Some points of clarification are required regarding members' reaction to the AAO Board's letter of advocacy on behalf of
the United Church Archives and its staff.  While the issue of the termination of staff is cause for great concern, the
AAO Board has to ensure that its advocacy efforts do not inadvertently cause individual members damage.  This initial
letter was sent to alert the General Council of our concern for the insitution and its holdings.

In order to ensure that this letter did not cause damage to the staff at this time, the AAO President, Liz Mayville
circulated the letter both to the entire AAO Board and to the United Church Archives staff for comment. In response to
the official communication from the church, it was deemed most responsible to send the letter that was posted.  In my
opinion, this advocacy effort was conducted with a high level of consultation with the people directly involved.

I encourage individual members of the AAO to write letters of advocacy and support to the General Council.

Yours truly,

Anne Hepplewhite
AAO Vice President




>
> Dan, with all due respect, the news that the staff was given notice that
> they would be out of a job effective May 2008 was sent out by Sean Smith of
> TAAG six days before the AAO's letter appeared and only one day after the
> original message on the United Church's "move into the future" was sent out
> by Sharon Larade. The information was known by Ontario's archival community
> prior to the AAO statement being issued. As the voice of our profession in
> the province, I would expect that the staff layoffs should be of equal if
> not greater concern than the relocation to a as-of-yet undermined site, not
> only for the impact on the records and their accessibility and preservation,
> but also for the very real impact on our the lives and livelihoods of
> friends and colleagues.
> Yours,
> Rodney Carter
>
> On 5/31/07, Daniel German <[log in to unmask] > wrote:
> >
> >
> > I am writing in reference to the criticism that the AAO response to the
> > announcement of the changes to the United Church Central Archives makes no
> > reference to the question of staff-cuts.
> >
> > As chair of the AAO Communications/Advocacy Cttee I drafted a letter for
> > the
> > President to send expressing our concerns.  This was done as soon as the
> > word came out that there were going to be changes, and before we learned
> > of
> > the staff-cuts.  Obviously the AAO is concerned about any cuts to archival
> >
> > staff, and to her credit Liz has been quick to respond to any such issues.
> > It just happens that in this case this response is being more widely
> > disseminated.
> >
> > It is unfortunate that the letter did not include any references to the
> > staff, but we were working with the information we had available at the
> > time.  Frankly, since they had announced that the archives would continue
> > to
> > exist, I do not think that anyone thought that there would be the sort of
> > whole-scale layoffs which have now been intimated.
> >
> > The AAO will continue to monitor the situation and do what we can.  It is
> > my
> > fervent hope that the experience of the new General Secretary of the
> > United
> > Church with the residential schools issue will help persuade her as to the
> > necessity of maintaining the archives and the archival staff.  In the
> > event
> > that this is not the case, we shall re-evaluate our options as to further
> > actions.
> >
> > Daniel German
> > Chair
> > AAO Communications/Advocacy Cttee
> >
> >
>