Council Minutes
May 30-June 1, 2002
Silversmith Crowne Plaza Hotel
Chicago, Illinois
President Steve Hensen called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. Present:
Vice President Peter Hirtle, Treasurer Elizabeth Adkins, and Council members
Danna Bell-Russel, Tom Connors, Jackie Dooley, Mark Greene, Becky Haglund-Tousey,
David Haury, Richard Pearce-Moses, Megan Sniffin-Marinoff. Thomas Battle
was absent due to illness. Also present were Executive Director Susan
Fox and Meetings Director Debra Nolan.
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
Hirtle moved and Bell-Russel seconded adoption of the agenda as amended.
PASSED.
APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY 2002 MINUTES
Greene moved and Adkins seconded approval of the January 2002 minutes
as amended. PASSED.
DISCUSSION WITH JOHN CARLIN, ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES
Council briefly discussed a range of issues via conference call with John
Carlin, Archivist of the United States. These issues included, among others,
the pending retirement of Ann Newhall, Executive Director of NHPRC; Hensen's
meeting at the White House with administration officials on the issue
of Bush's Executive Order on the Presidential Records Act; Web preservation
and electronic archives; and the NARA budget.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Greene reported on electronic votes taken by Council between meetings,
which were: Accepting the revised page from the auditor's report to more
clearly delineate lease expenses; approval of funding in support of the
Eldred case amicus; endorsement of an NCC letter to Mayor Bloomberg
on the matter of the Giuliani mayoral records; endorsement of Tom Connors
statement to the New York City Council on the Giuliani papers; endorsement
of the New York City Archives Roundtable statement on the Giuliani papers;
and agreement not to register an opinion in the Catalonian archives debate.
Adkins moved approval, Tousey seconded. PASSED.
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
Hensen reported on Executive Order 13233 and HR 4187. He participated
in a number of media related events. He interviewed with the Bill Moyers
Now program on PBS, but that segment landed on the cutting room floor,
preempted by Rep. Burton's statement. He was invited to appear on
the Lehrer News Hour, but a snowstorm prevented travel to the broadcast
studio. He was, however, interviewed by Nina Totenberg on NPR. Morning
Edition devoted 16 minutes on two consecutive days of excellent coverage.
He most recently met at the White House with Judge Gonzales and others.
In general it was a positive meeting. Hensen expressed hope that SAA would
continue this level of advocacy.
He reported on the CUSTARD (Canada-US Task Force on Archival Description)
April meeting in Washington, DC. The group was convened in order to support
the process of reconciling the two principal North American standards
for archival description with each other and with a broader international
standard. It would probably not be until this time next year for the release
of what was tentatively called "Describing Archives: A Content Standard."
It would also be published in French and would have a stronger theoretical
basis than APPM. The expectation was that this would lay the foundation
for a truly international content standard. It would give archivists a
way to organize description of records in a consistent and logical way.
Selection of Jean Dryden to serve as Editor was exactly the right choice.
Hensen then gave an update on the work of the ad hoc Fellows Steering
Committee, chaired by Bill Joyce. The Committee would develop a proposed
structure to present at the August Council meeting.
He concluded by reporting he was recently elected to the NINCH board of
directors for a two-year term.
REPORT OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
Hirtle said he was not as far along on appointments as he would like due
to some unexpected work obligations. He did have the local arrangements
committee appointments made with Sue Hodson and Luke Swetland serving
as co-chairs. Alexandra Gressitt, a godsend as chair of the Awards Committee,
agreed to serve an additional year. He said he hoped to fill the other
appointments within two weeks.
The Eldred v. Ashcroft amicus turned out very well. He recently
learned the Justice Department asked for an extension until the end of
August to file their brief. Eldred would then have until the end of September
to respond to the Justice brief, but amici cannot. Hirtle suggested it
would be worthwhile to add two new members to the Intellectual Property
Working Group and suggested some possible names. Council agreed. Hirtle
said he would follow up.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Nolan reported on possible locations for the 2007 annual meeting. The
Fairmont Hotel in Chicago offered extremely competitive rates. Greene
moved and Bell-Russel seconded the motion to hold the 2007 annual meeting
in Chicago. PASSED.
Nolan also gave a Birmingham update, noting that people were signing
up on the Web and signing up for tours early, a good sign. Also, the exhibitor
spaces were nearly filled.
ELECTION OF COUNCIL MEMBER TO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Council members elected by ballot Tom Connors to serve on the 2002-2003
executive committee, commencing at the close of the 2002 annual meeting.
Dooley and Battle would serve on the 2002 Nominating Committee.
