Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists Board Meeting
Friday March 11th, 2011 – 2:00 PM
James A. Michener Library, Room 113
Greeley, CO 80639

Welcome

President Jay Trask called the meeting to order at 2:09 PM. Board members attending in person were Jay Trask, Rosemary Evetts, Cecily North, Annette Gray, Becky Lintz, and Laura Ruttum. Those who called in via conference call were Linda Meyer, Amy Ziegler, Karen Jones, and Bev Allen. Kay Lowell and Jessica Velie were absent.

November 19, 2010 Board Minutes

Ms. Ziegler expressed her appreciation to Annette for completing the minutes from the last board meeting in her absence. Ms. Evetts motioned to approve the minutes and Ms. Meyer seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report

Ms. Lowell emailed a copy of the treasurer’s report to the board, since she was unable to attend the meeting due to illness. Ms. Meyer moved to approve the report as printed. Ms. Evetts seconded. The treasurer’s report was approved unanimously. There was also discussion about the high cost of conference calls for the board meetings. Mr. Trask sought recommendations for an alternative.

Spring Conference

Ms. Evetts updated the board on the Spring Conference in Denver on May 20th at Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary, Cardinal Stafford Library. The speakers for the event are set. Keith Schrum will present a program about the interconnectedness of sustainability and development. Denver Public Library will discuss their digitization project Creating Communities. Patty Rettig will discuss fundraising, while Leigh Grinstead and Liz Bischoff will discuss fundraising for small collections. The business meeting will be held at the spring conference as well. The brochure for the conference will be available shortly, to resolve earlier complaints that the brochure was not sent out early enough. The cost for registration has not been set yet, since the rate is to be determined by speaker, food and building costs.

Elections

Ms. Meyer established a nominating elections committee. Nancy Freeman and Amy Meager will serve with Ms. Meyer on the committee in counting ballots. Ms. Gray forwarded past election material to Ms. Meyer to rework for this year. A call for nominations will be sent out March 14th. A month will be given for individuals to submit their candidacy by April 11th, and ballots will be sent out April 18th. The call for nominations also needs to be sent out in the newsletter and Ms. North will put it on the website. Ms. Meyer said that interest has already been expressed for all but the preservation position, and Ms. Jones reported that Steve Fisher is interested in running and Beth Heller is interested in learning more about it. There is enough interest that the other board positions might be contested this year. Those running will be asked to provide a statement of intent.

Scholarships

Ms. Meyer reported that there were two candidates for the Midwest Archives Conference Scholarship. Caroline Blackburn received the award. A call will be sent out for scholarships to the SRMA Spring Conference. The mileage rate has been finalized at 15 cents a mile round trip. More interest has been generated in the scholarships by adding mileage as one of the benefits. A list of past recipients of scholarships was recommended to be passed on to the scholarship committee and the general public, in order to keep track of ineligible individuals. A link on the scholarship page of the website was recommended.

Collaboration with CAL, CWAM, etc.

Mr. Trask suggested that SRMA plan ahead for future joint meetings, so we can be more interconnected. Ms. North has not heard back from CAL, as they are discussing the proposal with their board. Perhaps 2015 would be the soonest that the joint conference would occur. The board discussed the possibility of Western Roundup being hosted in Denver. This would be put before the membership to gauge interest and member’s support for serving on a committee. A poll will be provided on the website. Once SRMA’s support has been determined, the board will determine who to submit the proposal to. Western Roundup support will be added to the agenda for the business meeting at the Spring Conference.

Annual Plan/Bylaws

Mr. Trask will review the annual plan to determine accomplishments for the year. Mr. Trask will also resubmit the bylaws to the membership so they can be voted on at the business meeting at the Spring Conference. In order to vote on the bylaws, ¼ of the membership or 20 people voting in person or by proxy are needed. Voting electronically on the website was suggested as an option. However, the bylaws need to be changed to accomplish electronic voting. This change to the bylaws will also be addressed at the business meeting.

Outreach

Laura Ruttum introduced herself as the new archives month coordinator. She is working with Ms. Jones on a workshop for preservation week at Denver Public Library on Monday April 25th from 10:30-3:00. Five conservators have committed to attend the event. Participants will receive a short consultation from a conservator. The event will be a collaboration with the Creating Communities program at Denver Public Library, and the event will be posted on their website. Ms. Jones stated that she wanted to advertise the workshop on CWAM, SRMA, and genealogy groups websites. Cecily will also advertise the event on SRMA facebook page.

Ms. Ruttum stated that she is also working on setting up a twitter feed. She will start an “ask an archivist” service on twitter. She will ask SRMA members to participate by answering questions from the general public.

Ms. Ruttum also addressed archives month. She has received a packet from Shannon Bowen-Maier, the former archives month coordinator. As a brainstorming suggestion, Ms. Jones mentioned the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design’s project in conjunction with DU, where students visit archives and create an artist book.

Archivist Position

Ms. Lintz is retiring at the end of August. The SRMA archives are in order and a solid retention schedule has been developed. The archivist for SRMA can be anyone who volunteers, not just someone who works for the repository. The board will vote on the new archivist at the next board meeting. The collection is on long term loan at the Colorado Historical Society. However, Ms. Lintz does have a few files that need to be added, but access to the collection is closed until mid January 2012, when the Colorado Historical Society opens up again. If access is needed before then, the board can contact Keith Schrum. The matter of digital archives was discussed by the board. Ms. North suggested storing information on the website. There is plenty of server space. However physical space is still needed for the records and they will not be moved from the present institution.

Ms. Velie is retiring as newsletter editor after the coming newsletter is finished. She suggested someone takeover prior to her leaving. Mr. Trask will post the position on the listserv and Ms. North will post the position on the website.

Electronic Resources Update

Ms. North reported that there are two ad credits from Facebook and Google through GoDaddy. She sought permission to use them. The board can decide how much to pay, although an average is 30 cents a click. Though the SRMA logo is not of great quality, no one responded to the logo contest. It was decided to use the existing logo for the ad.

Ms. Ruttum will setup a twitter feed and she’ll also have administrative access to the website. Ms. North is upgrading the website to Drupal 7. The website is currently using Drupal 6. With the upgrade, board members will be able to make the settings private, with the ability to upload files. Ms. North will also add a few more items from the previous website to the new one.

SAA Webinar

Mr. Trask discussed the sponsorship of a SAA webinar with the student chapter from the University of Denver. SRMA will underwrite the webinar at $135, which will occur on April 16th. Since the board will have access to webinar for a month, it will be used in three locations: one at DU, one at a north location and one at a south location. Mr. Trask urged the board to get more involved with the student chapter. Ms. Allen made a motion to approve the webinar sponsorship. Ms. Ruttum seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously.

Old Business

Membership Update: Ms. Gray reported that there are 113 members for 2011, down from 161 in 2010.

Ms. Jones reported that there was not much activity with the C2C Advisory Board, since the writers of the Connections to Collections report received a 1-yr. Extension to submit the final document.

New Business

Ms. Ruttum does not have access to any graphic design software to design the Archives Month publicity material. Mr. Trask suggested that SRMA buy a copy of Photoshop, so that it does not burden an institution. He also questioned if an academic version would be possible to purchase. Additionally, it was brought up that SRMA should have a flash drive or portable hard drive that can be handed down to successors.

Ms. Jones suggested supplying a budget for her workshop during preservation week. She will use the funds to buy lunch for the volunteers and cover printing costs. Mr. Trask made a motion to preauthorize $100 for the preservation week workshop. It was approved unanimously.

Next Board Meeting

The date and location of the next board meeting was not determined.

Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:26 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Amy Ziegler