Booker will research how many have used PayPal versus checks and report to the Board. Tracking these totals will help with planning credit card fees expenses for next year’s budget.

Archivist:
Archivist Suzanne Durham was not present, but submitted a written report. She has created a draft retention schedule and series description for SGA and e-mailed them to the Board.

Christine de Catanzaro asked Board members to look through the series and give Suzanne Durham feedback for the area that pertains to your committee or office. Send comments to Durham by e-mail before the next Board meeting. Further discussion was postponed until the next Board meeting. 

Administrative Assistant:

Administrative Assistant Mandi Johnson reported that current membership (as of April 27, 2009) stands at 214, including 24 new members for 2009. She mailed membership renewals in mid-February. Johnson said that people were late in renewing, but membership numbers overall are good this year.

Scholarship fund gifts for 2009 stand at $735, compared to $925 one year ago.

President:
President Christine de Catanzaro’s major activity in February-April was to seek sponsors in U.S. House for PAHR legislation. Actions included sending a letter to John Lewis (U.S. Rep., 4^th District - Georgia) on behalf of SGA in support of PAHR. She also sent an email to Jack Hill (Georgia Senate – Chair of Appropriations Committee) on behalf of SGA in support of funding for Capital tours. She lobbied SGA Board and listserv and faxed letters to all Georgia Congressmen on behalf of SGA to seek sponsors for the PAHR bill.

Christine de Catanzaro will represent SGA at the 24^th Annual Governor’s Awards in the Humanities Luncheon on May 7, 2009, with SGA Past President, Vice President/President Elect and Newsletter Editor. She will also represent SGA at Georgia Archives Institute in June.

PUBLICATIONS REPORTS

Provenance:
Editor Brian Wilson reported:

1.      2008 issue of Provenance in final editing and should be ready to go to press in the next two weeks.   

2.      Communicated with Chad Freeman, EBSCO serials coordinator, about new data for the 2009 issue.  Will forward it to him as soon as issue printed.

3.      Microfilming of past issues pushed back until next year.

4.      New Editorial Board Members for term 2009-2011 (to be approved by Board vote): Laura M. Botts, Jennifer A. Marshall, Kaye L. Minchew, Martin T. Olliff.

5.      William Hardesty is currently serving on the Board with term to end in 2010.  He has agreed to extend his term as an Associate Editor.

6.      Managing Editor, Copy Editor and Associate Editor Positions are still open.

7.      Call will go out in next couple of weeks for additional articles to go in the 2009 issue.

Christine de Catanzaro commented it is nice to hear that we will be so close to catching up with the issues. Agreement for the Board.

Christine de Catanzaro also noted that Brian Wilson has asked that we keep the SGA support committee going (started when we were looking at Susan Hoffius leaving).  She asked Wilson to let committee members know when they can help.

Newsletter:
Renna Tuten introduced Caroline Hopkinson, the new Associate/Apprentice Editor who will take over as Editor with the Fall 2009 issue. She also reported:

1.      Posted the current issue of the SGA Newsletter 41:1 (Spring 2009) to the SGA website, and notified members on April 6. 

a.      This was the first issue to be created using Wild Apricot interface.  Easy to access and edit by multiple people. 

b.      Page format is now smaller, especially with advertising in right margin.  May need to reconsider where advertising placed.

2.      Planning to interview ex-presidents, founding members of SGA for 40^th anniversary issue.

3.      In discussion with several companies about purchasing ad space.

4.      Advertising Subcommittee has not met yet, but will coordinate scheduling with Annual Meeting Directors to do planning for next year.

5.      Tuten will take photos at the Georgia Humanities Luncheon and Spring Workshop for the Newsletter. 

Website:
Website Editor Abby Griner reported:

1.      SGA website completely transferred to Wild Apricot. 

a.      Several Board members successfully used it to do website updates.

