPD in a formal way, especially if NARA had to go to OPM to have the definition
changed. SAA could help NARA by lobbying on the issue. He saw two tracks that
needed attention and that both organizations should think of developing ways
for NARA and CEPD to engage in discussions. Duranti noted that Ken Thibodeau
was serving as CEPD Co-Chair this year and would be a good NARA liaison. Bellardo
reiterated that there were other perspectives from the historical and political
science communities, and possibly from the library community.
Duranti addressed other educational issues. She said Council concluded that
changes in the profession were such and so rapid that in order to provide support
for SAA members confronted by them more research support was needed. She said
Gilliland-Swetland had reflected on the fact that the profession was not thinking
about its own work, concepts, and principles. She believed that NARA should
encourage the profession to do more reflecting. One example would be for NHPRC
to fund doctoral and academic research. The profession needs deep research
which comes from PhD students and academia. She asked Bellardo for his thoughts
on the issue.
Bellardo said he couldn't speak for NHPRC because it is an independent entity
apart from NARA. He understood that NHPRC had funded research projects in the
archival world. He noted that what he heard Duranti articulate was funding
for individuals. It would certainly be a question for the Commission, whether
their authority covers grants to individuals. He would need to conduct some
follow-up on the issue.
Duranti asked if it would be worthwhile for SAA to write a letter to NHPRC
Executive Director Anne Newhall. Bellardo suggested SAA ask for NHPRC's current
policy and its latitude and copy the letter to John Carlin, in his role as
Chair of NHPRC. He said authority to support individual research might be there,
but there might be statutory limitations on how the funds would be allocated.
He said the letter should include how significant SAA would think this research
support would be for the profession.
Hirtle remarked that he hadn't heard Bellardo mention the NARA budget, but
it looked good for the new fiscal year. He said SAA was ready to support NARA
appropriations when needed.
Bellardo said there would be a time when members of the Appropriations Committee
would want to hear from constituents and SAA insights will be of particular
use to them. He said he would be eager to share information with SAA as they
learn it.
Hirtle said he heard Bellardo say that some items would be published in the
Federal Register for comment. One thing SAA discovered this year was that no
one had time to peruse the Federal Register on a regular basis. Could NARA
notify the Chicago office on a regular basis?
Bellardo said even he did not read the Federal Register on a daily basis.
He said the NARA website would be amended with a hot link that will take citizens
to an online version of the register. He would also see to it that notification
of this would be placed on the Archives and Archivists list-serv.
Hirtle noted that Bellardo did not mention declassification issues. He said
Bellardo may have seen that SAA joined a lawsuit to open access to Alger Hiss
grand jury testimony.
Bellardo said that in terms of declassification the big issue of concern
was the proposed Kyl amendment which would have significantly slowed the declassification
process. He thought that the plan basically called for in that bill in its
current incarnation was unworkable. It would depend on how DOE did its review
work. With help from SAA and others, NARA managed to ameliorate the most negative
aspects of the bill while it was in congress, along with help from the administration.
A new version of the Moynihan bill, which may or may not move, may receive
sympathetic treatment due to his impending retirement. However, SAA would need
to be aware of the very real probability that there would be other "Kyl
amendments." There may be a situation where an "apple pie" declassification
bill would be paired with Draconian "close-it-down" legislation coming
out of the Intelligence and Government Oversight Committees. The intelligence
communities -- at least some of the agencies -- are not happy with the draft
of the Moynihan bill. It is making progress, but NARA would have to see how
the Kyl amendment plan would damage efforts to keep records open. It will depend
on how DOE in practice implements it.
Hirtle said SAA was aware of a proposal to establish an Assassination Review
Board within NARA. Council was reluctant to endorse it without first talking
with NARA, especially the suggestion that NARA create another public board.
Bellardo said if that's the direction they wanted to go that board would
have more clout than directly assigning the function to NARA. NARA currently
had authority to direct agencies to turn over records of value more than 30
years old. If they continue to have value agencies can hold onto them but would
need to submit a written statement that they needed them.
