SCAA Executive Board Meeting Minutes
Archives and History Center, Columbia, South Carolina
August 10, 2006
Present: Jim Cross, Dorothy Hazelrigg, Alexia Helsley, Mike Kohl, Kate Moore, Suzanne Singleton, Elizabeth West.
President Suzanne Singleton called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
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Approval of Minutes
Elizabeth moved that the minutes from May 31 be approved and Kate seconded. The minutes were approved.
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Treasurer's Report
Jim reported that there was little activity since the last board meeting. The spring issue of the newsletter was paid for and a few new members joined. He has not yet transferred $5,000 to the scholarship account as decided upon earlier.
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Membership Report
Membership officer Henry Fulmer was absent, but it was reported that the new membership directory is due out by August 15. Henry is currently verifying the names in his records with the treasurer's records.
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Director's Report
Mike noted that he had circulated via email to the Board a draft of the brochure for the fall conference. Jim asked that “2007” be added to the option of membership renewal on the brochure form so that it would be obvious what the term of renewal was.
Mike reported that he had confirmed with conference speakers the titles of their talks. He said that Dale Stuckey had emphasized that the Department of Education basically deals with K-12 FERPA law (very few secondary education issues). Mike told her that we were interested in the basic commonalities of all student records and penalties for violating privacy, including loss of federal money, etc. Stuckey agreed to prepare answers to any questions submitted ahead of time. We will add a call for questions to the brochure. Kate said she would circulate an email to the list asking for questions for all sessions.
Mike asked that we approve final changes to the brochure, and said it would take about a week to print. Laura Koser will label and mail the brochures. It was suggested that we could distribute some to potential members or send some to local history rooms in public libraries. We will print a few extra and the .pdf will also be available on the web as usual. Alexia moved to approve the new brochure. Elizabeth seconded and the brochure was approved. We hope to get them in the mail by the end of August.
The caterers need an estimated attendance. Everyone agreed it would be worse to run out of food than to have too much. Judith is handling the lunch menu; it will probably be chicken, and Mike hopes to have another variety of salad dressing because there have been complaints about the poppy seed variety usually served. Mike plans to call all speakers and remind them of the conference and their responsibilities. Suzanne offered to look at last year' business meeting agenda and write out the new one.
Mike brought up honoraria for our speakers who aren't SCAA members. Suzanne said that the practice had varied in the past, that state employees cannot receive more than $25 including lunch, but that Mr. Gragg is not a state employee and that she wanted to give him $100 or his mileage costs. Jim said that in the past, most speakers had only received their transportation costs. It was agreed that Suzanne would arrange for Mr. Gragg's compensation and Mike the rest of the non-SCAA speakers, who will get $20 gift cards. Laura will arrange for the student volunteers and Kate will serve as photographer.
Mike noted that Heather South was taking over for Judith Smith as the SCDAH liaison for SCAA. The Board agreed that Judith deserved many thanks for her hard work on our behalf.
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Vice President's Report
Elizabeth reported that the social is set for September 16. The outing will start at Ashtabula, followed by lunch at Farmer's Hall in Pendleton at 12:30, then on to Hagood Mill. Farmer's Hall suggested each attendee pay for his/her own lunch separately rather than setting a fixed price. Ashtabula will cost $5 per person and Hagood is free, although donations are suggested. It was suggested that $15 per attendee would mean $5 for each tour destination, as well as allowing SCAA to make a small profit. Elizabeth estimated 15 people might attend. She planned to mail flyers, post a notice on the website, and email the list, all hopefully next week.
The awards committee has not yet met. It consists of Elizabeth, Alexia, and Beth Bilderback. Suzanne said we could send out a call for nominations, although it is usually fruitless.
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Newsletter / Webpage (and spring conference ideas)
Kate said that the Resource Register webpage had been replaced with a notice referring interested parties to the Yahoo listserv. She said that only about 19 SCAA members had signed up for the listserv. She plans to send out notices about our upcoming events on the list. She will also soon ask for submissions for the fall newsletter. The deadline for submissions will be around October 25, with a target publication date of mid-November. Ideas for the issue include articles about Heather South's new work with disaster planning and about the social. Elizabeth suggested an article on the World War I symposium that will take place next spring and summer.
Mike suggested we include a note in the newsletter about the spring conference, with a specific date if we are able to set one by the deadline. Referring to the spring conference, Jim said that he had spoken with one of SAA's educational directors about our interest in sponsoring an SAA workshop. He said the conversation was encouraging and that SAA always tried to make things easy for the sponsoring group. Jim said it would be worthwhile to sponsor such a session, even if it costs us more than a regular conference, because it would generate interest and new members. He has been impressed with the quality of such workshops he has attended. Mike suggested having the SAA workshop the day before the spring conference. Alexia said we might want to have just the SAA workshop in lieu of the usual conference. Dorothy said doing so would prevent attendees having to pay to stay overnight, as many would have to do if we scheduled a two-day combined event. Mike said he would look into the idea and possibly check into SHRAB funding.
