NEA taking the past into the future

ELECTIONS

Every November, the membership is given the opportunity to choose who will sit on the Executive Board, per NEA By-laws, Section 5. We encourage all current NEA members to participate, either as a voter or a candidate, to help shape and grow our organization.  

A Nominating Committee is responsible for constructing a slate of candidates, through a mix of direct outreach and peer or self nominations.  The committee is chaired by the Immediate-Past President and its members are voted in by the Executive Board.  

The NEA election is typically held in early November via secure online ballot. The election is open to all members in good standing at the time the election opens. These members will receive a link to the online ballot system via email.  

Election winners are announced shortly after voting ends by nea_announce@newenglandarchivists.org on the NEAdiscuss listserv. New candidates are ushered in during the Executive Board meeting in March and entered into the minutes at the annual business meeting held in Spring.

How do I vote?
To be eligible to vote in November, make sure your membership is current and that your contact information, including email address, is up to date in the NEA membership database. Contact the Membership Secretary membership@newenglandarchivists.org if you experience difficulty logging into the membership database.

How can I nominate myself or someone else for elected office?
Every summer the Nominating Committee calls for nominees via the NEAdiscuss listserv.  If you miss this email, email the current Nominating Committee chair.

2024 election

Vice president / President-Elect Candidates

Douglas Doe

Name: Douglas Doe
State/Region: Rhode Island

Biographical and Service Statement:
I became an archivist through Jim O’Toole’s program at UMass/Boston during the late 80s and early 90s, a time of MARC AMC and Hensen’s APPM. After a contingent position at the Art and Architecture Thesaurus that required a weekly 235 mile commute (one-way), I was fortunate to gain a position at Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 then developing a new archives program thanks to a NHPRC grant. I became RISD’s Digital Archivist in 2018 because of the efforts of then Dean of Libraries Lareese Hall. When I asked why the change from Associate Archivist, she replied, “Because you’re the only one on the staff who shows any interest” in digital records. So be careful what you wish for. Someday someone may stop by your desk and give it to you.

My service has been within Rhode Island including two stints on NEA’s Local Arrangements Committee for meetings at Brown University and Newport. I have participated in the development of the Rhode Island Archives and Manuscripts Collections online consortium since its inception in 2006. I serve as RISD’s representative to the Consortium of RI Academic and Research Libraries and take part in the RI HELIN’s digital collections and archives working groups. As a member of the SAA, my participation is limited to the annual meeting when I’m able to attend.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
I arrived at RISD to find my “office” to be an old library in the basement of an insurance building filled with record cartons. The archivist and I soon moved into the cafeteria on the other side of the basement with the kitchen walled off from our work area. A door across two file cabinets served as my desk. We used the kitchen’s cafeteria line for storage when the shelving filled up. We built the RISD Archives from those barebones arrangements. During the ensuing twenty-six years, we moved into a new building and I have accessioned, processed, catalogued and described countless collections: paper, digital, photographic, audio, and video.

Mentoring URI and Simmons students, volunteers, and RISD graduate students has been an integral part of my work. I have transitioned from MARC AMC to EAD, EAC, PREMIS, and other acronyms. Continual learning is essential for our profession. I advocated for RISD’s participation in the National Digital Stewardship Alliance and serve as RISD’s representative.

I have spent my career helping to establish and build the repository of RISD’s history: the accomplishments of its students, instructors, administrators, museum curators, and others. But nothing satisfies as much as helping researchers discover answers to their questions. It’s a vital reason why we are here, isn’t it?

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
Research and reference have been two critical elements of my work at RISD. The NEA has produced important reports on contingent labor (2017 and 2022) and NEA Constituencies (2015). Both contingent studies raised the issue of education, degrees, and the impact of student loans. The 2022 reported a higher cost burden associated with the MLS/MLIS degree, a finding replicated by SAA’s recent A*CENSUS II report. “The MLS/MLIS degree has risen in importance while also being more likely to result in student loan debt.” One of the worst trends in our profession was the proliferation of “MLS/MLIS required” in job announcements. Would a recent SAA president have a chance in our job market with just a BS?

