[Archivesspace_Users_Group] ArchivesSpace board update

[Laurie Arp]

Distributing for Carol Mandel...


Dear ArchivesSpace members,

I am writing to report on the ArchivesSpace Governance Board 3rd Quarter meeting, which was held in Chicago on March 19th.

We were pleased to welcome back John Wilkin, who represents partner institution University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bill Mischo had been representing UIUC in John's place while he served as interim provost. We appreciate Bill's service and insight over the past year.

We reviewed the continued excellent work of the Technical Advisory Council and User Advisory Council and thank the members for their dedicated participation. The Nominating Committee, chaired by Gordon Daines, is also continuing its strong work in preparing an election slate and identifying and soliciting people interested in serving on our Councils.  The operations update highlighted continued member growth and enhanced opportunities for member engagement through webinars, open calls and regional forums. The operations report also spotlighted development accomplished through the work of core committers, various contractors and community members.

The board is making progress on several important foundation documents.  Work continues on the bylaws review and the organizational home agreement, and we reviewed several membership policies.  Peter Carini chaired a committee focused on the mission and guiding principles and presented its work. The board was pleased to approve the following:

ArchivesSpace Mission Statement

  *   ArchivesSpace is a community of mutual support committed to helping cultural heritage organizations foster access to, and promote discovery of, historical records and primary sources through the provision of sustainable and highly functional software and tools.


ArchivesSpace Guiding Principles

  1.  Develop and release ArchivesSpace software and tools in ways that are compatible with open source principles.
  2.  Foster a community of mutual support that makes it possible for users to help each other and themselves.
  3.  Establish and maintain membership and governance structures that ensure participation of diverse cultural heritage organizations, regardless of type, size, or geographic location.
  4.  Develop a healthy ecosystem of partners to provide support and enhancement for ArchivesSpace that benefit a wide spectrum of users.
  5.  Facilitate cooperative development in compliance with best practices and responsive to archival standards.
  6.  Ensure the long-term sustainability and maintenance of ArchivesSpace software and tools.

We are pleased to have these as way to make explicit our community's shared purpose and values.  They will facilitate prioritization and decision making among the staff, governance board and councils in the years to come.

In closing, I am very happy to report that the ArchivesSpace membership organization is vibrant and continuing to grow at a steady rate.  The budget reports are strong and we look forward to approving a FY18-19 budget focused on further growth and development in our June meeting.  Members are participating in all facets of the program and continue to be its strongest advocates.

The Board welcomes your communications and comments on any and all of this, and we extend our thanks to all of you for your continuing support and ongoing contributions to the community we have created.

Respectfully,

Carol A. Mandel
Chair, ArchivesSpace Governance Board
Dean, Division of Libraries, New York University



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