Hickerson asked Bellardo what role he would see such a body play.
Bellardo said in the abstract it would be a board which stood outside of
government. He noted that on the other side some people had said there was
a need for many JFK review boards. He said what came out of the initial JFK
Assassination Review Board was an artificial set of documents. From an archival
standpoint he would not want that to happen, as opposed to an organic set of
records.
Hirtle brought up the Coble bill which was intended to provide quasi-copyright
protection for public domain information. Council was now looking at the archival
implications of the bill and SAA may take a position. It would be interesting
to have the perspective of NARA lawyers on this issue. Could Bellardo recommend
someone?
Bellardo said he would ask someone to track the bill and look at its implications.
He said he'd share what he learned, specifically for federal records and the
federal government.
There being no more questions, Duranti again thanked Bellardo for his time
and ended the call.
Council returned to the Treasurer's report. Sink introduced the auditor's
management letter and addressed each of the items therein. Sink moved acceptance
of the FY98 auditor's report. Kenamore seconded. PASSED.
Report of the Executive Director
Fox gave an update on the development of an on-line course addressing electronic
records. Gilliland-Swetland commended the course, especially because it made
good use of SAA publications, it was well conceived, and it would reach a much
broader audience through an excellent use of SAA resources. Her only caution
was that there was possibly too much reading and the time frame may be too
short. She said the learning outcomes would have to be evaluated separately.
Fox reported that she received a resignation notice from Joan Sander to become
effective at the close of business March 12, 1999. She said that she would
bring on a temporary person to fill the position at least through June. This
was, however, an opportunity for Council to rethink the Society's continuing
education program and service delivery. Council agreed to take up the issue
again at the June Council meeting and requested Fox to develop scenarios addressing
alternative configurations of the continuing education program and their fiscal
impact.
Fox directed Council to Teresa Brinati's update on activities of the Publications
Office. Brinati reported on the status of the new design of the Archival
Outlook as contained in the July/August issue. The first semiannual issue
of the American Archivist appeared with the Winter/Spring 1998 edition.
This too featured a new design. She forecast the journal would be back on schedule
sometime in late spring.
Brinati also reported on a Publications Board Summit which took place in
November, convening the Publications Board Chair, the Publications Editor,
herself and the Executive Director. She said an "advanced topic series" is
taking shape which may potentially include six titles addressing ethics, privacy
and confidentiality, law, licensing, copyright and architectural records.
The Publications Editor and the Publications Director met with their respective
counterparts at ARMA headquarters to discuss a joint publication of Records
Management/Archival Forms Manual with the goal of making it available
sometime in 2000. In addition, SAA produced two new books and acquired 17 new
publications for distribution.
Fox reported that installation of the new association management software
was proceeding well, although there were inevitable issues that needed resolution
before the system could be considered fully functional. She praised the staff
for their patience, persistence and hard work in implementing the new software.
Fox reported that, with unanimously favorable reviews from members, she reappointed
both Philip Eppard as Editor of the American Archivist and David Haury
as Publications Editor. Both terms would be extended to the year 2002.
Fox said that the website upgrade was taking a little longer than expected
due in part to the diversion of attention to the software transition, but that
she expected the upgrade to be complete by June 30, 1999.
Report of Council Committees
Eaton reported that Nick Burckel, Chair of the Committee on the Selection of
SAA Fellows asked that Council move up the nomination process of SAA Fellows.
Eaton then moved that Council choose members to the Committee to Select SAA
Fellows to the Winter from the Summer meeting. Harrison seconded. Passed.
Eaton said that a subcommittee consisting of herself, Kenamore, and Browne
would draft a procedure address the Committee on SAA Fellows nomination process.
Gilliland-Swetland reported that the Ethics Committee drafted procedures
for handling ethics complaints. She said their approach followed that of the
Association of Canadian Archivists which handled ethical issues in the role
of wise counsel rather than through a procedural action. The Ethics Committee
met at the annual meeting and came up with the draft and now asked for Council
feedback on whether or not it felt this was the direction it wanted the committee
to move.
