News

In an ongoing series during CAA Steering Committee Election time, we hear from another Steering Committee member, George Kutsunis, current Vice Chair.

When I joined the Steering Committee in 2014, I had lived in the Chicago area for all of 4 months and I had only been out of school and in the archival profession less than three years. Considering that, I would not have even considered putting my name in for the committee if I hadn’t been prodded by another archivist. What could I possibly contribute? I barely knew much about the profession or the area myself.

“You should do this. You would be good at it.”

What I learned very quickly on Steering is that the CAA is here to serve all of its members, including those who are new in town and new to the profession or not even out of school yet. In some ways these members have the most to gain from the CAA. Likewise the Steering Committee only benefits from having voices from all over the profession. Who can better advocate for the needs of recent graduates than a recent graduate? Or recognize the importance of networking opportunities than someone who doesn’t yet have a network of their own?

So let me take the opportunity to prod all the out-of-towners, recent grads and students, and even those who have had to take a job out of the profession: you should join Steering, your voice would be good for us

If you’re new to Chicago or the profession, don’t let that discourage from joining Steering, please consider joining the Steering Committee. Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 16.

Feel free to contact George or other Steering Committee Members with questions.

RAAC is participating in Educopia's IMLS grant project known as Mapping the Landscapes regarding continuing education and professional development (CE/PD). The Mapping the Landscapes project is the first comprehensive effort to establish a national dataset related to CE/PD within and across the library, archives, and museum sectors. This project is a joint effort of the Coalition to Advance Learning in Archives, Libraries and Museums ("Coalition"), the Educopia Institute, and TrueBearing Consulting, funded through a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

You are invited to complete the Mapping the Landscapes survey between now and March 24, 2016. This survey is designed to gather important information on common and unique individual wants and needs for CE/PD across these three sectors. The information gained from this project will advance efforts to make CE/PD more relevant, accessible, and effective in supporting professional development for you and your colleagues.

As a professional who relies on CE/PD resources, this is an opportunity for your voice to be heard! To take the survey right away, just click the following link (one response per device, please)​:

Take the Mapping the Landscapes Survey

If you want to learn more, see the Frequently Asked Questions at this link: Mapping the Landscapes FAQs

The survey will be available until March 24, 2016. If you have any questions about this project, please contact Dr. Nathan Brown, Project Research Lead, at nathan@truebearingconsulting.com.

During CAA’s Steering Committee Election, we’d like to hear from Steering Committee members about their work with CAA. Gretchen Neidhardt joined the CAA Steering Committee in November 2015, making her the most recent member to join, however, she’s been an active participate in CAA since 2013.

While my time with Steering has been brief, I have worked with the committee closely for most of my involvement with CAA. With Megan Keller, I co-chaired the Outreach subcommittee from 2014-2015. We worked with the Steering committee to implement lots of great activities for CAA, including starting social media accounts (and creating the policies to make sure those accounts are sustainable) and creating a Chicago Open Archives working group to plan the great event we held in October of last year.

In the time I have been on Steering, I’ve been able to help set into motion further social media involvement with our community, streamlining our communications procedures, and setting up a working group for this year’s Open Archives event. It’s great to be able to continue my Outreach efforts on the Steering committee and I’m very excited to participate in future endeavors to benefit local archives and archivists! You’re also working with a very kind and enthusiastic group who are very passionate about promoting archives in the Chicago area.

If you’re interested in working on projects and programs to benefit area archivists, please consider joining the Steering Committee. Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 16.

Feel free to contact Gretchen or other Steering Committee Members with questions.

Are you interested in becoming more involved in the Chicago archives community? Consider volunteering to serve on the Chicago Area Archivists Steering Committee. Not only will you get to work closely with some of your colleagues in the profession, but CAA service is a great way to gain valuable experience in preparation for service in regional and national archival organizations.

Wonder what the Steering Committee does? The Steering Committee is tasked with:

• Establishing programmatic goals for the organization
  
• Responding to the needs of CAA members
  
• Representing CAA within the larger profession and to the general public
  
• Setting standards to ensure the sustainability of CAA
  
• New this year, expanding communications efforts for the CAA
  

Think you aren’t experienced enough to serve on the Steering Committee? Think again: any organization needs fresh viewpoints to remain vibrant. And CAA is meant to serve the needs of all of its members, including those who are new to the profession.

Worried about over-committing yourself? Steering Committee members are elected to two year terms that begin and end at the Members Meeting in March. The time commitment is relatively minimal, consisting of monthly in-person meetings with occasional business conducted by email.

Candidates for the four open seats for the 2016-18 term will be elected by a vote of CAA members cast electronically after the Members Meeting on Wednesday, March 30 2016. Election results will be announced shortly after the Members Meeting.

Service on the Steering Committee is open to all CAA members in good standing. To volunteer, submit a brief (1-2 paragraphs) Statement of Interest outlining your background and motivation for serving on the Steering Committee to info@chicagoarchivists.org. Please include your full name, title, place of work (if applicable), and preferred contact phone and email address.

Statements of interest will be distributed to CAA members prior to the Members Meeting. Candidates will also have an opportunity to introduce themselves at the meeting on March 30.

The deadline to submit your Statement is Wednesday, March 16 at 5:00pm.

Want more information? Contact information for current Steering Committee Members is available on the CAA Website. Please reach out to one of them and ask about his or her service on Steering.

Please send general questions or comments to info@chicagoarchivists.org.

For those who are interested, NHPRC recently scheduled three webinars in February to talk with prospective applicants about the National Archives' Access to Historical Records grant program. These webinars are very helpful for anyone considering a grant application.

