AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
NEW MEMBERS ROUND TABLE
EXECUTIVEBOARD MEETING
FEBRUARY 4, 1995
The meeting was called to
order by NMRT President Betsy Fordon at 9:00 a.m. The following
members were present:
Betsy Fordon, Clare Dunkle,
Laura Sill, Dora Ho, Suzanne Byron, Felice Maciejewski, Carol R.
Kem, Monika Antonelli, Ann Snoeyenbos, Lisa Baer,
Elizabeth Brown, Donna Hogan, Pat Henderson, Angela Jones, Kimberley Robles,
Amy Sheeha, Karen Cook, Marilynn Green, Elaine Yontz, Mary Jo Howard, Paula
Hering, Joan A. Reyes, Michael Samson, Kathy Kie, Ann Gordon.
Betsy welcomed everyone and
reminded everyone that only Executive Board members could vote or make motions.
Everyone at the meeting then introduced themselves.
Elaine Yontz made a
MOTION that the minutes from the Executive Board meetings at the Annual
Conference in Miami be accepted. The motion PASSED.
President's Report
Betsy commented that her main
job as President was to make sure everything was kept going. She has
kept in touch with Executive Board members and committee chairs by e-mail,
phone and letters.
Committee on Governance
Betsy stated that she didn't
know where committee chair Karl Fattig was and had not been able to contact him
in some time; therefore, she had no report from him. At this point she
isn't sure what to do about Karl. Carol wanted to know if he was still
the listserv owner for NMRT-L, but Betsy didn't know. Carol did get a response from
him at some point regarding NMRT-L. The report from the Committee on Governance
was passed over at this time.
Resources Committee
Kimberley Robles reported
that the committee had surveyed attendees at three NMRT programs at Annual Conference
in Miami and these results were sent to NMRT Executive Board members.
They have also done a lengthy mail survey of all NMRT members, an e-mail
survey sent to various listservs, and a survey published in the January
1995 issue of American Libraries. Results from the e-mail survey
were attached to the committee report; results from the AL survey are
still being received and tabulated.
Kimberley brought up some of
the highlights from the survey of NMRT program attendees done in Miami. The
Orientation program was very popular, with some people suggesting it should be
done sooner (at the very beginning of the Conference). "New "meant
"young" to many of those surveyed, and there was
some confusion over how long
someone was a "new" member. The responses were very diverse.
The committee is waiting to
hear whether or not it will continue. Kimberley feels that there is still work
to be done in terms of bringing NMRT's goals in line with how we are spending
our resources. The Resources Committee is advocating the use of a
planning/monitoring system to track and check all activities in conjunctions
with NMRT's statement and goals. People contacted in the surveys were
interested in getting information about NMRT, but often were not receiving the
information they needed. On almost all the questions asked, at
least 40% didn't know that NMRT offered that particular program or
service.
The status of the Resources
Committee will be discussed under Old Business.
Handbook Committee
Clare Dunkle reported for
this committee. She is the now the outgoing chair; this committee is on a
different cycle than all other committees. She sent out requests for revisions
to the Handbook and received only minor changes; there were no substantive
changes that required action by the Executive Board. She passed out revision
pages for the Handbook to all Executive Board members and committee
chairs in attendance. Betsy
thanked Clare for all her hard work.
Vice-President's Report
Elaine is beginning to think
about the composition of next year's committees, and she passed out multiple
copies of Committee Interest Forms for next year and encouraged all
those in attendance to give copies of the forms to their committee members and
other interested persons.
Leadership Development
Committee
Betsy reminded everyone of
the Leadership Development program at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, February 6. The
candidates for ALA President will be in attendance.
Midwinter Activities
Paula Hering reported on the
Midwinter Orientation Program and the NMRT Social. She reminded everyone of the
Orientation Program later that afternoon; the purpose of the Orientation
Program is to welcome new people to ALA and to encourage them to participate in
ALA and NMRT. The speakers will be: ALA President Arthur Curley, Betsy,
Melissa Sibley of the Exhibits Round Table, Dr. John Hall of Drexel University,
and ALA Director Elizabeth Martinez. At the end of the meeting there will be
informal discussions to introduce people to ALA and NMRT and give them chance
to ask questions.
The NMRT Social will be
Monday evening at the City Tavern, a historic tavern. Tickets are available for
$33 and include a tour of Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and the
Liberty Bell.
