ALA New Members Round Table Executive Board Meeting
Sunday, June 27, 1999
New Orleans, La.
** DRAFT (August 3, 1999) **

Present: *Melissa Becher, Laurie MacLeod Bennett, Anjana Bhatt, *F. Ann Dykas, Mary Anne Hansen, Paula Hering, Beth Jedlicka, Carol Kem, Gene Kinnaly, *Linda Golian, *Laura R. Lucio, *Alesia McManus, Beverly Mills, Chris Shupala, *Ann Snoeyenbos, *Priscilla Shontz, Marilyn Tsirigotis, Betty Turock, Joseph Yue
* Executive Board Members

Items Discussed Decisions Made Actions Pending
Linda Golian, opened the meeting at 9:00 am.

Agenda. Golian reviewed the agenda. 6B and two items under 6C were covered at the Board meeting on Friday.

Announcements.
1) The Friendly Booth awards were made and photographs were taken.
Winners:
First: Hooked on Phonics
Second: Pleasant Company
Third: Fax on Files News Service
Honorable Mentions: UMI/Bell and Howell, SACO, Blackbirch, National Journals.
2) Thanks to the volunteers who worked at the Scholarship Bash.


All introduced themselves

Unfinished Business
Footnotes Committee. Chris Shupala, Director for Publicity and Public Relations, reported on a proposal from Footnotes Committee. Currently an editor and an assistant editor are each appointed for two year terms. These persons usually served as reporters prior to these appointments. Such long terms make it difficult for the appointees an opportunity to become involved in other NMRT committees. Proposal: A one-year term as assistant editor and a one-year term as editor. The committee discussed this at length and they all agree with this proposal. Discussion:
* If a bylaws change is required the membership would have to vote.
* A reading of the bylaws led the Board to conclude that the two year term can be interpreted to mean a one-year term as assistant editor and an one-year term as editor. Laurie MacLeod Bennett, Parliamentarian, agreed with this interpretation.

Vote: The Board approved the proposal.

Charge: Golian charged Footnotes Committee to ensure that the Handbook is changed to reflect this interpretation. Golian charged the Governance Committee to review Bylaws 5.3 and to report on needed changes at Midwinter. Other committee appointees (e.g., Contact and Exhibitor Relations) have two year terms and this is not reflected in the Bylaws.
Treasurer's Report / Laura Lucio
Lucio distributed the Treasurer's report. She reviewed changes to the budget. It has been restructured to include Pre-Conference 2000 and the NMRT reorganization. The Preconference has the potential of making money.

Lucio recommended that we not reduce student fees at this time.

Discussion:
Alesia McManus: SALA spent $1000 because the cost of catering is high. Orientation spent $500 for this conference's speaker; this may not be needed next year.
Carol Kem: $1,500-2,000 has been going to the endowment each year. We should consider how far we need to build this up.

It was moved, seconded, and passed to adopt the 1999/2000 budget.

Lucio reminded all that reimbursement requests are due by August 1. The originals should be send to Gerald ..., with notification to Lucio via email or mail. Requests not received by August 1, may not be honored.
Monday there will be a meeting with Judy Nelson of 3M to get a sense of how this year's social went and to discuss plans for next year.

Special Report: Spectrum Initiative / Betty Turock
Turock reported that she began the Spectrum Initiative when she was ALA president. The new ALA president will have this as one of her initiatives; Turock is chair of the committee. Turock introduced Beverly Mills, an NMRT member who is one of the Spectrum Scholars. Turock explained the purpose of Spectrum Scholarships and reported that 100 people have benefitted from Spectrum Scholarships. Her request to NMRT was:
1) Welcome Spectrum Scholarship winners, make them a part of NMRT, and bring them into ALA.
2) Support Spectrum financially as a group and individually.

There is one year of funding remaining; financial support will be needed to continue the project after that. Turock wants this to become a part of the ALA budget as an endowment account, but funds need to be raised to fund an interim period.