Council was amenable to the committee's approach. Hirtle said that once the
procedure was finalized it would be important to post it to the web on the
Code of Ethics page.
Gilliland-Swetland said CEPD submitted a report to Duranti. Duranti said
that the committee had a specific plan with three initiatives, workshops, revising
the M.A.S. Guidelines, and providing coordination and collaboration within
SAA.
Gilliland-Swetland said she received an email from Tim Ericson in his role
of Chair of the 1999 Program Committee. The Pittsburgh meeting would have a
total of 55 sessions including three plenary sessions. The Committee deliberately
decided to reduce the number of sessions in order to eliminate the large number
of concurrent sessions. The meeting would also have several non-archivists
speaking and approximately 20 non-American participants.
Hirtle presented the petition to form an International Affairs Roundtable
and moved acceptance of the petition. Harrison seconded. Passed. Harrison agreed
to serve as liaison to the roundtable.
Eaton reported on the Task Force on the Annual Meeting. Ericson apologized
for lack of a final report, due to a minor car accident. Bill Wallach was collating
responses from an email survey on the annual meeting conducted by the task
force and the draft final report was in the process of being vetted among task
force members. Eaton would present the final report on the Council listserv
at a later date.
Jefferson presented the final report from the Task Force on Diversity. The
report contained three recommendations: 1) that efforts in diversity are tied
into the strategic plan and spread out among all Society activities; 2) the
establishment of a Committee on Diversity to monitor diversity goals; 3) SAA
issue a position statement on diversity. Hirtle moved and Browne seconded acceptance
of the final report from the Task Force on Diversity. Passed.
Council engaged in a discussion of the report, including how to monitor progress.
Hickerson noted that the Appointments Committee should be made aware of the
diversity issues and address those issues during the appointments process.
Jefferson said she would post a draft position statement on diversity to
the Council listserv along with the task force identified objectives in order
to determine which could be addressed. Hirtle suggested that she just post
the position statement and save the task force recommendations for the summer
meeting. Jefferson agreed.
Tibbo presented the Publications Board report from its Chair, Greg Hunter.
She noted the chronic challenge of the board to get authors to meet deadlines
in a timely manner.
Hickerson suggested the Publications Board may want to develop a reader that
addressed documentation issues of diverse cultural groups, "Documenting
Under Documented Groups."
Browne reviewed the status of SAA's representation and the minimal funding
available to support representative activities outside those addressed by the
Executive Director.
Kenamore presented a request from the SAA-ARMA Joint Committee requesting
support for SAA members to attend the committee meeting in Kansas City. Fox
said that normally she would not bring this to Council due to the low amount
requested, but since it was a deficit year she felt the need to be cautious
about all expenditures. After discussion the sense of Council was to give the
Joint Committee $500 in support of their work.
Old Business
Hirtle reported that SAA submitted a letter of comment to the Library of
Congress Copyright Office addressing distance education and copyright.
Hirtle reported on the issuance of a second version of AMIA rules for cataloging
archival moving image material. He said their use of the term "archival" was
incorrect. However, his practical side said there was little to be gained by
pursuing them to use another term.
Fox presented a letter from Chris Courtwright requesting that SAA support
legislation establishing a JFK Assassination Review Board within NARA. Hirtle
recommended that SAA not become involved unless and until there was a concrete
legislative proposal.
Hirtle gave an update on medical privacy legislation. He said he was going
to get a proposal from the Science, Technology & Healthcare and from the
Privacy & Confidentiality Roundtables.
Proposal to Reorganize Council
Tibbo gave background to the initiative to reorganize Council. She said it
was inefficient for Council to keep track of more than 80 units when some deserve
more attention than others. At the annual meeting Council members often end
up devoting five minutes or less per unit meeting. This practice has not made
the most effective use of Council time nor was it a useful way to transmit
information.
