American Library Association

New Members Round Table

Executive Board Meeting

January 25, 1993

9:30 a. m. - 12:30 p. m.

The New Members Round Table Executive Board Meeting was called to order by President Jenifer Abramson called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m. The following members were present:

Betsy Fordon, Jenifer Abramson, Joan Kaplowitz, Carla Zanotti, Beatrice McKay, Laura Sill, Kimberly Robles, Judy Rudner, Marilynn Green, Lora Lennertz, Necia Parker, Jocelyn Clear, Joan Reyes, Lorelei Tanji, Karl Fattig, Diane Tureski, Richard Dickey, Angela Jones, Suzanne Byron, Heleni Pedersoli, Ann Snoyenbos, Joni Gomez, Jim Mouw

Introduction

Jenifer had each officer introduced themselves and reminded the members that during voting, only the Executive Board Members could vote.

Old Business

In order to discuss Karl Fattig's idea of having an NMRT-L listerv, Jim Mouw moved that the board become a committee of the whole with Betsy Fordon as Chair. Joni Gomez seconded the motion. It was voted upon and carried.

There was discussion on who would moderate the listserv, what it is about, what we would do about those people receiving information who do not have access to Internet, the name of the list serv, and wording of information about the listserv. Jim Mouw then made a motion to disband the committee of the whole and Joan Kaplowitz seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried.

Jim Mouw made a motion to have a NMRT-L as an unmoderated listserv, that we assign it to the Affiliates Council with a specific charge to review this in Los Angeles. Joan Kaplowitz seconded the motion. There was discussion as to what to put on the welcoming screen, with the paragraphs now in place being reversed and with additions to the first paragraph. After the discussion was finished, a vote was taken and the motion carried.

Joan Kaplowitz discussed the sustaining member question which had been brought up at the first Executive Board Meeting. At that time, the question of having affiliates and liaisons as sustaining members did not come up. She would like discussion of whether or not to have them as sustaining members. Jim Mouw made a motion that NMRT revise the new addition to the by-laws to include liaisons in the exclusionary part of the amendment. Betsy Fordon seconded and a vote was taken. The motion was voted upon and carried.

Jenifer then brought up that the ALA Self-Study Committee which appears to have excluded Round Tables in their charge. The committee of round table presidents, vice presidents and treasurers felt that some sort of draft resolution be written which would include round tables in the charge of the ALA committee. This resolution would then be voted on in each round table and sent on to ALA President, Marilyn Miller and committee chair, Hill Summers. Betsy Fordon moved that NMRT accept the resolution as worded. Kathy Kie seconded. Discussion followed as to whether or not round tables should be included in the charge of the committee because of the special protection they have and with round tables being included in the charge, they might lose that protection. There was another motion made by Betsy Fordon to add a friendly amendment to the draft resolution already written for each round table, NMRT will add: the NMRT Executive Board endorses the charge of the ALA Self-Study, therefore be it....."resolved that the charge of the ALA Special Organizational Self Study committee be amended to include Round Tables in its evaluation." It was seconded by Joni Gomez. The vote was taken and the motion passed with one opposed and one absention. Jim Mouw then moved to charge Jenifer Abramson with doing what she needs to do in the wording to get it into proper council form without changing the intent and that she be further charged to forward it to the proper council authorities. Joni Gomez seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried.

Leadership Development Committee

Joycelyn Claer had been unable to report at the first Executive Board Meeting on Saturday and reported at this time. Joycelyn stated that the Leadership Development Breakfast had just taken place this morning and that there were many positive evaluations, with only a few negative ones. There was then discussion as to what NMRT would do at Annual in New Orleans and Midwinter in Los Angeles. It was thought that Dr. Billington of the Library of Congress could attend the conference in New Orleans and wanted an NMRT or some other vehicle to speak at, but that it was later learned that he will not be there. Since NMRT usually doesn't have a leadership development program at Annual, Jenifer suggested that we table the annual event due to money. There was a suggestion to hold the breakfast at Midwinter in Los Angeles off-site, but that was deemed to be inadvisable due to travel back to the conference in time for meetings. Joycelyn was then commended on her leadership and coordination of the leadership development breakfast.

Director for Membership, Awards & Continuing Education

Joan Kaplowitz highlighted what had been done by the various committees. Suzanne Byron was getting the database up and running in Library School Outreach Committee. Membership forms and other firms have been reprinted. Minorities Recruitment Committee had been very vocal on enlarging the focus of the committee. Joan also stated that she appreciated each committee chair and that they all did a great job.

NMRT Professional Development Grant Committee

Heleni Pedersoli stated that it had reviewed the applications and selected the most qualified to receive these awards. Joan asked her to update this committee's description to include what she did with publicity for this award as it was done very well.

Grassroots Grants Committee

Joan Kaplowitz reported for Ann Gordon, Chair of this committee. Eighteen grants were given out and there will be more grants given out in the spring.

