Lone Arrangers Roundtable
SAA 2006 Washington, D.C.
Thursday, August 3rd, 4:30-6:00 pm
Courtney Yevich presenting on the challenges of being a lone arranger (left). Lively discussion about various lone arranger experiences. Photographs courtesy of Russell Gasero (2006).
Meeting Minutes
The meeting began at 4:30 pm with Russ Gasero introducing himself and Nancy Freeman as co-chairs. The only real item of formal business was to nominate and approve Nancy Freeman as co-chair. The co-chair positions come up for renewal every other year and this is Nancy’s year. She agreed to be co-chair again and she was nominated and approved.
Russ proposed a conference session for next year in Chicago titled “Archivist, Anarchist, Activist, and the Anti-Christ.” The focus of the session would be on promoting ourselves inside and outside the organization. If anyone else has program proposal items, they are to see Russ. Someone suggested a session on freelancing/consulting.
Steve from the 2007 Program Committee spoke to the Roundtable for a few minutes on proposals for next year. Each roundtable will be able to endorse two sessions. A new policy for the 2007 program is that if a proposal is endorsed by a roundtable, the proposal will go to the whole program committee (12 people) for consideration. October 9 is the deadline for submitting and proposals should be submitted electronically. Steve suggested getting away from the three speaker/moderator format. After Steve left, Russ and I stressed getting a proposal in to us by around the first of October so we have time to review and endorse.
As part of the meeting, Courtney Yevich, Archivist at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), presented on the challenges she faces as a lone arranger. The archives was formally established two years ago. Courtney is a librarian who previously had no experience as an archivist. After becoming the archivist at the VMFA, she attended NARA’s week-long Modern Archives Institute. Courtney discussed the challenges and successes she has faced in her job. After Courtney’s presentation there were quite a few questions and comments from roundtable members about their own work experiences.
Courtney has agreed to do a website for the Roundtable. She handed out and presented her proposal of what should be on the website. Russ suggested a small committee be formed to provide content to Courtney. Several people volunteered. The newsletter has fizzled a bit over the last couple years. The issue is finding the content.
Much general discussion followed and some topics addressed included the advantages of becoming a certified archivist and how to get training in archives if that is not your educational background. There was also a discussion of web resources and a presentation on Friday entitled “Developing an Open-Source and Standards-Compliant Descriptive Tool for Lone Arrangers.” In addition, several people talked about getting together “tool kits” on how to do certain things. Perhaps they could go on the website.
There is interest in getting lone arrangers together for a mixer or informal lunch at the next SAA meeting. This would have to be done outside of SAA sanction and could be advertised on the listserv and even in the SAA program. There seemed to be support to have a mixer/dinner gathering the night before the conference starts.
Meeting adjourned at 6:00 pm.
Minutes by Nancy Freeman, Co-Chair.
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Last updated: 27 September 2007
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