Archives Advisory Committee

Mandate

2022 - A154 Revise Canon I.5 Regarding Archives of The Episcopal Church

Canon 5: Of the Archives of The Episcopal Church

Sec. 1. There shall be an Archives of The Episcopal Church, the purpose of which shall be to preserve by safekeeping, to arrange and to make available the records of the General Convention, Executive Council, and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and other important records and memorabilia of the life and work of the Church, and to carry out a program of records management, so as to further the historical dimension of the mission of the Church.

Sec. 2. For purposes of this Canon, records are defined as all fixed evidential information regardless of method, media, format or characteristics of the recording process, which have been created, received or gathered by the Church, its officers, agents or employees in pursuance of the legal, business and administrative function and the programmatic mission of the Church. Records include all original materials used to capture information, notwithstanding the place or conditions of creation, or the formality or informality of the characteristics of the record. The records and archives of the Church are not limited by the medium in which they are kept and include such formats as paper records, electronic records, printed records and publications, photo-reproduced images, and machine-readable tapes, film and disks.

Sec. 3. The Archives of The Episcopal Church shall be managed by the Archivist.

Sec. 4. After consultation with the Archives Advisory Committee, the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies in their respective roles as the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Council, shall jointly nominate and the Executive Council shall appoint the Archivist who shall serve at the pleasure of, and report and be accountable to the Chair of the Executive Council. If a vacancy should occur in that office, a successor shall be appointed in like manner.

Sec. 5.

a. There shall be an Archives Advisory Committee which shall consist of the Archivist, the Registrar, the Chief Legal Officer, the Historiographer, and between eight and twelve appointed persons, two or three of whom shall be Bishops, two or three of whom shall be Clergy, and four, five or six of whom shall be Lay Persons. All appointed Members of the Advisory Committee shall serve terms beginning upon the adjournment of the General Convention at which their appointments are confirmed and ending with the close of the second regular Convention thereafter.

b. Bishops shall be appointed by the Presiding Bishop, and other Clerical and all Lay Members shall be appointed by the President of the House of Deputies; after the initial appointments, all subsequent appointments shall be subject to the confirmation of General Convention. Consideration shall be given to assure that membership includes persons who possess knowledge either of history or archival administration, or are persons skilled in disciplines pertinent to the resolutions of the concerns of the Archives. Positions of Members of the Committee which become vacant prior to the normal expiration of such Members’ terms shall be filled by appointment by the Presiding Bishop or by the President of the House of Deputies, as appropriate. Such appointments shall be for the remaining unexpired portion of such Members’ terms, and if a regular meeting of the General Convention intervenes, appointments for terms extending beyond such meeting shall be subject to confirmation of the General Convention. Because of the special skills and knowledge needed by this Committtee, a Member shall be eligible for appointment for two successive terms, after which the Member may not be reappointed prior to the next meeting of the General Convention following the meeting at the close of which the second successive term of the Member expired. Members appointed to fill vacancies in unexpired terms shall not thereby be disqualified from appointment to two full terms immediately thereafter.

c. The Archives Advisory Committee shall provide advice regarding identification, collection, preservation, management, use, and accessibility of records, and establishment of best practices regarding the same to the Archivist, the Archives, and the Executive Council.

d. The Archives Advisory Committee shall meet at least annually, or as requested by the Archivist or the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Council.