Hi,
In light of the world around us, the Capital Area Archivists have not been very publicly active lately. However, the CAA Board has still been meeting remotely at times to try and sort out how CAA should function in our current environment.
In light of the world around us, the Capital Area Archivists have not been very publicly active lately. However, the CAA Board has still been meeting remotely at times to try and sort out how CAA should function in our current environment.
We found the existing CAA Constitution assumes that we regularly meet in-person, contains a lot of administrative overhead for a small organization, and is a bit overly-formal. So, for the past year or so, the CAA officers have been working on redrafting the CAA’s rules into a new set of Bylaws, as well as introducing a Code of Conduct.
We are now asking for your feedback on the new documents:
Capital Area Archivists Bylaws
Capital Area Archivists Code of Conduct
Procedures for Responding to Violations of the Code of Conduct
These were the principles or goals that guided the revisions and were the reasons for the major changes:
- To make CAA more remote-friendly and easier to administer without meeting in-person.
- To de-formalize the bylaws and ensure that they are feasible to follow.
- To reduce the number of officers, making it easier for positions to rotate regularly.
- To make CAA more inclusive and welcoming, particularly to individuals or groups who have not participated in CAA in the past.
- To make it easier to hold smaller professional development events when there is interest, while preserving the annual Archives Dinner that has helped sustain CAA in the past when it is safe and appropriate to do so.
- Finally, to accommodate both periods of energy and slack. I think all of us alternate periods where we’re excited to serve and support professional organizations with periods when we are overwhelmed and have no capacity to contribute. With that in mind, we reduced the regular operating needs as much as possible, and documented a list of “minimum annual business” to help sustain CAA through fallow periods.
You are encouraged to comment on the documents directly, and we are also holding an open Zoom meeting to discuss the changes on Thursday, February 10th, at 2pm. The full invite is below, and you can register here: https://albany.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqc-2trz4pHtHwgBU4d-K6jWDZQe69YsD0
We hope that once we incorporate your feedback, if the reaction is generally positive to hold a vote on this major revision according to the existing Constitution. If the measured are eventually approved, the term of the current Board will end and new elections will be held according to the new Bylaws.
Best, Greg
Greg Wiedeman
CAA President