MARAC Report

Two weeks ago, at this point in time, the Brave Astronaut clan was enjoying a breakfast buffet at the Hershey Lodge as part of the Spring 2018 MARAC meeting, held in Hershey, PA.  It had been a good meeting, with some informative sessions, and a great plenary.  The business meeting was getting underway and it was time for the Awards portion of the breakfast.  Unbeknownst to me, I was about to be surprised with the MARAC Distinguished Service Award.  I had no one to blame but myself, having started the "tradition" on dropping the award on an unsuspecting colleague, when I chaired the committee.  Surprise is always better than staged theatrics.  Except when it happens to me. :)

I have already expressed my thanks to those individuals who nominated me for this great award, as well as the members of the committee who selected me.  In my shock and surprise, I was unable to adequately express at the Business meeting my thanks.  I wrote the following, which will hopefully be published in an upcoming MARAC newsletter.

First, let me thank the MARAC Membership and the Distinguished Service Award Committee for bestowing on me this incredible honor. To have my name listed alongside giants in our profession and our organization like, Danna Bell, Lauren Brown, Lisa Mangiafico, Ron Becker, Jodi Koste, Jim Byers and others who came before me, is very humbling.

I would like to also thank those individuals (it’s possible I may have said “blame” in my remarks on Saturday morning) who nominated me for this award. To be recognized by them for (in the words of the nomination form) “significant contributions to MARAC which have contributed to the success of the organization” means a great deal to me and I am truly grateful for the honor.

I have been a MARAC member since I became an archivist more than twenty years ago. I quickly sought ways to contribute to the organization, joining the Steering Committee as a Member at Large, was later elected Treasurer, and finally served as MARAC Chair. Along the way, I sought counsel from those who had come before me, including those named earlier, along with Marsha Trimble, the late Leonora Guidland, Becky Collier (our incoming Chair), Lucious Edwards, Fynnette Eaton, Geof Huth, Jeff Flannery, and many others, all of whom are just as deserving as I of recognition by this great organization that we all support and love.

Speaking of love, I really must thank my wife [Mrs. BA], who is in attendance at her first MARAC Meeting in several years (that should have been a tip off to me!), along with our two boys, [LBA and SoBA]. Some of you may know that Mrs. BA and I met at the Spring 1996 MARAC Meeting in College Park, where she was giving a workshop on Arrangement and Description. It was MARAC who brought us together and now sixteen years later, we are one of the “MARAC love connections” and the three of them make me a better archivist, husband, and father, in that order at least for this venue. Also, [LBA] spent some time in the MARAC cradle that was made for the late Leonard Rapport and passed down through the organization for many MARAC member children to sleep in. Ted also was a dues paying MARAC member for a few years after he was born – and he has talked of following his parents into this wonderful profession.

In closing, I was talking with a few colleagues earlier in the meeting that we had noticed that our organization had gotten younger of late – and that is not necessarily a bad thing. We “seasoned” members of this organization are revitalized by the infusion of younger talent entering our profession and look forward to working with them to further the mission and goals of our organization and our profession.

Thank you again very much. I am deeply honored.