August 22, 2003
Los Angeles, California
Attendees*:
Thomas Battle, Neil Bethke, William Buchman, Nancy Deromedi,
Philip Eppard, Rosemary Pleva Flynn, Pat Galloway, Kevin L. Glick, Tamar
Granovsky, Geof Huth, Valerie Komor, Cal Lee, Candace Loewen, William J.
Maher, Victoria McCargar, Mark Myers, Chad Owen, Richard Pearce-Moses,
Francesca Pino, Sarah Polirer, Tom Rosico, Tyler Selle, Mark Shelstad, Belinda
Urquiza, Susan von Salis, Eliot Wilczek.
(*not a complete list, includes only those who signed in)
1. Welcome
ERS
Section Chair Geof Huth (New York State Archives) welcomed attendees to Los
Angeles and opened the meeting.
2. SAA Council Liaison
Thomas Battle, the
current SAA Council Liaison to ERS, reported that the incoming liaison would be
Peter Wosh of New York University.
3. Online Forum Task Force
Christine Di Bella and Rose Roberto reviewed their report
on the survey on section communications.
They reported that members at last year’s meeting thought traffic on the E-RECS
listserv was too light and wondered what other communications options and
functionality might facilitate and improve section communication. They discussed
how they had publicized the survey and that they had received 123 response.
Their conclusions were that ERS members were most interested in using listservs
and email for communication while there was some evidence that message boards might become a more popular option in the future. They recommended that ERS
actively participate in SAA’s plan to host section message boards and that such
an ERS message board be treated as a supplement to the E-RECS listserv.
4. Election of Officers
Geof Huth announced that the section would be electing members to the following
positions:
- Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (1-year term as vice-chair + 1-year term as chair + 3-year term on steering
committee)
- Steering Committee member
(3-year term)
Patricia Galloway (University of Texas—Austin) and Kevin L. Glick (Yale University) were running
for vice-chair/chair-elect. Stephen J. Hussman (New Mexico State University
Library), Adam Jansen (Washington State Archives), and Mark J. Myers (Kentucky
Department for Libraries and Archives). Huth announced that Cal Lee (University
of Michigan) and Cheryl Stadel-Bevans (National Archives and Records
Administration), both former chairs of ERS, would be counting the votes.
5. Suggested Changes in the By-Laws
Huth reviewed the
suggested changes to the by-laws, which would make clear that the incoming
chair takes over at the end of the section’s annual meeting, expand the list of
leaders the chair could appoint, and make such appointees full members of the
steering committee. Pat Galloway suggested that the term of office was unclear
given the suggested change in wording, so the section discussed this and agreed
to add the phrase “during the Chair's term of service” to clarify this point.
Richard Pierce-Moses (Arizona State Library) suggested amending the sentence to
allow the Chair to appoint individuals to other positions if the need arises in
the future. However, Cal Lee suggested that that would allow too much leeway
for the Chair, and after discussion the section decided to make no further
changes to the wording. The section then voted on this amended change.
Previous Wording
2A. Chair. The Leader of the
section will be the Chair, who will serve for a term of one year beginning at
the Section Annual meeting. The Chair will lead all Section meetings and will
serve as the official representative of the section. The Chair may select
section members to serve as Newsletter Editor and Section Secretary. Upon
completion of the term as Chair, the outgoing chair will become a member of the
Steering committee for a term of three years.
Suggested Changes (in bold) and Additional Changes [in bold and bracketed]
2A. Chair. The Leader of the
section will be the Chair, who will serve for a term of one year beginning at
the end of the Section Annual meeting. The Chair will lead all Section meetings and will
serve as the official representative of the section. The Chair may appoint
section members to serve as Newsletter Editor, Section Secretary, Webmaster or Press Relations
Representative, and these members shall be full members of the Steering Committee [during the Chair's
term of service]. Upon completion of the term as Chair, the outgoing chair will become a member of the
Steering committee for a term of three years.
