New England Archivists - Long Range Plan

Home > About > Business > Long Range Plan

Long Range Plan for the New England Archivists

Created June 25, 1993 by the Long Range Planning Committee: Charge and Mission Statement

A long range plan for the New England Archivists was originally developed by a special planning committee appointed by the Executive Board in 1987. The first three goal areas were chosen by the Executive Committee. The fourth was added by the committee. A final draft was discussed by the Executive Board at its January 1989 meeting and was approved to be published in the April 1989 newsletter. A standing Long Range Planning Committee has continued to review the plan and present revisions to the Board for approval since 1989.

The more general goals of the plan can be found in the objectives in each section. These objective are likely to remain in place, and activities may or may not be chosen for implementation. It is the objectives, and the choices among them, that will most clearly define NEA over the next several years.

Some activities appear more than once, which means that there are more than one reason to carry out each of them. Some activities are already being implemented but are included here to show how they fit into the overall plan. When a new activity is chosen for implementation, it will be analyzed by the Board or the LRPC to define such elements as its rationale, actors, resources needed, timetable, and audiences. Such specifics were not considered appropriate or necessary for inclusion in this plan, but they will transform it into an action plan.

I. Education

A. Definition

Education, as it relates to the mission of the New England Archivists, is the process by which the organization seeks continually to improve the intellectual, technical, and administrative knowledge and competence of its members, and of others with responsibility for, or an interest in, records of enduring value.
The basic goal of NEA in this area is to coordinate and refine existing education mechanisms and to anticipate and provide new services.

B. Objectives and Activities

Objective 1 -- Introduce principles of archival practice to individuals responsible for records of enduring value.

Activity a -- Successfully execute NHPRC funded education project

Activity b -- Building on the NHPRC project, continue to provide basic archival workshops.

Activity c -- Continue to distribute workshop materials developed during the NHPRC project.

Objective 2 -- Provide continuing education opportunities to increase archivists' knowledge of new developments in archival administration and technology.

Activity a -- Offer specialized workshops, choosing topics (e.g., automation, preservation, legal issues) on the basis of needs expressed through the NHPRC project, periodic surveys, and suggestions made informally.

Activity b -- Consider expanding and/or modifying semi-annual meetings to increase their educational value for those attending.

Activity c -- Regularly review sites of semi-annual meetings to ensure a fair geographic distribution.

Objective 3 -- Provide information about archival education opportunities in New England.

Activity a -- Add information on archival education programs to membership directory.

Activity b -- Consider holding a semi-annual meeting with the central theme of archival education in 1990 or 1991.

Activity c -- Continue publishing the education information column in the newsletter begun during the NHPRC project.

Objective 4 -- Coordinate NEA's education offerings and activities.

Activity a -- Create an education committee that includes education coordinators and other with expertise in archival education.

Activity b -- Include information about education opportunities in an expanded membership directory.

Activity c -- Continue publishing the education information column in the newsletter.

Activity d -- Write, publish, and distribute guidelines for planning and holding workshops.

Activity e -- Periodically survey education needs of NEA members.

Objective 5 -- Keep the membership informed about the procedures and requirements for SAA certification.

Activity a -- Report certification developments regularly in the newsletter.

Activity b -- Sponsor a session at proposed meeting (see Objective 3, Activity b) on preparing for certification by examination.

Objective 6 -- Evaluate NEA's education offerings.

Activity a -- Establish standard evaluation forms and procedures for all NEA workshops.

Activity b -- Include evaluation criteria, forms, and procedures in workshop guidelines (see 4d).

Objective 7 -- Improve the educational content of NEA publications.

Activity a -- Format the newsletter to be more thematic, and co-ordinate the spring and fall issues with the themes of the upcoming semi-annual meetings.

Activity b -- Add information about archival education programs in New England to the membership directory.

Activity c -- Explore the possibility of occasional publications (in addition to the newsletter) to include, e.g., texts of papers presented at semi-annual meetings, debates on topics of current archival interest, or information on new laws or public events that affect archives or archivists.

II. Research and Development

A. Definition

Research and Development entail encouraging the application and evaluation of archival concepts, standards, and tools -- both existing models/methods and new ideas -- within New England. Testing, application, and evaluation must be accompanied by forums for the exchange and discussion of new ideas and results.
Inherent in this goal is cooperation with national and regional professional groups, including those representing allied professions and related concerns (creators and users of records, for example) and those representing archivists.

The goal is to develop an environment in which the practical application and the continuing evaluation of archival concepts and practices is encouraged through cooperative ventures and the regular exchange of information. By creating a common understanding of archival practices and by recognizing the need constantly to evaluate these practices in the light of a changing society the NEA can help advance the profession.