She proposed that Council agree to disband the three subcommittees and resurrect
three different subcommittees: education/standards, programs/publications,
and a committee on representation. Council discussed this proposal and feedback
obtained from the Leadership Luncheon on whether or not all units should have
a Council liaison. Feedback was mixed.
Hirtle brought forth a counterproposal. He suggested having Council as a
committee of the whole serve as liaison to Sections and Roundtables. Since
most if not all Council members also belong to certain Sections and Roundtables,
the arrangement would allow for Council members to represent those groups they
would attend in any case.
Hickerson said that the Council representative to the Executive Committee
would be the person responsible for coordinating the allocation of Section
and Roundtable liaison assignments to Council members, keeping the assignments
in close alignment with individual interest.
Hirtle said that instead of having Council liaisons to Society Representatives,
the Executive Director would be charged with soliciting the reports, then Council
as a Committee of the whole could receive the reports.
In sum, Hirtle proposed two subcommittees for Council: a committee on education
and standards, and a committee on programs and publications. Each of the two
committees would have four Council members. The Council representative to the
Executive Committee would be excused from service on either committee.
Hirtle moved to abolish the Council Committee on Sections and Roundtables
and to reassign responsibility to Council as a Committee of the whole. Sink
seconded. Passed.
Hirtle moved to abolish the Council Committee on Boards and Representatives.
Kenamore seconded. Passed.
Hirtle moved to abolish the Council Committee on Committees and have the
Council representative to the Executive Committee assign liaisons for the committees
to individual Council members. Eaton seconded. Passed.
Hirtle moved the Council Executive Committee member be exempt from serving
as a liaison. Eaton seconded. Passed.
Council agreed that the new assignments will be completed by the 2000 Council
representative to the Executive Committee.
Duranti introduced a letter from the Society of Southwest Archivists inquiring
if SAA would be amendable to designating October National Archives Month. The
sense of Council was that SAA is amenable.
Fox said that Teresa Brinati had recently completed 10 years of service to
SAA and that Bernice Brack would complete 20 years of service in June. Given
their exemplary loyalty and service to the Society, she request that Council
issue citations recognizing their contributions.
Hickerson moved and Kenamore seconded the motion that Council award statements
of recognition to Brinati and Brack for their lengthy, exemplary service to
the Society. Passed.
Fox said that Council needed to appoint an ad hoc subcommittee to oversee
the Archives and Archivists listserv. Hirtle, Tibbo, and Eaton agreed to do
so.
Fox said she had received a request from Rob Spindler of Arizona State University
to have SAA participate in sponsoring an electronic records conference to be
held at the university. Due to technical difficulties, she was unable to access
the material and said she would share it on the Council listserv.
The meeting adjourned at 5:01 p.m.
Saturday, February 13
Duranti called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.
Sink presented the Task Force on Dues and Member Benefits final report. He
summarized the process that when into creating the report and noted that all
task force members came to agreement on the recommendations therein.
He said that dues represent an important part of the SAA budget, at 34% dues
are the largest revenue stream. The Task Force felt that it did not have a
lot of information about what members really valued and whether or not there
were areas of benefits that members did not want. The Task Force requested
and received permission to commission a professionally administered membership
survey. It was an expensive undertaking, but it gave useful data that will
guide SAA over time and can be supplemented in the future for less cost.
The Task Force was charged to examine new options for dues. It rejected the
notion of a flat dues rate because such a structure would be untenable because
a sharp dues increase in the lower income categories would result in an unacceptable
loss of members in those tiers. The Task Force did agree that the present income
gradation for dues assessment should continue.
The member survey revealed that benefits were fairly evenly valued. No clear
winners or losers emerged. Members wanted to cut back on those benefits such
as student chapters, the mentoring program, roundtables, and future surveys.
As a result, the Task Force decided that a cafeteria approach to member services
would not offer great benefit.
