Women Archivists Roundtable

SAA 2007 - Chicago
 

Meeting Minutes

Officers

Ginny Kilander, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, 2006-2008
Christine Schmid Engels, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of American Jewish Archives, 2007-2009

Steering Committee

Kathleen Feeney, Special Collections Research Center,University of Chicago (Co-Chair 2005-2007
Eileen Ielmini, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Kathie Johnson, University Archives & Records Center, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville
Robin Secco, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Andrea F. Sheehan, QVC, Inc.
Jennie Thomas, Special Collections, Albion College
Karen Walton Morse, Special Collections, University Archives, SUNY at Buffalo

Number of Attendees at Joint Meetings/Reception

Approximately 40 total

Election results

Christine Schmid Engels was named co-chair, Robin Secco was named to the steering committee.

Summary of Meeting Activities

The WAR and Women's Collections Round Table (WCRT) held meetings and a joint reception at Loyola University's Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, Wednesday, August 29, 2007 (meeting and program 4-6 p.m., reception 6-8 p.m.). The business meeting began with an assessment of the previous year's activities and discussion of the opening for a new co-chair and steering committee position. We were unable to complete the election of a co-chair at the meeting, but Christine Schmid Engels accepted the position shortly after the SAA annual meeting. Robin Secco was confirmed as a new steering committee member shortly after the annual meeting as well.

We discussed other business such as the Navigator program, daycare at the annual meeting, *ACensus results, SAA Fellow nominations, updates to the web-resources on the WAR website, recent changes to roundtable guidelines, ideas for our next meeting, and the need to review and possibly update the WAR bylaws, adopted in 1998. We also heard from our liaison to the publications board. Our meeting closed in order to join the WCRT attendees for the shared program featuring feminist leaders in the profession, Andrea Hinding and Ann Campbell, and the reception and tours hosted by the Center for Women and Leadership.

Completed Projects/Activities

WAR sent a call for submissions for section endorsement for the 2008 Annual Meeting, but no proposals were received by the deadline.

Ongoing Projects/Activities

Continue to support the Navigator program at the SAA Annual Meeting

Encourage active involvement of individual roundtable members and plan to assess the effectiveness/satisfaction with the roundtable initiatives.

Review and update WAR web-resources as needed (Women Archivists literature review, Women's archives, Workplace Issues, Relevant websites)

Continue to participate in the nomination process of SAA fellows

New Projects/Activities

Conduct a review of section bylaws (adopted in 1998)

Diversity Initiatives

Gender diversity and equity is the main concern of our roundtable and is at the heart of most everything that we do. We hope to increase our participation in SAA's broader diversity initiatives.

WAR pages maintained by Jennie Thomas