6. Policy for Posting to Website or Other ERS Forums
Jean Marie Deken reported that she
ran into a case where someone wanted to post information on the ERS website
that she thought was inappropriate, but she had no official guidance on what to
do in this case so she asked the section for advice and direction. Someone
suggested that we first contact Brian Doyle, the SAA webmaster, to see what
policies SAA has and to see if those were adequate. If not, they suggested that
a policy group draft a policy and work with Brian Doyle to incorporate these
into an SAA-wide policy document.
ACTION ITEM: Jennifer Jacobs, Rosemary Pleva Flynn, and Kevin Glick
volunteered to help Deken draft a policy about what is appropriate content to
post to the ERS website, the E-RECS list, the ERS newsletter, and other ERS forums.
7. Results of Voting
Cheryl Stadel-Bevans
reported that she and Cal Lee had checked and re-checked the votes since the
voting was quite close. Kevin Glick won the race for vice-chair/chair-elect,
Mark Myers won the vote for steering committee, and the amendment to the
by-laws passed.
ACTION ITEM:
The section must update its online list of officers and steering committee
members and must update its by-laws, giving 22 Aug 2003 as the date of revision
of the latter.
8. SAA Online Membership Directory
Cheryl Stadel-Bevans and
Nancy Deromedi reported on their involvement with the SAA online membership
directory. After last year’s meeting Stadel-Bevans and Deromedi agreed to
support SAA Council’s move towards developing this membership directory by
providing some advice on what fields and functionality to include in the
directory. They reported that they worked with SAA, particularly Brian Doyle,
the webmaster, on issues regarding the directory. Stadel-Bevans noted, however,
that SAA had some trouble complying with its own privacy policy concerning
information in the directory, and originally loaded information (such as home
addresses) that members had requested not be released. Geof Huth explained that
SAA says it has plans to increase the functionality of the membership directory
in the future and that it is now well aware of how it failed to adhere to its
privacy policy (which he noted is available on its website).
9. Online or Mail-In Voting for ERS Elections
Cal Lee reported that he was
charged with considering alternatives to the section’s voting procedures.
Currently, all voting is done in person at the section meeting, but often
section members cannot appear in person because they are not attending the
conference or have other conflicts during the meeting. Sarah Polirer suggested
that duplicate methods of voting (such as both in-person and mail-in ballots)
could work. Richard Pearce-Moses noted that the section would have to develop
general rules for voting overall, such as guidelines that would ensure everyone
would have only once chance to vote. Stadel-Bevans suggested that the section
consider whether everyone could even vote electronically (though she also noted
that members of the Electronic Records Section would probably all be able to).
Patricia Galloway noted that there were advantages to a paper ballot that we
should not overlook.
ACTION ITEM: Cal Lee will
poll members of the section to see what they think of electronic and other
alternative means of voting, and he will report back to the section next year.
10. The ERS Press Kit
Kris Kobi
(“Kobi”) began by noting that the idea for developing an ERS press kit began
with a discussion she had with Cal Lee at the end of last year’s ERS meeting.
Lee had noted that he’d been disappointed by how he had been quoted in a news
article. So Kobi volunteered to develop an online press kit to help hook up
media with stories about electronic records. Kobi also asked for leads from
members about any media outlets that might be interested in stories about electronic
records.
Kobi
described the current state of the ERS press kit.
It includes a history of the section, press contacts (the section chair and vice-chair),
and a description of the mission of the section. She noted that the section needs to
increase the value and visibility of the press kit so that the press will see it as a common
general resource. She mentioned that she is finishing up a list of quick facts
on electronic records for the press kit and that there was a space for press
releases on any ERS initiatives or announcements.
Galloway wondered if any of the information in ERS press releases might conflict with
official SAA positions. The group agreed that ERS can promote official SAA
positions through the press kit and decided that we need to be mindful of the
possible problems. Lee suggested that most of the time ERS would be answering
specific questions from the press, rather than propounding official SAA or even
ERS positions.
Kobi introduced Vicky McCargar and noted the work she had done previously with the
press. She noted that neither she nor Vicky would be doing any interviews.
Instead, they would be developing press relations and identifying ERS members
as experts in particular aspects of electronic records. Kobi noted that it
would be McCargar’s job to pitch stories to the press.