The Task Force recommended that the student rate not be changed and that
the students be given a third year at that rate. The Task Force also recommended
that
a bridge rate equivalent to the student rate be offered for archivists who
have graduated but have not yet obtained a job and for contract archivists
between jobs.
The Task Force recommended a dues increase of 7%. Sink personally believed
that for the Society to just stay even an additional $34,000 would be advisable,
which is what is what SAA needs to add each year to the reserve fund, but which
currently is not.
Council engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of dues categories and debated
whether or not to eliminate the lowest one. Hirtle recommended indexing the
categories to reflect annual cost of living increases. Gilliland-Swetland suggested
increasing the student rate to four years in order to accommodate PhD students.
She proposed creating a new dues category for those earning $70,000 and above.
Sink noted that the Society was also pursuing an institutional category to
accommodate large national institutions such as NARA.
Sink said it was necessary to consider a worst case scenario. Based on the
1994 dues increase, SAA lost 2-3% of its members in the lowest categories.
The middle categories stayed the same and the upper categories increased. With
the current proposed increase we should consider the impact if SAA would lose
6% of the lower category members, 3% of those in categories 3 and 4, and 2%
in categories 5 and 6. If those losses are realized, he calculated that the
net increase would be around $14,000.
Hirtle moved and Harrison seconded the motion to accept the recommendation
of the Task Force on Dues and Member Benefits to bring to the annual business
meeting a recommendation of increasing dues by 7% in all income categories.
PASSED
Hickerson moved and Tibbo seconded the motion that Council bring a proposal
to the annual business meeting to institute a Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase
in dues every other year for the next six years. PASSED.
Hirtle presented the Task Force recommendation that SAA Sections and Roundtables
are converted into units with no distinction between the two. A second recommendation
on the table was to set up a cafeteria plan to select from a fixed number of
special interest groups on the membership form. If a special interest group
did not meet a requisite number of members it would no longer be formally affiliated
with SAA.
Council engaged in discussion of the proposal, concluding that more information
was needed before making such a move and opting to retain the current structure.
Sink moved and Harrison seconded adoption of the Task Force recommendations
for a bridge rate. PASSED, with Jefferson opposed.
Sink moved and Harrison seconded the motion that Council adopt a category
of "major archival employers" as an institutional member and allow
the Executive Committee to negotiate the dues rate on behalf of the employer
or the employees for that category and then return to Council with a recommendation.
PASSED.
Hirtle moved and Eaton seconded the motion that the 7% dues increase approved
by Council earlier in the day should not apply to students, with the effect
that student dues rates remain as they are. PASSED.
Hirtle moved and Eaton seconded the motion to amend the constitution to read, "Individual
student membership shall be open to students in degree-conferring programs." PASSED.
Gilliland-Swetland recommended that faculty members should sign off on the
student dues rates.
1999 and 2003 Annual Meetings
Mills gave a brief review of plans for the 1999 annual meeting in Pittsburgh.
She distributed the week's schedule for the 1999 annual meeting. She then presented
options for the 2003 meeting, with a focus on New York or Boston. Council asked
Mills to further investigate alternatives and present them at the summer meeting.
Committee to Select SAA Fellows
Browne recommended that Council appoint Fran Blouin, Waverly Lowell and Paul
Chestnut to the Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows. Browne also recommended
two alternates if one more of the three could not serve.
Eaton moved and Browne seconded the motion to accept the suggested slate
from the Council subcommittee for members to serve on the 1998-1999 Committee
on the Selection of SAA Fellows. PASSED.
Chicago Office
Sink summarized the recommendation of the Task Force on Dues and Member Benefits
that Council, working with the Executive Director, commission a group to review
the SAA office service and functions. The review would be completed prior to
the 1999 SAA Annual Meeting.
Duranti said the idea originated in the September Council meeting. She said
it was necessary for SAA to become much more creative and to find more options
for delivering SAA services. An objective observer to examine office operations
could find alternative ways of doing things.
