I think the tension between in-person and online meetings will remain for some 
time. That does argue for an annual schedule that has some of each.

I think we have found that there are kinds of issues/business that runs well in 
the Zoom format. I think of specific issues that don't require much 
explanation, editorial correction of scope notes, examples. Giving 
presentations and reports works too.
But there are logistical drawbacks in addition to the timezones. Because of the 
timezones, we actually have fewer meeting hours over a 4-day online meeting 
than an in-person meeting. And it is much harder to stay available for all the 
sessions when one is at one's normal office. Plus distraction with other things 
the rest of the day. Speaking for my experience, of course.

I do not find we have MORE people in attendance online at any one time than we 
had at in-person meetings pre-pandemic, but it is not all the same people. 
Bringing in the different participants is good.

For the in-person meetings, I favour the stand-alone meeting, long enough to 
justify the travel time, rather than trying to extend some other event with a 
SIG. Attempting to extend another conference will make the entire trip very 
long. And too many different responsibilities conflicting for those active in 
the main conference, possibly not allowing the most active SIG members to 
concentrate on CRM because of their CIDOC duties, or CIDOC conference host 
duties, or presentations to give during CIDOC. For many years we have tried to 
extend IFLA to carry out standards work, and at best you can extend by one day, 
it can be hard to find a venue unsupported by the main conference, and everyone 
is already exhausted and often unprepared. Also, no matter what basic 
conference we attempt to extend, there will be a number of SIG members who do 
not find it relevant and would not be going.

In summary, I agree with the mix of online and in-person, but not necessarily 
the formula for the in-person meeting. Like Rob I hesitate regarding the 
regional meetings, as adding too much logistical work and making the groups 
much too small to have the critical mass of expertise.

Pat

Pat Riva
Acting University Librarian / Bibliothécaire en chef par intérim
Concordia University / Université Concordia
1455 de Maisonneuve West, LB-331
Montréal, Québec H3G 1M8
Canada
[email protected]

________________________________
From: Crm-sig <[email protected]> on behalf of Robert Sanderson via 
Crm-sig <[email protected]>
Sent: July 7, 2022 1:11 PM
To: Erin Canning <[email protected]>
Cc: crm-sig <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Crm-sig] New issues: Make SIG meetings more sustainable


Agree 100% with 1 and 2. Perhaps broadening 1 to "a relevant conference, such 
as CIDOC / ICOM". The meeting would need to be shorter than the 4 day marathon 
pattern however.

Federation via regional meetings is hard, especially amongst a relatively small 
community, and multiplies the logistics burden. I don't think we have the scale 
for it at this stage.

Rob



On Thu, Jul 7, 2022 at 12:59 PM Erin Canning via Crm-sig 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear all,

I would like to raise three items for discussion, regarding the SIG meetings 
and processes. "Make SIG meetings more sustainable" would be the third of these:

Background: The requirement for online SIG meetings during the past two years 
showed that participation to online SIG meetings is much higher than meeting at 
a specific place. Securing funding for travel is not possible for participants 
outside large and rich institutions. This is in addition to the inevitable 
carbon footprint of the SIG especially for long-haul flights. Online meetings 
lack the capacity for easy idea sharing and are perhaps less practical for 
collaboration in groups. Another drawback of online meetings is the 
impossibility of convenient time-zones for all.

Proposal - the following are starting points for discussion:

  1.  The SIG to meet in person once a year at the CIDOC conference (with some 
overlap in schedules to avoid extremely long trips).
  2.  The SIG to meet online twice a year to accommodate members who cannot 
travel and strengthen the community with wider representation across different 
time zones.
  3.  Consider a federated SIG, where regional meetings take place either 
online or at a location thus reducing requirement for travel. These could be 
led by a member of the editorial group. Decisions at regional meetings will be 
sent for offline review and discussed by the editorial board in separate 
meetings either in person or online. Right for veto to remain at global level.

I look forward to your thoughts.

All the best,
Erin Canning

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--
Rob Sanderson
Director for Cultural Heritage Metadata
Yale University
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