Time/Place
Time: 12:00pm Eastern Time (US)
URL: https://lyrasis.zoom.us/my/fedora
Meeting ID: 812 835 3771
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Attendees
- Tammy Allgood Wolf
- Melissa Anez
- Chris Awre
- Thomas Bernhart
- Danny Bernstein
- Robert Cartolano
- Sayeed Choudhury
- Stefano Cossu
- Dan Coughlin
- Jon Dunn
- Dan Field
- Raman Ganguly
- Jennifer Gilbert
- Babak Hamidzadeh
- Neil Jefferies
- Mark Jordan
- Danny Lamb
- Rosalyn Metz
- Este Pope
- Scott Prater
- Robin Ruggaber
- Tim Shearer
Erin Tripp- Andrew Woods
- Dustin Slater
- Jennifer Vinopal
- Jared Whiklo
- David Wilcox
- Wei Xuan
- Maurice York
- Laurie Arp
- Robert Miller
Agenda
Topic Membership Renewals and Outreach (15 minutes) ITAV Fedora Summary and Next Steps (15 minutes) David Rosalyn EsteLead ArchivesSpace Membership Presentation and Discussion (30 minutes) Christine DiBella David Laurie IMLS Fedora grant Summary and Feedback (15 minutes) David Strategic Subgroup Reports and Next Steps (30 minutes) Wrap-up David
Previous Action Items
Notes
First meeting in the new format. David would like feedback after the meeting about how it went.
Reminder of report which was sent out in advance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TGFv57RRHZFVHVlKvfel2wPRHNPyRm9nGm7-D6Es3hs
1. Christine DiBella, Program Manager for ArchivesSpace - giving presentation on ArchivesSpace membership program
Overview of ArchivesSpace
Archival management information application. Can work with repositories. Can create metadata. Record actions taken on archival materials. Meets need that has few vendor solutions. Active user community. Governance, spec writing, tech, peer support, financial support.
ArchivesSpace is based off of Archivists' Toolkit and Archon open source - didn't have membership, mostly funders and parent institutions to start. ArchivesSpace required to demonstrate financial sustainability from the start.
Application free to download and use. Membership – 5 levels, institutional only. $300 - $7500. Levels tied to institutional capacity - such as JSTOR or Artstor class and number of FTE. All members get access to same benefits. Benefits include - governance participation, listservs, events, tech support in deploying ArchivesSpace. Different benefits appeal to the spectrum of people using ArchivesSpace.
Launched in 2013 - initial membership drive for charter members, and then continued to regular membership. Charter members recruited directly by leadership and public call to archives community. Charter included R1s, liberal arts, museums, non profits - and they continue to have a full spectrum of kinds of members. Membership has grown every year over past 7 years, at 413 members currently. Heavy on US membership, but 2 dozen countries outside US included. Also institutions who use ArchivesSpace without a membership. 95% annual revenue from membership and covers operating expenses.
Lessons Learned
Do research to figure out what community will accept. Archivists Toolkit had worked with Ithaka and they did significant research.
Don't undervalue membership to get people in the door - maintaining and improving "free" open source software has significant costs.
Not everyone wants to be a member. A model that gives those who are genuinely interested an option to show commitment is important. Having many small contributors sends a strong message that ArchivesSpace is for everyone. Applying member model consistently is important.
Cultivating members - get leadership involved in beginning - was really successful in charter. Identify influencer institutions - from the spectrum of institutions - helpful strategy. Tie membership drive to a significant milestone.
Retaining members - keep members that doesn't require a ton of resources beyond what you do to run program. Invoice a renewal rather than request it. Get leaders involved when institution of certain status/size seems shaky about continuing.
Showing value of membership - demo the value to wider community. Connect membership to what is possible because of members. Make is clear the distinction between member and non-member, but don't make people feel bad if not members (want non-members to aspire to membership).
Keep membership relevant - do membership projections when prepping budget. Evaluate regularly if membership is meeting the needs of the program and community. Identify gaps - parts of archival community not serving that would like to serve?
Questions
Q: Governance - and how you engage members through this? What are your groups and how do you engage?
A: Governance board of directors - rep elected from each of 5 member levels, rep from org home, 3 reps from founding members. Approves budget, talks through strategic directions, engages on behalf of wider membership.
Also Tech Advisory Council and User Advisory Council - appointed by votes of membership. Engage on more day to day activities that impact ArchivesSpace. And there are other more informal activities.
Q: How do you share about the groups? who ends up on these groups and how?
A: Wiki with information. Yearly nominating process - communicate opportunities for people to run for or be appointed to. Communicating criteria for getting onto groups is less clear. Also ideally people doing the work communicate out to their peers.
Q: Can you talk about the board structure - and the founding organizations, their role?
A: Founding institutions surviving strong parent institutions - decided to continue on in that role. Permanent rep on board. Increasingly elected board members are fully engaged.
Q: Have you discussed breaking into non-research institution markets?
A: From the start - program not just for academic institutions. Intentional that it is a program founded around archives. Part of why ArchivesSpace is not a digital asset management system - because it keeps the focus on archival functions. Discussing expanding geographically.
Action Items