2.      Duties for SGA weblog, Facebook and Flickr account transferred to Membership Committee.

3.      Inserting code on new website for tracking visitors.

Griner asked SGA Board members to let her know if they see anything missing from the SGA website since the transfer to Wild Apricot.

Listserv:
Listserv Manager Jeffery Seymour was not present, but submitted a written report. He updated list members based on membership status and conducted other routine management of the SGA lists. Transfer of listserv function to Wild Apricot has not happened yet.

Subscriptions Manager:
Subscriptions Manager Traci Drummond reported that she processed 4 subscription renewals, for a total of 25 subscribers as of April 27, 2009. We are way below the 60 renewals in 2008. Hoping subscriptions will come up when 2008 issue is out. 

Discussion followed about subscription number down, with general agreement that cancellations are happening as libraries cut budgets and are now getting Provenance full text from EBSCO and abstracts through CLIO database subscriptions. Elizabeth Russey commented that the databases give us good exposure, but we are losing money. Jody Thompson agreed, but noted that libraries have never been our major focus for subscriptions.

Drummond also responded to two Provenance claims.  She e-mailed Newsletter 41:1 (Spring 2009) to institutional subscribers and submitted it to Georgia Tech for the dark archives. 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Archives Month Liaison:

Georgia Archives Month Co-Chair Katherine Shirley reported that this year’s theme is “Quench your thirst for history.”

The poster image is a 1941 Coca-Cola ad “Work Refreshed.” Poster designer for this year is Felicia Johnson at the Digital Library of Georgia, who will also assist with choosing printer and paper options. In process of creating new and less complicated mailing list. Not all SGA members will get poster, just institutions. Will be mailing thousands less posters this year.

Ready for submission of GAM events to SGA website page.

Confirmed sponsors are GHRAB, Georgia Archives, Coca-Cola, Walter H. Hopkins Company, The Metal Edge and Digital Library of Georgia.

Christine de Catanzaro will arrange usual SGA funding of GAM this year.

Education Committee:
Education Committee Chair Elizabeth Russey reported that the Spring workshop “Grant Writing for Archivists” will take place on May 8, 2009, at the Georgia Archives. Grants instructor is Jack Smith.

Prices were set low, but registration is slower than expected. As of April 28, 2009, 20 people have registered: 8 are non-members. To save on costs, workshop was advertised on various listservs rather then mailing a print brochure. Workshop costs to date: $845 (budgeted $1120).

Christine de Catanzaro suggested with the number of non-members registered, a brief description of SGA before start of workshop and SGA pencils as give-aways.

Membership:
Membership Committee Chair Jody Thompson reported that the committee met in February and April.

Recruitment letters were sent out and membership renewal reminder sent to 3 listservs. Non-renewal members were deleted from Wild Apricot as of April 16. Welcome letters sent to 19 new members as of April 27. Possible social gathering is a tour at the Fox Theatre. Committee Member Katherine Shirley will attend the Georgia Archives Institute presentation.

Jody Thompson will not be able to attend SAA this year due to Georgia Tech’s travel budget reductions. Courtney Chartier and Traci Drummond volunteered to assist with SGA Office Hours and Happy Hour at SAA. 

Thompson will contact SAA about SGA activities and coordinate with Chartier and Drummond. 

Scholarship:
Committee Chair Courtney Chartier reported that the Carroll Hart Scholarship was awarded to Donnie Summerlin of UGA out of pool of five applicants. Issue with mail delivery delay led to changing recommended delivery by fax and e-mail on website and applications. The Brenda S. Banks scholarship was awarded to Carol Waggoner-Angleton of Augusta State University. Chartier is working on a Web form to replace application.

Discussion followed about scholarship fund donations down this year. General agreement that economy and change to online registration are impacting donations, even though Jamal Booker sent an e-mail to the SGA listserv reminding people to continue to donate to scholarships while switching from mail to online membership renewal.

Jamal Booker will look into combining scholarships into one account, as recommended by Elizabeth Barr in a recent conversation, and changing from checking to different account. Mandi Johnson recommended checking minutes from couple of years ago for discussion about scholarship accounts. They were previously in money market accounts.