Webinars will be held on the following dates and times:

Thursday, 11 February @ 3:30 p.m. Eastern

Wednesday, 17 February @ 3:30 p.m. Eastern

Monday, 22 February @ 2:00 p.m. Eastern

Here is the link to the blog announcing the webinars: http://annotation.blogs.archives.gov/2016/01/27/access-to-historical-records-webinars-announced-2/.

Here's the latest news from the Regional Archival Associations Consortium!

Updating the Directory of Archival Organizations in the United States and Canada (via RAAC Membership Committee)

The RAAC Membership Committee is working on updating the Directory of Archival Organizations in the United States and Canada.

Anita Mechler, the CAA-RAAC liaison made sure to complete the 2016 SAA Regional Archival Associations Survey in order to ensure that CAA is accurately represented on the Directory.

U.S. Congressional Omnibus Appropriations Bill

On December 18, Congress approved a $1.15 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that will fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2016. The vote in the House was 316-113 and the vote in the Senate was 65-33. President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill.

Of particular note is level funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The original appropriations bill considered in the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee would have cut NHPRC’s FY’ 16 budget by 40 percent from the FY’ 15 level of $5 million to $3 million. The situation allowed NCH to use the contacts gained from the History Caucus, and the cut was rescinded at the House Appropriations Committee markup. The NHPRC was only program in the entire bill to have funding restored.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our legislative alerts throughout this year asking you to contact Congress on funding issues.

Call out for Digital Preservation Training at the RAAC Symposium (via RAAC Education Committee)

The Education Subcommittee of RAAC is hoping to offer a session about digital preservation training at the RAAC Symposium next fall.  We are looking for someone who can talk about digital preservation, available resources, and how to offer training  to regional archival groups.  If you’ve had experience with offering training to regional groups…even better!!

If you are interested in speaking or know someone who may be, please contact Jennifer Brannock at Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu or 601.266.4347.

As a result of the discussion at Regional Archival Associations Consortium's (RAAC) annual meeting at SAA and the previously outlined goals in RAAC's 3-year plan, this year the Grant Development Committee will be working on the following:

• Foster collaborative grant writing projects among RAAC participants. Projects could include multi-regional programming grants; preservation grants focused on public awareness or digitization; regional hubs for cold storage, digital storage, or film preservation.

• Continue to add data to the Grant Resource Guide, especially for states that are not represented. Establish a schedule for verifying that information and links for existing resources are current. 

In addition, there will be a RAAC Symposium held the Tuesday of SAA week. Each subcommittee will be required to put together one panel for the symposium - more details on that as they develop. 

Thank you to all who were able to attend last night's annual CAA Holiday Party! As always, it was wonderful to see our colleagues and friends, and make some great new connections with local archivists and librarians. 76 partygoers showed up and enjoyed pizza and the open bar. Some raffle prizes were given away; if you didn't win, visit our CafePress store to treat yourself to some lovely swag.

As mentioned last night, please keep an eye out for a membership survey. We'd appreciate your participation in our ongoing efforts to make CAA valuable for all of our members.

CAA wishes you a restful and relaxing holiday season, and a Happy New Year!

CAA Steering Committee member Andy Steadham handing out raffle prizes. Photo credit: Alison Hinderliter

There will be more events throughout the year at a variety of dates, times, and locations. Coming soon:

·          Archives Salon – February 2016. More details TBA.

·          CAA Annual Members Meeting – March 2016. More details TBA.

Have an idea for a CAA event? Contact the CAA Events Subcommittee at info@chicagoarchivists.org with your suggestions.

For those who may be interested in forming a Chicago-area study group for the 2016 Certified Archivist exam, CAA has created a sign up sheet for members to connect with each other. Sign up here. 

Please note that Chicago is already selected as one of the exam sites for 2016.  Some interest has been expressed in petitioning the ACA to offer another exam location in the Chicago area, outside of the city - if this is something you're interested in, please indicate this preference on the study group sign up sheet.
Also, the ACA is offering an early-bird discount for those who register prior to February 15.  Please see below for more details:

News from the Academy of Certified Archivists

The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) is making the certification exam more affordable by offering a reduced application fee as part of an early bird special!

Register for the exam before February 15 and receive half-off regular registration. The rate increases to the standard fee of $50 after February 15.

The early bird deadline also lowers the threshold for selecting pick-your-site locations! Instead of requiring 5 test takers per site, the ACA will only require 3 during the early bird period.  This change makes it easier for many candidates to have an exam site in a more convenient and affordable location.  But, like the test application fee, the required number of test participants will increase to the standard number of 5 after the early bird period ends.

This year's Certified Archivist exam will be held August 3^rd.  The predetermined locations are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Questions? Contact the ACA Secretariat: secretariat@certifiedarchivists.org

Chicago last hosted the Spring Meeting of the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) in April 2010. At its May 2015 meeting, the MAC Council reviewed a proposal from Vice President David McCartney to hold the 2018 Spring Meeting in Chicago. The CAA Steering Committee wants to hear from CAA members and anyone else in the Chicago area interested in helping to bring MAC back to Chicago in 2018.

The MAC Council will select a city for the 2018 Spring Meeting in April 2016. CAA would like to submit a proposal to the MAC Council strengthening the case for Chicago as host city before that meeting. And should the MAC Council select Chicago to host its 2018 Spring Meeting, volunteers will be needed to serve on the Local Arrangements Committee. You can read more about the MAC meeting planning process on the MAC website here:

https://midwestarc.memberclicks.net/meeting-planning--reports.

Do you have a passion for Chicago and the many fine archival institutions based in the Chicago area? Do you love the idea of attending MAC in your own fair city, or one of its many fine suburbs (we’re looking at you, Evanston)? Then share your passion by contacting info@chicagoarchivists.org and volunteering to help bring MAC back home.