Our 2025 program invites session proposals that will encompass presentations, working groups, interest groups, skill labs, mini workshops, and demonstrations on a broad spectrum of archival work as we take it back to the basics. Presentations will examine how archivists accomplish their work without reinventing the wheel - how do we leverage existing tools, workflows, and archival community connections?  While proposals on all aspects of archival practice and research will be considered, the Program Committee is especially interested in the following key topics:

• Access, outreach, and instruction

• Acquisitions, i.e. donor relations, deeds of gift, transfers, collection development policies, and donor guides

• Career resources, i.e. advancement, resume & cover letter building, interview skills, conflict resolution, and salary negotiation 

• Digital stewardship, i.e. digital scholarship/digital humanities projects, born-digital preservation

• Preservation

• Processing

• Trainings, i.e. disaster planning, in-house conservation, and volunteer & student training

• Workflows/Documentation/Project Management

The committee welcomes proposals from anyone involved with archives, including archival staff and volunteers, students, new professionals, community organizers, researchers, and allied professionals. 

The following are the session types we are accepting this year:

• 50-minute mini workshops. A mini workshop on topics of interest that includes concrete practical tools and lessons for a smaller group of attendees. 

• 50-minute working group/interest group. For working groups, facilitators and up to 5-7 discussants grapple with a shared concern. Before and during the meeting, working groups articulate a purpose they are working toward or a problem they are actively trying to solve. Proposals are submitted by facilitators, who will confirm discussants after acceptance. For interest groups, facilitators determine a topic of interest to host a structured discussion forum where attendees can engage in open-ended discussions, share ideas, and debate issues related to the topic of choice.

• 50-minute panel (2-5 presenters). A complete session made up of formal presentations coordinated around a single theme.

• 25-minute skills lab, tutorial, or case study (1-3 presenters). Show attendees how to use or apply a specific tool, technique, workflow, or concept. Visual aids and/or handouts are encouraged. 

• 7-minute “Lightning Talk” (1-2 presenters). Briefly highlight recent projects, works in progress, or ideas for future collaboration.

• Poster Session. Briefly highlight recent projects, works in progress, or ideas for future collaboration.
  
  

Proposals can be submitted through the online submission form. The deadline for proposal submissions is May 30, 2025.  

The Program Committee has created a Google spreadsheet to connect individuals seeking ideas and/or collaborators for session and poster proposals. The document is not monitored by SGA or the Program Committee and is not part of the official submission process.

For more information about the 2025 Annual Meeting, contact a member of the planning team:

• Brittany Newberry, (program@soga.org)
  2025 Program Committee Chair
• Ashley Shull, (localarrangements@soga.org)
  2025 Local Arrangements Committee Chair