ALA New Members Round Table Executive Board Meeting
Friday, June 25, 1999
New Orleans, La.

** DRAFT (July 22, 1999) **

Present: Lori Barnes, *Melissa Becher, Laurie MacLeod Bennett, Liz Brown, Karen Cook, *F. Ann Dykas, Marilyn Grush, Mary Ann Hansen, Carol Kem, Gene Kinnaly, *Linda Golian, *Laura R. Lucio, *Alesia McManus, Joyce Mason, Micaela Morales, *Ann Snoeyenbos, *Priscilla Shontz, Kris Stacy-Bates, Dennis Wilson, Joseph Yue
* Executive Board Members

Items Discussed Decisions Made Actions Pending
Linda Golian, President, opened the meeting at 4:05 pm.

Preliminaries. Golian distributed agenda, copies of committee reports, and thank you tokens to leave at vendor booths. She circulated a thank you card for 3M and asked all to sign it. All present introduced themselves.

This conference. Golian thanked all for making the effort to attend the Board Meeting. We have many things to celebrate at this conference, including the 3M/NMRT 25th anniversary party, the no-conflict time during Friendly Booth judging which will enable Board members to participate, and the reduction in the number of Board meetings from two to three. The change in the number of Board meetings was discussed via email and met with wide approval.

Bd meetings. Golian stated that at the Board meetings we will focus on:
1) items to vote on;
2) issues we need to address.
At today's meeting the emphasis will be on business. Issues will be discussed at Sunday's meeting. Betty Turock, past president of ALA, will be given time to speak at Sunday's meeting on the ALA Spectrum initiative.


Agenda. No changes to the agenda were suggested.

Minutes. The minutes of 1999 ALA Midwinter Board meetings were approved by consensus following minor corrections.

Past President / Ann Snoeyenbos. Not present; she will be called upon later in the meeting for a report.

President's Report / Laura Golian
Scholarship Bash. Golian noted that the ALA Scholarship Bash would be held on Saturday. According to ALA president Ann Symons, $4000 (or more if ALA does well) will be transferred to the NMRT endowment account within thirty days. This money will be used for Shirley Olofson awards. NMRT has recruited 74 volunteers who will help at the event.

Governance Committee proposals. Laurie MacLeod Bennett reported on two proposals from the committee. Bennett had Ann Dykas review voting records for the past few years as recorded in Board meeting minutes. Most votes were recorded as being unanimous; the records did not indicate any numerical information.

The issue under discussion is on whether the new Councilor position should have voting rights. The addition of this position would bring the number for Executive Board members to ten. The Governance Committee recommends that Councilor have a vote and that the President be allowed to vote only in the case of a tie.

Discussion:
The Board asked what the President and incoming President thought about only being allowed to vote to break a tie. Neither objected. Golian stated that she is familiar with that structure. Priscilla Shontz noted that votes were generally unanimous anyway.
Carol Kem observed that it is more typical for the president not to vote.

The Board voted on the recommendation that the Councilor be given voting rights on the Executive Board and that the President be allowed to vote only to break a tie. This was passed unanimously.


"In good standing". Another item discussed at ALA midwinter was the intention of the term "in good standing" as used in the Bylaws in the sentence: All nominees shall be members of NMRT in good standing at the time of their nomination. Bennett reported that the committee surveyed the membership. The 24 responses on an interpretation of the phrase indicated the following:
15 - within the ten year limit at the time they take office.
4 - within the ten year limit at the time of nomination.
4 - not eligible for nomination unless they can fulfill a complete term.

The Governance Committee proposed that the term "in good standing" be interpreted to mean that the a nominee must be within the ten year membership limit at the time they take office.

Discussion:
* This seems contrary to intention to get people involved in ALA.
* In some cases giving people more time to get involved will assist those members. For example, students may be members of ALA, but not be involved until they graduate; persons who accept NMRT positions with three year terms might be unable to serve in a variety of positions in NMRT, plus it takes awhile for these people to gain the experience they need in the three year terms prior to accepting the nomination.
* People are already active in non-NMRT groups; we don't need to worry about them staying in NMRT too long.
* The number of people in this group would be small.
* In the most recent election, we lost a lot of good candidates due to a stricter interpretation of the phrase.

Because conference dates vary, it was moved and seconded to amend the proposal by establishing January 1 of the year of election as the date to determine eligibility for nomination. If a person is within their ten year membership on January 1, they would be eligible.

It was moved, seconded, and passed to strike January 1and substitute July 1 in the amendment.

The amended amendment, to use July 1 as the date to determine eligibility for membership was voted on and passed.

The motion that in order to be eligible for nomination or appointment to an NMRT position, a member must have been an ALA member for ten years or less on July 1 of the year in which the election or appointment takes place was voted on and passed.

Additional clarification: As Board members, these members on the Board are eligible to vote.


Vice President's Report / Priscilla Shontz
Shontz stated that action items will be covered under the Treasurer's report. Gene Kinnely asked her to mention that volunteers are needed to staff the silent auction table on Sunday: 3:30-5:00. Shontz has committee interest forms and asked all to distribute these.

