Special Libraries Association Boston Chapter
Board Meeting
March 18, 2003
Cambridge HealthTech
Minutes

Attending: Liz Bibby, Helen Keil, Kathy McCabe, Mary Chitty, Sandra Peters, Hope Tillman, Tom Clark, Claudette Newhall, Bob Moore.

The meeting was called to order at 6:19 p.m. The minutes of the January 14, 2003 Board meeting were reviewed. A motion to approve minutes was made by. Kathy McCabe, seconded by Helen Keil. Motion passed.

Program Committee Report

Past programs: 70 people showed up for the Three cheers social, for a profit of $176. We had to cancel the videoconference program, which was disappointing. We didn’t get as many students as hoped.

Southern outreach program is scheduled for April 23rd at Dartmouth. Guy St. Clair and Ethel Salonen will discuss Knowledge Management, leading a discussion of theoretical and practical applications. We do have a sponsor: EBSCO for $500. The financial arrangement of shared costs with the RI chapter, that we split losses or gains with them on this program, raised the question of how best to apply the sponsorship. Kathy suggested splitting the $500 between the outreach program and the business meeting, as sponsorships are otherwise drying up.

Business Meeting: Scheduled for May 14th, we are expecting Steven Abram, discussing the SLA branding project. The challenge is to get through the business quickly because Steven wants an hour for the talk. Some discussion followed as to alternative ways of saving time on chapter business. Perhaps projected slides of award winners? Posters? Virtual? Announce winners electronically prior to the meeting, and come to meeting to congratulate them? Traditionally chapter business was at the end of the meeting. Also, how to accommodate those choosing to attend the business meeting only. Perhaps provide a seating area for them. Kathy emphasized the importance of the branding issue, and suggested subsidizing meals to get people in. We should also invite RI chapter people to help pull in a crowd.

Southern program, 'Beyond Degrees: Professional learning for Knowledge Services', coordinated by Liz Winiarz and to be held at Umass Dartmouth. The date was changed to Wednesday, April 23rd , to accommodate religious holidays. Liz W. expects Guy St.Clair to fill the program. Interest was expressed in an academic speaker to discuss academic training for knowledge management.

Northern Outreach: the response to programs is disappointing and this has been postponed. We may try something in the summer or fall. A topic being considered: managing in lean times.

Mary Shapiro – faculty at Simmons School of Management, might have a half-day workshop available.

SLA HQ – Dialog is offering a program of subsidized speakers called Quantum2. They cover a dozen topics on assessing client needs and competencies.

Sci-Tech Program: Helen reported the flier is out for the program and posted on the web. Mary Chitty has been helping with advertising. Simmons students have been alerted. It’s scheduled for April 8th. Price: $30 students $35 SLA members. Unemployed $30, nonmember $40. There are 25 signed up thus far and everything is set.

Again, there was discussion of ways to drum up attendance, including announcements at Simmons and on the discussion list with the header ‘student discount’. It has been posted with the CT and RI chapters, and with NEASIS. Thomson ISI is sponsoring this for $1000. There was a little confusion as to how announcements are posted on the SLA HQ site.

Director of Finance Report

Tom reiterated his refrain, ‘we’re in deficit spending but it’s okay’. There have been losses of $2300 due to cancellations of Professional Development programs. Potential losses from the Science Program include Eric Millar’s travel costs and a stipend. In response to Tom’s question on this procedure, Kathy explained that we ask for an estimate in advance. Can we get some help from MIT?

New York Conference Reception: there was some clarification how the joint SLA/Simmons reception has been paid for in the past. Hope noted that historically, Simmons traded off with the chapter in paying for the bill. Liz noted that more recently we tended to pay and bill Simmons. Apparently that’s how it will work this year. Sponsorship: Wontawk.

Winter party was not a part of last budget presentation, so it has been added without any projection.

Treasurer's Report

Leslie emailed: she sent updated financials to Tom. Simmons paid their half of the LA reception. Received $7224 dues allotment from SLA. All bills are paid.