Fox said that while she appreciated the need to identify savings at every
opportunity, commissioning a group with members to examine office operations
would place Council on a slippery slope toward micro management. She appreciated
the need to run operations as efficiently as possible, which she saw as her
prime duty. She did not object to an examination by a group of peers, fellow
association executives, such as that offered by the American Society of Association
Executives. She researched that possibility but found at $10,000 it was too
expensive for SAA to consider. If affordable, such an assessment would indeed
be worthwhile.
Jefferson asked Council what were the savings they were trying to find. Given
the budget, she did not see much room to maneuver.
Hickerson reminded Council that a few years earlier it had conducted a full
scale study to ascertain what savings could be achieved by contracting with
an existing association management firm to outsource all Chicago office functions.
Council found outsourcing to be substantially more expensive than in-house
production.
Sink noted that at the time Council investigated into association management
firms staff salaries were exceptionally low, they have since come up to nonprofit
market rates.
Hirtle said the issue was what Council wanted to do with the education program.
He saw a need for big strategic thinking around the issue of whether SAA should
be involved with continuing education and, if so, is the Society doing it in
the right way? Are there ways a board would want to change? Council would then
instruct the Executive Director to implement the change.
Hickerson said if the Society could afford it, it would be ideal to have
an outside review every five years. At present he was wary of spending the
money required to do so. However, he was not sanguine about the current set
of cost/benefit ratios. On the education issue, he wouldn't mind looking at
it as a separate piece, perhaps have a subcommittee of Council take it up.
The subcommittee could determine the amount of staffing needed, the possibility
of reducing the number of offerings, and decide what is or is not acceptable
for continuing education. SAA may be putting too much money into running the
program. This was an issue Council could focus on.
Duranti thought June was too late to begin the process. She recommended that
Fox gather information on options for the continuing education program, post
it to the listserv, and begin debating via email. She said SAA needed to rethink
how it delivers continuing education. It was necessary to find grant money
to support some workshops, or corporate delivery. CEPD should take a position,
think of continuing education programming in creative terms.
Hickerson said that however the pie is sliced it will not represent significant
savings, $20,000 at most. SAA may well find it more expensive to outsource
the department. If addressed through grants then SAA would need every cent
of current expenditures to continue the programming before receiving the grant
funds, in the short term the program would be running in deficit.
Hickerson said Council needed to find someone to speak to them about identifying
prospects for raising money for associations. He saw a need for outside advice.
The possibilities for fund-raising were exciting, and could attract wider public
interest in the Society's central issues.
Kenamore cited statistics from the membership survey which reported 79% of
the respondents thought continuing education an important service. She said
SAA would have to make continuing education accessible to the entire membership
and would need to at least keep offering it at the annual meeting. Perhaps
the rest of the year could be outsourced.
Council directed Fox to investigate the details of outsourcing the education
director position and what it would cost to have an individual to advise Council
about fund-raising strategies and chances for success. Duranti also asked that
Fox send a letter to universities inquiring whether or not they would want
to assume a portion of SAA's continuing education program, engage in strategic
partnerships to extend continuing education opportunities across the country.
Duranti said she would instruct CEPD to examine the delivery and content of
the continuing education program in light of the changed circumstances.
Strategic Planning
Tibbo recommended that Council assign two members to each of the critical
areas identified at Planning Day. The group would then return in June with
a list of goals, objectives, measurables, timetables, and benchmarks for each
of those areas. The assignments were as follows: Education, Kenamore and Gilliland-Swetland;
Member Benefits, Harrison and Willis; Political Role, Eaton and Sink; Standards,
Hickerson and Hirtle; Dissemination of Publications, Duranti and Tibbo; External
Networking, Browne and Jefferson. Council members agreed that issues of leadership
and diversity would inform all six areas.
Duranti said that if Council came to agreement about the objectives could
then post to the web and announce on all lists. She asked that the Council
subcommittees think about which groups in SAA would be particularly interested
in their goals. Duranti said she and Hickerson would co-write the April Archival
Outlook column on strategic planning.
Sink read the to-do list.
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
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