At the 2008 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, January 10-16, the ALSC Board:

VOTED, to accept the recommendations of Mary Burkey, 2008 Odyssey Committee chair, for changes to the Odyssey Award procedures as follows:

a) Clarify age range: “The audiobook is intended for either young adults or children, who are defined as persons up to and including age 18; works for this age range are to be considered. Adult titles are ineligible.”

b) Add publication date language: “The committee will consider and vote on titles published within their assigned calendar year, January 1 to October 31, in addition to those published between November 1 and December 31 of the previous year. A title may only be submitted once and cannot be reconsidered the next year.” (Board recommends that practices for continuity from chair to chair be written down in administrative documents.)

c) Removal of the final clause (“with adaptations of materials remaining true to, expanding, or complementing the work”) of the sentence in bullet three under “Overall Rating.” Bullet three will now read: “Excellence of execution in the aural techniques of the medium.”

VOTED, to approve the Budget Committee’s FY 2009 preliminary proposed budget.

VOTED, to approve the following transfers from the ALSC net asset balance to endowments: in FY2009, $20,000 to Arbuthnot, $20,000 to Rollins, and $9,000 to Children’s; 2010 allocation to be determined at a later meeting. Transfers are in keeping with the Budget Committee recommendation to maintain eight months of average monthly expenses.

VOTED, to add the following proposed change in Bylaw X.1. to the ALSC ballot for membership vote in spring 2008. The proposed new wording is: “No later than the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, the ALSC Vice President/President-Elect appoints a Nominating Committee of four members plus the chair to select candidates for election the following year. No member of the Board of Directors shall be appointed to this committee. Members may serve more than once on the Nominating Committee, but not more than three times, and not more than once in five years, except for chairs, who may serve a chair term within five years of a term as a member of this committee.”