B. Objectives and Activities

Objective 1 -- To test professional ideas and concepts.
Ideas for the profession, usually developed or promulgated at the national level, often must initially be applied within narrower geographic or institutional arenas. Through local experimentation, models can be refined and made available to larger audiences. The NEA -- representing a tightly defined region, both geographically and self-consciously -- can test concepts too broad to be carried out by a single institution or too complex to be inaugurated at the national level.

Activity a -- Undertake a regional program (similar to the education grant) to inform the membership of new professional concepts and of opportunities for testing them.

Activity b -- Bring together appropriate actors to plan possible cooperative implementation schemes (which would not, after the initial planning sessions, directly involve NEA administrative oversight),

Activity c -- Compile a database of commonly shared problems and opportunities, using the most recent membership survey, NHPRC state assessment reports, responses to the education grant and other education programs, and other existing sources. Use this to target areas of greatest need.interest, and to suggest other data-gathering needs.

Activity d -- Consider special publications, including regional repository guides.

Activity e -- The newsletter should regularly highlight grant opportunities and research in progress. The NHPRC state coordinators should help supply this information.

Activity f -- Exchange newsletter with other national and regional archival groups and publish in the NEA newsletter information on how these groups perceive and address their needs.

Activity g -- Bring together creators and users of records with selected archivists to build upon the documentation areas outlined in the New England issue of The American Archivist.

Activity h -- Make documentation of specific subject areas the focus of a semi-annual meeting.

Objective 2 -- Provide a forum for formal and informal exchanges of ideas and information among archivists in the region. Most of the members of any professional organization agree that the opportunities for contact with colleagues is among the most important services the organization can provide. These contact can be made through both the formal programs of NEA and its newsletter and through the informal, one-to-one contacts made in social or unstructured time.

Activity a -- Continue current forums at semi-annual meetings, including sessions that provide professional ideas and information, time for informal professional contacts, and formal discussion sessions concerning NEA activities.

Activity b -- Continue NEA newsletter as a forum for the dissemination of information, publicizing archival programs in the region, developing new features, including an events calendar.

Activity c -- Continue publication of the NEA directory and develop new features, such as the guide to regional archives.

Activity d -- Develop new publications, including a guide to regional archives.

Activity e -- Further develop means of informing the membership about special projects in area repositories; for example, a special column in the newsletter reporting on consultation projects.

Activity f -- Establish new programs sponsored by NEA to appeal to various segments of the association; for example, encourage and help NEA members to sponsor local forums and special one-time programs within their own communities.

Activity g -- Encourage non-member archivists in the region to join NEA by providing membership brochures for distribution to students in local academic programs and to those attending allied professional meetings, and by contacting new archivists in the region.

Objective 3 -- Encourage cooperation with other professional groups. It is essential to look within and beyond New England to see what concepts are being worked on by other archival and allied professional organizations. For example, it is important to keep the membership informed about, and for the NEA to have a role in, development of a national documentary heritage program, and to keep the membership informed about concepts and practices being used by allied professional groups locally and nationally that might have archival applications or have implications for the future of records creation and use.

Activity a -- Establish mechanisms for information exchange with other professional groups, e.g., through the exchange of newsletter or through joint meetings.

Activity b -- Identify practices of other professional groups with implications for archival concepts. For example, as the approach of oral historians parallels many of the components of documentation strategy, a joint meeting with the New England Association of Oral History might lead to coordinated efforts.

Activity c -- Establish a mechanism to inform NEA members about useful publications available from allied professional groups; for example, the Preservation Resource Directory published by the Boston Library Consortium.

Objective 4 -- Establish a mechanism to solicit, review and recommend action on special research and publication projects. Preference would be given to projects encouraging joint ventures over individual inquiries, showing broad participation or demonstrating measurable support within the organization, and promising results appealing primarily to the membership rather than the public. (1/8/93)

Activity a -- Request that the Executive Board establish a Task Force on Research and Development to serve for a period up to three years which would have a core mission of soliciting, reviewing and recommending action on projects, and which would have the charge of investigating the feasibility of establishing a permanent committee.

Activity b -- The Task Force shall be required to develop a charge and mission statement by the third year for Board approval for the permanent committee if it becomes feasible.

III. Advocacy/Outreach

A. Definitions

Both advocacy and outreach entail archivists talking to non-archivists. Advocacy stresses the needs of archivists and archival programs and institutions; outreach stresses their usefulness to others, within an institution and outside of it.
The basic goal is to make archival institutions an established, recognized element in New England political, institutional, cultural, and intellectual life, as well as recognized as libraries or museums.

