Prepared by Rachel Searcy (outgoing TAC Chair), June 2024

Overview

This year TAC leadership focused strongly on the experience of Advisory Council members, working to acknowledge the challenges of volunteer professional service and ensure that members felt supported and valued for their efforts and contributions. On a practical level, this meant restructuring meeting agendas, enhancing Council documentation, further codifying the orientation experience for first year members, and explicitly recognizing individual and collective contributions.

Common themes across the leadership and sub-teams included maintenance and continuity, in taking care of the things we create, and setting ourselves or our successors up for success. Many sub-teams focused some of their attention this term on documenting their internal processes. Visibility and community engagement was another common theme across multiple sub-teams; that ethos is shown through specific efforts, such as the Metadata Standard community survey and Development Prioritization’s efforts to solicit feedback on specific Jira tickets through listservs. The sub-teams accomplished a great deal this term, and have also done their work in a way that allows for momentum to continue into the coming term.

Gratitude and acknowledgement to Austin Munsell (TAC Vice Chair), Suzanne Reller (UAC Chair), and Rebecca Baugnon (UAC Vice Chair) for their professional and collegial coordination and support throughout term.

Goals

• Make monthly meetings more engaging and value-added:

  • This year TAC experimented with new meeting formats, using the first half of the meeting for updates (Program, TAC, sub-teams) and the second half for guest speakers, structured activities, group discussions on specific topics, and working time for sub-teams.

  • Areas of focus in these sessions included: professional service, community outreach, the perspectives of ArchivesSpace developers, and best practices for JIRA tickets. These topics were selected for their relevance to Council activities.

  • This term we did not ask sub-teams to give additional presentations in monthly TAC meetings, as has been a tradition in years past. This decision was borne out of a desire to not overburden Council members – who are already doing volunteer professional service – with additional work. At the June TAC meeting, during which members participated in a retrospective activity, returning members did not express a particular interest in reinstating these presentations.

  • Many members indicated satisfaction with TAC meetings this year, in particular hearing more from the ArchivesSpace developers.

• Strengthen community of current and former Advisory Council members:

  • This goal was not realized, but was communicated with the ArchivesSpace program team as a potential effort for strengthening the ArchivesSpace community going forward.

  • Potential ideas might include a panel discussion focused on professional service (either specific to ArchivesSpace or including groups outside of ArchivesSpace), inviting former Advisory Council members to share their experiences, or organizing an in-person event at regional or national conferences.

• Identify pathways to leveling up:

  • This year focused less on providing training opportunities for Council members, and instead highlighting or recognizing the skills members gained through the normal course of their Council work, ranging from improved comfort with specific tools and systems to stronger communication skills, management of interpersonal relationships, and the ability to delegate tasks to others.

  • The January TAC meeting focused on strategies for identifying and communicating the ways in which Council service can support career growth. This activity has been converted into a new resource in the Council Handbook: Tips for Talking About Your Council Service

Leadership Activities (Chair and Vice Chair)

• Rachel piloted experimental meeting formats, with the goal of making monthly meetings more engaging and participatory, while not requiring additional work on the part of Council members or sub-teams.

• TAC and UAC Chairs and Vice Chairs regularized proactive assessment of many Council activities, such as reviewing workplans together in the fall and assessing attrition rates in the late winter. These activities have been documented in the Yearly Timeline of Council Activities

• Rachel converted the Yearly Timeline of Council Activities into a spreadsheet format to use throughout the year to plan and organize. The template is available for future Chairs and Vice Chairs in the TAC Admin Google Drive folder if they might find it useful (bearing in mind that any updates to the Confluence page will not be reflected in the spreadsheet)

• TAC and UAC Chairs and Vice Chairs created a template for the sub-team workplan. In years past, most sub-teams referred to their previous workplans to chart a course for the year ahead. While this practice was functional, it left many considerations undocumented, and did not provide sub-teams with the space to think beyond what had already been done.

What Went Well

(Direct Feedback from TAC Retrospective Meeting, June 2024)

• TAC meeting were more engaging and dynamic than in previous years. Council members enjoyed the small group discussions and guest speakers, especially the session with the ArchivesSpace developers.

• Many first year Council members expressed appreciation for the level of support and structure provided to them through the orientation session and documentation in the Council Handbook.

• Council members identified learning new skills or gaining increased comfort through the course of their service, including meeting facilitation, working with Jira tickets, and improved overall understanding of the ArchivesSpace application gained as a result of testing.

Continuing Needs and Ideas

• Sub-teams and their charges may need to be revised as the system matures and new needs emerge. This year we saw one sub-team sunset – and do so with care and intention – as well as another team restructure themselves. We should always be open to changing things that are either not working or no longer serve a significant need. New sub-teams and or task forces may be required in order for the Council to continue supporting the technical growth of the application, and the community’s understanding of it.

• Larger conversations and developments in the archival profession may warrant dedicated conversations, projects, and/or groups regarding their potential implications for TAC, such as the release of EAD4 or the incorporation of community contributions to the core code.

• The testing process and the role of individuals on the Testing sub-team will likely evolve as the ArchivesSpace Program team explores behavior scenarios and assesses the feasibility of an automated end-to-end testing suite.

• Continued communication and collaboration between TAC and the ArchivesSpace Program team is encouraged.

• Multiple Council members expressed a desire to have a better understanding of work that is underway or on the horizon, in particular the development roadmap and the Jira tickets being discussed in Development Prioritization.

• Multiple Council members expressed a desire to better understand the contexts in which other institutions are using the application. Community outreach and engagement, such as the Metadata Standards sub-team’s community survey, may serve as a model for gathering such information, and using the insights to inform Council activities.

Leadership for 2024-2025

Chair: Austin Munsell

Vice Chair: Regine Heberlein