Boston College’s Theological and Ministry Library hosted APTrust’s 2024 Spring member meeting on May 16-17. While we’ve sometimes offered a Zoom option for our in-person meetings, the online attendance has usually been small. This year, we aimed to create a true hybrid meeting with 17 people attending in person and 13 people online. We will use the feedback from this event to enhance the hybrid experience for all at our 2024 Fall member meeting at the University of Arizona.
NOTE: Some of the linked resources in this blog post are only available to APTrust members.
State of APTrust, Spring 2024
- We are steady at 20 sustaining members, 4 of whom sponsor 5 associate members.
- APTrust is now preserving over 461 TB of unique content, up from 320 TB at our 2023 Fall member meeting in December. This marks approximately 44% growth in five months!
- Members are utilizing APTrust’s various storage options. About half of deposits use our standard high-assurance storage, while the rest are spread across our basic and deep archive options and locations.
- We bid farewell to Andrew Diamond, who left to work on challenges in the renewable energy industry. A search committee has formed and is looking for our next Lead Developer.
APTrust Finances and Operational Reserves
APTrust finances are in good order, and we are projected to end the Fiscal Year 2024 with a surplus, contributing to our significant operational reserves. Executive Director Nathan Tallman is developing proposals to reinvest part of these reserves back into operations, including exploring a dedicated staff position for onboarding/offboarding and training, as well as a potential grant or fellowship program.
Establishing an APTrust Research Agenda
Advisory Committee co-chair Alex Kinnaman led a discussion on creating a research agenda for APTrust. This agenda would outline areas of research and development that APTrust, either independently or as a collaborator, is interested in pursuing and supporting. The research agenda will help guide decisions on which opportunities to pursue and invest in.
Technical Updates and Disaster Recovery
Flavia Ruffner, Lead Engineer for DevSecOps, gave updates on APTrust applications, DevOps, and security.
Applications
Registry has been updated to prevent deletion of objects that haven’t met minimum-storage requirements imposed by the underlying providers. A new bulk delete feature has been released, with a training video available to explain its functionality. Andrew released a DART 3 alpha before his departure, and we need power users to help test and identify bugs before his successor can work on a beta release.
DevOps and Security
Flavia also discussed the impacts of the NAT Gateway removal approved in 2023, which has resulted in cost reductions and security improvements. She continues to enhance APTrust’s approach to Identity and Access Management and plans to explore federated identities later in 2024.
Disaster Recovery and Risk Mitigation
Flavia and Michael Runyon provided an overview of their previous work to improve APTrust’s disaster recovery and risk mitigation posture. They have drafted a Risk Management Plan and a Disaster Recovery and Management policy, building on an initial disaster response plan from a previous Communications and Policy Working Group. More work is needed before these documents can be reviewed by the advisory committee, so those interested in joining a focused, time-bound working group should contact Flavia and Michael.
Strategic Planning
Recognizing the need for improvements in our strategic plan at the 2023 fall member meeting, Nathan Tallman presented a refined strategic plan for 2021-2025. The updated plan retains the original spirit and goals but includes more specificity, measurable objectives, and actionable steps. Advisory Committee co-chairs Alex Kinnaman and Kevin Hébert will initiate the next steps at a future Advisory meeting.
Gathering Input on Onboarding/Offboarding/Training and Outreach
Nathan Tallman and Alex Kinnaman facilitated group discussions on onboarding and offboarding, training, and outreach activities. The insights gathered will be used to revamp our approach to onboarding new member organizations and employees, as well as offboarding processes. The training discussions provided valuable data on the types and modalities of training members prefer. Additionally, Nathan led a discussion on how APTrust can enhance outreach to benefit the broader community.
Wrapping it Up
This was a packed meeting, and we appreciate the time and energy of everyone who participated. While this blog post is too brief to capture all the details, one final update is that APTrust conducted a member census this year to gauge membership activities. Though the census results can’t be shared outside APTrust, we gained valuable insights and strengthened community ties. We hope to see you in December!