AAO News

Nominations are currently being accepted for five (5) positions on the Board of Directors of the AAO. Each term will commence upon election at the AAO’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held virtually on May 14, 2021, during the AAO 2021 conference.

Volunteering as a Director on the AAO Board offers an invaluable professional development experience. It provides candidates with an opportunity to network with other professionals in the field, develop their leadership skills, and to apply their existing knowledge and skill set to the service of Ontario’s archival community.

The positions that are currently open for nominations include:

Vice-President/President Elect: Three-year term (May 2021 – May 2024)

The Vice-President/President Elect (VP) serves as the deputy to the President, and provides assistance in all aspects of Board planning and policy decision-making. Along with the President, the VP may represent the AAO at meetings with the Association's stakeholders and within the broader Canadian archival community. Specific duties include:

• Liaising with AAO Standing and Special Committees and/or Sub-committees thereof, and Special Interest Groups (SIGs);
• Performing the duties of the President in cases of absence or inability; and
• Supporting the President in providing general supervision of the operations of the AAO, its staff, and the secretariat office.
• The VP assumes the position of President in the second year of their term and in the third year serves as a non-voting member of the Board in the capacity of Past President.

Director Without Portfolio: Two-year term (May 2021 – May 2023)

The Director Without Portfolio position provides assistance in the general governing of the affairs of the Association. Specific duties may therefore include:

• Serving as a Board liaison to one or more of the Standing and Special Committees of the AAO, and/or Sub-committees thereof;
• Participating fully in Board decision-making; and
• Contributing to the development of Association policies, procedures and guidelines.

Secretary/Treasurer: Two-year term (May 2021 – May 2023)

The Secretary/Treasurer provides a key oversight function of the financial affairs and records management of the association. Specific duties include:

(Secretary role):

• Being acquainted with Roberts Rules of Order, and ensuring the Board follows these in its proceedings;
• Ensuring that documentation for all Board meetings is compiled, posted to the AAO Google Drive, and shared with meeting participants in advance of each meeting, consulting with Board members as necessary to do so;
• Taking and finalizing all Board meeting minutes, and ensuring that all decisions are motioned and recorded;
• Circulating draft Board meeting minutes to meeting participants for review within two weeks following each meeting;
• Entering decisions carried in the master Motions database;
• Saving all approved Board meeting minutes on the Google Drive and ensuring public access to them via the AAO website;
• Playing a lead role in efforts to maintain and update the written policies, procedures, guidelines and manuals of the Board; and
• In collaboration with the AAO Office, ensuring that the records of the Association are properly filed and disposed of.

(Treasurer role:)

• Monitoring, on a monthly basis, the AAO's budget as prepared and managed on the Association's behalf by the AAO Office, and bringing issues regarding revenues or expenditures to the Board's attention as they arise;
• Ensuring the Board's financial policies are being followed, or recommending actions where financial policy gaps persist;
• In cooperation with the President, approving all expenses incurred by the Association and signing all cheques of the Association;
• Recommending the approval of the auditor (to be identified by the AAO Office) to the membership (to be ratified at each AGM);
• Presenting to the membership (at each AGM) highlights of the annual audit prepared by the auditor; and
• On behalf of the Board, working with the AAO Office to ensure that government compliance documents are filed with various government agencies as required.

Website Administrator: Two-year term (May 2021 - May 2023)

The Web Administrator is responsible for maintaining the website by ensuring that information about the AAO and its operations is up-to-date and accurate and providing administrative support to AAO members seeking to add or update content. The role also includes the promotion of AAO events and news via Twitter and Facebook as well as the sharing of AAO and event photos on Instagram. The Web Administrator may also assist the AAO Secretariat with the management of website administrators. The current service agreement limits the number of administrators to 25. Those with full or partial access need to be reviewed on an annual basis as Board and Committee roles are transferred to new AAO Directors, Staff or Committee heads.

The Web Administrator is also a part of the Communications and Advocacy Committee.

Chair, Institutional Development Committee: Two-year term (May 2021 - May 2023)

The Institutional Development Committee Chair acts as the representative for the AAO institutional members at a Board level. The person in this position must be the head of an archival institution and will be elected by special ballot by AAO Institutional Members in advance of, or at, the AGM, as per article 6.10 of the AAO Constitution.

