Report an Advocacy Issue

Do you have an advocacy issue related to archives that you’d like to communicate? Do you need advocacy-related support? This page outlines the protocol for SAA Issues and Advocacy (I&A) Section members and allies to request advocacy assistance from the I&A Section leadership.

Please note that you are welcome to report an advocacy issue to leaders of any SAA group or committee (such as the Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy) that you feel might best be able to help with your issue–I&A is just one of many channels that are available to help.

  1. Contact the Issues and Advocacy leadership (Chair, Vice-Chair, and Steering Committee) by email with your issue at archivesissues [at] gmail [dot] com. Please provide a brief summary of the issue, what kind of assistance you are seeking, and where I&A leadership can obtain additional information on the issue. Please include your contact information. The I&A Chair or Vice-Chair will respond within 48 hours. In the case that the Chairs are unavailable, a Steering Committee member will serve as proxy.
  2. The I&A leadership will immediately discuss your issue and decide on a plan of action:

If I&A leadership determines that it can assist with your issue, the plan of action may include any of the following. I&A leadership will design a plan of action in collaboration with you and in accordance with SAA’s Procedures for Suggesting SAA Advocacy Action:

  • With your permission, the I&A leadership may notify other SAA leaders about your issue, such as the Chair of SAA’s Committee on Public Policy, the Chair of the Regional Archival Association’s Advocacy Subcommittee, and the Chair of SAA’s Committee on Public Awareness. In the event of an issue requiring particularly urgent action, the I&A leadership may work with you and with the I&A Council Liaison to contact SAA Council about your issue.
  • The I&A Chair might assign an I&A Research Team to document and raise awareness of your issue.
  • The I&A leadership may work with you to write a brief (1-2 page) Advocacy Overview document about the issue, which would be routed through SAA’s Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy (CAPP) and submitted to SAA Council via the I&A Council liaison. To help you out, I&A created a handy online form for writing an Advocacy Overview.
  • The I&A leadership might design an I&A Poll (perhaps in collaboration with other SAA affinity groups or RAAC) to attempt to document the views of the membership on your issue, to be used as evidence in an Advocacy Overview.
  • The I&A leadership may invite you to write an “Archivists on the Issues” blog post about the issue.
  • The I&A leadership may ask if you can contribute any documentation or tools created during your advocacy effort to the I&A Advocacy Toolkit, to be reused for other advocacy efforts in the future.

Please be aware that I&A may not be able to offer assistance in all cases. In instances where we can’t help, we will do our best to direct you towards alternate courses of action.

  1. You can expect that I&A leadership will regularly update the I&A listserv on the progress made on any advocacy campaign.
  1. SAA may also contact I&A to ask for advocacy assistance. Such a request might be for I&A leadership to send a specific message out through the I&A listerv and/or social media, for I&A to assemble Research Teams, for I&A to conduct I&A Polls, for I&A members to contact their legislators, etc.

If you have any questions about this protocol, please contact the Issues and Advocacy leadership (Chair, Vice-Chair, and Steering Committee) by email with your issue at archivesissues [at] gmail [dot] com. We’re here to help.