Returning to the subject of the newsletter, Kate asked for a story on the digital workshop recently held by PASCAL. Elizabeth said she would ask her student assistant to write one. Dorothy said that library faculty at USC were planning an informal presentation about SAA sessions they had attended, which could be worked into an article. She said this could be a good way to generate interest in SAA and its programs, which would be useful ahead of a possible SAA workshop in the spring.
Kate said that Geoff LoCicero, who is assisting with the web and logo redesign, has been busy with other work this summer but she will check on his progress. She sent him the Board's earlier thoughts about the logo design. She will ask him for a viable link to the mockup of the webpage, which she had not yet seen.
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Nominating Committee
Suzanne said that this year we will be electing a new vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and a new director. The director situation is confusing because both Aimee Berry James and Sarah Murray left before their terms were up. Laura will continue as director. We are not sure if Mike should rotate off since he has only been in his role a short time, but both Mike and Jim agreed to continue to serve. Suzanne said that most people who wish to do so have already served on the Board, making recruiting difficult, but that we need ideas for vice president. Mike suggested younger people just out of school who are establishing their careers. Alexia said it would be difficult for someone in a new job to miss work for SCAA business, but that we could pay more attention to younger archivists as potential future leaders. Jim suggested the possibility of unpaid interns. Alexia brought up the member recruitment brochure we first discussed in January. Kate said she had agreed to create it, but had been waiting on the new logo. However, she will create a brochure for inclusion in the fall conference packets. It will cover who we are, why we exist, other basic information, and a membership form. Kate will circulate a draft.
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Scholarship Committee
The committee, made up of Robin Copp, Dennis Taylor, and Ann Evans, met May 31 and wrote new language about the scholarship program. They suggest one scholarship fund with one application, with space on the application form to note who you are (i.e. student versus professional) and why you need funding. They suggest calling it an endowment rather than a scholarship, and that a committee should approve applications. $500 per year in awards seems a good maximum, possibly with $100 per year for any one person.
The submission deadline should be announced in the newsletter well in advance. Jim said that a year's start-up time was needed for the endowment to generate sufficient income to pay the awards from interest only. Suzanne said that Ann got advice from a Springs attorney about the legal definition of an endowment, and found it was fairly flexible, and we did not need to pay the awards only from interest in the first few years. Jim said we could add $5,000 to the current $1,153 in the fund, and that would be enough to generate significant interest.
It was suggested that we encourage applications for funding for SAA conferences, Society of Georgia Archivists events, the Modern Archives Institute, etc., and list these on the application form, using the language “including but not limited to” Since SCAA fees are low, and students can generally volunteer in exchange for free attendance, it doesn't seem necessary to have SCAA conferences covered under the endowment. Alexia suggested asking for a reference on the form, ensuring that requests are legitimate and have the support or agreement of the applicant's workplace. It was also agreed to insert a disclaimer about returning the money if it is not used for the stated purpose.
Suzanne said she would incorporate the changes discussed into the committee's draft and would circulate it via email. Jim will check into the best investment for the endowment principal.
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Next Meeting
The date for the next meeting was tentatively set for October 25. Alexia left the meeting at 12:20 p.m.
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Old Business
A. Audit: Suzanne said there had been no further progress on the idea of an audit, but she thinks a committee of SCAA members should do an audit annually. It would be very expensive to pay an external professional, but she wondered if we could find enough volunteers who are qualified, especially a chair for the committee who has accounting experience. Jim said that since SCAA does not have a payroll or complex accounts, the audit need not be too difficult. Suggestions for possible outside volunteers who could advise us included C.J. Cambre or John Heiting at USC or Mike Hughey at Clemson. Elizabeth will speak with John and/or C.J. Mike will contact Mike Hughey if necessary.
B. Mailing address: Since we receive relatively little mail except for conference mail, which goes to the treasurer, it doesn't seem necessary to pay for a mailbox at someplace like the UPS Store, which was one suggestion at an earlier Board meeting.
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New Business
A. SCDAH liaison: As mentioned earlier, Heather South is our new liaison. It was suggested that she could coordinate our mail. Suzanne will ask Roy Tryon.
B. SHRAB planning: Suzanne received information from SHRAB and circulated it to the Board via email.
C. PASCAL: Jim reported that he and Kate Boyd were co-chairing the Digital Collections committee for PASCAL. They hope to have a five-year plan ready by November. They will be coordinating groups to discuss issues such as training, metadata standards, etc.
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Adjournment
Suzanne adjourned the meeting at 1:09 p.m.