DC/SLA Board Meeting
Kimberly Allen, Communications Secretary
Mary Bowen, Book Club Chair
Erin Clougherty, Treasurer
Rick Davis, Dine Arounds
Susan Fournier, President
Emily P. Huston, Young Professionals Co-Chair
Barbie Keiser, Professional Enhancement Day
Gail Kouril, 2nd Vice President
Julia Leggett, Chapter Notes Business Manager
Sharon Lenius, Director
Shirley Loo, Immediate Past President
Meg McGinn, Print Calendar
Martha Reifschneider, Assistant Treasurer/Treasurer-Elect
Mary Reusch, Hospitality Co-Chair
Sheryl Rosenthal, Nominations
Diane Schnurrpusch, 1st Vice President
Karen Stahl, Young Professionals Committee Member
Mary Talley, Jobs
Jenny Wood, Recording Secretary
Susan called the meeting to order at 6:02pm
Sharon moved to adopt the agenda. Erin seconded. Motion carried.
Erin moved to accept the November 2006 meeting minutes as amended. Sharon seconded. Motion carried.
Susan and Diane attended the Leadership Summit in Reno, Nevada. Susan enjoyed the presentation by the authors of “Made to Stick” and recommended it for consideration by the Book Club.
Awards announcements made at the Leadership Summit included the following DC Chapter members:
New Chapter volunteers are:
Susan received some responses to the volunteer form published in Chapter Notes and distributed them to the appropriate Board/Committee contacts.
Susan reminded board members that February 15, 2007 is the deadline to submit the SLA Code of Responsibility to headquarters.
Susan reported sad news about Lynn Smith, the long-time Associate Executive Director at SLA under David Bender and later Roberta Schaeffer and Acting Executive Director during the time between Roberta and Janice. Lynn passed away on January 31 after a long battle with cancer. Apparently up to the end she had expected to beat this terrible disease and her passing was unexpected. The memorial service was held February 3rd in Alexandria.
SLA has sent food for the family and will likely do something concrete to honor Lynn after they consult with her husband. In the meantime the family has suggested donations to Alexandria Hospital. SLA headquarters will also accept condolence cards sent to their Alexandria address and they will collect and forward them to the family. Lynn leaves her husband, Drew, and two young children.
Diane Schnurrpusch, 1st Vice President: Dianne distributed the current program calendar and highlighted the following upcoming programs:
Diane has received suggestions for new programs and is following up.
Mary Reusch, Hospitality Co-Chair: Mary and Alicia are looking for venues for the Volunteer and New Member receptions. There was some discussion at the meeting about the need for locking down an annual banquet venue soon.
Gail Kouril, 2nd Vice President: Gail is the process of updating job descriptions in the chapter manual and would like to wrap this up in the next month or two.
Erin Clougherty, Treasurer: The chapter books will be audited in the next week and submitted to headquarters. Erin distributed the proposed budget for the Board’s review.
There was some discussion about the expense for the print calendar and whether members still find it useful or if they access the web calendar instead. Some suggestions include finding a way for members to opt out of the print calendar mailing, and finding a sponsor for the print calendar. Meg will follow up with Richard Huffine to discuss the possibility of using Survey Monkey to find out what member preferences are.
Erin explained that expenses for the 2006 annual banquet are included in the 2007 budget because she did not receive the invoice until 2007.
$500 was added to the Donations budget.
Diane moved to accept the budget as amended. Shirley seconded. Motion carried.
Kimberly Allen, Communications Secretary: Kimberly asked if home numbers should be included in the Board/Committee directory, and Susan said to check with each individual. Kimberly reported that her messages to the listserv are sometimes garbled and she will follow up with Gulnar.
Sharon Lenius, Director: Sharon distributed the sponsorship proposal. Gail suggested it be prepared in brochure form for easy print distribution. Erin suggested that banquet sponsorship be included in the “Platinum” sponsorship level.
Shirley Loo, Immediate Past President: Shirley reported that the roster of past winners of the Board of Directors award has been posted to the website. Jane Kinney Meyer contacted Shirley and asked if the mention of Jane’s award be linked to the Lubuto project. The Board supports this.
Mary Talley, Jobs: Mary has been contacted FAFLRT. They are hosting a job fair on June 22 during the ALA conference and requested that we co-sponsor and help find speakers for the event. This will be a venue for introducing students and job seekers to federal libraries.
