Midwinter Conference -
Washington, DC
Executive Board Meeting I -
Saturday February 15, 1997, 8:30-10:30 am
Present:
Shamima Amin, Melissa Becher, Laurie MacLeod Bennett,
Karen Cook, Nancy George, Linda
Golian, Anne Greenspan, David Hellman, Paula Hering,
Beth Jedlicka, Carol Ritzen Kern,
Priscilla Klob, Laura Lucia, Catherine Marion, Alesia
McManus, E. Antoinette Nelson, Mich
Nelson, Pamela Moffett Padley, Chris Shupala, Laura
Sill, Rita Smith, Ann Snoeyenbos,
Suzanne Stauffer, Ann Thornton, Bob Wick, Ann
Williams, Elaine Yontz
Introduction (Laura Sill):
Laura Sill, President of NMRT, and those attending the meeting introduced themselves. Laura reminded everyone that to save paper, reports were submitted to the Executive Board one month before the Midwinter Conference and would not be available at this meeting. To save time, only new committee chairs and directors would present reports with emphasis given to action items.
Laurie MacLeod Bennett was introduced as acting
parliamentarian.
Approval of Minutes from Annual Meeting (Nancy
George):
Motion: Elaine
Yontz moved that the minutes from the Annual Meeting be approved.
Seconded by Bob Wick.
Motion unanimously approved.
President's Report (Laura Sill):
Laura Sill reported she has been busy with the
responsibilities of President and also has been pursuing funding for Grassroots
Grants with the Funds for America Library, Quality Books, and ALA.
Governance Committee (Laura Sill):
Action items for the committee include: study of the
Constitution and Bylaws and identify areas to focus on for the review; devise a
way to review and establish communication with the membership in order to get
feedback; establish a firm timeline in order to complete the review
within the assigned two-year time period; report to the membership on the
committee's review efforts at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco,
possibly at the Membership Meeting; appoint a parliamentarian from the
committee membership to serve at the Executive Board
meetings at Annual; establish more communication with
the Resources Committee; and prepare to submit the 1990 version of the
Constitution and Bylaws to replace the 1985 version in the NMRT Handbook.
Acting as Parliamentarian for Midwinter is Laurie
MacLeod Bennett.
Self-Study, Resource Allocation Committee (Laura
Sill):
This committee continues to study NMRT's effectiveness
and organizational structure.
Leadership Development Forum Committee (Laura Lucia):
Laura Lucia reported the Leadership Development Forum
would be held Monday, 2/17/97,7:30-9:00 am. The agenda would include
presentations by ALA president and NMRT officer candidates followed by a
discussion on leadership and potential NMRT programs. Because the refreshments
(orange juice and coffee) for this function were expensive, the committee went
over its budget by approximately $6.00.
Midwinter Activities Committee (Melissa Becher and
Catherine Marion):
Melissa Becher announced that NMRT's Midwinter Social would
be held at the Capitol City Brewing Company, Union Station, Monday evening
(2/17/97). To break even, 25 tickets ($20.00 each) needed to be sold. Tickets
were available for purchase at the meeting.
Vice-President/President-Elect (Ann Snoeyenbos):
Laura Sill introduced Ann Snoeyenbos and reviewed her
election to this position. Suzanne Byron, original
Vice-President/President-Elect, stepped down this past fall (health reasons)
creating the opening. The Executive Board nominated a pool of candidates and elected
Ann over e-mail. This occurred in late fall; thus, Laura Sill coordinated
Midwinter functions normally handled by the position of
Vice-President/President-Elect.
Ann stated she has been reviewing the files and is
eager to fulfill the duties of Vice-President/President-Elect. She encouraged
the NMRT membership to share program ideas with her in preparation for future NMRT
events. In addition she continues to represent NMRT on the Round Table
Coordinating Committee and in turn represented the RTCC to the ALA-Structure
Revision Task Force (along with another Round Table representative).
Immediate Past President (Elaine Yontz):
Elaine Yontz has been working with the Nominating
Committee to ensure a strong pool of candidates for NMRT officer positions.
Nominating Committee (Ann Williams):
Ann Williams announced they have a good group of
candidates who are running for NMRT office: Vice-President/President-Elect:
Linda Golian; Secretary: E. Antoinette Nelson, Rita Smith; Director: Nancy
George, Beth Jedlicka, Priscilla Klob, Pamela Moffett Parley, Joan Reyes.
