Special Libraries Association Pacific Northwest Chapter - 2002-2003 Annual Report

Becky Withington
President

Our chapter and association continue to move forward to meet the needs and overcome the challenges facing information professionals in the 21st century. The past year saw the approval of revised association-level bylaws, and this June there will be a vote on simplifying chapter bylaws as well. In addition, after many months of research and member input, members will vote on whether to change our association name.

While chapter membership was down from 314 at year end 2001 to 297 at year end 2002, I’m happy to report that trend appears to be reversing from a low point in February 2002 of 281 members to 291 members in March of 2003.

The Executive Board met four times during the year. Accomplishments include a written budget for the 2002/03 chapter year, along with a process for developing a new budget each year. The Board also adopted guidelines for conference attendance stipends which standardize the stipend amounts and officers eligible for stipends, while allowing flexibility for changing circumstances. We are also in the process of updating board and committee chair position descriptions, which will provide valuable information to new leaders stepping into those roles.

Board members and committee chairs contributed immensely to the success of our chapter this year, and I thank them all for making my job easier. I also appreciate all the guidance and support I’ve received. I look forward to another exciting and eventful year with new leadership at the helm.

Christina Byrne
President-Elect

Program planning continues to be a challenge. Providing quality programs in addition to reserving interesting and accommodating venues requires creative thinking, long-range planning and funding. Sometimes it is difficult for all the stars to align to guarantee a successful event. We continue to strive to break even on meeting. Chris Mulready has been invaluable in obtaining vendor support. Vendor sponsorship remains crucial to program planning.

The 2002/2003 program calendar began with the September 26 meeting at the Courtyard Marriott Lake Union, Organizing Digital Collections. This program was planned by Rebecca Withington, Chapter President, and featured Kody Janney, Coordinator of Digital Initiatives for the University of Washington Libraries. The evening was sponsored by Dialog, OneSource, and Stellent, Inc.

The Chapter's successful December Meeting and Holiday Event was held on December 16 in the Petersen Room of the Allen Library at the University of Washington. Fifty six attendees were registered, and there were several walk-in participants. Over 60 members, colleagues and students enjoyed mixing and mingling in the Petersen Room. Paula Walker of the UW Libraries provided tours of the recently renovated Suzzallo Library and the restored Graduate Reading Room. Andornot Consulting sponsored the event.

Becky Withington, President, and I attended the SLA Annual Winter Meeting. We participated in leadership training sessions. It was my first Winter Meeting, so the networking opportunities and meetings provided valuable insights. I was able to make many new contacts with colleagues around the country. The major discussions centered around the issue of branding and the name of the Association.

Congratulations go to the SLA Student Chapter and the Student Relations Committee Co-Chairs, Linda Shippert and Julie Cook for the February 3 Student Night program, Things You Didn't Learn in Library School, held at the Husky Union Building on the University of Washington campus. Fifty-eight registrants and several walk-in attendees enjoyed an interactive presentation by Joe Janes, Assistant Professor at the UW Information School, and Cindy Romaine, Nike Design Library. Cindy also led a discussion concerning the work of the SLA Branding Task Force. Microsoft and the UW Information School provided funding support for this event.

On March 28, the Executive Board hosted an informal Chapter social at the Elliott Bay Brewery & Pub in West Seattle. The relaxed gathering was held after an Executive Board meeting and attracted approximately 14 members and friends.

The Chapter's Annual Meeting is scheduled for May 21 at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle. The annual business meeting will be followed by tours of the MOHAI Library. Attendees will also have access to two of the Museum's exhibits. The meeting will be sponsored by Factiva.

Summary of Meeting Expenses and Revenues, 2002/2003

Anna Little
Treasurer

The Chapter’s net assets total $11,031.55 as of April 30th, 2003, down about 21% from last year’s Annual Report. While income outpaced expenses, meeting expenses remain high. The Chapter’s audited 2002 Annual Financial Statement showed a year-end closing balance of $$11,892.23.

Our SLA Chapter dues allotment for 2002 dropped 5% from $3,768 in 2002 to $3,564 in 2003 due to a commensurate drop in membership from 314 at year-end 2001 to 297 at year-end 2002. Meeting income and sponsorship generated $8,380 for a total income of $12,023.

Major expenses for 2001 were $5,751.21 for meeting expenses; $1,348.46 for travel; $1,095.16 for gifts and awards and $1,208.22 for postage and supply. This includes a $377 charge for the purchase of Dreamweaver, a software program for managing the website. Travel allowances were provided for Chris Mulready, Rebecca Withington and Christine Byrne to attend the 2002 SLA Annual Conference and for Christine Byrne to attend the 2003 Mid-Winter meeting. Other expenses included $50 in charitable contributions, for total expenses of $10,088.66.