REPORT OF THE TREASURER
Adkins reported that the Society experienced a better than expected fiscal
year 2002, and projected a net gain of nearly $34,000 against an originally
budgeted net gain of $11,000. The favorable result could be attributed
to a better than expected attendance at the Washington, D.C. meeting,
more robust publication sales, and a slight increase in new members. The
education program did less than expected, largely as a result of multiple
workshop cancellations post September 11.
Adkins presented the fiscal year 2003 budget, which projected 900 attendees
for the Birmingham meeting, a 21% drop in revenues from budgeted 2002
revenues, placing a strain on the rest of the budget. The budget did,
however, project a slight increase in publications and education revenues
and a cut in general and administrative expenses, to help make up for
some of the revenue shortfall. In spite of these pressures, the FY03 budget
projected a net gain of $2,800.
SURVEY FUNDS
Adkins then discussed means to fund the surveys contained in the Membership
Marketing Action Plan for year one as presented and discussed on Planning
Day and at the Winter Council meeting. She proposed that of the projected
$34,000 net gain for fiscal year 2002, Council reduce that amount approximately
$10,000 through early payment of maintenance contracts and dues normally
paid in fiscal year 2003. This early payment would provide an additional
$10,000 in the FY03 budget. By taking this amount and creating a new Surveys
line item in the operating budget, SAA could budget for periodic membership
and salary surveys, instead of relying on the special funds.
To accommodate the cost of surveys for the coming fiscal year, Adkins
proposed that Council establish a balance of $42,000 in the Surveys line
item from the following sources: $20,000 from the FY2002 surplus, $10,000
from the FY2003 budget, and $12,000 from contributions of $4,000 each
from the Norton, Education, and Publications funds.
Greene moved to approve the membership budget for year one of the marketing
plan. Adkins seconded. PASSED with Hirtle in abstention.
ONLINE COURSE DEVELOPMENT FUNDS
Adkins moved approval of $20,000 from the Education Fund for development
of a Basic Electronic Records online course and $5,000 from the Education
Fund for development of content for an online course in Photographic Archives,
with the income from registration fees to be contributed back to the Education
Fund. Greene seconded.
Hirtle said he was opposed to the motion. Until the Committee on Education
and Professional Development issued its report on continuing education
Council did not have a full view of where continuing education fit within
the overall SAA agenda. He was operating on the assumption that continuing
education had to recoup its expenses. Without seeing a business plan for
the electronics records course that proved it could realize a profit,
he felt uncomfortable supporting a subsidy. The bigger question was whether
or not the Society wanted to fund continuing education on a continuing
basis. He did not have enough information to vote.
Connors said he supported investment in SAA's mission. The Society,
he said, was not a business and should not be expected to operate as such.
He was, however, concerned about the cost of development. He supported
taking a risk, but it would need to be well managed. He was especially
concerned that the Education Directors were stretched too thin and that
there had not been enough thought to class size, etc. The onus would be
on Fox to see that the online courses were managed correctly. The first
step of developing the courses would be to see if they were successful,
and to develop a shell that could be used in other online courses.
Pearce-Moses said he heard parts of a business plan in the directors'
presentation. In terms of "is it worth the investment?" the
Society needed to try it in order to find out.
Bell-Russel moved to table the motion until more concrete information
was developed and the Education Directors explored other options and issues
and developed a clear business plan of how the $20,000 would be invested.
Pearce-Moses seconded. Bell-Russel and Connors voted in favor. Greene,
Hirtle, Haury, Sniffin-Marinoff, Dooley and Hensen voted against. Pearce-Moses
and Tousey abstained. FAILED.
Council then voted on Adkins original motion. In favor: Greene, Haury,
Tousey, Sniffin-Marinoff, Dooley, Adkins, Pearce-Moses, Hensen. Opposed:
Hirtle. Abstain: Bell-Russel, Connors. PASSED.
DRAFT INVESTMENT POLICY
Adkins presented a draft investment policy and asked Council to review
the document for further discussion at the August meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
TASK FORCE ON ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING INTERIM REPORT
Haury presented the interim report from the Task Force on Electronic Publishing.
He said the subcommittee reports contained in the interim report had not
yet been fully vetted by the task force. He also cautioned that the rapidly
changing landscape in electronic publishing could well change again in
six to nine months. The report addressed critical services to members,
especially the newsletter and the journal, among others. The task force
recognized that SAA would not be able to implement all the recommendations
in the report, and that some of the recommendations may be too advanced
for the Society, either technically or economically. Some issues the task
force ended up addressing surprised them, such as aggregation and disaggregation
of content. The vision contained therein would take some time to implement,
but the task force looked forward to Council response and comment.
Hensen commended the task force on an astonishingly thorough job of addressing
just the right issues. He thanked task force Chair Rob Spindler and the
rest of the task force for its work.