Membership Report

Sandra: February saw a slight decline, to 569 members. She distributed a draft of a flier for ‘in between jobs’ group. Suggestions were to consider posting the flier on the web site and a text message for list.

Employment Report

Claire Burday: an unemployed member noticed the DC chapter offering a ‘career disruption’ program, and Claire requested feedback. Discussion centered around setting up a mentoring program similar to DC’s. Their’s is done by subject area: law, medical, business, non-profit, etc. Perhaps a mentoring program here for career changers? Hope suggested it would be smarter to line up mentors first. Some structure was suggested: review resumes, practice interviews. Have a job description for a mentor. What kind of mentors do people want? Issues members have deal with include how do people go from business to academia, for example. Ultimately, perhaps we should create a subcommittee? Sounds like a very good project for the chapter.

Vendor Support

Liz Peeples and Sue Wolfman emailed. Cold calling isn’t producing optimal results. Does anyone have any good relationships with vendors? This has proven helpful in the past and beats cold calling.

Logistics Report

Volunteers are lined up for next meeting.

Consultation report:

not available

Student Relations Report

Day on the job is ongoing.

Discussion list management report:

Hope: the list is running smoothly. New members are being added. Email addresses submitted are sometimes deliberately wrong, no doubt by people fearing another email deluge. Some of the expired emails aren’t reachable. We have less traffic than other chapters, perhaps because we’re busy and respect members’ time.

Affirmative Action Scholarship report

Emailed: the scholarship announcement is on the website and the discussion list and has been sent out to all accredited schools in the country. The deadline is April 10th, with a winner to be announced in May. There are no applicants at this time, and it is not unusual to finally have only a few applicants.

Other issues

Kathy was concerned about the branding vote at the Annual Conference and how best to advertise it. A notice was sent out, but the issue and the educational materials are complex, so perhaps it needs to be broken down for greater dissemination. How many members know we need to change the name? There’s a lot of passion over keeping ‘librarian’ in the organization’s name, but there’s a widespread belief that ‘library’ in the title is interfering with members’ professional growth. Kathy suggested that if we don’t re-engineer the name, the association may not survive. Kathy will compose a statement on voting for a name.

Kathy: Reflecting the general concern that attendance at meetings is down, proposed the use of SurveyMonkey website to help assess membership’s reasons for not attending meetings. The chapter pays $19.95 for this service, if the response goes over 100. We get a spreadsheet of results, and they reliably protect privacy. Kathy requested the Executive Board’s help in composing questions. There was extensive discussion on fine-tuning. Topics included: who to co-promote with, how much cost and possible reimbursement factors in, and when did member last attend an event? The Executive Board will get emailed the survey as a test. Next year’s program committee may be able to make use of the results.

Special announcements:

We sadly bid adieu to Webmaster Mary Jo Boland, who went back to Wisconsin. The chapter will send a gift. David Ware will take over as webmaster. Betty Edwards has stepped down as News n’ Notes editor for the Bulletin. Margaret Howe-Soper has been prevailed upon to take over.

Chapter Awards:

Tom is requesting nominations. A message will be posted to the discussion list.. The awards are: Service to the Chapter, Distinguished Service, and Special Recognition. The emails will have detailed explanations of each award. You don’t need to nominate someone for a specific award, just supply a name and the committee will assign it. John Rosenthal and Jennie Connelly. Hope agreed to mentor this committee.

The Nominating Committee is seeking nominees for Treasurer and President-Elect. The committee, chaired by Ruth Kampen and includes Jon Rosenthal and Amy Pietrowsky, will be meeting soon.

Next Board Meeting When & Where

The next board meeting will return to Cambridge Healthtech Institute on 4/29. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Helen, seconded by Liz. Meeting called at 8:15 p.m.

Bob Moore
Secretary

Past minutes:

• January 14, 2003
• January 14, 2003
• December 2, 2002
• October 15, 2002
• July 31, 2002
• March 5, 2002
• January 15, 2002
• October 18, 2001
• September 6, 2001
• June 26, 2001