On April 5, 2016, in conjunction with an Archivists on the Issues Post, “A Case of Conscience,” we launched the I&A Poll : Discriminatory Legislation & Annual meetings. The poll remained open until 5pm PST April 8, 2016 and received 30 responses. Of those 30 responses, 70% identified themselves as a member of the I&A Roundtable, 10% as members of SAA, but not of the I&A Roundtable, 10% as archivists, but not members of SAA, and 10% as concerned citizens.
Respondents were asked whether discriminatory legislation in the state where the annual meeting is to be held would affect their decision to attend on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 not affecting the decision and 5 being a deciding factor for the decision, the results are as follows:
Respondents were asked how they would like to see SAA Council react to the issue of discriminatory legislation in the state where the annual meeting is held. Respondents were permitted to choose more than one option. The options were:
- Negotiate to have a clause that will allow SAA to break its contract and find another venue
- Issue a statement against the legislation
- I do not expect the SAA Council to take a stance on this issue
- Other
The results are as follows:
Respondents were asked what issues would be important enough to sway their decision as to whether or not to attend an annual meeting. Responses have been redacted to remove any potentially identifying information and have not been edited to fix any typos. The responses were:
- Discrimination against classes of people; discrimination for religious reasons
- Anything involving discrimination
- discrimination towards POC/LGBTQ persons, unfair labor practices at venue or by vendors/sponsors
- I don’t know that I have a good answer to this question because I have a hard time holding all the residents of a state responsible for bad legislation, and am especially sympathetic to the fact that not everyone can move because they don’t like the party in charge at any given moment.
- Attendance is determined by my bosses. I would always attend if they would always pay.
- Labor disputes [redacted]
- Discriminatory practices, policies, and laws in the host city/state or venue, which create a climate dangerous or threatening to LGTB, PoC, or other non white non male non cis persons, members of SAA or not
- The biggest factor that goes into my decision making is money & whether I can afford it, honestly.
- They keep coming up with new ways to discriminate, so who’s to say? But the anti-LGBT laws make me furious. OTOH I don’t want SAA to lose money.
- None politics need to stay out of or at least be consistent. Don’t just focus on issues that are hot points for the left. Why has Saad not issued a statement about the IRS record problem or the Clinton email issue. I’ve seen no statement from Saad about the lack of transparency by the current administration. Will they?
- Civil rights of all kinds
- race, police brutality, women’s rights, sexuality rights
- None. I didn’t support breaking hotel contract when it was about unions and potential picket lines and I don’t care what the state’s legislate. You can never please everyone.
- They decide to defund or close th State Archives.
Issues & Advocacy 