Minutes: March 6, 2006 --DRAFT

A regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Capital Area Archivists was held on Friday, March 3, 2006 at the Uncommon Grounds Coffee House in Albany, New York.

Board members present: Susan D'Entremont, John Diefenderfer, Rachel Donaldson, Jean Root Green, Sean Heather McGraw, Amy Rupert, Amy Schindler, Bonnie Weddle and Geoff Williams.

Amy Schindler, President, called the meeting to order at 3:40 pm.

1. Approval of Minutes of December 1, 2005 Meeting
Minutes were approved.

2. Membership Report/Membership Recruitment Efforts
A printed report was distributed. CAA has 92 active members, including 8 new members who joined in 2005. Only 2 members have paid for 2006 at this point, so people need to be reminded to pay. A membership renewal letter has not been sent, but should go out shortly.

3. Financial Report
A printed report for December 2005-February 2006 was distributed. The checkbook balance on December 1, 2005 was $2,254.97. CAA received $85.00 in dues during December. CAA donated $250.00 to the SAA/SSA Emergency Disaster Assistance Grant Fund (Financial Report currently says "SAA Katrina Fun." It was noted that this should be changed to "Fund."). CAA spent $34.50 for food for the December 1, 2005 program on Donors and $95.17 for mailing and printing. The balance as of March 3, 2006 is $1,960.30.

4. New Business
· Annual meeting/elections/board service
The Board agreed that they would welcome new members to the Board. Amy Schindler, Bonnie Weddle and Geoff Williams were appointed to be the Nominating Committee. Several people have approached Amy Schindler about being on the Board. A discussion ensued about the ideal number of people and the institutional affiliations of Board members. The by-laws state that there must be 4 officers and 4 additional members, but they do not provide a cap for the number of Board members. The Board agreed that members should represent many different types of repositories. Members also felt that more than 10 Board members would be unwieldy for an organization of this size.

Amy Schindler is stepping down as president. John Diefenderfer has agreed to run for president. If anyone else wants to step down from the Board, they will let Amy know by Monday, March 6, 2006. At that point, we will have a better idea of how many people CAA needs to add to the Board.

There was discussion about the membership chair, Chris Hunter. His job has become extremely busy, and it has been difficult for him to come to meetings or send out renewal letters. Amy will contact him to determine whether he can continue as membership chair.

Rachel Donaldson introduced the idea of creating an ad hoc program committee to develop program ideas. This way, CAA could take advantage of interested talent without increasing the size of the Board. The Board agreed to set up a 5 member program committee made up of 2 Board members and 3 non-Board members. The committee would run for 18 months. At that point the Board will evaluate whether or not they want to continue the committee or revert back to the Board doing all the program work.

· Proposed May workshop on caring for 3D objects
Karen Brown, UAlbany's Preservation Librarian, has asked CAA to co-sponsor a workshop on dealing with 3-D objects on May 18, 2006, 1:00-4:30 pm at UAlbany. Gwen Spicer, a local conservator, will do the program. Karen would like an archivist to speak for about half an hour on the value of 3D objects to an archival collection and how they fit into collecting policies. After the program there will be an optional tour of the University's preservation lab. All voted in favor of contributing $250 toward this program. Geoff Williams will do the welcome and introduce the speakers. Susan D'Entremont will ask an archivist to speak. Ellen Fladger, Michael Aikey, Rebecca Rich-Wulfmeyer, John Diefenderfer and Rachel Donaldson were all suggested as speakers. The event will be free to CAA members and University staff. It will be $5.00 for others. The $5.00 fee will include CAA membership.

· NARA/NHPRC Budget
Bonnie Weddle distributed handouts produced by Council of State Archivists (COSA) and the National Archives, as well as a summary she wrote. Once again, the president's budget does not include any funding for National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). SAA, NAGARA (National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators), and COSA are planning to advocate not only for the reinstatement of NHPRC, but for $10 million in additional funding to start a state-based grant program to provide grant support to historical records repositories and local government records programs. John Sweeney, who represents part of the Capital District, is on the House Appropriations Committee. He was noncommittal about NHPRC last year, so it is important that his constituents push him on it this year. SAA, NAGARA and COSA will soon provide information on the next steps to take.

· SAA May Day Observances
Amy Schindler provided information on SAA's first May Day/Saving our Archives Day. On May 1, 2006, SAA is encouraging all archives and archivists to take one step improve their ability to respond to disaster. Amy asked that people contact her if they have any ideas for something CAA can do to participate.

· UAlbany SAA Student Chapter
Sean Heather McGraw was introduced as the new president of the SAA Student Chapter. She would like to do a joint CAA/SAA event in the next few months, possibly an event aimed at teenagers. The chapter has discussed a program on the preservation and history of comic books. Geoff Williams thought something about electronic resources would appeal to teens. Sean stated that it is difficult to demonstrate issues around electronic records and difficult to find resources for such a program. The chapter will think some more about what teens may be interested in.

The chapter would like to visit some sites this semester. Rachel Donaldson offered to host them at the Foundation of New York State Nurses. The Schenectady City Archives and the New York State Archives were also suggested.

5. Other Business
There was no other business.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Susan D'Entremont