B. Objectives and Activities

1. Advocacy
Objective 1 -- Help save (as the need arises) or establish archival programs in specific institutions or types of institutions (e.g., hospitals, cities, banks, museums). As the primary association of professional archivists in New England, NEA should use its influence to save archival programs whose existence is threatened, and to promote the establishment of programs in areas in which there are uncollected records and/or undocumented subjects or events.

Activity a -- Establish and publicize a mechanism for acting as advocate for archival departments in danger of extinction or archivists in danger of termination. (Each case to be considered on its merits.)

Activity b -- Create meeting programs aimed at administrators of, for example, hospitals, museums, banks and cities, to convince them of the importance of archival programs. Present the programs at the professional meetings of these administrators.

Activity c -- Work with Boston and other ARMA chapters (e.g., through joint meetings) to encourage the establishment of archival programs in appropriate institutions that have records management programs.

Activity d -- Produce (or find and adapt) and distribute a brochure describing why institutions and organizations need to preserve their records of enduring value.

Activity e -- Write articles for professional journals of, for example, hospitals, museums, banks, cities, about the value of archival programs.

Objective 2 -- Monitor and influence legislation in the six New England states that affects records creation, regulation or preservation. In some cases, a state legislature may try to enact legislation detrimental to public or private archives, or detrimental to access to records; with sufficient awareness, NEA might help to prevent passage of such laws. In other cases, legislation useful to archives may be needed, and NEA, alone or with allied groups, might initiate or support it.

Activity a -- Appoint a committee of six (one for each New England state) to monitor state legislation that affects records creation, regulation, or preservation.

Activity b -- Create a mechanism with the Board for influencing legislators.

Activity c -- Publicize in the newsletter legislation news and encourage archivists to contact their legislators.

Objective 3 -- Increase membership in NEA and other professional organizations concerned with preserving our documentary heritage so as to strengthen the voice of the profession. A larger membership can mean more influence; it can also mean greater awareness of developments in archival institutions, legislation, etc., and wider dissemination of knowledge or archival principles and practices.

Activity a -- Continue to have NEA brochures available at BAG and NEA meetings.

Activity b -- Have NEA brochures available at meetings of allied professionals (e.g., ARMA, AASLH, Bay State Historical League, Special Libraries Association).

Activity c -- Send mailing to members of allied professions inviting them to join NEA.

Activity d -- Send mailings to library schools in New England who teach archival management courses and encourage them to have their students join NEA.

Activity e -- Target professors in New England who teach archival management courses and encourage them to have their students join NEA.

Activity f -- Enhance NEA members' awareness of related professional organizations by making membership information available at NEA meetings, publishing information in the newsletter, and having sessions at NEA meetings.

Objective 4 -- Improve working conditions and/or salaries in general or in specific programs. Although NEA is not a union or guild, its growing and informed membership, and its ties to the SAA and other archival organizations, can give its pronouncements about salaries and working conditions some weight. Thus it should consider supporting principles or standards pertaining to archivists as employees.

Activity a -- Conduct a salary survey of NEA members; publish results in the newsletter.

Activity b -- Establish a recommended minimum salary range for beginning professionals.

Activity c -- Act as clearing house for information on requirements of archival programs.

2. Outreach

Objective 1 -- Promote public understanding of what archival institutions are, have, and do by directing activities at defined audiences to whom NEA's message on the value of archival institutions to society will have a positive and useful impact, and which effectively make use of NEA's resources. (4/30/93)

Activity a -- Continuing exhibiting at the "Big E".

Activity b -- Create, or locate and adapt, a video about the value and use of archival records for local cable television stations.

Activity c -- Produce or locate a poster promoting the value and use of archival records to be placed in buses, subways, libraries, colleges, schools, etc.

Activity d -- Give lectures at town libraries on the value and use of archival records.

Activity e -- Explore the possibility of having NEA members give lectures on archival topics through the State Humanities Councils.

Activity f -- Prepare sample press releases for use by local arrangement committees and others to publicize NEA events.

Objective 2 -- The Outreach Committee shall work to locate and describe audiences of potential users who would benefit from NEA activities that promote the use of archival materials. The Committee should aim to publicize the wide range of repositories, collections, and items to these potential users in a way that make effective use of NEA resources. (4/30/93)

Activity a -- Devote an NEA meeting and/or workshop to outreach and use.

Activity b -- Invite more members of the user community to speak at NEA meetings on what records they used and how they used them.

Activity c -- Survey New England repositories to find out about how they do outreach and how their collections are used. Publish results in the newsletter.

Activity d -- Explore the feasibility of establishing a regional data base of information about archival holdings in New England repositories.

Activity e -- Explore the feasibility of creating a guide to archival/ manuscript repositories in New England.

Activity f -- Write articles for the professional journals of other appropriate professions about significant holdings.

Activity g -- Cooperate in and publicize national and local efforts to study use and users.