Marie Force will assist with locating pertinent minutes if not found on SGA website.

Nominating:
Nominating Committee Chair Morna Gerrard reported the committee met on March 18 and went through the SGA Handbook and made some changes for Board vote.

Brenda Banks suggested by e-mail that SGA members who are already SAA Fellows be automatically grandfathered in as SGA Fellows. Committee is contacting SAA for SAA Fellows List as a starting point.

Outreach Committee met on April 30. Brainstormed ideas for encouraging people to attend the annual meeting. Included annual meeting/Savannah information on a blog and Facebook and writing a column for the newsletter, called “Penny Pincher.” Accumulated a list of other professional groups to contact re: annual meeting. Will work with Local Arrangements, Programs and 40^th Anniversary Committees to make not duplicating efforts.

Will continue to represent SGA on the Healthy Collections Initiative Advisory Committee. Next meeting in July. 

Gerrard also thanked Board members who helped place Georgia Archives Institute interns.

Jamal Booker suggested just using SGA blog instead of creating a separate Annual Meeting Blog. Teresa Burk encouraged closely working together on Annual Meeting plans due to very conservative room block reserved this year. Elizabeth Russey also noted that we need to do heavy outreach to the Southeast region. Christine de Catanzaro suggested that if this arrangement of Local Arrangements, Programs, Membership and Nominating Committees working together closely on annual meeting is useful, can keep as permanent arrangement. Teresa Burk agreed with any arrangement that helps get the word out.

2008 Annual Meeting: Program
First Year Director Lynette Stoudt reported Program Committee met on February 18. Secured keynote speaker. Forwarded annual meeting information to Abby for inclusion on website. Assisted in drafting annual meeting information for newsletter. Committee members made final selection of session topics via Survey Monkey. Began selecting/contacting speakers for two sessions.

Stoudt asked Board members to send her any speaker recommendations. She will contact proposed speakers and finalize schedule by end of May.

Other Board members encouraged Stoudt to send out “save the date” card as quickly as possible even if all speakers not finalized. Will highlight the keynote speaker.

2008 Annual Meeting: Local Arrangements

Second Year Director Teresa Burk reported another person has withdrawn from the Local Arrangements Committee. She is waiting on new menus from the Hilton with updated pricing. The 40^th Anniversary Committee and Education Committee will use the catering services as well, and we will coordinate our food selections in the coming months.

Burk asked Board members to let her know of any space needs for break-out groups.

Discussion followed about PR for the annual meeting. Teresa Burk proposed a “save the date” postcard to and asked that the SGA website also contain this information to promote conference early. We would then roll-out an online brochure using the SGA website, instead of usual print brochure to save money. Brochure would be more functional than just a print brochure posted online as a PDF.

Elizabeth Russey suggested a poster to send to institutions. Membership Committee has list of institutions. Morna Gerrard and Jody Thompson suggested a flier instead. Teresa is interested in looking at costs and timing. Morna  Gerrard recommended sending out postcard/poster/flyer early and then something later again. Elizabeth Russey noted that SAA does that all the time, so no problem. Katherine Shirley recommended the Georgia Archives Month poster designer for the work, or even if you just need an opinion. Jamal Booker also suggested to save money, could make the postcard printable in a larger size from website if anyone wanted to post on a bulletin board. Traci Drummond suggested being aggressive with e-mail updates also; she has been organizing lots of events lately and it gave her good results.

Teresa Burk reported that vendor solicitation is going well even with raise in vendor table fees. Board members suggested vendors to contact, including Walter H. Hopkins Company, Beehive Press and E. Shaver.  Jody Thompson will send Burk list of vendors from the membership list.

Burk also asked about what we can give vendors in return. Renna Tuten said we can give advertising space in the SGA Newsletter.