Immediate Past President
Betsy reported for Joanna
Burkhardt, who was unable to make the meeting because of the weather. Joanna's
main activity was participation on the Nominating Committee.
Secretary's Report
Angela Jones reported that
she took minutes at the last Executive Board meeting at the Annual Conference
and distributed copies to all Executive Board members. After Midwinter is over,
she will be distributing copies of the minutes from the Midwinter board
meetings.
Archives
Angela reported for Ellen
Swain, the current chair of Archives. Ellen received 3.2 cubic feet of
records since June and answered one reference inquiry. She encouraged a11 committee
chairs to send files over three years old to the NMRT archives before
passing them on to the new chair. Ellen will also be looking at the collection
to identify areas where reorganization is needed.
Treasurer's Report
Mary Jo Howard reported that she
had received materials for the last two years from Joni Gomez, the previous
treasurer. Joni and Judy Hambrick at ALA have been very helpful in helping her
to reconcile the budget with the budget reports from ALA. Mary Jo has changed
the look of the budget somewhat.
She reminded committee member
and chairs to get approval from their chair or director for any request for
reimbursement and then forward that request to Mary Jo.
The budget has grand
total of all expenses and includes charges from ALA for services provided to
NMRT. Mary Jo went over the budget report briefly. The report also shows monies
allotted to committees and directors, expenses from programs at Midwinter and
Annual, other expenses, and income received from ticket sales, dues, and
exhibitor support.
A MOTION was made by
Suzanne Byron to defer discussion of the new budget until Monday's board
meeting. The motion PASSED.
Some discussion did ensue.
Betsy pointed out there were several committees not represented on the current
budget report, such as Mentoring and Resources, and others that were listed
that no longer existed, such as the Olofson Endowment Fundraising
Committee. Vendor support cannot be budgeted and should be on a different
report. There is also a problem with listing cash balance as income.
Mary Jo pointed out the report is not set up very well right now. Betsy
encouraged everyone to look at the budget before Monday, when it will be
discussed.
Suzanne wanted to know
if we get to keep what we don't spend every year. Betsy replied that we did get
to keep it and that it became our fund balance. Another problem with the
current budget is that Midwinter Activities isn't listed correctly.
Nominating Committee
Kathy Kie reported for
this committee and presented a list of candidates for NMRT positions. They had
a good response from those they contacted about running.
Betsy made a MOTION that
we accept the slate of candidates for the upcoming election. The motion PASSED.
Kathy made an announcement
that the candidates for office would be at the Leadership Development meeting
and asked chairs to tell their committee members about this. She also announced
that Footnotes had extended their deadline until February 17 to allow
the Nominating Committee to write an article about the candidates that will be
included in the Spring newsletter.
Marilynn Green reminded
everyone that the deadline from Footnotes would be coming up soon, so
get your articles in soon!
Exhibitor Contact and
Relations
Carol Kem reported that this
committee is charged with soliciting vendor contributions for NMRT, both money
and in-kind. Karen Cook is running the Friendly Booth award and Valarie Gordon
is handling contact with EBSCO. Carol sent packets in November to committee
chairs and officers who might need vendor support and has received back
most responses that she expected to get. She requested that committee chairs
not surprise the committee at the last minute with a request for vendor
support. Next year the committee hopes to begin this process even earlier and
individual committees need to begin thinking early about what they will need.
Committee chairs need to be specific when they make a request for vendor
support.
Carol has begun
solicitation efforts from NMRT's major sponsors. She also serves as liaison to
ALA's Exhibits Roundtable and attends those meetings. The Exhibits Roundtable
is now co-sponsoring the Friendly Booth award with NMRT. The Exhibits
Roundtable is also beginning a fundraising effort to establish an endowment for
a scholarship award. Carol would like to see if NMRT could give support to
this, possibly volunteers from NMRT to help man the booth and with their
silent auction.
Karen Cook reported on the
Friendly Booth award, which is given to the vendor's booth which is the
friendliest to visitors. Karen needs volunteers to help judge the booths; this
will take place on the Saturday morning that the Annual Conference opens in
Chicago. At least twelve volunteers will be needed to divide up the
Exhibit Hall into manageable parts. The award will hopefully be given out on
the next day, Sunday. Karen passed a sign-up sheet to record the names of those
who might be interested in helping to do this. She also encouraged
interested persons to contact her directly.
