ACA Strategic Framework, 2023-2026

This page aims to highlight key areas of the ACA Strategic Framework, 2023-2026. The complete framework and presentation documents can be referred to below after the "Next Steps" section.   

Background:

In 2021, the ACA Board extended the ACA's strategic plan Moving Forward Together: ACA Strategic Plan, 2018-2021 for another year to enable them to assess what was achieved and develop a plan for establishing a new strategic framework. A survey was sent to all members in the spring of 2022, which asked for feedback on how well the ACA was meeting member needs. The survey results showed an overall increase in member satisfaction, and a summary of these results were shared with members in the July 2022 Scope and Content. While pleased with the overall results, the Board acknowledged that there is still more work to do to improve services and member satisfaction. In late summer of 2022, the ACA put out a call for volunteers to participate in a Strategic Plan Working Group (SPWG). The intent of the working group was to build a road map and give direction for the Board and Secretariat of the ACA. The SPWG met for the first time in October and immediately came up with a plan of action. We decided to use a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to assess how the ACA does and does not meet member needs. To gather input, we held virtual SWOT analysis sessions in the winter of 2022. These included all members of the ACA groups who could attend. We also created a SWOT analysis feedback form, which was made available for both members and non-members to provide their input.

Timeline:

Our Guiding Principles:

The work of the ACA and its groups should strive to advance and support the Association in three key areas:

• Meeting the Association’s equity commitments;
• Meeting our commitments to truth and reconciliation within our Association and for archival communities in Canada; and
• Holding ourselves accountable for our actions through regular reporting and two-way communications with members.

Meeting our Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation:

The Reconciliation Framework released in 2022 by the Response to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Taskforce (TRC-TF) of the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives (SCCA) and unanimously endorsed by the ACA Board of Directors on 11 March 2022, calls on professional associations across the country to take a proactive role in integrating Framework objectives into association operations. Such work includes, but is not limited to, building networks, tools, and resources, integrating reconciliation visioning into long-term planning, and supporting active ACA involvement by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis archivists and heritage professionals. The operationalizing of these objectives affects and involves all work done by the ACA and its groups.

The ACA and its groups will work to support Canada’s archival communities as they work to integrate strategies from the Reconciliation Framework into their planning activities and regular operations. The ACA and its groups will encourage members to respect First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples’ intellectual sovereignty over records created by or about them, and educate members regarding Indigenous held rights to ownership, control, access, and possession of their nations’ information.

Strategic Priorities:

Next Steps:

The ACA Secretariat and all volunteers are responsible for incorporating the guiding principles and strategic priorities stated above into their annual work plans and long-range activities. Work plan templates will be provided to ACA groups to help keep these priorities and principles top of mind and to ensure consistency in plan development. Regular communication from ACA groups to general membership on all work being done will be facilitated via various media channels including, but not limited to, Scope and Content, ACA Bulletin and direct emails to members.

We invite you to review the full plan and/or the summary presentation below:

• ACA Strategic Framework, 2023-2026
• Strategic Framework Presentation (Presented to ACA members May 31, 2023)

Previous Strategic Plan documentation (2018-2021)

• ACA Strategic Plan, 2018-2021
  
• Strategic Plan Presentation (Presented to ACA members June 7, 2018)
• Strategic Plan Summary