Secretary3 Report (Nancy George):
Nancy George reported she distributed the minutes from
the Annual Conference over e-mail and through US mail to solicit pre-conference
additions/deletions and submitted a synopsis of the minutes to Footnotes. In December the following e-mail motion/vote occurred:
Motion: I,
Ann Snoeyenbos, move that the Governance Committee update the 1985 version of
the Constitution and Bylaws and call it the official 1990 version of the
Constitution and Bylaws and proceed as planned with the review of this version
(1990) of the Constitution and Bylaws.
Seconded by Kimberley Robles.
Motion passed unanimously.
Archives Committee (Nancy George):
Nancy George reported the Archives Committee received
3.8 cubic feet of material in the past year and the Archivist, JoAnn Jocoby,
received archival requests from a number of committees.
Handbook Committee (Nancy George):
Although numerous requests have been made, Nancy
George reported a report has not been received from Lani Teshima-Miller, chair
of the committee. Laura Sill recommended Nancy continue to contact Lani for her
report.
Director for Publications and Public Relations (Bob
Wick):
Bob Wick reported on a number of committees including
the Booth Committee, Cognotes Committee, Membership Promotion and Relations
Committee and Publicity Committee.
Booth Committee (Bob Wick):
The Traveling Booth is not used as much as it should
be. Bob reminded everyone to use the booth at local/state meetings. Quality
Books will send the booth to locations in the continental United States; booth
request forms have been distributed over NMRT-L, the NMRT Web page, and in
paper form. NMRT brochures for use with the booth should be ordered in advance.
There was some discussion on ALA taking over for Quality Books regarding
mailing the booth.
The Booth's coordination with the Silent Auction at
Annual 1997 was discussed by Karen Cook. Karen said NMRT voted last year to
provide supervisory support for the ERT silent auction area. By combining the
ERT auction area and NMRT Booth, fewer volunteers would be needed than if not
combined. In addition, the auction area is highly visible, which would help
boost NMRT's public profile.
Motion: I,
Karen Cook, move that the NMRT Booth and ERT Silent Auction Area be combined
for the 1997 ALA Annual Meeting.
Seconded by Nancy George.
Motion passed unanimously.
Cognotes (Bob Wick):
This committee is the “forgotten committee” due to Cognotes active publication schedule during conferences. Bob
stated Cognotes
is staffed by non-NMRT members but
NMRT members retain editorial control (the positions of editor and assistant
editor are NMRT members). Bob encouraged everyone to get involved in Cognotes.
Volunteers receive a press pass, entrance to a wide variety of meetings, and
free ALA conference registration.
Footnotes (Rita Smith):
The next deadline for Footnotes is 3/15/97. The chair noted that Footnotes only costs
$3,000 to produce three issues, leaving $2,000 in the budget. The Board agreed
the committee should have the flexibility to increase the number of issues, if
the budget allows such flexibility. Due to time limitations, it is not possible
to do produce a fourth issue this year.
Membership Promotion and Relations Committee (Bob
Wick):
New committee interest and NMRT membership brochures
are updated as necessary and distributed as requested (including to library
schools).
The NMRT video was discussed at length. The video is
so out of date it is no longer used. However, a video is needed to serve as the
structure for library school NMRT/ALA programs. Professional videos are
expensive; a new video would cost about $25,000 to produce. Bob Wick will check
with Gerald Hodges on the possibility of working on a new member video that
both ALA and NMRT could use, with ALA funding its production. In addition,
other attendees offered to investigate the feasibility of producing a NMRT
video within their own institutions and the possibility of using a Power Point
presentation in the interim.
Publicity Committee (Bob Wick):
The committee is frustrated that committee chairs
duplicate its efforts to publicize NMRT events and encourage NMRT committee
chairs to use its services. Two members of the Executive Board found the
committee's work useful. However, most committee chairs present complained
about the Publicity Committee's lack of communication and structure regarding:
what listservs are being used, what name will be used as the contact person,
and when the postings will go out. Pamela Moffett Padley, chair of the 3M/NMRT
Professional Development Grant Committee, said it was important that
announcements came from her to facilitate correctly addressed email replies.
Bob Wick will talk to the chair, Joan Reyes, about these concerns.
Old Business/New Business:
The idea of a NMRT Resume Service, for members of
NMRT, was brought up by Mich Nelson of the Mentoring Committee. Resumes would
be examined and commented on in a nonthreatening environment by individuals who
wish to assist a newer librarian but are unable to participate in the Mentoring
Program. Laura Sill encouraged Mich and her committee to work on the details
and to present a formal program at the Annual Conference.
Adjournment:
Motion: A motion to adjourn was made by Elaine Yontz
at 10:40 am.
Seconded by Paula Hering.
The motion passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy L. George, NMRT Secretary
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