Making and Talking Money: LAM Salary Transparency

The educational panel — hosted by the Archival Workers Emergency Fund (AWE Fund) Organizing Committee — will include Brenda Flora of the Association of Moving Image Archivists Advocacy Committee; Elena Colón-Marrero and Melissa Gonzales of the Society of American Archivists Archival Compensation Task Force; and Michelle Millar Fisher of Art + Museum Transparency. Panelists will discuss salary transparency efforts within libraries, archives, and museums organizations and spaces.

This event is free to register; however, we are raising money for these collective efforts supporting LAM workers and providing our speakers with the option of an honorarium. Donations received through Eventbrite for this event will be distributed to the following organizations:

• Art + Museum Transparency: https://www.artandmuseumtransparency.org/
• AWE Fund: https://awefund.wordpress.com
• Labor Notes: https://www.labornotes.org/donate

About the Panelists

Elena Colón-Marrero is the Digital Archivist at the Computer History Museum. She has been at the museum since 2016 where she manages the museum’s digital collections and historic software collection. Colón-Marrero currently serves on the Archival Compensation Task Force for the Society of American Archivists. Previously, she has served as chair, vice-chair, and social media manager for the Students and New Professionals Section of SAA.

Brenda Flora is the Curator of Moving Images and Recorded Sound at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. She became the Center’s first audiovisual archivist in 2010, and has been responsible for creating and implementing AV policy and overseeing audiovisual projects. She holds a Master’s degree in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia, and currently serves as co-chair of AMIA’s Advocacy Committee of the Board and Salary & Labor Working Group.

Melissa Gonzales is Director Records Management at Houston Community College. She received her MSLIS with an Archives Management Concentration from Simmons University. Her previous archives experience includes working at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the University of Texas at Arlington, the Witte Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In addition to many years of professional organization service, she is currently serving on SAA’s Council and its Executive Committee.

Michelle Millar Fisher is the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her work investigates the confluence power, people, and all forms of design, decorative arts, and craft. Previously, she worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She is a co-founder of Art + Museum Transparency.

Moderators: Jessica Chapel and Alison Clemens.

Created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Archival Workers Emergency Fund was established to provide assistance for archival workers experiencing acute, unanticipated financial hardship due to the crisis. The fund welcomes applications from all U.S.-based archival workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis and donations from all. For more information, visit the SAA website. The AWE Fund Organizing Committee coordinates ongoing fund support and development.

This panel is the second in a series of semi-regular panel conversations hosted by the AWE Fund Organizing Committee.

Note: This event will be held on Zoom. Live closed captioning will be available during the event. The panel will be recorded and posted on the AWE Fund YouTube channel.

"$100." Photo by Giorgio Trovato, sourced from Unsplash.