Learn about the Advocacy Committee
http://www2.archivists.org/news/2015/joint-statement-on-conducting-public-business-in-non-government-email-accounts-june-2015
Good news since NYPL, BPL, & QPL include some awesome archives and special collections:
As first announced at the A.R.T. Annual Business Meeting, we are pleased to announce the newly elected A.R.T. Board members:
Vice President/President Elect - Kerri Anne Burke
Secretary - Rachel Greer
Treasurer - Michael Andrec
Director of the Advocacy Committee - Dennis Riley
Director of the Communications Committee - Laura DeMuro
Director of the Education Committee - Rachel Harrison
Director of the Programming Committee - Alexandra Lederman
The newly elected Board members will be joining the rest of the Board fulfilling their second year of volunteer service:
President - Janet Bunde
Director of the Membership Committee - Tamar Zeffren
Director of the Outreach Committee - Tiffany Nixon
Congratulations to all!
A Tuesday letter from the Washington, D.C.-based American Historical Association directed to Gov. Terry Branstad and several officials with the Department of Cultural Affairs expresses a “grave concern” about reductions in resources at the state society.
The letter from AHA President Vicki Ruiz and Executive Director James Grossman details the value of historic preservation, but also the repercussions of losing historic state records.
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/government/future-of-iowa-historic-records-raises-national-alarm-20150619
Since the United States joined the Open Government Partnership in 2011, U.S. agencies have been working alongside civil society to develop and implement commitments to increase transparency, improve participation, and curb corruption.
Consistent with the commitment to the Open Government Partnership, later this year the United States plans to publish a third Open Government National Action Plan (NAP) including new and expanded open government initiatives to pursue in the next two years
Please share any NAP suggestions with us via email at opengov@ostp.gov or tweet us at@OpenGov. You can also contribute ideas to a publicly available Hackpad — an open, collaborative platform — that the General Services Administration is helping coordinate.
For full details see:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/04/help-us-strengthen-open-government
From SAA's Issues & Advocacy Roundtable, a new initiative to discuss critical issues affecting the archives profession:
We’re not even halfway through 2015 yet, but it appears to be a rather dramatic year for archives. From records management issues in universities to questionable email practices of public officials to laws that appear to be throwbacks to the early twentieth-century, there’s a lot going on that can affect both archives and archivists. With that in mind, the Issues & Advocacy Roundtable is launching a blog series called Archivists on the Issues and are looking for contributors.
Entries should discuss how a particular issue in the news affected or could potentially affect you as an archivist and/or your collections. Unless contributors indicate otherwise, each post will be published anonymously. Institutional information will be limited to broad identifiers, i.e. college/university, government, corporate, etc. Please limit submissions to 500 words. We encourage multiple entries on the same topic, as well as rebuttals, and hope to generate a rich conversation about the issues confronting our profession.
Please send your submissions to archivesissues@gmail.com. We are also happy to receive ideas for posts and provide feedback.
Join the celebration of International Archives Day 2015 and promote your archive service!
All around the world archivists will unite on 9th June 2015 to celebrate the significance and achievements of our profession. Send us a copy of a document drawn from your collections which shows the locality served by your archive service; tell us about the image and, if you wish, provide us with a short message and the web address of your archive. The section for local, municipal and territorial archives of the International Council on Archives has prepared a site to display all the images and messages sent to us
To participate, please send a jpeg image (max 800x800 px) of your chosen document, together with a short description of it in your own language by the 30th May 2015 to: m.langelaar@rotterdam.nl . If you offered an image in 2014, why not add a second one for 2015 – the website will accommodate a growing number of images over the years to come?
Like our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ICA-Section-Local-Municipal-and-Territorial-Archives/183455228363014. Follow us@ICArchiv #IAD15
We look forward to sharing your treasures with colleagues everywhere in the world.
Happy International Archives Day!
Action Needed: Urge the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government to provide $10 million in funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission for federal FY 2016.
The Issue: The President’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016 recommends funding of only $5 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This is a 35% reduction in NHPRC’s budget in just the past five years. With Congress’s current interest in defunding programs entirely, it is imperative that NHPRC be funded at $10 million to ensure a program that can effectively serve the needs of historical records programs in all states.
http://www2.archivists.org/news/2015/action-alert-urge-congress-to-support-nhprc-funding-by-may-15
This is an important week for arts education in the Senate!
The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee will consider a new bipartisan draft bill to re-authorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), our nation’s education law. Entitled the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, the draft bill would update ESEA, and the arts community wants the arts to be included and ensured a place in every child’s education.
Your senator serves on the HELP committee and needs to hear from you this week as the committee discusses numerous amendments being introduced to the bill. Urge your senator to protect arts education in ESEA.
An early draft of this bill authored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) addressed four key points:
The new draft being considered this week does retain the definition of core academic subjects including the arts! This is a win: this designation makes arts education programs eligible for federal funding such as Title I. The bill does not, though, include direct support for afterschool or summertime learning programs or the Arts in Education program at the U.S. Department of Education.
Follow the below URL to contact your senator THIS WEEK and tell him or her to support the arts in ESEA. Speak up and share your story of the importance of arts education!
The following letter to A.R.T. membership was originally sent via email to all members on April 13, 2015.
A Letter to the A.R.T. Membership
Happy spring!
Thank you to all our members that took the time to complete the 2015 Member Survey form. We were gratified to receive 115 responses!
We discussed the survey results at our last Board meeting. The A.R.T. Board values your thoughtful and constructive feedback, along with suggestions for improvement. Looking towards the future, we are committed to enhancing the value of your A.R.T. membership. As a result of this initiative, we are pleased to announce the following:
Addition of the Director of the Advocacy Committee
Since 2013, this Board position has been merged with the Outreach Committee, with one Director serving both committees. Over the past few years, membership interest in both Advocacy and Outreach has grown steadily. To provide enhanced volunteer opportunities for members and to strengthen the impact of these Committees, the Board structure will expand to include a Director of the Advocacy Committee.
This position is the Advocacy Committee’s voting representative for the A.R.T. Board, serving a two-year term (June 2015 - June 2017). Tiffany Nixon, currently the Director of the Outreach and Advocacy Committees, will continue on as Director of the Outreach Committee through June 2016.
Creation of the Development Committee
Many of the survey responses expressed a desire for A.R.T. to provide more cost-effective, cross-disciplinary programming with additional networking opportunities, as well as exhibition visits and other exciting ideas. To properly support these initiatives, an A.R.T. Development Committee will begin in June 2015.
This committee will be comprised of a non-voting Director, and at minimum 3 committee members. The Director will be appointed by the Board each year in June. There is an option for renewal of up to 3 years, at the Board’s discretion. The Director’s responsibilities will include: generating resources for A.R.T. programs and events; conducting strategic planning for identifying potential funding sources; and actively communicating with the A.R.T. Board on committee actions and activities.
In preparation for the A.R.T. Board elections and end-of-year program, to be held at the Museum of Modern Art on June 15th, we will be adding the Director of the Advocacy Committee position along with the other open positions: Vice-President/President Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, Director of the Advocacy Committee, and Director of the Education Committee.
Nomination forms can be accessed here. The deadline for nominations is May 29, 2015. Self-nominations are encouraged! Stay tuned for additional announcements regarding the elections and the end-of-year program.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have.
Regards,
Ryan Anthony Donaldson
President
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