IV. Administration

A. Definition

As NEA undertakes more projects or functions, it becomes necessary to involve more members actively. This positive development makes it more difficult to maintain adequate communication and a well-functioning institutional memory.

B. General Objectives and Activities

Objective 1 -- Improve communication among past, present, and future NEA officers and active members.

Activity a -- Put together a committee manual that includes job descriptions for officers, and terms, missions, and procedures for committees; this should be modelled on the manual of the Midwest Archives Conference and each copy kept in a loose-leaf notebook.

Activity b -- Find an institution that is willing to provide a permanent address and telephone number for NEA.

Activity c -- The Board shall charge the Secretary to produce an administrative handbook by gathering and reproducing all summaries, references and other appropriate information relating to the corporate status, official policies and procedural rules and guidelines of the association.

Activity d -- The Board shall establish a committee to plan and carry out celebratory events relating to the twentieth anniversary of the founding of NEA.

Objective 2 -- Improve communication among all NEA members and between NEA and the outside world.

Activity a -- Find an institution that is willing to provide a permanent address and telephone number for NEA.

Activity b -- Set up a task force to explore the feasibility of hiring a part-time executive secretary. (adopted 6/25/93)

Activity c -- Add such information as the by-laws, current officers and committees, a calendar of NEA events, and historical information to the membership directory, making it a members handbook (see 3e).

Activity d -- Publish, or continue to publish, NEA budgets, financial statements, and decisions of the executive board in the newsletter.

Objective 3 -- Encourage active participation by more members, especially new members. For NEA this would mean more person-hours to accomplish tasks chosen as high priorities; for active members their involvement would be both educational and satisfying.

Activity a -- Establish a membership committee to recruit members, welcome those who join, and investigate members' needs, talents, expertise, and availability.

Activity b -- Hold regular new-member orientations at semi-annual NEA meetings. Consider special name tags for new members.

Activity c -- Regularly announce the time and place of executive board meetings and remind members that these meetings are open. Also announce time and place of other open meetings.

Activity d -- Announce new members (listing names and institutions) in the newsletter.

Activity e -- Develop a members' handbook that includes the membership directory; by-laws; current officers' current committees, with chairs and perhaps other members; calendar of NEA events; awards and past winners; lists of past officers and of past meeting dates, locations, and themes; and a membership application, or copy of the NEA brochure.

Activity f -- Add a geographical index to the membership directory.

Activity g -- Periodically review the criteria for NEA awards, refine them as necessary, and publicize the awards regularly in the newsletter and at meetings.

Activity h -- Increase endowments for NEA awards.

Activity i -- Encourage the president-elect to work with chairs in coordinating information on committee openings and to post these positions in the newsletter with typical duties and assignments.

Activity j -- Encourage standing committees to publicize agenda and hold at least one open business meeting at a regular semi-annual meeting of the organization.

Objective 4 -- The Board shall endeavor to conduct a regular review of aspects of its administration, leadership, structure, operating procedures and organizational goals with the aim of identifying areas of improvement.

Activity a -- The Board will review and attempt to clarify areas of responsibility, lines of accountability and other procedural requirements of its officers and committees, particularly where such distinctions are not currently part of the administrative rules of the organization.

C. Newsletter Objectives and Activities (adopted 6/25/93)

The Newsletter has two roles in the organization: a reactive role and a proactive role. Many NEA committees refer to the Newsletter in their plan objectives and activities. Rather than subsume these specific objectives and activities in its own plan, the Newsletter editors determined that the Newsletter, in its reactive role, would respond to requests for involvement on an as needed basis. The Newsletter's plan below reflects in a general way this reactive, supportive function, but also states out the Newsletter's proactive role.
Objective 1 -- Enhance communication among members.

Activity a -- Develop closer ties with committees by seeking their ideas about how the Newsletter can further their goals and objectives.

Activity b -- Explore the possibility of thematic issues to coordinate with committees' needs or with semi-annual meetings.

Objective 2 -- Strengthen relationships with archival organizations and allied groups.

Activity a -- Encourage the reprinting of NEA news in their publications, and reprint items from their publications.

Activity b -- Experiment with a column to highlight information from allies, including introducing allied organizations, presenting common or conflicting concerns, or resources.

Objective 3 -- Improve administrative practices.

Activity a -- Set guidelines for uniform length requirements for Newsletter components (session reports, committee reports, etc.).

Activity b -- Establish editing policy to determine how much editing will be done on Newsletter components.

Activity c -- Make efforts to obtain more submissions in electronic format.

Activity d -- Develop a comprehensive manual that would include the editorial policy, style book, procedures for components, and mailing instructions.

Activity e -- Begin the practice of using columnists drawn from NEA membership to write and submit components of the Newsletter and periodic columns.