As required by SLA, the Pacific Northwest Chapter operates uses Quicken software for the preparation of all financial reports.

Lauri Ellis
Secretary

As secretary for the 2002-2003 chapter year, my primary responsibility was to take minutes at the chapter board meetings held on September 26, 2002, November 14, 2002, December 16, 2002, March 28, 2003, and at the Chapter's Annual Meeting, on May 21, 2003. These minutes were published on the chapter’s website in order to communicate board activities to chapter members. Any corrections were noted and the minutes for each meeting were approved at the next subsequent board meeting. I also kept a record of four executive board votes conducted by email:

· It was decided not to purchase the SLA v-pack of "Behind the Firewall: New Research about the Usability of Corporate Research Intranets," and the number of subscriptions to the Cyberskeptics Guide from 3 to 2.

· The Board approved a chapter budget and budgetary process for the 2002-2003 year..

· The Board approved a motion to allow up to $200 to be spent on attracting new & distant members to the 3/28/03 chapter social.

· The Board approved a motion nominating Maryanne Ward for the SLA PNW Career Achievement Award.

Votes taken by email were confirmed at the next board meeting.

Carolyn Ruby
Director

In addition to participating in electronic discussions of Board topics and actually attending a Business Meeting in March, I have begun compiling job descriptions for the various chapter positions. These descriptions will be published on the Chapter website when they are completed.

Chris Mulready
Past President
Vendor Relations

Vendors are listed in our Sponsor Directory: http://www.sla.org/chapter/cpnw/sponsors.htm. There are several Sponsor Opportunities: http://www.sla.org/chapter/cpnw/sponsor_opportunities.htm. This Chapter year, almost every vendor opted for the Chapter Event support. Due to the sagging economy, it has become difficult to find sponsorship for events since the New Year, and I suspect that mood will continue for some time. Branching out, and seeking sponsorship from other content vendors is the key to success.

Vendor support was found for 3 events. A total of $2,850 was raised. The September meeting on Organizing Digital Collections was sponsored by OneSource, Dialog, Stellant, and Ebsco. The Holiday Social was sponsored by Andornot Consulting. The February Chapter Meeting / Student night was sponsored by Microsoft’s Knowledge Network Group, and by the iSchool at the University of Washington.

The following lists the vendors and the amount they contributed to the Pacific Northwest Chapter:

September Meeting – 9/26/02
OneSource - $500
Dialog - $500
Stellant - $500
EBSCO - $100

Holiday Meeting - 12/16/02
Andornot Consulting - $500

February Meeting / Student Night 2/3/03
Microsoft’s Knowledge Network Group - $500
iSchool of UW - $250

Jean Pasche
Archives
Committee Members: Jean Pasche, Chair; Karen Buxton; Jim Foti

Significant Activities:

1. Printed archival copy of web issues of Interface, board minutes, annual report, events listing, and leadership roster for 2002-2003 year.

2. Updated finding list table for archived materials; this included checking the actual archives at UW for further detail on dates, etc.

3. Purchased archival folders, and then organized current materials according to the Chapter Archives Guidelines from SLA headquarters. Divided these materials into those of the last 5 years (“current”) and those ready for deposit in UW Archives.

4. Created schedule (in table form) for archiving the different features on the Chapter’s web site.

5. Purchased archival supplies for the 50th Anniversary photos, and then transferred the photos to an archival-quality album. Also created a “finding aid” for the photos, with members’ names.

6. Received permission from John Latham, SLA Archivist, to deposit our next group of chapter archives with the UW even though SLA will not maintain ownership. This follows the practice agreed to by David Bender with our first deposit.

Expenses:

$44.04 – archival file folders (100)
$43.79 – archival photo supplies
$87.83 – total expenses for 2002-2003

Goals for Next Year:

Jean Pasche is stepping down as Chair, and Karen Buxton is also leaving the Committee, both as of the end of this chapter year. Future goals will be set by the new Chair and Committee members.

Frances DeMarco
Interface Newsletter Editor

The President’s Message, Chapter News, New Members, continue to be regular columns. Feature columns for the Interface are ‘Members in the Spotlight’ and ‘Feature Article’.

I worked closely with the webmaster, Sue Eipert, in generating issues of the online Interface. I spent time as editor reminding board members and committee chairs to submit their reports. Carol Edlefsen, SLA-UW President regularly submitted a student chapter report. I put out a call for articles and news items on the listserv. In the winter issue Jean Boucher wrote a wonderful article about her experiences as a librarian in post-war Japan. Along with the article, Jean was the Member in the Spotlight.

