MARAC Harrisburg Recap

As noted here last week, I finished last week in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the Fall 2010 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). It was a very good meeting and was well attended.

On Thursday, the meeting is devoted to tours and committee meetings. I participated in both parts. My MARAC Tour involved golf. Six of us played a round at the Hershey West Course at the Hershey Country Club. It was a great day for golf with perfect weather. My score however, was nowhere near perfect. After checking in at the hotel, I went off to my meetings. Unfortunately, right around that same time, I came down with a migraine headache and took to bed for a few hours before heading out to find some culinary delights in the city of Harrisburg.

The next day, I headed down for breakfast with the vendors and then to the plenary address, featuring Kathleen Roe. Kathleen is a great speaker and she kept us all entertained all the while making sure that we are doing everything we can to protect archives (and our funding). As I am co-chairing the Spring 2011 meeting (to be held in Alexandria, Virginia), I took the opportunity to talk with the vendors exhibiting in Harrisburg and getting them on board for my meeting.

All of the sessions that I attended were really good. One in particular was a new tactic for MARAC, but well done, in my opinion. It was a Pecha Kucha session, where eight of my colleagues spoke for just about 5-10 minutes on "A Day in the Life of an Archivist." There will be a Pecha Kucha session in Alexandria.

On Saturday morning, MARAC holds its business meeting. At that meeting, I was tapped to give the presentation to garner interest in my colleagues to come to Alexandria. If I do say so myself, I thought the presentation was . . . sensational.