Specific activities include:

• Reporting all matters related to institutional members discussed at a Board level;
• Liaising with institutional members to bring matters of concern from the institutional members level to the Board level for discussion and/or action; and
• Optimizing the relationship between institutional members and the Board;
• Coordinating the annual Institutional Members Symposium;
• Representing the AAO at meetings of the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA).

You are invited to contact the following current Board members with any questions about the available positions:

• Jennifer Grant, President and former VP (president@aao-archivists.ca)
• Krista McCracken, Vice-President (vp@aao-archivists.ca)
• Tys Klumpenhouwer, Director Without Portfolio (director2@aao-archivists.ca)

Nominations are being accepted by email only.

Please complete and submit the nomination form to the AAO Office at aao@aao-archivists.ca, using the subject line “Nominations 2021”, and direct your message to the attention of the Nominations Committee.

Nomination forms must be received by the AAO Office by close of business on Monday, April 5, 2021.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Grant

President, 2020-2021

president@aao-archivists.ca

Archives Association of Ontario (AAO)

The AAO Awards Committee is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2020 AA1 Awards are now open.

We are accepting nominations for the five awards given out annually by the association: the Alexander Fraser Award, the James J. Talman Award, and the AAO Emerging Leaders Award, which are presented to individuals, as well as the Corporate and Institutional Awards which recognize archives, corporations and other organizations which have made significant contributions to the archival community in Ontario.

The awards will be announced at the AAO Annual General Meeting during the Conference being held virtually 11-14 May 2021.

Nominations are due by April 9th, 2021.

For more information on the awards criteria and nominations process, please visit the Awards page. 

Yours,

Rodney Carter

Chair, AAO Awards Committee

Hello AAO members!

The Winter 2021 issue of Off the Record is now available. Members can access the issue here.

The most recent issue includes features from Alison Little discussing the launch of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9) online exhibit and Iona McCraith encouraging AAO members to join the Archives Emergency Response Network (AERN). The issue also includes a member spotlight on Jacinda Bains. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not draw attention to the handsome canine on the cover: Charlie. Thank you to Karin Nobel of the Grey Roots Museum and Archives for submitting that.

This was my first time editing Off the Record, and I want to extend thanks to Grant Hurley and Farah Friesen, both of whom improved on the layout I came up with and provided a much needed second (and third!) pair of eyes.

The excellent Winter 2020 issue is now available to all. 

Wishing everyone health and safety,

Michael

The Archives Association of Ontario is pleased to announce its Call for Posters for the 2021 Annual Conference to be held virtually from May 11-14, 2021.

The Conference Program Committee invites poster proposals broadly connected to the conference theme.

We especially welcome and encourage posters by and from archivists who identify as part of minority communities. We also welcome posters from students, new graduates, and emerging archivists, or those archivists associated with under-represented institutions or collections. All individuals who work with archival records are invited to submit a proposal.

Potential subjects for consideration include but are not limited to:

• Archival silences and barriers to access

• Redescription projects, addressing colonial legacies in archivy

• Community archival disruptions, adaptations, and innovations

• Individual and institutional responses to the A Reconciliation Framework for Canadian Archives, TRC Final Report, UNDRIP, OCAP, the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, and other recommendations

• Approaches to community consultation, collaboration, and outreach 

• Imagining and re-imagining archival futures

• Re-imagining archival education

• Thinking critically about “the profession”

• Anti-racism and archives

• Critical race theory from a Canadian archival lens

The presenter(s) will be required to submit a short video (under 5 minutes) of their poster presentation and be available to attend a live Q&A during the conference. Presenters will also have the option of sharing their poster on the AAO Instagram and Facebook account.

Poster proposals should include an abstract of up to 250 words and a biographical note of no more than 100 words for each participant.

Proposals should be submitted to: AAO Office at aao@aao-archivists.ca 

Proposals should use the subject line format: AAO2021_Poster_Lastname-Firstname 

The due date of applications/submissions is February 28, 2021.

On behalf of the AAO 2021 Conference Program Committee

On behalf of the AAO’s staff and board of directors, I would like to offer you and our fellow members our best wishes for a healthy and restful holiday break. While this year has been a difficult one (to say the least), I hope that we can all look forward to better times in 2021.

