It has been more than 30 years since the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) has conducted a job analysis. The profession has evolved in regards to skills, knowledge, practices, and standards. The ACA desires to use an updated job analysis to revise certification standards and requirements to ensure alignment of professional needs and expectations.  ACA is now looking to update our job analysis and our knowledge statements, and requests proposals and pricing from psychometric firms to conduct a job analysis for the ACA.

A job analysis is a systematic process for collecting information regarding a job role in terms of the job functions (e.g., responsibilities/duties) and tasks performed on a job, as well as the knowledge and/or skills (e.g., competencies) required to perform those tasks. The results of the job analysis describe the breadth and depth of knowledge and skills that must be covered by the certification examination for it to be deemed valid, reliable, and legally defensible.

The ACA seeks to execute a contract with the most responsible and responsive vendor whose bid proposal, conforming to this RFP, is most advantageous to ACA, price and all other factors considered.

Full RFP can be found here. Deadline to submit is March 30, 2023.

Contact Gerrianne Schaad for more information.

Winter 2023 

Greetings! I am feeling energized and excited after our virtual mid-winter ACA Board meeting (convened February 11-12). One part of our meeting was devoted to reviewing our strategic directions over the past two years. It is amazing to see the progress we have made. Looking forward, we have some exciting plans underway.  

JOB ANALYSIS 

One major goal is to complete a job analysis to update the definition of what it means to be an archivist. The thinking behind this is that the profession has evolved in regards to skills, knowledge, practices, and standards since a thorough profile of an archivist has been completed. Updating our understanding of the professional archivist by way of a systematic study will help us ensure that our certification examination is accurately covering the breadth and depth of knowledge and skills needed by archivists. Creating the job analysis is beyond the ability of the ACA board to undertake, and so upon recommendation from our psychometrician, we will hire professionals to do this work. Members of the ACA board have put together an RFP, which will be posted to the website and listservs, to seek out a firm to undertake the work of compiling the job analysis. As members of the Academy, you will be sought out for feedback along the way.  

EXAM APPLICATION PERIOD OPENING SOON! 

Our exam application period is opening on March 1—encourage colleagues, whether new to the profession or not, to sit for the exam! On March 9 at 7 p.m. EST, Rosemary Pleva Flynn, Regent for Exam Administration, will host an online Q&A session to answer any questions from prospective test-takers.  

ACA BOARD ELECTION 

The election of new board members will be underway starting on April 10. Keep your eye out for the ballot. On April 5 at 5 p.m. EST, Gerrianne Schaad, Regent for Nominations, will host an online "meet the candidates" forum.  

IMPLEMENTATION OF CULTURAL COMPETENCY DOMAIN 

I am excited to announce that this year’s certification examination will be the first to include questions from our new domain: Cultural Competency. The ACA Cultural Competency Task Force, created on November 1, 2020, was charged with developing this domain. Thank you to the following members who put in many hours working on this: Helen Wong Smith, CA, Lead Co-Chair; Tomaro Taylor, CA, Co-Chair; Nicole Bubolo, CA; Sarah Calise, CA; Rebecca Hankins, CA; Sylvia Hernandez, CA; and Jill Tominosky, CA. On May 3 at 5 p.m. EST, Cheryl Oestreicher, Regent for Exam Development, will host an online Q&A session to talk about this newest domain. 

Thank you for your continued support and membership. If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to reach out to me or any one of the other board members.  

Emily Hughes Dominick | President, 2022-2023 

Academy of Certified Archivists 

president@certifiedarchivists.org 

As we settle into fall, we are surrounded by transitions and it is no different with the Academy of Certified Archivists. I am honored to be serving this year as President of the Academy. I am grateful to be working with a dedicated and energetic group of archivists on this year’s board which includes Liz Scott, CA as Vice President/President Elect, Mary McRobinson, CA as Treasurer, Susan Irwin, CA as Secretary, Stephanie Bayless, CA as Regent for Certification Maintenance, Rosemary Pleva Flynn, CA as Regent for Exam Administration, Cheryl Oestreicher, CA as Regent for Exam Development, Ingi House, CA as Regent for Outreach, Gerrianne Schaad, CA as Past President/Regent for Nominations, and Michelle Ganz, CA as Regent for Membership. And, of course we wouldn’t be where we are today without the help of those board members whose terms ended in August: Laura Botts, CA, Anne Hodges, CA, Joshua Kitchens, CA, and Tomaro Taylor, CA. Thank you all for your service!

We are busy wrapping up some the final details from some of last year's projects. Namely, we can announce that the ACA Bylaws revisions put to a vote in August passed by a vote of 297 (in favor of revisions) to 22 (not in favor). This amounts to 34% of our members voting. Several in our membership pointed out some inconsistencies with spacing and how the strike-throughs were showing. All apologies for adding confusion to the process. The corrected and intended language for Section 2. Examination Development Committee is as follows:

The Examination Development Committee shall be composed of the Regent for Examination Development and six members, two of whom shall be appointed by the President each year to serve a term of three (3) years. Any member of the Corporation is eligible for appointment to the committee, and any member of the Examination Committee can serve two consecutive terms. The Regent for Examination Development shall serve as chair.

Thank you to everyone for voting and also for letting us know there were some problems. You can view the approved bylaws on the ACA website.

Looking for ways to connect with the Academy? Consider joining one of the upcoming virtual happy hours. For the coming year, these informal gatherings will be held on the second Wednesday of each month at 5 p.m. EST. Register now for the November 9 happy hour!

If you are seeking ways to become more involved with ACA keep in mind that we are often looking for volunteers.

Thank you for your continued support and membership. If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to reach out to me or any one of the other board members.

Emily Hughes Dominick | President, 2022-2023
Academy of Certified Archivists
president@certifiedarchivists.org

The Academy of Certified Archivists' Nominations Committee is pleased to announce the results of this year's ACA election:  

• Liz Scott, CA as Vice President/President-Elect 
• Mary McRobinson, CA as Treasurer 
• Cheryl Oestreicher, CA as Regent for Examination Development  
• Ingi House, CA as Regent for Outreach 
• Yayoi Tsutsui, CA as Nominations Committee member