The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organization serves upwards of 6,200 individual and member institutions. The Society supports its members and the archival profession through strong publication and professional workshop programs and semi-annual meetings. Currently, workshops are given all across the United States and attend to current archival concerns and issues such as Encoded Archival Description, the digitizing of archival materials, and preservation and conservation of materials, among others. The programs it offers include: Online On-Demand Programs, Online Real Time Programs and Face to Face Programs. History The Society of American Archivist was established in 1936 on the heels of the creation of the National Archives. The organization was born in the wake of the dissolution of the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association. The early days of the organization were fraught with difficulty related to membership as well as professional identity. The American Library Association created a commission on archives, which founding president Albert R. Newsome found disrespectful. There was also tension between the public archives tradition championed by Margaret Cross Norton and the historical manuscripts tradition as the governing philosophy. Public archives tradition puts emphasis on records management and administrative aspects of archival work, whereas historical manuscripts focuses more on the preservation and maintenance of important documents for research purposes. The tension and debate between the two fundamental functions of archives would continue into the 1950s, spilling into elements like elections and where to hold annual meetings. The first issue of the Society's journal, the American Archivist, appeared in 1938. In 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as an honorary member of the SAA due to his commitment to archiving federal, state and local government documents. After World War II, SAA joined with other international archivist societies to create the International Council on Archives and an archives for the United Nations. A number of committees focused on various interests of the Society, including Church Records and College and University Archives. These committees helped legitimize the Society, which aided them in a 1956 dispute with National Association of State Libraries over the differences between their two professions. This eventually lead to a joint committee between the American Library Associate and SAA to discuss the nuances and differences