I’ve written to SAA presidents about these issues. Among my questions I asked: Has the move to the MLIS exacerbated the problem of student debt? I look at the required core courses and wonder how many of them are essential for a professional archivist. I've asked interns and the answer is usually "No". Or does that question not matter, in terms of cost, if a MLIS program, Masters in History/Archives, or a MAS all require the same number of credits? But even then, which course schedule provides the best foundation to enter the profession? Are students receiving the most for their tuition dollars?

I asked those questions in 2020. Are NEA members interested in exploring these issues?

How can we make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization, and how can we include more people?
The 2017 Final Report of the NEA Constituencies Taskforce provided a detailed survey of non-NEA members: where they worked, their employment status, and what they looked for in an association. We need to find out why they do not join NEA. The report recommended concentrating on three areas: communications, partnerships, and workshops and webinars. Have these recommendations been successful?

There is an old airline commercial about a CEO sending his staff off to wherever to meet their clients in person. Telephones, faxes, and email were not enough. Neither is Zoom though it has been revolutionary in providing educational and training opportunities connecting archivists across the world. How often does the NEA leadership meet with similar associations in New England? How often does the NEA have an information table at the meetings of those associations?

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
Given the difficulty of finding volunteers to run for office, I hope the NEA is still a functioning organization during the next 5-10 years. That may sound harsh, but it is the reality we face as was discussed at a recent executive board meeting. The sobering A*CENSUS II revealed 45% of archivists are leaving, are considering leaving, or don’t know if they will leave the profession during the next five years. Besides retirement, the three top reasons are burnout, wages/salary, and lack of opportunity.

We cannot solve these issues on our own, but we can strive to illuminate these issues as the NEA did with the contingent employment report. I would like the NEA to study the education issue. Surveys show that the trend is an increasing move to the MLS/MLIS with the accompanying higher student debt load. The A*CENSUS II reported that 38% those graduates left with debt ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Twenty percent had higher amounts. And that’s just the loans. Add in the interest that accrues and those figures can easily double. How is that sustainable given our typical salary levels and an ever-tight job market?

I know I’ve asked more questions than I’ve answered, but after responding to over 3000 reference requests and research visits, it’s become part of who I am as an archivist.


Amy Hietala

Name: Amy Hietala (she/her)
State/Region: Connecticut

Biographical and Service Statement:
New England Archivists has played a substantial role in my professional growth since I joined in 2015. Although I have not gotten involved in the leadership, I have participated in conferences and served on the planning committee for the Spring meeting in 2021.

I am currently the Project Archivist and Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History working on a large digitization project for the America 250th initiative. Formerly, I managed the research library at Old Sturbridge Village which consisted of the library, manuscripts, audio and video, visual collections, and the institutional archives. I am active with the New England Museum Association (NEMA) and represent our field as co-chair of the Library and Archives Professional Affinity Gatherings group, where I ran programs related to preservation and will be moderating presentations on advocacy and exhibits.

To increase my professional knowledge and to keep updated on the latest advancements, I regularly take courses and webinars and last summer, I successfully completed the Certified Archivist Exam. I love learning about new trends and standards and feel the archives field offers so many opportunities.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
One of my favorite parts of this field is working with new professionals and those passionate about preserving history. I have had the opportunity to mentor interns and recent graduates, have offered workshops and webinars on caring for personal collections, and educated the public about the importance of caring for historical materials.

One of my favorite experiences was giving a tour of a manuscript collection and at the end, a young adult said they never thought history and archives could be so interesting and fun. To be able to take something as simple as a piece of paper and show people how to care for, how to value it, and how to learn from it is easily the most satisfying parts of my job. It is amazing when seeing eyes light up as a researcher finds the bit of information they were hoping for, when a genealogist finds their ancestors, or when a young student decides that archives are awesome.

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
I will appreciate the opportunity to work with the leadership team and members to continue making NEA accessible and relevant within the archives field. So much has changed over the last few years, and I believe it is important to address that archives, employees, and institutions have changed.