Carol mentioned that it is
important to get people to do this who are not known to vendors. Some suggested
that it might be nice to get mentors and mentees from the Mentoring program to
help out and also to encourage committee members to participate.
Carol encouraged NMRT members
to go by the booths of those vendors who are NMRT supporters and thank
them. These vendors are: 3M, Baker and Taylor, EBSCO, Gale, Quality Books,
Highsmith, and Brodart. It was pointed out this helps these vendors to make
decisions to continue to sponsor NMRT and its programs.
Kathy announced that Betsy
Fordon and Joanna Burkhardt would be petition candidates for ALA Council.
Petitions were passed around for each.
3M Grant Committee
Elizabeth Brown reported that
3M was funding three grants this year, and the committee would be selecting the
winners at the Midwinter Conference. The committee's main focus has been on
publicizing the award, and they received 54 applicants (up from 3-4 last
year). They hope to be able to announce the winners at the Conference.
Elaine Yontz reported for
Darlene Nichols. Elaine reported that there would be a meeting of the
Conference Arrangements Task Force on Sunday morning. Carol Kem will be
attending.
Local Arrangements
Committee
Anne Gordon reported
on this committee, which will be overseeing the local arrangements for NMRT for
the Chicago conference. The committee has contacted Mary Dempsey, director of
the Chicago Public Library, to be one of the keynote speakers at
Orientation. They have also toured the Palmer House Hotel as a possible
location for SALA and the Social, and they can get information about other
hotels in the Chicago area. The committee will be accepting shipments of the
portfolios for Orientation and will be stuffing them with the brochures.
They are also searching for
vendors for door prizes, especially those with a Chicago theme. They will be
contacting sports teams in Chicago for bumper stickers, etc., to give away and
have made contact with the Chicago Tourism Bureau.
Anne inquired about a
tax-exempt certificate from ALA for making photocopies. Carol felt ALA
did have one, Elaine thought there was a copy in her old files .Ann will also
be attending the meeting of the Conference Arrangements Task Force.
Anne said her committee has
good contacts for local contacts, disc jockeys, etc. If you need help with any
of this the Local Arrangements Committee should be able to help you.
Betsy mentioned a program
being done by LITA later this afternoon on program planning and she hoped
someone would be able to attend.
Betsy reminded everyone that
if you need to get something into the Preliminary Program for Annual
that the deadline is approaching. Please turn something in for this if
you are planning a program, even if you don't have the program topic yet. The
deadline is February 14.
Membership Meeting and Program
Elaine had not beard from
Mark Ferguson, so there was no report.
Orientation Program
Michael Samson reported on
plans for the Orientation Program for the Annual Conference in Chicago. The
topic will be “A Bargainhunters Guide to Professional Development, and the
speakers will be Bruce Shuman, Mary Dempsey, Melissa Sibley, Betsy Fordon, and
Elizabeth Martinez. Michael has submitted a request for vendor support and
submitted an announcement for Footnotes.
Michael is ready with a flyer
for the Orientation, and will be attending the Conference Arrangements Task
Force meeting. There have been no costs at this point. He asked for
Social tickets for the speakers: Donna Hogan will check into this.
Betsy reported for Kathy
Sorury. The program will have a panel and hopefully will tie it into Arthur
Curley's theme of “Libraries Can't Wait.” It will involve new members and new
librarians and technology. Betsy thought Kathy was trying to get Herb White to
speak. Karen Jesse will talk about the public library and how you can get
technology for a small, public or rural library. There will be one other
speaker.
Social
Donna Hogan reported on planning
for the Social at the Annual Conference. They have turned in a request for the
Palmer House with an expected 500 people attending. They have turned in a
request for exhibitor support and hope to get support from 3M. They are also
working on transportation to the event. The committee has suggested that the
theme of the social be "Stepping Out Chicago Style," using a skyline
logo.
They are trying to keep the
price to $10, with all proceeds going to the Olofson Endowment. Jimmie Lundgren
will be doing ticket sales. There will be entertainment, possibly country
western line dancing. There will be a hot and cold buffet and a cash bar.
The committee will be meeting
at Midwinter, and they will confer with Local Arrangements and will confirm the
availability of corporate support.
