The Joint National Conference of the ASA & the RMAA	Invitation Speakers Social Program Main Program General Information Accommodation Registraton Further Information Sponsorship & Exhibition 2 to 5 September 2001 Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart Tasmania, Australia

KEYNOTE & INVITED SPEAKERS

Verne Harris

Director of the South African History Archive

Verne Harris is Director of the South African History Archive, an independent archive established in the 1980s to document the struggles against apartheid. At the same time he is a part-time lecturer in archives for the University of the Witwatersrand's postgraduate programme in heritage studies.

Between 1985 and April 2001 he was with South Africa's State Archives Service and the post-apartheid National Archives, rising to the position of deputy director in 1993.

He holds an MA in history from the University of Natal, and has published widely in the fields of archives, records management, history, music and fiction. He participated in a number of key processes leading to the transformation of South Africa's apartheid public records system: from 1992 to 1993 he served on the ANC's Archives Sub-committee; in 1995 he chaired the working committee of the Consultative Forum which drafted the National Archives of South Africa Act; and from 1997 to 1998 was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's investigative team responsible for investigating the destruction of records by the apartheid state.

He was editor of the South African Archives Journal between 1988 and 1998, and was recently appointed to the editorial boards of the international journals Archivum and Archival Science.

In 2000 he was appointed chairperson of the national Standards Generating Body for Archives and Records Management.

Title of presentation: "Of Fragments, Fictions And Powers: Resisting Neat Theorising About 'The Record'".

Michael Steemson

Michael Steemson

Chairman and Master of Ceremonies

After a long career in London journalism Mike Steemson heads the Wellington-based Caldeson Consultancy in business information management.

In New Zealand he chaired the committee that created a New Zealand Guide to AS4390 and joined the ISO’s Records Management Sub-committee last year as a member of the Australian delegation. He has spoken at information conferences in London, Edinburgh, Vienna, Istanbul, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Mike says, "I am enthralled by the opportunity to chair this first joint annual conference of the Records Managers’ and Archivists’ associations. I have long held the belief that the two disciplines are not separate. They just approach record-keeping from different segments of a business spectrum. Nonetheless, why would I, an Englishman living in New Zealand, be chairing this new Australian paradigm? Will it, perhaps, be because, like the Hobart 2001 conference, I am a convergence of cultures? Maybe!

But I believe it’s more because, as you may already know, I am an enthusiast for the recordkeeping crusade. It’s exciting, gratifying, demanding and great fun. My job will be to make Hobart 2001 just like that."

Kathryn Dan

Kathryn Dan

Assistant Director-General, Government Recordkeeping, National Archives of Australia

Kathryn heads the Government Record-keeping Branch which sets and promotes standards for Commonwealth Government agencies on how they create, manage and keep records. Kathryn has worked at several federal government agencies and the Australian National University and was President/Vice-President of the Australian Society of Archivists from 1995-1998.