President

President’s Comments from 2022 Annual Meeting

I am excited and honored to enter the role of IACRAO President. This is  a role that has been filled by many Indiana greats over the past years. Both in terms of the formal archives we’re storing to the anecdotes and personal stories that can be shared, Indiana ACRAO has always been a powerhouse membership. Which, again, has me feeling excited and honored. 

My primary goal as your President is going to be a focus on two things: organization and engagement. The organization component will, hopefully, be invisible to you, as we work towards better administrative structures to welcome aboard new members and leaders as well as create continuity between our ever-changing executive teams. I suppose it may be the goal of every leader who steps into this role, but I have to admit, we need that engagement piece more than ever. There is an undertone of quiet in our professional organizations.  We’re not sure if it’s the virtual modality, the pressure that’s on us in our job roles, which sometimes seems to leave little room for professional development, or if we’re simply not providing programming that would drive you all to connect. Whatever the case, as your President, I want to do my best to work through this. I will try to understand what we can do better, and make this organization work for you.  

We want meaningful engagement, we want improved connections, and we want a community of members who feel that they can be a part of something, not just peek in from the outside. It is my hope that you will see the value that each of you bring to our community, from the most seasoned veterans to the most rookie academic folks (who may still waiting for access to the right reports to do their job). We’re all better for your engagement. And I am hopeful that when the next time comes to connect with this group you will see an opportunity to do so. 

So, please be thinking. In 2023, we are going to maintain our Third Thursdays at Three. If there is a topic you would like to discuss, or better yet, if you would like to lead a Third Thursday meeting, please email me. If you would like to help with our summer workshop programming either as a presenter or just someone who can put their perspective into the mix, please email me. And, relevant to today’s annual meeting, if you would like to present at next year’s conference, if there is even a glimmer of interest, let me help you fan that spark into a flame. I’d be more than happy to mentor anyone looking to do a presentation, but maybe not sure how to get started. And whatever contributions you can make to our community, please know that we are all better for it.

My boss used to end our department meetings with a brief motto “try to leave things better than when you found them” and he believed that if everyone working in our office would simply try to make things better each day, we would have success. And I believe he was right. So, I’m here as your President to try to “make things better” with you.

October 2022