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I recently returned from the Society of American Archivists annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio and per usual, it was a very busy week! I finished my third year and term as an SAA Council member. As before, much of my time was spent with governance issues during the week. However, not to worry—there is a special deal where I can purchase all of the sessions for $19.99 so I can catch up on everything I missed:
http://www2.archivists.org/am2015/program/MP3s#.VfCiFJcwhT0

SAA Council met early in the week and approved an Arrangement and Description certificate program for SAA’s workshops and new criteria for issuing advocacy statements. Other hot topics were a proposal to reorganize SAA’s affinity groups and a dues increase—needless to say, these stimulated a lot of conversation! The dues increase is especially important for a small professional organization, is it will enable the purchase of a functional association management software system and also advance our advocacy efforts. I finished my liaison term for the Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy, but the work is not over, as I have now been appointed Committee Chair. We are currently working on a number of issue briefs relating to privacy in public records, copyright, federal records, and the Transpacific Partnership Agreement. I attended an interesting forum on updating facilities standards for archives and was able to hear several interesting presentations from the Native American Archives, the Latin America and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Archives, and the Science, Technology, and Healthcare Roundtables (which featured Duke and UNC-CH).

I presented twice—first, I spoke about becoming involved with regional archival organizations to our Mosaic Scholarship Winners as part of their all-day workshop. I also participated in a panel focusing on the “Best Practices for Volunteers in Archives” with an excellent question and answer time with an active audience. Our reception was held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I still cannot get over how tiny Mick Jagger’s costumes are. The best part about Cleveland was the beautiful building architecture and arcades, many of which have been repurposed…