Golian reminded all that it is important for new and old chairs to attend the orientation on Monday.



Secretary's Report / F. Ann Dykas
Handbook Committee. Dykas asked Karen Cook, Handbook Committee Chair, to report on the Ad Hoc Handbook Review Committee. Cook stated that the committee had a productive meeting yesterday. They focused on macrolevel changes. The Handbook Committee will be asking new chairs to review and propose changes to the committee section of the Handbook. The Handbook Committee. The committee will be using the strength of Web to improve the Handbook, such as providing more links.

Archives Committee. Dykas reported that the Handbook contains a policy on archiving of material. She will distribute this at the next board meeting and at the orientation.

NMRT-L. As co-owner of NMRT-L, Dykas noted that there had been increased discussions, in large part thanks to Shontz who started a few discussions by submitting queries.

Director of Liaisons / Melissa Becher
Beecher reported that liaisons will meet on Sunday. One activity they have been working on is text for a web page.

Ex officio liaisons. Some NMRT Board and Committee members serve as ex officio liaisons. Examples of these are:
*Treasurer: Committee on Program Evaluation and Support (COPS)
* Library School Outreach Committee chair: ALA - Library Education Committee
* Vice President: ALA Roundtable Coordinating Committee
* MACE Director: ALA Membership Committee

Becher talked to a couple of people in these positions and they commented that these relationships were valuable. Becher found that some people are not aware that they had this liaison responsibility.

Becher asked for Board confirmation that we should continue these assignments and for decisions on which positions should have such responsibilities.

The Board affirmed that we want to keep and maintain these types of assignments.

Golian charged the Director of Liaisons with reviewing current ex officio liaisonships, making recommendations about changes to liaisonships held by Board members and chairs, and working with the Handbook Committee to ensure that these assignments are listed in the appropriate parts of the Handbook.


Cognotes. Shontz reviewed the discussion held at midwinter regarding Cognotes. The only relationship NMRT has with Cognotes is that the editor and reporters must be members of NMRT. We have not control over selection of reporters, or content or advertising in Cognotes. Cognotes has a separate budget which NMRT does not control. We have not received a reprot from the Cognotes Committee in about three years. Cognotes is an ALA publication in that ALA determines most of the content. The Board agreed at midwinter that we ought to cut our ties with Cognotes and focus our energy on other projects.

Golian, Shontz, and Snoeyenbos send a letter to Peter London, ALA, suggesting that NMRT cut ties with Cognotes. A response has not been received.

Discussion: Cognotes is a good way for students to get involved; we should maintain a connection.

We can continue to promote Cognotes as it is a good way for new folks to get to ALA conferences and to build skills and confidence.

Golian stated we recognize the importance of Cognotes and want to retain a positive relationship with Cognotes.


Terms of office. Postponed to next meeting.

Reduced fees for new members. Laura Lucio reviewed the discussion at midwinter about reducing dues for student members.

Footnotes, an NMRT publication, costs about $1.00 per issue per person. Lucio recommends that dues not be less than $5.00; otherwise we may not have enough revenue to fund Footnotes. We currently have 340 student members. Before reducing the student membership dues we must build up revenues.

Golian charged the Treasurer with putting this topic on the agenda for Midwinter 2000. We will review our revenue again at that time. We do want students to be a high priority and want to give them an incentive to join.
Past President's Report / Ann Snoeyenbos
Snoeyenbos reported that she had just come from speaking to the ALA Students to Staff and found them as enthusiastic as usual. As NMRT Past President, she said that this has been an easy year: she interjected her thoughts, but hasn't had to do followup.

Director of Conference Arrangements / Alesia McManus
McManus reported that she had just come from a from a Local Arrangements Committee meeting. The committee was sorting out door prizes (7) for various programs and meetings. The speakers gifts are dinners for two. The crackers just arrived and the committee will be applying stickers and stuffing the portfolios at 6:30. She complemented the committee on doing a great job. All tasks have been taken care of. She thanked the Publicity Committee for their help.

Other
Liz Brown, Membership Promotion Relations chair, reported that she had worked with Gerald Hodges, ALA Liaison to NMRT, to work on procedures which ensure that NMRT ballots aren't sent to alumni. Golian charged the committee to keep up on this to make sure no problems in 2000.

Laura Lucio, Treasurer, commented that she saw the new ALA modules which includes a customer service center. Members will have their own passwords and will have the ability to renew their memberships and change their own addresses. The ALA store will be online.



Conclusion / Linda Golian, President
Golian. Remarked that while she has been the president, her success has been due to the help she has received. She commended various committees for their work and, with words of appreciation, she distributed certificates to the officers and directors present. She presented the Past President, Ann Snoeyenbos, with a plaque and thanked her for her help.  
Golian adjourned the meeting at 5:40 pm

Respectfully submitted,
F. Ann Dykas
NMRT Secretary