ALA - New Members Round Table

New Board Orientation - Saturday July 6, 1996

 

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 am by Elaine Yontz, outgoing NMRT President, at the Sheraton New York - Riverside Suite.

 

The meeting was turned over to Laura Sill, incoming NMRT President. Laura briefly went over the meeting agenda and introductions were made of those attending.

 

NMRT History

Laura gave the group a short history of NMRT and passed around some interesting past issues of Cognotes and Footnotes

 

NMRT Mission

NMRT's mission statement was read to the group. It reads:

 

The mission of the American Library Association (ALA), New Members Round Table (NMRT) is to help those new to the library profession and those who have been association members less than ten years become actively involved in the association and the profession.

 

The goals are fourfold:

 

1. to structure' formal opportunities for involvement and/or training for professional association committee experiences on the national, state, and local levels,

 

2. to provide a wide variety of programs to assist, encourage, and educate those new to the association and the profession,

 

3. to offer a variety of leadership training and opportunities to help those approaching the end of their NMRT eligibility make the transition to future positions in the association and the profession, and

 

4. to develop and implement ongoing programs for library school students which encourage professional involvement and networking.

 

NMRT Basics

The theme for next year is NMRT Basics.

 

Understanding Roles

Laura went over the packets of information that were handed out to the new committee chairs and officers. A few points were emphasized: the Committee Planning Reports are due in August and other reports are due one month before conference. Distribution should be to the Executive Board and your committee members and can be done through e-mail. There is no need to bring extra paper copies to the Executive Board meetings. Request funds using a paper reimbursement form.

 

Conference Schedule/Executive Board Meetings

There was some discussion on the “big tent” meeting scheduling. Some suggestions were made: there may not be enough time allotted for the meeting on Sunday morning (many people need to attend more than one meeting and a one hour meeting isn't enough time); perhaps the meeting should run for 2 hours on Sunday morning; perhaps a time on Friday afternoon would be good; maybe it should just be held at Midwinter.

 

Executive Board meeting length was also discussed. An attempt is being made to make these fewer and shorter in length to allow members to attend other ALA meetings. To do this, board meetings will resolve action items and allow directors/officers/new committee chairs to present reports. Action items will be determined in this way: the executive board will review reports one month before conference and decide what items are action items and need to be addressed. Action items are committee funding approval or changes in procedure.

 

Communication

The NMRT listserv should be used often for communication. However, members should not forget that not everyone has e-mail. There's still a need for a paper distribution list for the listserv. Laura Sill will pursue the feasibility of such a list.

 

Joanna Burkhart noted that committee chairs should remember to make paper copies of email for committee notebooks. These messages will be useful to new chairs.

 

Key Projects for 1996/97

Liz Brown is going to review the NMRT Governance and Bylaws.

 

Grass Roots Grants Committee will try to get the program going again.

 

Budget process will be more streamlined and provide more communication for members.

 

Recruitment - we need to work on targeted recruitment, minorities recruitment, and recruiting college and high school students to go into the profession. First year ALA members should be sent NMRT literature. Our new ALA liaison, Gerald Hodges, has offered to assist us in sending new ALA members a letter from NMRT; perhaps the Membership Promotions and Relations Committee could work on this as well. Also, it was mentioned that the Educational Committee of the Executive Board ALAISR'IF has also discussed free NMRT membership

for first year ALA members. Gerald Hodges may be able to discuss what ALA is working on regarding recruitment and NMRT recruitment.

 

As a response to a request by the NMRT/3M Professional Development Grant Committee, award and grant application forms and methods of rating applicants will be examined this year.

 

Following the formal meeting a break out session with incoming/outgoing chairs began.

 

The meeting adjourned at 1O:OO am.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nancy L. George, NMRT Secretary