The Midwest Archives Conference will hold its 2025 Annual Meeting on April 10-12, 2025 at the Hilton Minneapolis Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is one half of the “Twin Cities” along with the state capitol, St. Paul. Minneapolis is known for its lakes and parks, as well as the Mississippi River, which runs through both downtowns. We plan to roll out our best “Minnesota Nice” to welcome you to the land of 10,000 Lakes.

In keeping with Minnesota’s famous love for sharing a good hotdish at family and community tables, the Program Committee invites session proposals touching on the theme “Serving it Up.” Join us as we explore how archivists preserve the histories and stories of communities we serve, reach across the table and collaborate, use new technologies to update policies and practices to serve up accessible collections, and stretch budgets and resources to find creative solutions to archival issues.  

The Program Committee encourages submissions from newer professionals, first-time presenters, and colleagues from non-academic institutions.  MAC membership is not required. Presenters may submit more than one proposal but may present only one session OR poster.

With an eye toward clear takeaways that can be broadly applied, possible areas of focus include but are not limited to: 

• Areas of growth in archival theory, technology, and practice
• Approaches to collecting, outreach, reference, and instruction 
• Managing born-digital records and analog digitization standards and preservation
• Practical workflows for accessioning, appraisal, processing, preservation, deaccessioning, and cataloging
• Workplace considerations including workload expectations, avoiding burnout, managing relationships, and non-traditional career paths 
• Leadership and management roles in policy making, supervising, advocacy 
• Promoting inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity in the workplace, collections, and archival practices
• Community archiving approaches and practices
• Stretching resources and budgets in innovative and practical ways
• Advocating for funding
• Facility issues such as space constraints, environmental stewardship, and renovations/moves
• Impact of AI on archives 

The Program Committee will also consider proposals not related to this theme or that fall outside these areas of focus. 

Possible Session Types

• Standard Presentation: Two to four speakers present on a common theme. May include a moderator to guide discussion and/or introduce speakers and theme.
• Open Forum: Topical discussion with moderator leading discussion with everyone present. May include additional moderator(s) to direct breakout conversations.
• Roundtable Discussion: Three or four participants make very brief remarks, then discuss a topic together. Includes a moderator to steer the discussion.
• PechaKucha: Each presentation consists of 20 slides or images displayed for 20 seconds each, with comment. Each presentation lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
• Lightning Talks: Like PechaKucha, but without a set format. May or may not include slides or images. Presentations may be from 3 to 10 minutes long, with the time allotted depending on the number of presenters.
• Debate: Moderator announces the topic, and two individuals debate. May include more than one topic and additional debaters.

In January 2025, there will be a separate call for poster proposals as well as a call for pop-up sessions for less traditional session types or time-sensitive topics.

Possible Session Lengths

60 minutes and 90 minutes. Please be mindful of your number of presenters and session type when indicating the preferred session length.

Speaker Representation

The Program Committee seeks a diverse slate of presenters representing a variety of personal and institutional backgrounds, perspectives, and voices. We seek to foster a culture of inclusion in the MAC program and encourage submissions from anyone interested in presenting, including students, new professionals, first-time presenters, and those from allied professions. In order to facilitate and promote inclusion, the proposal submission form will ask voluntary questions about presenters’ past presentation experiences as well as some demographic information.

To facilitate collaboration among those brainstorming session ideas, the Program Committee encourages use of the MAC Facebook page and this spreadsheet for brainstorming session proposal ideas.

Proposal Evaluation

The Program Committee will evaluate all proposals submitted by the deadline using the following criteria:

• Quality and clarity of the session abstract;
• Thoroughness of content and sufficient speakers to address all relevant aspects of the topic;
• Originality of proposed topic;
• Diversity of presenters and viewpoints;
• Appropriateness of proposed format for session content.

All proposals will be considered in the context of the overall structure of the meeting and the availability of time slots for proposed sessions. You can preview a PDF of the proposal form here.

All individuals involved in an accepted proposal must sign a presenter agreement.

Proposal Submission

The deadline for submitting session proposals for the 2025 MAC Annual Meeting is August 30, 2024, at 5 p.m. CST. Use the Call for Proposals form to submit your proposal.

If you have any questions about the proposal process, please contact the 2025 Program Committee Co-Chairs, Shae Rafferty (shae.rafferty@wayne.edu) and Amy Lisinski (lisinskia@archmil.org).