NAGARA’s strength is the collective knowledge of its members, and we want to learn from you. If your work has solved a hard problem, tested a new approach, or taught you something the hard way, we invite you to submit a proposal for NAGARA’s 2027 professional development lineup.
You choose which program or programs your proposal is for, and it is considered only for those, so each session lands in the setting it was designed for. Pre-conference workshops have their own proposal form, so they are reviewed separately from general sessions.
- The most-requested training topics have barely changed in four years: long-term preservation of electronic records, data governance, shared drives, email, records systems, retention schedules, and training the people who create records. Project management tops the program administration list every year.
- Most attendees work in local or state government and identify as records managers, usually in a small unit inside a large organization.
- Attendees want the “how”: case studies from people who did the work, including what went wrong; panels and discussions; hands-on demonstrations; and templates, checklists, and policies they can take home.
- Sessions should say who they are for. Attendees asked for content labeled by experience level and audience, with real depth for experienced practitioners and clear fundamentals for people new to the job.
- Archivists asked for more sessions on processing, digital accessioning, preservation, and conservation.
- Because so many members learn virtually, Online Forum and webinar proposals matter as much as conference sessions. The best-attended NAGARA webinars of the last three years were on retention schedules, disposition, records audits, disaster preparedness, standard operating procedures, and email.