Establishment of the student chapter of the SOA (Society of Ohio Archivists)

On July 10, 2004 Shannon Bohle contacted Judith Cobb, the official contact person for The Society of Ohio Archivists, to inquire about the requirements for establishing and running a student chapter. Her email was followed by a phone call to Ms. Cobb on July 14. Miss Cobb indicated that the SOA did not have student chapters, but that this might be something that would be of interest to the organization. At that time, Ms. Cobb forwarded the original email to both Charlie Arp and Douglas Mccabe.
Beginning in late July, Mr. Arp and Miss Bohle began corresponding through email for the purpose of establishing a chapter constitution, chapter rules, and chapter policies. On July 26, Miss Bohle wrote to Mr. Arp requesting several items to assist with the establishment of a student chapter at Kent State including a letter of authorization on SOA letterhead authorizing her to act on behalf of the SOA to form a student chapter at Kent State University, any existing membership guidelines that the SOA may have for student chapter organizations (of which there were none), and a copy of the SOA's by-laws. Mr. Arp responded saying he was on vacation but would attend to these questions as soon as possible.
On July 28, Miss Bohle posted a message on the KSU School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) listserv announcing the possible formation of a student SOA archives group. Several responses from non-students proved to be of interest. The first response to the announcement was the next day from Bill Barrow, Special Collections Librarian at Cleveland State. Mr. Barrow wrote to wish the chapter luck, to notify the group about the existence of the Cleveland Archival Roundtable, and to suggest beginning a cooperative and collaborative relationship between the two groups. On that same day, Miss Bohle also received an email from Dr. Rubin, the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) Department Chair, requesting a meeting to discuss the new chapter and its possible relationship with the SLIS department. These responses were followed by questions and letters of interest from KSU SLIS students and alumni. Many of these students who responded to this original listserv posting eventually became members.
Mr. Arp replied with some specific guidelines for the student chapter via email. These guidelines answered questions in Miss Bohle's 26 July email (which requested that specific policies be created such as membership fee and other requirements, advisor status, minimum number of members, number of required meetings per year, budget, submission of meeting minutes to the SOA), as well as provided additional guidelines for establishing and running a student chapter. He also indicated in a later email that he would be mailing a letter of authorization.
Beginning in late August, Miss Bohle began posting archives jobs on the KSU SLIS listserv. These job announcements generated more interested individuals to contact her about joining the organization.
The meeting between Dr. Rubin and Miss Bohle took place at the very beginning of the fall semester. At this time they discussed many issues, including whether to be a departmentally affiliated student group or a university-affiliated group. It was decided that due to the interdisciplinary appeal of the archival profession, that a university affiliation would make the most sense. The possibility of hiring a full-time archives teaching faculty member was also discussed. Dr. Rubin suggested that with sufficient and sustained demonstrated student interest, this would be a possibility. When a temporary, grant-funded position was suggested as a means to fund the position by Miss Bohle, Dr. Rubin replied that an endowed chair would be more appropriate. Miss Bohle suggested that the SOA student chapter might be interested in doing grant writing to help achieve this goal, as long as he and the SLIS department would offer assistance as needed. Dr. Rubin agreed to this.
In early September, Miss Bohle contacted Craig Simpson, Assistant Curator, Special Collections and Archives at Kent State, to inquire about the possibility of serving as the chapter's faculty advisor. Mr. Simpson was already a member of the SOA and expressed an interest in meeting. The meeting took place in mid-September, at which time, Mr. Simpson and Miss Bohle discussed what would be required of the faculty advisor and what goals and objectives the student group might establish. By 17 September, Mr. Simpson had agreed to be the faculty advisor and completed the needed university forms for his role in helping to establish the chapter. On that same day, Miss Bohle emailed Mr. Arp with a sample student chapter constitution and inquired whether or not undergraduate students would be permitted to join the student chapter or not. By 20 September, Mr. Arp replied that he had looked over the constitution and would forward it to SOA council for their review. (Prior to the council meeting, Mr. Arp returned a slightly revised constitution, to which Miss Bohle had no objections. The council voted and approved the revised constitution on 15 October). See attached constitution.
All documentation was submitted to the for chapter formation by the deadline. Five members by this time had joined the SOA chapter, and on October 1, 2004 Kent State approved the application, making the "Society of Ohio Archivists, Kent State University Student Chapter" an official university organization. See attached letter granting official status.

Several months elapsed between the establishment of the chapter and the first meeting of its members. (This was primarily due to the inability of a majority of the members to be able to meet on the same days and times during the first semester. Tuesday evenings proved to work well as meeting times during second semester).
Potential Speakers-In late January, Miss Bohle contacted Syd Verba, Director of the Harvard University Library, to see if he or one of his librarians or archivists would be interested in speaking to the Kent State SOA student group (via teleconference) regarding Harvard's involvement in the Google initiative to digitize library and archival materials. Dr.Verba replied on 31 January wishing the group good luck and that he would forward the request to the University Archivist. On 7 February, Megan Sniffin-Marinoff replied to Miss Bohle stating she was involved in a minor way with the Google digitization project, but that she could speak more directly about the Open Collections Program at Harvard. Ms. Sniffin-Marinoff indicated that she might have trouble accessing the teleconferencing equipment, and that she would be able to be a speaker free of charge. In several emails that followed, Ms. Sniffin-Marinoff indicated her continued interest in being a speaker yet also continued to emphasize difficulties with scheduling the teleconferencing equipment. It is hoped that she will be able to speak to the group before the end of the spring semester, even if by speakerphone.
In mid-February, Miss Bohle met with Dr. Jameson, History Department Chair and professor of Public History courses taught at KSU regarding the SOA chapter and the possibility of being a future speaker for the group. Dr. Jameson seemed familiar with the organization, but did not seem interested in being a speaker, as he did not reply to a follow-up email from Miss Bohle that he requested.
SOA Conference Chair-On 1 February, Judith Wiener contacts Miss Bohle asking her to chair the session, "Workshop: Adobe Photoshop Basics." Mrs. Wiener and Miss Bohle met at the SAA workshop on EAD in Akron the previous semester.
Meeting Announcements-The first general meeting was announced on the KSU SLIS listserv and on posters that were designed by Jodi Jameson. Miss Jameson placed the announcement on bulletin boards around campus, including the SLIS bulletin board, bulletin boards on the first and second levels of the campus' Student Center, and announcement boards across from the History department offices. Members were asked to submit their names and a short biographical statement along with the position title of the leadership position they would like to run for. A list of offices along with potential duties was attached along with KSU and SOA leadership rules. A copy of the constitution is also attached and members are asked to read it prior to the next meeting.
On 8 February, Miss Bohle posts announcements regarding the SOA Annual Conference and Poster Session opportunities on the KSU SLIS listserv as well as distributes to the mailing list. (The mailing list consists of members and interested non-members).