Library School Outreach Committee

Suzanne Byron, Chair, stated that they had received four requests for ALA/NMRT materials and fifteen requests for presentations (two had been filled).

Membership Promotion and Relations Committee

Chair Loralei Tanji discussed scholarships to new members and about doing a survey on members who have dropped before ten years is up. Jim Mouw suggested that NMRT look: into creative ways of increasing memberships.

Minorities Recruitment Committee

Joan Reyes, Chair, stated that the committee has been charged with recruiting ethnic minorities into ALA/NMRT membership. The committee also is in charge of the mentorship program within NMRT. In line with that Joan wanted the board to review the committee's charge and to expand the committee so that the mentor program would be included in its title. She would also like to see every chair and officer of NMRT participate in this program.

Joan Kaplowitz discussed the mentor program at UCLA and that NMRT might want to mesh their program into ours. She also felt that the three committees, Minorities Recruitment, Membership and Library School Outreach, would have to work closely together in order for this program to expand.

Suggestions were made as to name change and also the possibility of having the mentor program be its own committee rather than as part of minorities recruitment. Historically, Joan pointed out, the mentor program grew out of trying to recruit minorities, but when people other than minorities asked to be in the program they were included in it. She also discussed having the mentor program not limited to conference, but to go on outside of conference.

Jim Mouw moved that we refer this issue to the Resources Committee for their deliberations with the board's strong statement that they look at the mentorship program part as an aspect of our mission. Joan Kaplowitz seconded the motion. Discussion followed, including why this issue should be referred to the Resources Committee. A vote was then taken and the motion carried.

Scholarship Committee

Chair Angela Jones stated there had been confusion as to the eligibility requirement for the EBSCO/NMRT Scholarship. No action was needed from the board, only procedurally to find the right brochure which has the current information. The contact at EBSCO does not want the scholarship to go to just first year masters students as had been the original requirment. She also stated there were 21 applications for this award this year.

Shirley Olofson Memorial Award Committee

Richard Dickey, Chair, stated that 22 applications were received for the award. It was advertised in NEWSNOTES, American Libraries, and on LIBREF-L listserv. Most of the applications came from the advertisement on the listserv. The winner had been selected and would be advised after Midwinter. Richard recommended that the Committee allocation be raised to $50. Jim said that it had been raised for the coming year in the budget.

Director for Publications and Public Relations

Director Kathy Kie stated that any action items will be raised to the board. during each individual committee's report.

Booth Committee

Lora Lennertz discussed the traveling booth,as well as the booth at Annual. She would like to find ways to more effectively staff the booth. The theme of the booth in New Orleans is to be "Jazz It Up At ALA."

COGNOTES

Deb Tuma reported for Terri Summey, Chair. Everything had been running smoothly during Midwinter and there were no action items.

FOOTNOTES

Marilynn Green reported for Darlene Nichools, Chair. There had been some problems with the September issue which included technical and personal problems with production, the mailing list and the number of newsletters undelivered. Some problems were unavoidable and some have been corrected. This committee had no action items.

Publicity Committee

Chair Stephanie Stirling stated that there was a committee member assigned to each committee Chair in order to encourage timely receipt of news releases for publication. She was trying also to get contacts at LJ, American Libraries and Wilson Library_-Bulletin in order to find timelines/deadlines and criteria. There were no action items for this committee.

New Business

Jenifer stated that there had been discussion at the Round Tables Coordinating Committee about Round Table representation on Council. The Government Documents Round Table felt especially strong about having direct representation. The current Chair and the incoming Chair of GODORT have drafted a memo, brought it to a Councillor and asked to have this brought up before Council in Denver. They wanted to know if there was support from the other Round Tables on this matter before it was brought up at Council.

Jim Mouw moved that discussion on this matter be referred to a committee of the whole. Joan Kaplowitz seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried.

Discussion was then held about the memo from GODORT. The memo essentially requested that each Round Table be represented by one member on Council. It was suggested that it would probably not be possible to get Council to have one member per Round Table on Council, but that one or two members representing the Round Tables would possibly be agreed to by Council. It was also suggested that with there being 17 Round Tables, there could be five members so there would be three Round Tables represented for each member. Another alternative would be to have three members and have them picked from the Round Tables Coordinating Committee, which at the present has no official status within ALA. At the end of the discussion, Jim Mouw moved that the committee of the whole be disbanded. Kathy Kie seconded the motion. There was no discussion. The motion was voted upon and carried.

Jim Mouw moved that NMRT support, in principle, the concept of Round Table participation on ALA Council with the understanding that NMRT believes that representation should not be on a one-to-one basis. He further moved that the board charge Jenifer Abramson to pursue this issue at conference. Bea McKay seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion carried.

There was no more new business and after announcements, Jim Mouw moved to adjourn and Kathy Kie seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m.