Committees and Special Interest Groups
Charge: To encourage worthy nominations from the VRA membership and evaluate them using the established criteria for the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) and the Nancy DeLaurier Award (NDL). To then recommend to the Executive Board one potential recipient for the DSA award and one or more recipients for the NDL Award, to notify the recipients, to prepare the award presentation speech from the supportive materials, and make arrangements for the award presentation at the annual conference.
Cataloging and Metadata Standards Committee (CaMS)
Charge: To advocate for and promote standard descriptive practices in digital resources collections that facilitate the management, organization and exchange of information by means of maintaining and supporting the documentation of the various products and tools available, as well as providing user support to a global community.
Charge: To engage in the development of a broad range of educational resources and opportunities for the VRA membership, and liaise and collaborate with the VRA Board and other VRA committees when appropriate. To develop programming for the VRA conference that responds to the interests and educational concerns of the VRA membership. To develop and promote online educational opportunities. To research, organize and share information about relevant educational and professional development opportunities.
Intellectual Property Rights Committee
Charge: To study and monitor intellectual property and copyright issues; and to develop and promote the Association’s position on intellectual property rights issues and educate the membership on these issues.
Charge: To support the Association’s membership retention and enrollment efforts in conjunction with the Membership Services Coordinator. This includes the development and maintenance of contact lists and listservs, placing advertisements where appropriate, and coordinating the regional chapters program through involvement, encouragement, and recognition. To make recommendations to the Executive Board and implement decisions of the Executive Board in accordance with the Association’s membership.
Charge: To maintain the Travel Award program that has been established to encourage participation and attendance by VRA members at the Association’s annual conference; to administer the awards by formulating criteria for application guidelines and the selection of the award recipients upon approval by the Executive Board; and to arrange for the presentation of the awards.
Equitable Action Committee (EAC)
Charge: The committee will advance and support an equitable, diverse, accessible, and inclusive association. With critical reflection and a steady eye on the future, this committee seeks to strengthen the association’s membership by welcoming, embracing, and supporting historically marginalized people, voices, and narratives. The committee also aims to educate and empower the association’s membership on issues of accessibility and disability inclusion opportunities. This committee will advise the Executive Board on creating equitable and inclusive practices.
The Committee is responsible for:
Assisting the Treasurer in maintaining surveillance over the funds and investments of the Association with the goal of steadily increasing the assets while providing funds.
Ensuring that the Association maintains a reserve fund equal to 6 months of current operating expenses.
Reviewing and revising, at least annually, the Association’s strategy for long-term financial growth, and advising the Treasurer and the Board about best business and operating practices for non-profit organizations.
Ensuring that the Investment Policy and the Treasurer’s Manual are reviewed and updated regularly.
Membership Subcommittee: Visual Resources Emerging Professionals and Students (VREPS)
VREPS is designed to specifically meet and publicize the needs of students and new (within ten years of the start of their career in visual resources) professionals through a website dedicated to topics of interest to new professionals and students (job postings, professional development opportunities, etc.), hosting virtual meetings, both with ArLiSNAP and individually, and providing social programming and educational opportunities at the annual conference.
Solo visual information professionals generally have no professional peers within their immediate department. They often serve as the head of the library or visual collection and may have temporary or part-time support staff such as assistants, interns, student workers or volunteers. They are found in all types of GLAM related organizations including special libraries, art and architecture school libraries, museum libraries, branch libraries, academic departments and independent art agencies.