Council echoed Hensen's commendation and provided Haury with advice
and comment for the task force to consider for its final report to Council
in August. Council asked that Fox post the interim report on the Web site
for member comment.
PROPOSED ICA SPA MEETING IN CHICAGO
Karen Benedict, SAA's representative to the International Council
on Archives Section on Professional Associations, had inquired whether
or not Council would support a meeting of SPA at the SAA offices in 2003.
Benedict indicated that she would handle the logistics of the meeting
and asked only that SAA provide the meeting site and a very modest reception.
Pearce-Moses moved that SAA host the ICA SPA meeting in Chicago in 2003.
Adkins seconded. PASSED.
ARCHIVES & ARCHIVISTS ADVISORY BOARD
Fox said Pearce-Moses would be rotating off Council's Archives &
Archivists discussion list advisory subcommittee thereby creating a vacancy.
Greene said the Executive Committee had discussed this vacancy and thought
that incoming Council member Elaine Engst would be a good replacement.
Adkins moved that Elaine Engst be assigned to serve on the Archives &
Archivists listserv subcommittee. Bell-Russel seconded. PASSED.
STUDENT CHAPTER APPLICATION
Greene moved approval of the Indiana University application to become
a student chapter of SAA. Hirtle seconded. PASSED.
MUSEUM ARCHIVES SECTION GUIDELINES
On behalf of Thomas Battle, absent due to illness, Greene presented the
Museum Archives Section Guidelines. The guidelines came to Council via
the Standards Committee, which vetted and approved the process. Based
largely on the College & University Section Guidelines, Greene said
it was a useful document, particularly in institutions where administrators
were inclined to appoint individuals without experience to archival functions.
Sniffin-Marinoff expressed concern over the assumption that a museum was
an independent entity, because many museums operated within the context
of another institution, such as in academia. She asked that the section
clarify that it was speaking for independent museums. Fox said she would
speak to the Section chair to obtain the revision.
DESIGNATED STUDENT PAPER SESSION AT SAA ANNUAL MEETINGS
Dooley reviewed discussion of a proposal to designate a permanent slot
for student paper presentations at SAA annuals meetings that originally
occurred on the Council listserv. Dooley said that Council, as a corporate
oversight body, had an obligation to provide an overarching view of what
was important to SAA and therefore to balance representation at annual
meetings. Students and student chapters needed a special place in the
program. A recent Program Committee inadvertently dropped student paper
sessions and by doing so exposed a need for a dedicated slot.
Greene supported the idea. He did not think that creating a permanent
place for student papers needed to be seen as a precedent that Council
was micromanaging the program, but instead that Council had previously
agreed that integrating students into SAA was a priority.
Hirtle said he would be more supportive of the proposal if it were a guideline
instead of a requirement. Sniffin-Marinoff said it was important to keep
in mind the academic year the difficulty of meeting submission deadlines
in early October.
Dooley moved that the guidelines for the program committee include a strong
recommendation that a session dedicated to papers presented by graduate
students in archival studies be on the annual program. The stated purpose
of this session will be to ensure the participation of students, for whom
it generally is not feasible to propose specific papers by the early autumn
annual deadline for student proposals, as well as to give conference attendees
access to the state-of-the-art work that is often accomplished by students.
Greene seconded. PASSED.
PRESERVATION SECTION
Connors presented a progress report from the Preservation Section, submitted
by Chair Diane Vogt-O'Connor.
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVAL AFFAIRS ROUNDTABLE
Connors presented a proposal from the International Archival Affairs Roundtable
requesting that SAA designate a part of the annual meeting budget to allow
for travel support of a foreign archivist to attend the meeting. The Roundtable
also requested that SAA provide funding for an international archivist
reception.
Greene recommended that Council request that the Roundtable better define
how it proposed to raise the funds. Greene also recommended that Council
discuss the issue of how SAA handles international receptions and the
many groups we want to target at the next Council meeting in August.
The meeting adjourned for the day at 5:40 pm.
SATURDAY, JUNE 1
ELECTRONIC VOTING PROTOCOL
Greene presented a redraft of the Guidelines for Use of the Council Listserv.
He said the redraft reflected the years of experience in using the list
since the guidelines were first instituted in 1997. He believed the process
could become less formal and cumbersome. In addition, there was an underlying
belief explicit in the guidelines that, because of the ability to confer
and make decisions via the list, it was right and proper that Council
make more decisions that previously were left to the Executive Committee.
Council deliberated on the pros and cons of discussions via electronic
means. Hensen asked that Greene and Hirtle revise the draft in consideration
of the discussion and present it again at the August Council meeting.