With NEMA, there are smaller specialty groups that deal with issues related to a specific area. Creating something like this in NEA would put people with like interests, such as Records Managers, Academic archivists, museum archivists, etc., together to network and plan programming. I believe that we need to work together as an organization to make the program useful for all involved.

How can we make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization, and how can we include more people?
NEA needs to remain accessible and pertinent as a professional organization. We need ways to increase volunteer involvement, gain employer support, and make sure our members have the backing and knowledge they need to succeed.

Collaboration with other organizations to provide additional support and opportunities may be a good start to expanding our membership and reducing programing costs. We also need more ways to connect throughout New England. There are many members that are unable to attend conferences and in person events due to the distance, offering more virtual or hybrid events will help to bridge the gap of distance.

My goals are to discover ways to keep NEA moving forward. So much wonderful work has been done with inclusion, but we can keep going. Reparative language in archival description, salary transparency, and professional development and mentorship are great ways to increase advocacy.

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
Professional organizations are so important for networking, learning, and growing the field. I feel that we need to continue identifying what the members need and how the organization can help. I would like to see more workshops and webinars offered and programs for advocating for the archives themselves but also for the people that are working in the archives.

I think we need to think critically about the future of NEA. Employee pay is not reflecting the rising economic cost, not all institutions see the financial value in professional development, and the distance of locations within New England all make for lower membership, volunteers, and convenience. I want to develop ways to make NEA programming more attainable in order to adapt to the everchanging field.

Secretary Candidates

Elizabeth Carron

Name: Elizabeth Carron (she/her)
State/Region: Massachusetts

Biographical and Service Statement:
I am currently the Senior Accessioning Archivist at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College, a position that I’ve held for just over 4 years. Before BC, I was at the University of Michigan and Smith College. I received my Master’s Degree in 2015 and my Certified Records Manager accreditation in 2018.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
I am extraordinarily grateful for my career and for the amazing colleagues with whom I’ve been able to build relationships over the years. Those relationships are what I’m most proud of.

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
NEA is about bringing us all together as a professional community. Lessening the administrative burden placed on our volunteer-based executive board is important to me. If I can help NEA free up time and costs to focus on programming and membership benefits, then that is how I can best contribute.

How can we make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization, and how can we include more people?
Other non-profits are facing the same challenges that we are facing. Let’s take a leaf from their playbook and rebuild engagement by getting creative. Some ideas can include sponsoring more hyperlocal networking events during the course of the year to support meaningful interactions and relationship-building. Perhaps we can rally around regional causes. Archivists who are concerned about climate change? Let’s sponsor a group to participate in a 5K fundraising event.

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
I’d love to see us do more active engagement with our local and state leaders. As a professional association, we have expertise and collective power to wield.

Reliance on contingent employment is a problem for a number of reasons. I’d like to see us integrate some professional development opportunities that emphasize business skills to help mitigate some of the effects. It’s difficult to move into leadership roles when archivists may spend most of their careers developing technical skills and are given no opportunities to sit in on departmental meetings or committees.

Treasurer-Elect Candidates

Margaret Dalton

Name: Margaret Dalton (she/her)
State/Region: Massachusetts

Biographical and Service Statement:
I am currently the Charles Ogletree Papers Assistant (/Project) Archivist at the Harvard Law School Library. Prior to the start of this role in January 2023, I have held and concluded a series of project and term positions over the past seven years, including at Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Frances Loeb Library, at the New-York Historical Society, and at George Washington University.

As may be inferred by this brief career synopsis, my professional energies have, to-date, been spent in service of the completion of discrete project specifications and pertinent resource-granting entities, rather than in service to professional organizations or, more generally, the archives profession. At this time, I humbly look forward to the opportunity to apply myself in service to NEA and colleagues across New England.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
I take pride in the demonstrated dedication required to sufficiently “complete” each project that has comprised my career, as well as in the resiliency required to approach each project and institution as a new opportunity. In considering the array of my past projects, I feel most proud of instances through which generous collaboration allowed for improved access to collections beyond the scope of “traditional” description. I am most appreciative of the support and opportunities offered to me by colleagues at each former institution that permitted me to apply my efforts beyond the bounds of my given collection(s) and to engage more creatively with the work and mission of innovative access to archival material.

