Executive Summary

During the 2024-2025 term, the User Advisory Council operated within a state of maintenance, a positive sign that the hard work of past council members is paying dividends. The Council continued emphasis on information exchange and continuity of operations across levels of leadership and sub-teams. Sub-teams presented at monthly meetings, sharing their role, responsibilities, and recent accomplishments. The Council held two joint meetings with the Technical Advisory Council where sub-teams presented their workplans for the term (September) and members of the program team held a discussion on accessibility as it relates to ArchivesSpace (February). Nine new members were successfully onboarded at the beginning of this term. The Council also received three resignations with one of those individuals also serving in the vice-chair role. As a result, leadership was tasked with identifying a new vice-chair, which was accomplished near the end of term. Through the nominations process, seven new members have been selected to begin a three-year term starting in 2025-2026.

Accomplishments

• UAC and TAC maintained a strong presence at the ArchivesSpace Online Member Forum.

• Several sub-teams contributed significant effort towards the release of ArchivesSpace v.4.0.0.

• Usability sub-team held a community-wide discussion regarding the streamlining of configuration changes in the staff user interface

• Successfully onboarded 9 new members for the 2024-2025 term and selected 7 new members for the 2025-2026 term.

• UAC Council members report:

  • Strong satisfaction with the monthly meeting format in which sub-teams share information about their role, responsibilities, and accomplishments. Members report that these presentations provides a sense of understanding about the work completed by Council as a whole and how that work contributes to the operation of ArchivesSpace as an application.

  • Satisfaction and recognition of Council operations such as Confluence organization, regular meetings with agendas, clear deadlines for task and projects, and ability to easily locate documentation from previous years.

  • Service on council has improved skills such as ability to effectively run meetings at home institution and use of unfamiliar areas of the ArchivesSpace application; provided opportunities to interact with others with differing areas of expertise and experience and to advocate for needs of home institution.

Challenges

• UAC received three resignations this term. Though lower than in previous terms, the impact on Council leadership was significant in that one resignation was from an individual serving in the vice-chair role. It should be noted that leadership issues were ultimately resolved and due to unique circumstances.

• UAC Council members report:

  • Capacity issues with regard to balancing participation on Council and ability to complete primary job responsibilities. Many report that they are increasingly asked to do more at work with less resources, and are subsequently unable to take on a greater share of UAC workload.

  • The size of sub-team membership in relation to team responsibilities can be a challenge, particularly when trying to complete deadlines or when resignations are tendered.

  • Identifying sub-teams leads and council-wide leadership remains a challenge.

Considerations for Next Term

• Identify and establish sub-team leads meeting(s) schedule based on interest.

• In concert with sub-team leads, monitor team size and workload responsibilities; report at Coordinating Committee as needed.

Leadership for 2025-2026

Chair: Katerina Dimitriadou-Shuster

Vice Chair: Heather Lember