Sue Eipert
Communications/Web Manager

Chapter communications:
The chapter website, including the online newsletter Interface, (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cpnw) is well established as the main communications vehicle for the chapter. The site was visited at least 1000 times each month in the past year; in April 2003, it was visited 1851 times. Other means of communications wthin the chapter include the discussion list and paper mailings.

The online Interface, edited by Frances DeMarco, has continued as a quarterly online periodical, with news and reports from chapter officers and members, and regular member-written columns.

The chapter discussion list, managed by Dan Trefethen, is the typical way that chapter announcements are made by officers; it is also used by members presenting various items of current interest.

Paper mailings are used only for registration forms for meetings; these forms are also available through the list and on the web site.

Website:
The reference portion of the website contains current and historical information about chapter events, officers, sponsors, and committee information; appropriate sections are printed for storage in the chapter archives (handled by archivists Jean Pasche and Karen Buxton).

Dreamweaver was purchased by the chapter for use by the Web Manager. The Interface was converted from being maintained in FrontPage to being maintained in Dreamweaver, with templates developed to be used for new issues of the Interface. In the process, it was also converted to using CSS style sheets to separate the content from the style, and was made compatible with xhtml. The rest of the web site is currently being changed in the same manner.

A committee position of chapter reporter (Renee Remlinger) was initiated to provide content about chapter meetings and events for both the Interface news section and the website events section.

A job description for the Communications chair/Web Manager position was submitted to the Director, along with a memo with suggestions for web-related responsibilities of other officers and chairs.

Future plans: If SLA headquarters makes it available, we will set up access to a directory of chapter members that will be limited by password access. A redesign of the colors and graphics for the site is probably on the agenda after the organization makes a decision on name change and branding. A search system may also be set up for site contents.

Janette Schueller
Government Relations

The primary function of this committee continues to be serving as conduit for the dissemination of governmental and legislative information from relevant sources such as the national SLA Public Policy Department, currently directed by Doug Newcomb, the American Library Association's ALAWON alerting service (ALA Washington Online), and local and regional entities. The ALA program includes information on issues relevant to special librarians, as well as to its traditional audience of public and school libraries. It is a useful complement to SLA’s regular Government Relations column in Information Outlook, the SLA Public Policy Central website (http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/communication/index.cfm), and the SLA Public Policy Updates sent to the Governmental Relations listsrev, of which this committee’s chair is a member.

Particular attention was given this year to the USA Patriot’s Act which has profound implications for libraries of all types and the privacy and civil liberties of all citizens. The Chair participated in a teleconference, "Safeguarding Our Patrons' Privacy," Sponsored by Special Libraries Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, ALA, ARL, and MLA in December of 2002. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was of continuing interest this year.

Of great regional concern this year was the continued threat to sustaining funding for the Washington State Library. Both the GR chair and Chapter members were involved in monitoring legislative action and contacting state Legislators. Sources of information were the State Librarian herself, Jan Walsh, her staff, and the website of the Washington Secretary of State, under whose auspices the WSL now resides. While the Library was once again “saved” in the Supplemental Budget in march, this is an area which will need to be followed as the Biennial Budget is developed.

Goals for the rest of the year will continue to include: focus attention on regionally relevant legislative issues/concerns to all the PNC region; continue to increase awareness of SLA's GR activities and resources within PNC, as well as those of other relevant organizations; determine needs of PNC members in the areas of legislative and governmental activities, both nationally and regionally; provide timely notice of important governmental actions to the membership. Some of the national level topics to be monitored, along with UCITA and copyright issues, will be the USA Patriot Act and the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, and the Restore Freedom of Information Act (Restore FOIA Act).

Nola Sterling
Grants and Awards

This year the Grants and Awards Committee had a $560.00 budget established by the board:
1. Career Achievement Award -- $150.00
2. Professional Achievement Award --$75.00
3. Student SLA conference award -- $300.00
4. Student membership -- $35.00

Budget spent $450:
$150 – Career Achievement
$300 – Student SLA Conference (to be awarded at the Annual Meeting)

I had hoped to develop an online nominations form for the Career and Professional Achievement Awards. At this time, it seems as though the nominations process works well enough via the PNC listserv to serve its purpose; however, if a nominations page existed on the web site, perhaps we’d have more nominations. In any case, it remains for the next chair to determine if the time and effort to develop this page are worth the effort for the Chapter to achieve its awards goals.

Student SLA conference attendee award for $300.00. This year, we posted a contest on the iSchool listserv and the Chapter listserv, as well as other Chapter-related listservs for student attendance at the SLA Conference. I believe at this time we have had only one response. This was probably too labor intensive a contest for most of the students considering the award amount and that I did not send it out until the end of April. I was contacted by Nancy Gershenfeld, Lecturer at the iSchool, who held a contest for student SLA attendance. This prize is a drawing for $1000. Nancy suggested that we pool these resources for a drawing next year. I concur and encourage the Board and the new G&A Chair to contact Nancy.