We would also like to inform you that the AAO office will be closed for the holidays from December 21st, 2020 to January 3rd, 2021 inclusive, reopening on January 4th.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe.

All my best,

Jennifer Grant
President, 2020-2021
president@aao-archivists.ca
Archives Association of Ontario (AAO)

Hello AAO friends,

I am pleased to announce that the Fall 2020 issue of Off the Record
is now available to members. AAO members can access the issue here.

This issue includes features from Sara Janes, who reports on an informal survey of archives' reopening policies, and Danielle Robichaud on the joys and trials of migrating descriptions to AtoM. The issue also includes a member spotlight featuring Katrina Cohen-Palacios and plenty of news and updates on the many goings-on of the AAO and our community. And not to mention an amazing stitched cover submission from Julia Holland!

The Fall 2019 issue is also now open to all readers.

Finally, I should note that this is my last issue in the role of Editor. You can read all about it in the Editor's message, but the long and short of it is that I am extremely grateful for the wonderful support OTR has received over the last 5 years, including all the great writing, ideas and projects I have been privileged to showcase in this publication. I am extremely excited to say that Michael Friesen (Archivist at the Ontario Jewish Archives) will be taking on the role starting with the next issue. Please join me in welcoming Michael - and think about submitting something to the next issue! I will be assisting Michael with the Winter 2021 issue so it would be ideal to have some wonderful writing for us to edit together!

Best,

Grant Hurley
OTR Editor

The Northwestern Ontario Archivists' Association is holding its first-ever Virtual Archives Crawl on November 10, 8pm EST/ 7pm CST. We'll be sharing behind-the-scenes videos and slideshows of our facilities and collections, featuring contributions from across the Northwest. 

Anyone working in archives, museums, or heritage collections in the North of Ontario is invited to register for the event at: 

https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ldOyhrzsvH9AINcoZfv33Sx5HlX132m1o

For more information, please contact noaa.archivists@gmail.com.

Hope to (virtually) see you there!

On behalf of the MAIG Executive, I am pleased to present the 2020 Edition of the Municipal Archive Interest Group’s yearly publication, the MAIGazine. This issue features various updates from throughout the Province, including information from the AAO’s COVID-19 Survey, the upcoming Institutional Issues Symposium, and institutional updates. For quick access, please find the current issue available on the MAIG Website, or view the issue through this shortened link: https://bit.ly/2EN87hX. 

For more information about MAIG, to view previous issues of the MAIGazine, please visit our page on the AAO website: http://aao-archivists.ca/maig.

Thank you to everyone who submitted articles for the 2020 Edition!

Take care,

Gillian

Please join us on Thursday, October 22, 2020, for the AAO’s annual all-day Institutional Members’ Symposium, organized by the Institutional Development Committee (IDC).

It is no secret that this year has been unprecedented for archives and archivists across the province. The timing of this year’s symposium should provide us with a unique opportunity for an open and wide-ranging conversation about our experiences during COVID-19. There is a lot for us to share and explore with questions ranging from “how did we do?” to “how are we doing?” and the fundamental question of what this experience means for the future of our profession.

In addition, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others have magnified conversations related to policy brutality, abuse and discrimination against Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC). Their deaths have also brought into focus the far-reaching nature of inequality in all facets of society, including the archival profession. This year’s symposium will also provide time for participants to unpack the AAO’s anti-racism statement and to start looking constructively at what we, as a profession, can do to activate it in our day-to-day work.

This year’s symposium will be held exclusively online via Zoom. Although we have enjoyed the in-person meetings at the Archives of Ontario in Toronto over the last few years, we hope that the move to an online platform will open up the dialogue to participation by members from all areas of the province. 

Save the date for now, but stay tuned for more information.

Do you want to get involved with the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO)? The Programme Committee for the AAO 2021 conference is looking for volunteers. The 2021 conference will be held in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on May 12-14, 2021.  

The broad theme for the 2021 conference is reconciliation and decolonization. The Programme Committee is responsible for the management of information and ideas for the intellectual direction of the conference and will be working to put together the programme for the 2021 conference. 

If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Krista McCracken at vp@aao-archivists.ca.