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