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
As a new volunteer to NEA, I hope that I will come to quickly understand more acutely the opportunities and challenges facing NEA and might be able to offer a new perspective, or at least offer a new source of labor in the form of my time and attention. I hope to contribute skills and knowledge gained through past responsibility in managing grant funds and in liaising with vendors and additional stakeholders to the requisite duties of the Treasurer-Elect. I would also hope to contribute and to support the planning and implementation of strategies towards ensuring the sustainability of NEA and growing and strengthening the existing NEA membership.

How can we make NEA more sustainable and how can we include more people?
From my current perspective as a member outside NEA leadership, I would advocate for as much transparency as possible in communication with current and prospective members throughout the recruitment process to ensure clarity in the expectation of responsibilities and time commitments for all potential volunteers. Targeted outreach to current students, emerging professionals, and professionals working in archives-aligned fields may also strengthen engagement and provide opportunity for creative collaborations that allow for growth in membership. Throughout all potential initiatives towards sustainability for NEA, I would aim to prioritize the overall well-being of members and take into consideration that for many the reality of existing professional responsibilities and expectations may very well not allow for additional extensive service commitments.

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
By the next five to ten years, I would like to see NEA make progress towards sustainability as an organization and to have experienced a strengthening of engagement with membership. I would like to see NEA continue to invest structurally in the initiatives and programs of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee. I would also like NEA to be valued by members and colleagues as a reliable mechanism for advocacy on behalf of archivists and archives throughout the region. In particular, I would like to see NEA grow and develop as a resource for advocacy of ethical labor practices and as a venue for sharing resources for climate resilience planning for repositories and institutions across the region. On the whole, I would like for NEA to be structurally-stable, well-supported by the volunteer base, and agile in responding to ever-changing needs, demands, and opportunities of archivists and the archives field throughout the region.

Representative-at-Large Candidates

Alfie Paul

Name: Alfie M. Paul (he/him)
State/Region: Massachusetts

Biographical and Service Statement:
I have been an archivist with the National Archives since 2007 or 2005 if you count my internship at the JFK Library. I started as a processing archivist in College Park, MD and I am now the Director of Archival Operations for the National Archives at Boston. I am also the Field Coordinator for Processing and the Field Coordinator for Digitization. Additionally, I was an associate lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston teaching an archival processing class in the history department.
I sat on the Education Committee in 2015 when I first moved back to the Boston area. However, I bring vast experience being part of or chair of several teams at NARA including the teams that oversee our Reparative Description and Digitization efforts.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
I am extremely proud that in my tenure as Director, my unit was the first at NARA to be 100% processed and 100% described in the National Archives catalog; my unit, a small unit of 7 people, submitted over 1 million images to the catalog in FY2019; and my unit led the Reparative Description efforts at NARA over the last 3 years.
With all of that said, I am more personally proud of the impact I have had on my students at UMASS, Boston. It has been gratifying to have heard that I made a real difference in their archival careers.

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
MI think my experience in administration, coordination, and working in a large governmental archives will be helpful in managing the work of NEA in the immediate future. My experience as an archives educator has given me real insight into the needs of new archivists, especially those in smaller, less established programs.
Mostly, I am willing to give my time, knowledge, and my experience as both an educator and as a hiring manager.

Outside of those examples, I am happy to give my time, knowledge, and any abilities wherever they would be most beneficial.

How can we make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization, and how can we include more people?
I believe more of a personal touch is needed by board members to current and prospective members, especially in terms of asking for the time and commitment of folks we are asking to volunteer. I always said to my students that the archival profession is a small community. Why not use personal connections, when possible, to recruit? While advertising opportunities broadly is important, I believe a concerted, more personalized effort to gain volunteers and new members might be warranted. Perhaps a virtual recruitment fair? My time on the Education Committee was due to someone personally asking me to become involved.

