Possible session ideas for the next SAA Annual Meeting--deadline is October 8.

1. Real World Skills They Didn't Teach Me in Library School (Stasia and Heather)
Possible topics--negotiating skills (for salaries, budgets, etc), management/budgeting, possibly supervising, fundraising, working with volunteers too.
Approach Archival Management or Lone Arrangers for suggestions, co/sponsorship?

2. Diversity of Viewpoints on Challenge to the Sustainability of the Profession (Stasia, Kate, Dana)
A panel composed of people at different points in their careers--recent grad, someone who's been employed for under 3 years, a manager responsible for hiring, someone who's left the profession and someone who is considering leaving. Each talks about what challenges they see . . .
Note--I've got a friend who'd been willing to talk about her experience taking a big pay cut in order to get a foot in the door at the National Archives, if you'd be interested in that perspective.
Not sure we can find people to actually talk honestly about this stuff, but it would be great.
Approach Archival Management, other co-sponsors? Get someone from state archives (try New York) to emphasize CoSA angle.

Could this be combined with #5 to make one really strong proposal? [h]
I'm in favor of combining this one with #5. [stasia]
I am also- more below. [kathleen]

3. How to Advocate for the Archival Profession to Non-Professionals (Peter and Kate)
Tips on how to make the argument for archival advocacy to influence makers.
Possible speakers:
- Lee White (NCH): Lobbying at the national level from a professional lobbyist's perspective. (not yet contacted)
- Kathleen Roe: Organizing and lobbying for PAHR from an archivist's perspective (Kathleen is in--she was already planning on doing something like this so we're joining forces)
- Advocating at State Level: suggestion we find someone from New Jersey--(Speaker confirmed--he's a past president of CoSA, so that should help too)
- Possibly someone from ALA Advocacy Office as moderator or speaker?

During the I&A meeting, wasn't there a suggestion to add a speaker that talked about how to advocate from the ground up? (I think there was mention of someone from U-W Madison, if memory serves). I think that could be a really interesting session. [h]

I'll follow up with Nancy on who she was talking about--it was someone who spoke at the Leadership Institute. [k]

I'm working with Kathleen on getting a moderator and another speaker. We might contact the editor of the forthcoming SAA book on advocacy. (Kate)

4. Sustaining the profession by attracting a more ethnically and socio-economically diverse workforce (Anna and Christina)
Diversity, outreach to the K-12/minority students, provide role models, etc. [question here is, are there any positive examples of such a program?]
Reference, Access, and Outreach roundtable may be able to help with this.
Also contact Terry about Diversity Committee help.

The diversity committee has been asked to endorse one other session, but this one looks interesting as well. If it was me, I'd think about breaking this into three pieces for a session. 1. why is the profession (along with the librarians and curators) so undiverse right now? Elizabeth Adkins AA article would be a good start, but some analysis of why we are so middle-aged, female, and white could be useful in figuring out how to change it. 2. Take a look at what's being done now. The SAA Brochure Task Force (to create recruitment materials) is a good example of good intentions but a generation gapped message. The First Person Match project is another approach that might yield results. 3. What could be done to increase diversity? One possibility would be jumping on the archivist activist bandwagon and pitching the profession as a social justice profession instead of an information profession or an accoutability profession. Some random thoughts. (t)

I agree with Terry-- analysis of these factors may help, and I think that's a good place to start in forming a proposal. We may also want to talk about upper administration in archives and special collections, and the even-less-diverse nature of archival leadership: overwhelmingly white, male, and older. [h]

Good point - a session that talked about the difference between members and leaders in re diversity would be very interesting. (t)


5. You Want What?! Bridging the Expectations Gap Between Archival Generations (Kate, Kheir, Dana)
Setting salary and other expectations - bridging the gap between young archivists and upper management. Essentially, people coming into the profession now have very different expectations than their predecessors did--how can we all learn to respect that and get along?
Possible tie-in in Archival Managment roundtable here

Two manager speakers
Two new archivist speakers

Some of the other topics within this session could be : educational and experience expectations (and how they have changed, for better or worse), changing expectations of practice and theory in the field, differences between those who have been in the field w/practical experience for a decade vs. a graduate education. Ideas? I'm sure there are more issues out there! [h]