Shirley moved that we accept co-sponsorship of the event as long as don’t have to give financial support. Gail seconded. Motion carried.
Lea Wade, Chapter Notes: Susan reported for Lea. Lea wonders if she should begin a new volume of Chapter Notes to coincide with the new program year. She didn’t start a new volume for the January issue and wondered if she can change that retroactively. The Board directed that she start a new volume in January 2007 and issue an erratum for the January and February issues.
Ann Linton, Joint Spring Workshop: Susan reported for Ann. The title of this year’s workshop is “Envisioning the Future” and it will be held on April 12. The cost of the workshop is $65, which will include breakfast and lunch. Shirley wondered why there is such a large price jump and Susan will follow up with Ann.
Our chapter will lead the planning of this event in 2008. Ann is willing to serve on this committee next year but would like a co-chair. We need to select a date for next year’s workshop by May 1, 2007.
Dave Shumaker, Mentoring: Susan reported for Dave.
1. “Spend a Day with a Special Librarian” program. We joined forces with the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington DC (LLSDC). So far, 17 law library hosts and 27 special library hosts have signed up and 19 students have signed up. Dave and his committee are in the process of finalizing the database, after which they’ll release it to students, so that they can begin setting up appointments to visit libraries of interest.
2. Mentoring program: DC/SLA leaders were contacted in late January and invited to sign up as potential Mentors. So far, five have signed up. Announcement to students will be delayed for a couple weeks to allow the “Spend a Day” program to get underway.
Gulnar Nagashybayeva, Chapter Discussion List: Susan reported for Gulnar. SLA IT staff have contacted Gulnar with answers to the questions that came up after the upgrade of our listserv.
1. With regard to being able to access the posts for the current month only when searching the archives, SLA/IT is working with the old list provider to get the archived information. The archived information was supposed to be transferred with the list data, but the only thing the old list host transferred were files with list e-mail addresses.
2. Carolyn Sosnowski posted the link to access the web interface last Friday: http://sla.lyris.net/read/login
3. Unfortunately member setting were not transferred over during the migration so list members will have to go into their account and reset it. Instructions for that can be found on the page http://www.sla.org/content/community/lists/index.cfm under the tip: How to amend your personal settings (i.e. you want to receive a digest of messages once per day)
Emily Huston, Young Professionals Co-Chair: Emily reported that there is an upcoming Mardi Gras event on February 20. She and her co-chairs have invited CLIS and SLIS students to join the committee. Sharon asked if there have been any efforts to contact online students and Emily reported that invitations are posted to the New Librarians listserv.
Julia Leggett, Chapter Notes Business Manager: Julia is wondering if there is another way to generate ad income. Dialog is no longer interested in advertising in Chapter Notes. Julia suggested that we consider running classified employment ads. Mary Talley said that the Employment Committee is working on an employment portal and this might cause a conflict. There was some discussion about how other chapters handle job postings. Suggestions that came out of the discussion are that Julia contact LexisNexis via Alicia K., and publishers like Information Today and Neal-Schuman, as well as some services outside the information field like translation services and digitization services.
Gail asked Mary Talley if a DC/SLA employment portal would compete with the national SLA portal, and Mary reported that SLA has national coverage while the DC/SLA portal with be local in coverage.
Rick Davis, Dine Arounds: Rick reported that he is still soliciting volunteers and has contacted last years’ hosts. His goal is to have 8-10 dine arounds in March and so far he has 3 scheduled and another 2 tentatively scheduled.
Mary Bowen, Book Club Chair. Mary reported that she has tentatively planned the next book club meeting for Monday, April 23. She is currently accepting nominations for books to be discussed and will then hold a vote among members.
Meg McGinn, Print Calendar: Meg reported that there is an early deadline this month, February 22.
Sheryl Rosenthal, Nominations: Sheryl reported that we are the only chapter that holds contested elections, and suggested that we discuss whether we want to continue holding elections or use another process. Susan will include this as an item on the March agenda.
Barbie Keiser, Professional Enhancement Day: Barbie reported that she is planning to schedule this event for the fall.
Sharon Lenius, MLG: Sharon reminded meeting attendees about the Pentagon Library tour on February 8.
Sharon moved to adjourn the meeting. Shirley seconded. Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 7:21 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jenny Wood
Recording Secretary