NAGARA thanks all those who worked so hard to make ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2018, the Joint Annual Meeting of CoSA/NAGARA/SAA, a huge success! We also wish to extend our appreciation to all those who attended and participated in this year’s historic meeting – the highest attended Joint Annual Meeting ever!
NAGARA wishes to extend an extra thanks to Nancy Beaumont, Executive Director of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and her amazing staff for their tireless efforts leading the planning and execution of this year’s Joint Annual Meeting. Additionally, we extend our thanks and appreciation to Barbara Teague, Executive Director of the Council of State Archivsts (CoSA) and her team for their valuable contributions. NAGARA was honored to co-host this year’s event with CoSA and SAA. What a privilege to serve alongside such talented individuals – great champions of the archives and records administration profession.
Amazing meetings like this year’s don’t just happen magically. In addition to the efforts of the professional staff of CoSA, NAGARA, and SAA were dozens of volunteers serving tirelessly behind the scenes (and often at their own expense) to make this year’s meeting extra special for all attendees. We wish to offer our special thanks and gratitude once again to NAGARA’s appointed volunteer representatives, who, alongside their CoSA and SAA counterparts, helped to make this year’s event unforgettable: Casey Coleman (Host Committee Co-Chair), Debbie Bahn (Program Committee Co-Chair), Cathi Carmack, Kristopher Stenson, and Arian Ravanbakhsh (Program Committee members). We additionally thank Robin Heise and Melissa Dalton for their NAGARA pre-conference workshop presentation on “Bringing History Home: Educational Outreach Using Local Government Records” as well as Patty Davis, Bethany Cron, and Pari Swift for their presentation of NAGARA’s second pre-conference workshop: “Thinking Social – Ensuring Your Government Agency Has an Appropriate Policy for the Use & Capture of Government Records”.
THANK YOU to our volunteers! Without you and your contributions, wonderful experiences like these would not be available for our members. Thank you thank you!
2018 NAGARA Award Recipients
During this year’s Joint Annual Meeting, NAGARA leaders had the privilege of presenting our two association awards to highly-deserving recipients.
NAGARA leaders presented the 2018 Bruce W. Dearstyne Distinguished Service Award to Mary Beth Herkert, State Archivist of Oregon.
The Bruce W. Dearstyne Distinguished Service Award is a career recognition award established to recognize NAGARA members who have made a significant contribution to promote and enhance the mission of NAGARA. It is most fitting that Mary Beth Herkert received this year’s award, named after NAGARA’s former executive director, because of her association and work with Bruce Dearstyne as a graduate intern at the New York State Archives, working with him on projects for NASARA, NAGARA’s predecessor.
Pictured Left to Right: Patty Davis (NAGARA Past-President), Mary Beth Herkert, Oregon State Archivist, and Rebekah Davis (NAGARA President).
Mary Beth became an official member of NAGARA at the 1986 Annual Meeting in Sacramento. Since that time, she has taken on numerous roles, helping NAGARA prosper and grow into the organization it is today. From planning and hosting the 2001 Annual Meeting in Portland, to serving on the Board of Directors, to leading NAGARA as President from 2006 to 2008, Mary Beth’s commitment to NAGARA knows no bounds. In fact, Mary Beth has agreed to work with the current leadership of NAGARA on a new and exciting project – writing the history of NAGARA – right in time for the association’s 35th anniversary next year.
Association leaders also presented the 2018 NAGARA Program Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding, innovative and successful government archives and records management programs and/or initiatives, to staff members representing the Georgetown Utilities Systems Records Management Project.
Pictured Left to Right: Patty Davis (NAGARA Past-President), Matt Kunkle and Robyn Densmore of the Georgetown Records Management team, and Rebekah Davis (NAGARA President)
Records managers in the city of Georgetown, Texas spent three years implementing innovative management techniques for the creation, use, maintenance, retention, preservation, and disposal of local government records while improving efficiency and reducing costs. Their efforts resulted in greater compliance with record information laws and an enhanced ability to provide recorded information to those who need it. Overall, this three-year project produced innovative processes and initiated various sets of procedures that provided a structured, repeatable approach to managing records efficiently.
Also announced during this year’s Annual Business Meeting was NAGARA’s new Board of Directors, approved via online voting prior to the meeting. NAGARA thanks our outgoing Board for their guidance and leadership over the past year, and welcomes the incoming Board to service.
As one of her first official duties as NAGARA’s newly-elected president, Rebekah Davis, Archivist in Limestone County, AL, made some exciting announcements about the locations of NAGARA’s 2019 Regional Forums and the 2021 Annual Conference host city.
We are excited to once again announce that NAGARA’s 2019 Winter Regional Forum will be held in Seattle, Washington on Friday, January 25th, 2019, while the 2019 Fall Regional Forum will be held in Burlington, Vermont (exact date forthcoming). And back by popular demand, NAGARA will offer members another full-day learning opportunity from the comfort of their own home or office via their Spring Online Forum in April 2019.
Ms. Davis also announced that the city selected as host for the 2021 NAGARA Annual Conference, to be held in the summer of that year, will be Cincinnati, Ohio!
If you missed this year’s meeting, we strongly encourage you to join us next year! Be sure to SAVE THE DATE now and plan to attend the 2019 NAGARA Annual Conference, where we’ll celebrate NAGARA’s 35th anniversary in St. Paul, Minnesota July 17 – 20, 2019. Call for Session proposals for next year’s conference, themed “10,000 Lakes | 10,000 Opportunities“, will be released shortly, as well as additional information on conference pricing so attendees can plan their budget accordingly.
