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2021 Election Candidates

VP/President Elect

Name: Liza Posas 

Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as Vice President/President-elect.

As Vice President/President-elect, I look forward to advancing the conversations related to labor and precarity while bringing in a possible wider perspective based on my experiences working with archive collections held in personal archives, volunteer-run grassroots organizations, and small nonprofits. My goal would be to dissect labor issues that do not only address appropriate monetary compensation, but also bring into account where archivists should comparably sit within an org chart or community sector to illustrate how these positions benefit the health of that organization or community.

I would also like to work with the SCA committees and members to explore the ideas of archiving for the public good. This would involve those individuals and entities that have the wherewithal to provide services, expertise, and guidance to the communities they are in and those represented in their collections.

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Secretary

Name: Christine Kim 

Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as Secretary and Board Member.

In my current role, I support the Online Archive of California and Calisphere: statewide services that aggregate finding aids and digital collections stewarded by cultural heritage organizations across California. In supporting aggregations of finding aids and digital collections, I am researching and engaging in work to: provide background context for users about digital collections and metadata, including archival practice, ethics, and values; develop communication workflows with partner organizations to conduct reparative work to remediate harmful language; and improve the user experience to support primary source literacy of archival materials and metadata.

Through my role, I also have the opportunity to engage with partner organizations to discuss technical challenges, confer on usability enhancements, and strategize to facilitate access and discovery to otherwise distributed unique primary sources. Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is a demonstrated priority across cultural heritage organizations in California.

If elected, I will work with my colleagues to facilitate community conversations and develop practical strategies to improve equity and inclusion through all parts of the archival and discovery lifecycle. I believe SCA can play a critical role as California archivists work towards: diverse representation of communities and perspectives; reparative description and remediation practices; improve discovery, usability, and accessibility of digital resources; engage in primary source literacy and critical analysis; and advocate for continuing focus on diversity and growth for careers and opportunities in the archives profession.

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Nominating Committee

Name: Azalea Camacho 

Taking into account differing levels of monetary and institutional support, how can the Nominating Committee ensure that candidates are chosen from all facets of the archival profession: lone arrangers, large institutions, government archives, academic archives, corporate archives, library, museum, and other settings? Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as a member of the Nominating Committee.

The Nominating Committee can ensure that candidates are chosen from all facets of the archival profession by enhancing its outreach efforts and developing intentional outreach outcomes that align with the goals of the Society of California Archivists. Diversity, inclusion and equity are deeply important to me, both personally and professionally. As the Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Cal State LA my work has revolved around creating an inclusive and equitable environment for the campus community and public at large. My strategy has been to incorporate these principles in the daily operations and responsibilities of my position from instruction to collection development. The instruction program focuses on exposing and fostering student curiosity by encouraging use of special collections and archival materials in their research, and by providing engaging opportunities where they can learn about the profession. In addition, I have worked to develop a library and archival studies program for student assistants that is designed to train and support students with potential in the field and have implemented a volunteer program that provides learning opportunities for those outside of the campus community. I have also facilitated the development of an open reading room concept that is not only open for research use but provides a place for quiet study for the campus community. As part of the Nominating Committee, I would continue to develop my efforts in providing equitable and inclusive practices in the profession overall.

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Membership Director

Name: Alix Norton 

Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as Membership Director and Board Member.

At my place of work, I am looking forward to being a co-lead on the newly-formed team focused on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice related work across my library. As a white, cisgender woman, I recognize the importance of listening and understanding my role in practices that uphold white supremacy and privilege, and I plan to continue seeking out ways that SCA can serve all of its membership, through examining labor practices and advocating for those in precarious labor positions, and creating scholarships and other opportunities for those in BIPOC

communities especially to succeed in archives work. I am proud that the Society has decreased barriers to membership and activities in the past year, including opening up First Friday meetings to all interested folks regardless of membership, and implementing a Pay What You Can membership model for the year.

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Member-At-Large

Name: Kate Dundon

Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as Member-at-Large. 

The archival profession has made progress in cultivating a more self-critical understanding of its biases and the colonial white supremacist origins of its identity and systems. But the work is not done. I seek to educate myself on the racist and classist origins of archival systems, standards, and ideologies, and how I as a practitioner perpetuate power dynamics that maintain boundaries of who is welcome in our profession and who can access and use the collections we steward. I hope that by serving on the SCA Board, I can foster dialogue about these issues in consort with the SCA Core Values.

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Member-At-Large

Name: Courtney Dean 

Please detail your efforts to integrate equity and inclusion practices into your work and any plans you may have for this as Member-at-Large.

Equity and inclusion are paramount in my archival work and my professional involvement and leadership. I strongly believe in amplifying and centering the voices and work of my BIPOC colleagues while also not relying on them to carry the burden of anti-racist work or “fixing” issues. I would love to see more intentional engagement with BIPOC archival workers in California and across the profession. I would also encourage the fair compensation of our BIPOC colleagues for their time and knowledge in leading webinars, providing targeted feedback, and more.

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