2009 Local Arrangements Budget was set at $10,200.  2009 DeSoto Hilton commitments are $11,774.  Education and 40^th Anniversary Committees will be using their budgets toward the DeSoto contract.

40^th Anniversary:

Susan Potts McDonald was absent. Teresa Burk reported that the 40^th Anniversary Committee had its first meeting at the Georgia Archives. Research was done for an online timeline of SGA history.

Christine de Catanzaro will ask Susan Potts McDonald to circulate a written report by e-mail to the Board.

OLD BUSINESS

Forms Forum updates:
Traci Drummond reported we will get e-mail permission from any repository submitting their forms to the online Forms Forum instead of using a lengthy form. Created a gmail account for the Forms Forum: sga.forms@gmail.com Wrote a small update for the SGA Newsletter Spring issue. Sent an e-mail soliciting forms from SGA members. Created temporary Forms Forum Web page visible only to administration.

Per Abby Griner the Web Forum page can be made accessible to the general public without a password.

Mentor/Mentee Program:

Jody Thompson reported that the Membership Committee will use (and credit) the Northwest Archivists’ mentor/mentee program concept. Working on forms, program details. Do not think this program should stay with the Membership Committee, instead will recommend committee to be formed at the Annual Meeting. Sent out e-mail to SGA members interested in becoming mentors and had a good response.

Advertising Package Sub-committee:

Renna Tuten asked to postpone progress report until July.

Approval of Provenance Board members:

Brian Wilson moved that the Provenance Board add four new members (as listed earlier under Provenance in Publications Reports) and formally make Bill Hardesty an Associate Editor. Motion passed unanimously.

Proposal for SGA retention schedules:

Discussion postponed until July due to absence of Suzanne Durham. 

Before the next Board meeting, Board members should give Susanne Durham feedback about the draft retention schedule she e-mailed.

Education Fund Sub-Committee updates:

Report from Elizabeth Russey postponed until July.

Updates to Administrative Handbook and Bylaws:

Christine de Catanzaro reported that further research found that Bylaw changes require approval from two-third of the Board. Changes to the Administrative Handbook also require Board approval.

In the Handbook, the Gracy award is listed as $100, but correct amount is $200.  Change approved by Board.

The Board approved Jamal Booker’s addition to the Treasurer duties in Handbook: Cashes all checks written to SGA within 30 days of receipt to SGA P.O. Box.  Booker will send Abby Griner the exact language.

Morna Gerrard said Nominating Committee changes in Handbook are driven by changes from paper to electronic ballots. After discussion as summarized below, approval of changes to Nominating Committee entry in the Handbook was postponed until July.

Mandi Johnson and Morna Gerrard will coordinate list of who does not provide an e-mail in the membership directory and call them and explain opportunity to vote by e-mail and see if they can reduce list of paper ballots to be mailed. Abby Griner noted that we can make the e-mail addresses in individual profiles hidden in the directory if the member wants that privacy. 

Morna Gerrard also noted that although we want to encourage electronic voting, the ultimate goal is to make sure each member gets a chance to vote; agreement from all present.

Transition to Wild Apricot:

Abby Griner gave a short demonstration of how the new SGA website operates in Wild Apricot and how Board members can update the site themselves. Griner asked that Board members just keep her updated before any big changes made to website.

Elizabeth Russey suggested an ad hoc committee formed to upgrade the look & feel of the website.

Abby Griner will put out a call to SGA members with Web design/experience who want to join the ad hoc committee. She will also add to the Webmaster description in Handbook that the Web Editor is responsible for keeping the SGA website homepage up to date.

Abby Griner will research e-mail accounts. May have to set up a gmail account for the Board. Jamal Booker said one person should set up new e-mail accounts for all positions, groups that need them. Suggested Jeffery Seymour as list manager to also manage e-mail account set-up. General agreement from Board.

Christine de Catanzaro will inform Jeffery Seymour about e-mail account responsibility if new accounts are set up.

