In her letter to the United Church AAO President Liz Mayville wrote, "We are reassured by the announcement that the archives will continue to exist and that access to their holdings will be maintained."

I'm not sure where in the carefully crafted spin of the dissolution announcement the AAO Board finds this reassurance. In my opinion the fact that the United Church appears to have no plans for a new location for its archival holdings has serious implications for the ongoing accessibility of the records. Furthermore, the termination of the professional staff will in essence eliminate the valuable corporate memory of the archives.

I have personally benefited from the UCCVUA, having used the archives during my studies at the Faculty of Information Studies. I also have the pleasure of counting a number of the staff as personal friends. In my opinion, they deserve better and we as an archival community need to cut through the spin in order to fully understand the implications of this dissolution.


Best Regards,

Charlotte Chaffey

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