SAA COPYRIGHT POLICY
Hirtle reported that Lawrence Lessig had started a new group called the
Copyright Commons with the goal of convincing individuals and publishers
to turn over their copyright to the public domain or to assign their copyright
to public license 14 years after publication, respecting the original
term of the founding fathers. O'Reilly publishers had agreed to join
the Copyright Commons, which led him to wonder whether or not SAA should
follow this example. Fox said SAA needed a copyright policy. Although
the publications department negotiated copyrights on an individual basis,
an association wide policy did not exist. Hensen referred the issue to
the Intellectual Property Working Group with the inclusion of Teresa Brinati
and charged them to develop a draft policy by the August Council meeting.
OLD BUSINESS
REVIEW OF SAA REPRESENTATION
Council reviewed the organizations to which the Society had appointed
representatives and/or paid dues. Because it was the only regional to
which SAA belonged, and because there were many equally deserving regional
and local archival organizations, Haury moved that SAA drop membership
in the Midwest Archives Conference. Pearce-Moses seconded. PASSED.
Greene moved that SAA discontinue membership in Heritage Preservation
and the National Institute for Conservation. Adkins seconded. PASSED with
Connors opposed.
STUDENT BENEFITS
Dooley presented her survey of benefits conducted among SAA student chapters.
She noted that the SAA student chapter listserv was not an effective means
of distribution due to its low usage. Most, if not all, of the responses
received to date came from Council visits to student chapters.
She found students to be very positive about SAA during her chapter visits.
She discovered that the students needed a clearer understanding of what
is available to them. The value of the existence of student chapters was
that they gave students an identity as emerging archival professionals.
The chapter visits revealed the need for career help and job opportunities.
The career center at annual meetings emerged as one benefit of importance.
They also had practical concerns and their interest in SAA was very pragmatic.
She also learned that students are very interested in beginning their
continuing education while they were still in school, which revealed the
need to hold SAA workshops at graduate institutions. Students also expressed
a desire for more networking opportunities among themselves at the new
member breakfast and other venues at the annual meeting.
Greene agreed with Dooley's observations and said on his chapter
visit he discovered that career counseling, resume building, networking
and publishing were top concerns. He echoed Dooley's observation
of the desire for more time to network at annual meetings. He also said
students should have a seat at the table during discussions of graduate
education and continuing education guidelines. He said he was concerned
that the student chapter listserv was moribund – perhaps one way
to resurrect it would be for Council to begin participating as a further
way of permitting and encouraging students to get to know leaders of the
profession and to discuss archival questions. One idea might be to have
a monthly online chat to give students the opportunity to talk with a
member of Council.
Dooley said her conclusions from the survey were the need to raise awareness
of SAA benefits and services – perhaps through an annual mailing
– and the need to give the chapters clear goals. Chapter coordinators
had the greatest investment in SAA. Therefore, Council liaisons should
think about communication especially with that group.
Fox said she would begin posting student chapter reports on the Web site.
COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT GUIDELINES
Hensen introduced a letter from SAA's lawyer outlining the legal
implications of SAA's Ethics Guidelines, which were many.
Pearce-Moses said he supported the goal of an aspirational code and not
have the Society engaged in enforcement.
Hensen appreciated the lawyer's analysis of the problematic interpretation
within the Code of Ethics commentary. We are living in a litigious world.
Dooley observed that some of the substance of the code is in the commentary.
Hensen asked, given the lawyer's comments regarding SAA liability,
what are the next steps? He suggested removing the commentary from the
code immediately and, as part of the revision of the code, ascertain how
to work it back in. He also questioned whether there was a difference
between best practices and ethical standards, an area the lawyer did not
address.
Greene moved that, given the response by the attorney, Council suspend
implementation of the ethics procedures, pending a response from the Committee
on Ethics and Professional Conduct, to the suspension. Pearce-Moses seconded.
PASSED.
Fox said she would contact the lawyer to elicit more detail on which areas
of the commentary the lawyer found problematic and why.
SECOND COUNCIL MEETING IN AUGUST
Haury raised the issue of the second Council meeting held during the annual
meeting. He questioned its efficacy from a logistical point of view. The
second meeting, held late Saturday afternoon, often necessitated an additional
night's stay. Fox also observed that while this meeting originated
as a way to officially welcome new Council members, it also often resulted
in impaired decision-making due to exhaustion at the end of a very hectic
week.
Council agreed it would be better to welcome the new Council members during
an informal luncheon, where the orientation guidelines would also be reviewed
for their benefit.
ADOPTION OF THE FY03 BUDGET
Adkins moved adoption of the FY03 budget as amended on May 31 and June
1. Dooley seconded. PASSED.
Adkins read the To Do List.
The meeting adjourned at 2:31 pm.
Approved by Council August 20, 2002
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