1996-97
Much of the work of the BPG board this year has focused on internal, operational matters, in order to remedy existing administrative problems, to reposition ourselves to function in an expanded communication environment, to better define the nature and role of the Group, and to build a better policy base for future boards to work from. Guiding principles in this work have been inclusivity, (trying to involve more people in the everyday work), trying to keep experience and organizational memory active in current work and, most significantly, communication.
To this end, the officers are joined by the standing committee chairs and Discussion Group chairs/liaisons, who have been active in debate, consensus and decision-making on all BPG issues, not just those involving their special charges. In addition, we have invited past chairs (at least those who have access to email), the past program chair, and the AIC Specialty Group Liaison to sit in our discussions, offering historical perspective, creating an informal "extended board". The participation of these people--especially the SG liaison--has been very helpful, and I would urge future boards to consider continuing this practice.
To meet the twin goals of building a richer documentary record and enhancing communications, the board this year established a private online mailing-list for the "extended board" described above, by means of which we have conducted the majority of BPG business. The message traffic from this list is retained in electronic form, and made available via the Web to the "extended board". Newly elected officers and chairs will be given access to these archives at the time of their election/appointment, so that they can have immediate access to a reasonably full administrative history, at least from this year on. We have no plans for retrospective conversion of past records, but individual documents will be converted when/if there is enough interest (and resources) to support the work.
We are fortunate that nearly all of our officers have access to email. One person for whom this is not true (Secretary/Treasurer) has had an account paid for by BPG. This subsidy was initially set up as an experiment but it has worked well and I believe it should be extended to future officers who do not otherwise have access to the network. There will be a period of some years still during which some people are technologically disadvantaged, and equity demands that disadvantage not lead to disenfranchisement.
At the Norfolk BPG business meeting, a show of hands indicated
that a substantial majority of those at the meeting (who, of course,
may not be a representative sample of the Group as a whole) had
access to email. This reinforced our developing inclination to
exploit electronic communication more fully for BPG business. To
facilitate communications with the board, we set up a second list:
messages sent to bpg-board@lists.stanford.edu are received by the
entire board. We hope that members will feel this a comfortable
venue for sharing their concerns, feedback, visions with the board,
whether in a casual note or lengthy discourse.
A third list, bpg@lists.stanford.edu has been
created for members to discuss BPG business, and to help the board
to get information to the membership faster. It had been hoped that
we could use mechanism to cut down on surface mail for those members
with email, saving the Group mailing costs. However, because of
difficulties getting access to AIC's membership database, this hope
could not be fulfilled.
For some time, BPG has maintained a set of web pages in Conservation OnLine: <URL:http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/bpg/>. For the most part these pages have been used for little more than providing access the electronic version of the BPG Annual, but this year we have begun slowly to expand the content to include news and information for members (such as advanced copy of our newsletter column), contact information for the board, etc. We are hoping, eventually, to provide all BPG policy documents, information about the history of the organization and other material. We have also made the pages available to members for special purposes. For example, members conducting a survey used web forms to gather responses electronically.
The discontinuity of operations and policy with yearly transitions in the composition of the board creates, inevitably, some difficulties. As we have in the past had little in the way of mechanisms to transmit organizational memory, it is increasingly difficult for new officers to "hit the ground running" when they assume office. Moreover, the group is reaching an age at which even so seemingly simple a matter as listing the past officers has been a challenge. At the same time, we are arriving at the moment at which it becomes necessary for us to consider the history of our own organization and our responsibility to it. Because the work of previous board was carried out largely by telephone, we have relatively little in the way of paper trail; there is no permanent record of much of the debate that informed past decisions and we find ourselves trying to recreate something like the "legislative history" of the policies and procedures of the BPG with precious little evidence to go on. Therefore, we are making a serious effort to improve the documentary record we leave behind. Perhaps ironically, it is the electronic communication environment-an environment that archivists and librarians recognize as an inherently impermanent one--that make it possible to address this issue, and at the same time enhance the overall quality of communications among the officers and members.
A few years ago, BPG formed a Publications Committee, chaired by Robert Espinosa, and comprising ex officio, the people responsible for the existing (or in process) publications: the Annual, the Paper Catalog, the Book Catalog, and the BPG web pages.
The charge for this committee:
"The BPG Publications Committee is charged to draft a general policy statement on BPG publications. The policy will outline the mission and scope of the publications program and define the relationships between various BPG publications. It will also address such matters as endorsing, funding, and/or publishing works created outside of the formal BPG publication program (such as conference proceedings, monographs, and works created by individuals or organizations not affiliated with the BPG). In fulfilling this charge, the Committee is asked to consider such matters as peer review, and to coordinate its work with the AIC Publications Committee." (revised September, 1997)
To draft and implement the policy, the committee's membership will be expanded.
This charge arises from the board's consideration of several publication related proposals received from members, both requests that BPG publish particular works, or contribute funds to external publication projects. Examining these proposals brought us to the realization that it was extremely difficult to evaluate a publication-related request without situating it in a programmatic context. Specifically, the lack of a clearly defined publications mission statement made it virtually impossible to equitably evaluate proposals. Moreover, we are anxious that our efforts mesh with and reinforce the publication goals of AIC.
Examining our situation, a couple of observations suggest themselves:
I'd like to give my sincerest thanks to all the officers, chairs, and liaisons who participated in the work this year. I'd especially like to thank outgoing officers Betty Fiske, who with Eleanore Stewart put together a superb programs; and Elizabeth Morse, whose tireless efforts kept the group rolling (and me sane). My best wishes go to the new/ongoing officers: Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, Eleanore Stewart, Abigail Quandt, Nancy Heugh and Alison Luxner
Walter Henry