Several Board members expressed dislike of  words “wild apricot” included in website name, and asked about keeping soga.org name because it sounds more professional. Elizabeth Russey noted all our brochures and other public relations materials have soga.org on them. General agreement from Board that we want to keep the soga.org website name indefinitely.

Abby Griner, Jamal Booker and Jody Thompson will investigate together the issues of the website and report back to Board. May be possible to get a smaller package price for original domain name, e-mail addresses and listserv accounts without hosting the website, as suggested by Jamal Booker. Griner will also check on issues a couple people reported to Christine de Catanzaro and Mandi Johnson with sending mail to the President and Administrative Assistant e-mail addresses.

There was general consensus from the Board that we prefer the Handbook as a PDF instead of sections of Web pages.

NEW BUSINESS

Possible Venues for Annual Meeting 2010:
Lynette Stoudt asked for suggestions on venues to investigate for next year’s Annual Meeting. Suggestions included: Kennesaw, Spelman, Morehouse, Macon. Elizabeth Russey suggested maybe a co-conference with other local organizations, like the Southern Carolina Archival Association. Location would then have to be on the states’ border. Susan Hoffius from Provenance Board and Jennifer Marshall at USC suggested contacts. Christine de Catanzaro agreed good idea to explore partnership option.

Lynette Stoudt will explore venues in Atlanta and Macon and partnership option with South Carolina Archival Association.

Proposal re: cashing checks of SGA membership:

This business already discussed. See Updates to Administrative Handbook and Bylaws under Old Business.

Office Hours/Happy Hour at SAA:

This business already discussed. See Membership under Committee Report.

Timetable for scholarship applications to Georgia Archives Institute:

Morna Gerrard brought up the subject of changing the deadline date for the Carroll Hart scholarship to create a better timetable for the GAI Board. Courtney Chartier agreed to make the appropriate changes.

Bulk mail stamp application

Katherine Shirley reported that Georgia Archives Month Committee planned to apply for bulk mail stamp in GAM name for 2010 (this year a sponsor already paid for postage). Costs: $185 application fee and $185 annual fee, but will greatly cut down GAM mailing costs. Bulk mailing requires more than 200 pieces, under 2 pounds and presorted by zip codes.

Teresa Burk and Elizabeth Russey said Annual Meeting mailings are about 200 pieces. Christine de Catanzaro suggested maybe Provenance mailings too.

Board did not see problem with applying for bulk mail application in SGA name for use by GAM and other SGA mailings because for non-profit mailing status you have to be incorporated like SGA. GAM is under umbrella of SGA.

Christine de Catanzaro said if GAM is considering becoming totally a part of SGA, then we will need to go through the Bylaws and survey the membership. She asked Katherine Shirley to think about it and explore for next year.

Provenance to electronic format:

Jody Thompson suggested publishing Provenance as an electronic journal only to save $1500 printing and $500 shipping costs. Provenance is stored in the Georgia Tech dark archives and could be linked to the SGA website. We would treat institutional subscriptions like we do SGA Newsletter subscriptions with password-protected access to current issue.

Questions were raised about how this change would affect SGA partnership with EBSCO and perception of journal’s academic status and affect on article submissions. Several Board members said that if Provenance was all-electronic, it should be more than just posting back issues. Should also add images, discussions, etc.

Christine de Catanzaro said the Provenance sub-committee will investigate issues and options and report back.

Marketing the 2009 Annual Meeting:

This business already discussed. See Annual Meeting: Local Arrangements under Committee Reports.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Elizabeth Russey asked everyone to come out to see the Alice Walker exhibit now open at Emory University.

The next Board Meeting will be July 24 at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.

ADJOURNMENT
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:17 p.m.

ADDENDUM TO MINUTES

On June 15, 2009, Christine de Catanzaro made a motion by e-mail to donate $500 to Georgia Archives Month as budgeted. Motion unanimously approved.

Respectfully submitted on July 23, 2009,

Marie Force
SGA Secretary