Kara Jefts, Chair of the CAA Steering Committee, leads the Annual Members' Meeting. Photo by Brittan Nannenga.

On March 13, 2019, 34 CAA Members gathered at UIC's Richard J. Daley Library to attend the Annual Members' Meeting. Kara Jefts, Chair of CAA's Steering Committee, opened the meeting by introducing the rest of the steering committee and talking about the governing structure of CAA and how the various committees work together to keep the organization running smoothly. She also celebrated the spirit of volunteerism that makes CAA such a vibrant resource for the Chicago archives community.

2019 CAA Annual Members' Meeting. Photo by Brittan Nannenga.

The 2018 Annual Report was unanimously accepted by the membership. Some highlights from the report include the increasing importance of communication via social media and the possibility of raising membership dues to account for rising expenses. All subcommittees made calls for new members, especially the Special Events Subcommittee that runs Chicago Open Archives. Meeting attendees offered ideas on how to make Chicago Open Archives sustainable, as it has traditionally been an ambitious and labor-intensive event. One idea was to make it a virtual event via podcasts. If you would like to volunteer to help with Chicago Open Archives, Programming, or Outreach, please contact info@chicagoarchivists.org.

Candidates for Steering Committee were given a chance to speak at the meeting, and the election was held from March 14-March 21. The 2019-2021 Steering Committee cohort are Rene Aranzamendez, Dan Harper, Michelle McCoy, and Rebekah McFarland. Kheir Fakhreldin has been appointed to serve from 2019-2020. Thank you to all of the candidates for supporting CAA leadership.

For more details on the Annual Meeting, please read the minutes.

2018-2019 CAA Steering Committee, from left to right: Andrew Bullen, Kara Jefts, Nathalie Wheaton, Ashley Gosselar, Hathaway Hester, Megan Keller Young, Jerice Barrios [Laura Alagna not pictured]. Photo by Brittan Nannenga. You can find all of the photos from this article in the CAA Photo Folder. Consider uploading your own photos from CAA events there!