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
I think it is vital that NEA innovate how we recruit both new members and volunteers. I believe NEA should be sure the Mentoring Program thrives and, similarly to recruitment, further innovate how we find both mentors and mentees.
I believe the Roundtables need to be revitalized.
Having been a hiring manager and seeing prospective candidates wholly unprepared for the hiring process (resumes, interviews, experience, etc.), I would like to see NEA develop a way to help new archivists navigate landing their first positions.

Allen Ramsey

Name: Allen Ramsey (he/him)
State/Region: Connecticut

Biographical and Service Statement:
Allen Ramsey joined the Connecticut State Library staff in early 2010, as Government Records Archivist. He became Assistant State Archivist in 2013 and oversees the State Archives acquisition, arrangement, description, and preservation of state and local government records and non-governmental records of enduring value pertaining to the history and heritage of Connecticut. He was appointed a member of the Connecticut State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2017. He also served on the State Librarian Search Committee from 2019 to 2020 representing employees.

Allen serves on the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) as a member of the Board of Directors (2021-2024), as a co-chair of the State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI) Steering Committee, on the Education and Training Committee, and the 2024 Annual Meeting Program Committee. He was a recipient of the CoSA Victoria Irons Walch Leadership Award in 2023. He previously served on the CoSA Archives and Records Management (ARM) Survey Committee, the CoSA-Society of American Archivists (SAA) 2020 Joint Annual Meeting Program Committee, and the SAA Tragedy Responsive Initiative Taskforce (2018-2020).

Allen holds a BA in History from Winona State University, a MA in History from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Candidate Questions:
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your archives career or study?
In my career so far, I am most proud of helping to launch and push forward our digital preservation program in the Connecticut State Library, State Archives to preserve and make available born digital and digitized government records. A few efforts on digital preservation had occurred prior to my starting at the State Library in early 2010 but with the support and urging of my coworkers and superiors I was able to learn about the issues to inform our future program directions. This is very much a collaborative effort requiring State Archives staff to work with various stakeholders such as records management, statewide information technology, the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA), and state and local government agencies. The State Library was also able to hire its first ever Digital Records Archivist in 2018 and a few years later its first ever Electronic Records Management Analyst. The digital preservation program is currently involved in a federal grant project to automate the ingest of digital government records into the CTDA, study and issue a report on how to implement a secure digital preservation repository system for restricted records and developing and implementing an automated redaction tool to make government records with sensitive information available to the public in the CTDA.

What do you hope to contribute in your service to NEA?
I hope to contribute my knowledge, skills, and experiences in my service to NEA, especially my skills in working with various individuals and communities on archival issues whether it be government archives, community archives, personal archives, etc. I bring nearly a decade of experience serving in various volunteer roles with CoSA including on the Board of Directors, as the co-chair of the State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI) Steering Committee and as a member of the Education and Training Committee. My knowledge, skills, and experiences have helped to shape archival best practices and educational opportunities whether you are new to or interested in archives, an archival worker, or a records creator.

How can we make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization, and how can we include more people?
I think we can continue to make NEA more sustainable as a volunteer-run organization by all of us contributing wherever we are able to or where we have an interest. Understandably most of us are extremely busy in our day-to-day lives, especially with work that does not seem to end. However, we also need to be engaged with each other and especially our various communities now that we enter the midway point of the second decade of this century. I think NEA can help us not only to learn from each other and others but also push our advocacy efforts forward with stakeholders who we need to keep in contact and raise awareness with in a very competitive environment.

How would you like to see NEA grow or change in the next 5-10 years?
I would like to see NEA continue its diversity and inclusivity work including advocating for underpaid archival workers and documenting a more complete picture than we have in the past. I think NEA should strive to find ways in the next 5-10 years to reach as many individuals in our field and related fields as possible and to continue to listen to their needs, advocate for and raise awareness about the importance of archival workers and archives in our region, and offer opportunities for discussions on archival topics or related topics in various ways and places.

We welcome your feedback and questions.  If you are unsure whom to contact, any of our volunteers will be happy to help direct your question to the appropriate party.

Please visit NEA’s contact page for a full listing of NEA volunteers who are available to answer questions by subject. Contact information for specific Board members is also available by searching the membership directory.  An organizational chart of the roles within NEA is also available.

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