11. Electronic-Only Newsletter Proposal
Cal Lee led a
discussion of three questions about having an electronic-only ERS newsletter,
the first two questions coming from the SAA Electronic Publications Group.
1.Should only
SAA members be allowed to access all Section newsletters, or should these
newsletters be made available to the general public?
2.If public access is desired, should it be delayed to
avoid membership decline?
Stadel-Bevans opined that the newsletter should be available to the public so that it can be
an advocacy tool for ERS. Galloway suggest keeping the newsletter a section
benefit, but someone else noted that no-one is actually paying to be a section
member per se anyway. Polirer noted that we should write the articles for the
general public if we make the newsletters available online.
After discussion, Cal Lee moved and Richard Pearce-Moses seconded that the online ERS
newsletter should be made available to the public immediately upon publication.
Motion passed unanimously.
ACTION ITEM: Geof Huth
will send the ERS response to these questions to SAA.
3.Should the Section begin using the SAA template for our
newsletter online, or should we continue to use our own design format, OR
should we go with some hybrid of the two?
Deken argued that ERS should maintain a unique look for the newsletter.
Galloway thought that the ERS newsletter should still be branded an SAA product, so she
supported a hybrid solution. Stadel-Bevans argued that the newsletter needs a
good name to help people remember it. Lee suggested a contest to name the
newsletter.
ACTION ITEM: Consider
renaming the ERS newsletter, possibly via a contest.
12.SAA Publications
Geof Huth led
a discussion of the following questions received from the from SAA Publications
Board:
1. From your perspective, what topics are not sufficiently represented in
the catalog?
2. Can you identify existing publications that the SAA should carry and
currently doesn't?
The group
made two major points: Much of the time-sensitive information in electronic
records they collect off the web anyway, so SAA should begin to examine ways to
provide electronic resources (beyond just formal publications) online. Many
ARMA publications are relevant to SAA members, so SAA should investigate shared
distribution with ARMA or reciprocal publication discounts to members.
ACTION ITEM: Geof Huth
will send the ERS response to these questions to SAA.
13. 2004 Program
Bryan Corbett
of the SAA 2004 Program Committee encouraged members to send in session
proposals, nothing that there would be no overall theme to next year’s
conference. He also noted that there had been many changes to the rules program
proposals should follow, including the deadline and the manner in which
proposals had to be reviewed and endorsed by SAA groups, so he urged anyone
submitting a proposal to read the new guidelines carefully. He also requested
that people to ask only for the audio-visual equipment they really need and
noted that people can only participate in one session apiece.
14. ECURE Announcement
Rob Spindler (Arizona
State University) announced that the
ECURE Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records conference would be
held in March 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona. He reported that attendees should
consider submitting proposals focusing on electronic records used for university
research.
15. US InterPARES Final Report
Phil Eppard (University at Albany, SUNY) reported that the US InterPARES (International
Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) final report was
available for distribution. He handed out a number of copies of the final
report and the abbreviated
Guide to Findings.
16. Thirty Years of Electronic Records
Stadel-Bevans announced
that the publication, Thirty Years of Electronic Records, will soon be
released. Based on a set of sessions presented at the SAA conference in Denver
in 2000, this publication outlines the National Archives and Records
Administration’s work appraising, accessioning, preserving, describing, and
providing access to archival electronic records over the last thirty years.
17. ERS Session Endorsements
Cheryl Stadel-Bevans, Geof
Huth, and Nancy Deromedi volunteered to review and prioritize session proposals
submitted to ERS for endorsement. There was some discussion about Deromedi
serving as a reviewer since she was leaving the steering committee. But the
group decided to allow her to serve, unless she develops a session for
endorsement by the section.
18. Thanks to Outgoing Steering Committee Members and Welcome to New Chair
Geof Huth
thanked the outgoing members of the Steering Committee, Nancy M. Deromedi and Steve Hussman,
for their years of service and welcomed Rosemary Pleva Flynn as the incoming
chair.
Huth then adjourned the meeting.
Submitted by Geof Huth, Outgoing Chair, Electronic Records
Section, September 5, 2003
Page last updated: 13 August 2005
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