Director of Membership, Awards, and Continuing Education
Minorities Recruitment. Anjana Bhatt, Assistant Chair, brought forth a proposal that the committee name be changed from Minority Recruitment to Diversity Committee. The committee consulted with the NMRT membership and looked at their charge. All the committee members are in support of this proposal. A rewritten charge was distributed. The Board reviewed the rewritten charge and discussed some changes. The task of making changes was delegated back to the Committee.

The Board voted and approved the name change of the committee.

Resume Reviewing Service. Paula Hering reported on the pilot project conducted by the committee. The committee advertised for a month on NMRT-L, the NMRT web site, and through Library School Outreach. Eleven resumes were received. Hering distributed the resumes to reviewers after the deadline. The comments from the reviewers were thorough and useful. The committee also made tip sheets which were distributed at Orientation.

The Committee proposed that the Committee remain an ad hoc committee for another full year, that the committee advertise more, that they accept applications on an on-going basis, and that the service be limited to NMRT members. They will continue to recruit reviewers and may consider accepting e-mail resumes.

Discussion:
Golian pointed out the challenges faced by this year's committee when chairs resigned, and commented that Hering "really came through.".

The Board voted to accept the Committee's proposals.


Library School Outreach Committee. Joseph Yue, chair, reported.

1) A current charge of the committee is to send packets to all library schools and to contact students and advisors. As the Committee wants to focus on recruiting students, they propose that the responsibility to send out flyers be transferred to other committees. This committee will continue to maintain a database of contacts (deans, directors, students, secretaries) and will provide mailing labels.

2) The Committee proposed a name change to "Student and Student Chapter Outreach Committee. This would not affect the committee charge; it is more inclusive in that it includes "students."

3) Yue distributed cards he made and received positive feedback from the Board.

1) Discussion:
* A vote is not needed on this.
* This committee can be a resource for committees that want to mail information to library schools or library school students.

2) Discussion:
This would be a positive change.

Vote: The Board approved the name change.

Golian complimented Yue and the Committee for all their work. Outstanding!

In the future, NMRT may look at merging SALA and this committee.

Golian charged the Committee with sending needed revisions on their charge/description to the Handbook Committee.
Self-Study & Resource Allocation / Beth Jedlicka, Chair
Jedlicka, Shontz, and McManus made a report. Sheets showing the new NMRT organizational structure and officer areas of responsibility were distributed. The Board reviewed them and discussed the changes. The Immediate Past President will work with the ALA Scholarship Bash as this is an important relationship and having someone in the position with name recognition is important.

Support for ALA candidates. Jedlicka reintroduced the question of how NMRT should handle requests to promote/support candidates running for ALA positions. Discussion:
* We should only support current or alumni NMRT members.
* Concern was expressed about "endorsing" people.

The Board voted and approved the following:
         NMRT will help facilitate the dissemination of information of candidates running for ALA positions who are NMRT members in good standing.

Golian charged SSRA with working with the Handbook Committee to determine where this policy should be in the Handbook. and with writing guidelines on how we will facilitate the dissemination of information and who will do it. SSRA was charged to bring a recommendation to Midwinter.
NMRT membership list. Should NMRT make its membership list available to people who ask for it. Golian reported that Gerald Hodges, ALA Liaison to NMRT, stated that the ALA membership lists are available so NMRT cannot say that we don't want to make the NMRT list available.

New Business
Spectrum Initiative. Ann Snoeyenbos inquired about the NMRT response to Turock's request for support for Spectrum.
Golian charged the Treasurer to work with the Diversity Committee and scholarship committees and to make a recommendation at Midwinter.
Other
Golian thanked the Directors not present at the previous Board meeting for their work during her term.

Golian noted that the NMRT gavel is in two pieces. The president does not work alone. She passed the gavel on to Priscilla Shontz, incoming president. Shontz thanked Golian for her work and presented her with a gift.

Carol Kem reminded all to thank the vendors that support NMRT

Golian adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
F. Ann Dykas
NMRT Secretary