NDSA:Organizational Outreach

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During the call of 12/12/11 there was a discussion on how the NDSA Outreach WG can facilitate stronger connections to other organizations that have an interest in digital preservation. There are the obvious formal connections (through active NDSA membership) and informal (indirectly through NDSA member participation in those groups), but the need for direct outreach was identified.

These outreach efforts would be targeted at the leadership level of different organizations of strategic importance to the NDSA. The outreach would bring the two organizations together in different was to discuss shared concerns and potential future shared actions.

The organizations to be engaged include traditional library and archive organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA), but could also include industry associations such as NASCIO and NCSL, vendor associations such as AIIM or the Open Geospatial Consortium, or others.

The NDSA Outreach WG has several tasks. One is to identify the most important organizations to connect with, and then to find a "hook" into the organization, possibly by identifying a place in their strategic plans that touches on digital preservation and stewardship and then finding a way to make an NDSA connection there.

Secondly, we need to clearly identify a short list of things we would ask each organization to do.

Finally, we need a clear and concise list of what the NDSA has to offer each organization.

We'll begin to sort these three lists on the listserv, with the goal of having this be completed in early 2012 so we can begin active outreach with the chosen organizations.

The follow-on connections might include:

• Set up a meeting with the organization leadership, either in person or via conference call
• Get on the organization's conference program to discuss the NDSA
• Others

Organizations

This is a starter list of organizations and please add more. At this point we're just gathering names, though we want to try and keep the list paired down to the most prominent and strategically important (it doesn't have to be exhaustive, in other words). When we've got a healthy list we'll find a way to rank them and vote on the rankings.

• American Library Association (ALA) http://www.ala.org/
• Society of American Archivists (SAA) http://www2.archivists.org/
• National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)http://www.nascio.org/
• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) http://www.ncsl.org/
• Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) http://www.aiim.org
• Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)http://www.alise.org/
• Library of Congress Library Services (Roberta Schaeffer)

Add more!

The "Ask"

What are the five things we want to ask each organization to do? Add your own! (Side note: what is the NDSA protocol for “endorsing” other organizations?)

• Adopt a resolution acknowledging/supporting NDSA
• Make a commitment to work with the NDSA
• Discuss collaborative research with the NDSA
• Create a focus area in their organization dedicated to digital stewardship
• Encourage people to do stewardship

The "Offer"

What are the five things the NDSA can offer to each organization?

• We can offer to bestow the title of "strategic NDSA partner" on an organization that we have a relationship with (what would this entail?)
• Working with the NDSA is "painless"
• Give the organization the NDSA stamp of approval
• NDSA can supply volunteers to help organizations get started
• NDSA can bring together diverse organizations
• "The strength of the NDSA is the network" - Blane Dessy