Recently,
SAA put out the
agenda for its June Council meeting. I was interested in at least eight of the agenda items, some discussion items, some action items. I emailed
SAA President Frank Boles about them on Monday and asked for more information on each, but I have not yet received a response. I feel this post needs to be made, so my hope is that Dr. Boles will respond to my email and I can make a second post very shortly discussing his email.
What are the things I (and I hope others) are interested in:
1.
SAA Facebook group - I am the creator and administrator of this. We have almost 20 percent of the
SAA members in the group. It doesn't do anything, which I think is sad, but
SAA is interested in discussing administrative options. I got a phone call a few months ago from
SAA executive director Nancy Beaumont and we talked at length about the group. I asked to be kept informed of what was happening and I have reciprocated by updating Ms. Beaumont on the group and its climbing
membership. But I have not been asked to give official written comment on this item on the agenda and that scares me. If they ask me to turn over the group to them, should I do it? Should I play a card and tell them "no"?
2. I am Dr. Richard Cox and others have argued that the
SAA Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct is just killing time, filling up resumes, and doing nothing. One of my post on this subject is
here. There is an item on the agenda this time to talk about re-organizing and re-tasking the committee. My interest in this is professional, but I'd like to know more about what is being proposed and maybe give my two cents worth on what should be done with the committee.
3. Copyright of Section/
Roundtable Materials - this agenda item was originally proposed by me as chair of the
SAA Records Management
Roundtable, at the February meeting. I asked that the issue be referred to the
SAA Intellectual Property Working Group and it was. But I have not heard anything about what they decided. Not only as the proposer, but as a
roundtable leader, I'd like to have some input into what is going to happen with this.
4.
Administration of
Roundtable Memberships - what does this mean? What are the problems? What are the proposed solutions? Just a simple item on the agenda tells us nothing. As a
roundtable leader, I have some ideas on this issue, but I'm not given opportunity to comment.
5. Policy Regarding Revoking of
SAA Membership - what is this all about? Did someone do something really wrong?
6. Education Committee Final Report on Accreditation - I asked
Donna McCrea, the committee chair, and Nancy Beaumont for a copy of this report. You will remember that I have written about this issue
here and
here and
here and
here and
here previously and I think that the members want to know what the committee is going to report so we can voice our support or disdain for the report. I am really interested in this issue and want to see something of some sort come out of it, but I am so far denied access to the report. As one of the many
SAA members who sent the original petition to Council asking for a study of the issue, don't they at least owe me (and the other petitioners) the respect of letting us know about the report so we can give further comment on it?
7.
SAA's Role When Controversies Arise - what is this all about? I have written
here and
here and
here that I think we should become involved in professional controversies. Is this what this is all about? No one knows for sure, besides the members of Council, because we are not given any notice of what the items on the agenda are even about.
8. Finally,
SAA Council seems to want to prevent
SAA members from knowing anything about the goings on of the group at its meetings because they have an item regarding the release of Council materials to the membership. Is this a kind of censorship? Do we remain sitting down and stay silent and let
SAA Council decide things without input from members? Or do we stand up and say we want to have a say and be allowed to make comments on proposed doings of the Council? After all, as citizens, we can make comment on what our state legislatures and Congress do, so why can't we have the same rights and privileges when it comes to
SAA Council?
There are other issues Council is discussing that I know other members are interested in. But at the writing of this email there are no materials that have been released to me. Do you have any you would care to share?
In an era of increased interest in
SAA Council activities, with at least half of the thirty five active archival
blogosphere bloggers being
SAA members, should the
SAA Council release the proposals they receive and the reports they receive that initiate an item being placed on the Council agenda? Should we all have access to what Council is going to discuss?
A few years ago,
SAA Council acted in near-total secret, not even releasing the Minutes of its meetings until the next The American Archivist issue, which could be six months or more in the coming. Our membership wants more say in what goes on and not giving us information about items that we are involved in (or just
interested in) isn't any kind of democracy in my book.
Am I just running up the wrong tree? Is knowing what your elected representatives are doing or proposing to do something I should care about? Is it something we should fight for - open records and access of some kind to Council materials?
Or should we all be kept in the dark until Council makes decisions that may or may not reflect the feelings and beliefs of the membership?
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