Students to ALA (SALA)
Felice Maciejewski reported
on their activities so far. They have contacted ALA conference arrangements and
Anne Gordon. They have requested the Palmer House as the site for SALA and
have requested exhibitor support. They will be working on transportation
for SALA and will be talking about suggestions for a theme.
OLD BUSINESS
Disposal of old Olofson t-shirts
The first item discussed was
the disposal of the old Shirley Olofson t-shirts. Both Angela and Judy have
quite a few and we cannot sell them at the ALA store any longer. Some
suggestions for disposal were: put ad Footnotes and Cognotes,
sell them at the booth and at meetings and programs, raffle off at the Social,
give away as membership promotion, give them to mentees in the Mentoring
Program. They are currently selling for $5. Betsy will check with Joan
Reyes about giving them to Mentees. Elaine wanted to see us try
to sell them first.
Michael Coleman made a MOTION
sell the t-shirts at the NMRT booth and at NMRT program for $5 and any
remainders will be used as gift items and giveaways. Suzanne Byron
SECONDED. The motion PASSED.
The next item of old business
was the status of the Mentoring Committee. Laura Sill replied that it was
working well under MACE so far. A MOTION was made to put the Mentoring
Committee permanently under the director of MACE. The motion PASSED.
Betsy reported that he
Self-study Committee of ALA will have a hearing at Midwinter on Monday.
There is a 52 page second version of the self-study report and they will
be making recommendations at Midwinter. We have not been privy to that
meeting. There will be a lot of revamping that will happen to ALA, especially
with the ALA 2000 program. They are not asking us for anything.
Betsy reported that one of the problems is that round tables are not
policy making organizations. We don't have a place on Council. The Round Tables
coordinators meeting discussed having one person that they all backed to be on
Council as the Round Table's representative; they are doing something like this
now in New York.
Laura felt that NMRT needed
to make a statement about its part in this process. Elaine pointed out
that there have been some efforts to get NMRT involved and to say now that we
have had no say in this process would be inaccurate. Betsy said she would be
attending the self-study on Monday and that individuals could express their
views at that meeting. Laura stated that NMRT needed to make its opinions known
as a group and not just as individuals. Ann Snoeyenbos pointed out that
if NMRT wanted to draft a statement it shouldn't be done quickly, that
it needed to be discussed thoroughly.
Michael Coleman stated that
we could probably do little about the self-study but we needed to let them know
as a group that we are important to ALA and we feel we want to be a part
of these decisions being made. At this time the possibility of drafting a
letter to the self-study regarding this issue was discussed.
Suzanne Byron made a MOTION
to have Betsy write a letter regarding the importance of NMRT's and other
round table's representation on Council, that a draft of this letter first be
put into the upcoming issue of Footnotes and on NMRT-L so that comments
can be solicited from the NMRT membership, and that after soliciting opinions
and making appropriate revisions the letter be sent to the chair of the ALA
Self-study committee. Laura Sill SECONDED. The motion PASSED.
Status of Resources
Committee
This committee is currently
an ad hoc committee. Betsy would like to see the committee be continued because
it has made valuable contributions. Elaine made a MOTION to
make the Resources Committee a permanent committee. Ann Snoeyenbos made a FRIENDLY
AMENDMENT to make the name of the
committee the Self-study and
Resource Allocation Committee.
The committee's charge would
be to study the resources of each individual committee. Michael Coleman made a
FRIENDLY AMENDMENT to keep this committee under the auspices of the NMRT
President. Suzanne SECONDED. The motion PASSED.
NEW BUSINESS
ALA 2000
Betsy reported on the ALA 2000
program, which came out of the ALA Self-study Committee and passed out
some information on this program. This program would increase dues by $25. ALA
would also start a foundation with corporate sponsorship to make the Office
of Information Technology Policy. They also
want to boost up the
Washington office to give it more clout and legal representation. Betsy's main
concern with this program is the dues increase, which new members might have
trouble with.
Suzanne felt that ALA needs
to be better structured to save money. Michael responded that members need to
see that more is being done before dues are increased.
Betsy reported that this
program is not asking for an official NMRT position or
recommendation, they are only asking organizations to present this to
their members. Betsy reported that the reaction of the ALA staff to this
program was very positive.
The meeting ADJOURNED at
11:55 a.m.