2003 Annual Report
2002-2003 Officers:
Sarah Nelson, Coordinator
Jamie Cartright, Assistant Coordinator
Members:
Erin Whitsel-Jones
Amber Raney
Jason Viers
Mark Kifowit
Virginia Walkowski
Libby Burke
Gina Rappaport
Kay Taylor
Caitlin Frost
Vicki Cohen
David Boyd
Randall Jimerson, Faculty Liaison
Activities
Several weeks into the school year, in September, the second-year Master’s
students and the first-year students met at a local pizzeria for introductions
and discussion about the year ahead. The second-year students discussed
their spring/summer internships to compare experiences with one another
and to illuminate parts of the degree that the first-years could expect.
Aspects of the SAA Student Chapter were discussed in explanation for
the new students as well. Since Sarah Nelson was the Assistant Coordinator
the previous year, she was introduced as Coordinator. Jamie Cartright
was nominated as Assistant Coordinator since she was not a commuter and
was a former WWU undergrad. At that point the group decided to set another
date to get together for further planning of the Chapter activities.
The next meeting was held on the WWU campus. The Chapter met to hear some announcements
from Sarah, including the information/deadline for the Poster Session, a meeting
of the local ARMA chapter, and other similar activities. The group then decided
on a short list of speakers to invite to campus to talk about their careers and
experiences in the archives and records management field.
In January we approached Dr. Burt Rhodes, longtime Bellingham resident, about
joining us to discuss his long and impressive career and Archivist of the United
States, professor, and his other endeavors. However, unfortunately personal conflicts
prevented his availability.
In February we welcomed Nicolette Bromberg, Photo Archivist from the University
of Washington. Over dinner, Nicolette shared her career path with us, as well
as some of the crucial concerns of photo preservation and archival practices.
She brought several photographs for us to enjoy, exemplifying the different elements
of her jobs over the years around the U.S.
The meeting and discussion with Candace Lein-Hayes that was scheduled for
March was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. However, in March the group
and Rand Jimerson and Kitty Friesen, preservation professor, took a trip to University
of British Columbia in Vancouver. We met with the Master of Archival Studies
students of the School of Library, Archival and Informational Studies as well
as Terry Eastwood, Luciana Durante and Heather MacNeil. There were quite a few
people gathered to compare notes about the two programs as well as the more specific
endeavors of the various students. The UBC faculty and students were welcoming
and congenial; the occasion was a great opportunity to meet some of the people
who author many of our readings!
Typically a group of students attends the Northwest Archivist conference that
is held yearly in April. This years conference, however, was held in Sacramento.
The distance proved prohibitive, so we look forward to next year’s conference
that will be held in this neck of the woods again. The conference always avails
rich opportunities to meet working archivists as well as attend sessions that
apply directly to the issues of the Pacific Northwest.
In May a couple students drove to Seattle and met several other first-year students
who were mid-way through their internships. Together they attended the Seattle
Area Archivists meeting. Patti Scheffer, Information Services Project Manager
at Swedish Medical Center, spoke of the realities of implementing HIPAA. Sue
Karren, Director of Archival Operations at NARA – Pacific Alaska Region,
spoke of NARA’s Records of Concern Program which works to restrict records
that may be of use to terrorists. Finally, Michael Saunders, Regional Archivist
of the Puget Sound Region of Washington State Archives System, spoke of two Washington
State bills of legislation which call for implementing a 75-year limit on restricted
records. There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd from the tours taken
to the various archives in the area, as well as from the Northwest Archivist
conference in Corvalis in 2002.
Overall, the Student Chapter had a smaller number of activities than was hoped
and tentatively scheduled. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts seemed to plague
us this year. However, the activities that we did experience varied widely in
subject-matter and were therefore satisfying to the group overall. The manner
in which spring and summer find students scattered far from Bellingham for internships
often proves cumbersome in keeping a momentum going. Nevertheless, we have managed
to keep in strong contact with one another over the miles, as well as meeting
casually in groups to catch up on one another’s studies and internships.
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