I wholeheartedly agree Brian. As one of only a few provincial and territorial archival organizations that may actually survive the cuts, it is more important than ever that Ontario archivists stand up as one voice, and say "this line and no further!" and then move that line back until our colleagues in other provinces and territories have access to the services that they need to support the national community. The AAO (and the OCA before it) were formed through a sense of indomitable will and determination to give Archives a voice in this province. That voice shall not fall silent.

I have already contacted my MP. I encourage others to do so. Danielle has already posted fact sheets and other tools. Use them.

"Of all national assets, archives are the most precious...". You all know the rest.

Paul Henry
Ottawa

Sent from my iMac

On 2012-05-14, at 9:40 AM, Brian P. N. Beaven wrote:

> I want to endorse everything that Brian Masschaele says.   I will add that what he says about raising institutional fees, I say applies equally to Individual fees.  On the last two occasions when fees were discussed by AAO,  I made the case that the individual membership fees were too low -- and they are two low.  I let Brian M make the case that institutional fees are too low.  The AAO has been starving itself for years by trying to keep fees artificially low while using the bulk of our resources to provide subsidized support for our member institutions.  It does not add up. Cheap membership fees, subsidized services and overreliance on volunteer labour to further subsidize the activity of the AAO is not a winning business plan.  
>  
> The only other point I make is that the orignal cuts that caused this domino effect are the real and serious problem and require the active intervention of the archival community across Ontario and Canada if the dysfunctional effects on the archival community are to be mitigated.  In the  meantime,  there are concrete things that we can do as an organization to sustain our proud traditions of service and stewardship.  
>  
> Thanks to Brian and Ellen for taking a leadership roll in these matters.  It is a sign of strength when archivists in their mid-career take on the role of getting the community engaged in important causes.   Make no mistake the cutsbacks to the Canadian Archival community are a serious issue, all the more so because they are unwarranted, unnecessary and capricious.