The Career Achievement Award goes to Mary Anne Ward for 2003, upon her retirement. Mary Anne’s contributions to the Chapter and to Special Libraries are greatly appreciated. Her support and perspective will be missed by us all. Jean Sansobrino will be making the award to Mary Anne at the Annual Meeting.

There were no nominations this year for the Professional Achievement Award. Nancy Gershenfeld received this award in 2002.

I thank Becky Withington, Chris Mulready, Christina Byrne and the Board for their support of the Grants & Awards Chair. I have enjoyed serving two terms as Grants and Awards Chair and will resign for the 2003-2004 term.

Mary Whittaker
Lending Library

Circulated approx. 20 items from the collection; and currently route Cyberskeptic's Guide to 12 individuals each month. Renewed two subscriptions to Cyberskeptic's Guide to Internet Research (we lost our price break when the newsletter was sold to Information Today publishers). Purchased the SLA 2002 Salary Survey.

Total purchases and expenses: $363.00.

It was a quiet year in this "businessman's business" of running a little lending library on the side.

Monica Donovan
Membership

For the first time in a while, membership is up! As of this March we have 291 members, versus 281 members in February 2002. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue. To that end, various ideas were discussed about how to recruit new members and increase new and distant member involvement. Some concepts were sending coupons for free meeting admission to appropriate nonmembers, bring a non-member friend and receive 2-for-1 admission, or a President's Tea for new members. A Happy Hour for all was held, with a free drink provided to new members or those who live outside King County. This attracted some members who had never attended a program before. Board Member Carolyn Ruby traveled from Boise, Idaho to attend this event.

As always, the primary activity was sending welcome letters to new members. The letters included information about the website, discussion list, upcoming meetings, and how to get involved. I also replied to questions about address changes and requests for membership lists.

This was the first year of our involvement with the "Twinning Project." The librarian we sponsored is Muhammad Yaqub Chaudhary of the Institute of Kashmir Studies, the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, A.K., Pakistan. There was an article about him in the Oct. 2002 issue of Information Outlook (Connecting in an Uncertain Environment, p. 21). Our sponsorship lasts one more year. Ideas regarding how to take greater advantage of this unique opportunity should be explored.

Susan Smith
Public Relations

Information about each meeting was distributed to a range of library-related listservs and the UW i-School calendar. Details about meetings with broader public appeal can be faxed to The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer for publication in their business events calendars.

Julie Cook
Linda Shippert
Student Relations

Committee Members:
Julie Cook, Co-Chair
Information Services Librarian
Engineering Library
University of Washington

Linda Shippert, Co-Chair
Research Librarian
King County Department of Natural Resources & Parks

Major accomplishments and activities:

Liaison for the SLA-UW

UW Student SLA Officers:
President: Carol Edlefsen
Vice-President: Chyenne Bidart
Secretary: Sue Roberts
Treasurer: Lelia Boyd Arnheim
Web Developer: Nicole Elger

Several times during the year the student relations committee met with the student SLA officers to offer advice, input and support. The student officers were especially active during Summer 2001, when they met frequently to plan out their programs for the year, which included brown-bag lunches, panel discussions, and tours. The officers were also very supportive in planning and preparing for the annual SLA sponsored student night event.

Student Night

The theme for this year’s student night was “Things You Didn't Learn in Library School.” Speakers were Cindy Romaine, Nike Inc., Portland, who addressed important skills that are not usually taught in library school, and Joe Janes, UW iSchool Faculty and Chair, M.L.I. S Program, who described the iSchool's new curriculum and how it is addressing the skills and knowledge needed by information professionals in today's environment. After the main presentation, Cindy Romaine reported regarding SLA’s Task Force on Branding to consider official adoption of a new name for the association.

Julie Cook created the flyer and Barbara Wetzel printed and mailed it. Julie Cook and Rebecca Withington saw to it that the meeting was publicized on appropriate electronic mailing lists. Barbara Wetzel managed registration.

As was the case in previous years, the UW iSchool allowed us to charge expenses to their account, with SLA reimbursing the School, which saved time and money.

Date: Monday, February 3, 2003
Place: University of Washington, Husky Union Building (HUB) Room 108
Time: Social hour and dinner: 6:00 - 6:45 pm, Meeting & Program 6:45 - 9:00 pm
Cost: $20.00 member of SLA or ASIST, $25.00 guest, $ 10.00 student
Sponsor: Microsoft
Expenses: $1979.44
Revenue: $1000
Sponsorship: $750
Registered Attendees: 58