Board Meeting Minutes

Monday May 18, 2004
Microsoft Corporation

Present: Chris Byrne, Chapter President; Katherine Foster, President – Elect; Barb Wetzel, Treasurer, Becky Withington, Past President; Kim Emmons, Nominating Committee; Chris Mulready, Vendor Relations Chair, Julie Cook.

The meeting was called to order at 4:05.

Chapter Report and Elections

Christina Byrne provided a brief overview of the past year. As of the last figures from SLA HQ, the chapter has 294 members. Facing library layoffs and closures, reluctance of employers to pay dues and registration fees, and competition from other professional organizations, our numbers are down slightly but holding pretty steady.

Core chapter activities are being taken care of, but next year as Past President Christina hopes to help board and committee members accomplish more. Christina and Katherine volunteered to help the Grants and Awards committee to identify and reward deserving recipients.

Nominations

Christina indicated that Kathy Harkness, representing the Nominating Committee, would be announcing candidates to fill the board vacancies at the business meeting following this board meeting.

Staffing Committees

We need to encourage current Chairs to continue through Katherine’s presidency. Key committees for which new chairs need to be recruited are Membership, Archives and Student Relations. Christina will ask Sue Eipert to follow up with Carolyn Ruby, who has been compiling board member and committee chair job descriptions, to make those documents available on the website.

Chapter Involvement

The board also discussed the need to attract new members and keep existing members involved. With most chapter activities taking place in the Puget Sound area, often the same people are asked to serve over and over. We need to identify ways new and distant members can be encouraged to serve. Christina would like to do more outreach to geographically dispersed members.

New Chapter Governing Documents

As of February 1st, all chapter bylaws were replaced by the Chapter Governing Document provided by SLA HQ. The next step is to take our existing bylaws and other informal governing documents and use them to customize the Recommended Chapter Practices to meet our chapter needs. Christina, Katherine and Chris Mulready volunteered to start this process.

President-Elect Program Report:

Discussion about the proposed Sept/Oct meeting at the EMP, followed by discussion of general program planning resources and challenges. Katherine hopes to continue working towards our earlier chapter practice of involving the hospitality committee more with meeting logistics. Kathy Harkness has volunteered to help with program planning. ASIST is also interested in planning a joint meeting. Continuing challenges include not knowing the budget for meetings in advance due to lack of advance information about vendor support and attendance. Suggestions for overcoming this difficulty included reviewing previous meeting costs and revenues, allocating money from the chapter’s cash reserve to meetings and designating a portion of our dues allotment from HQ for programs.

There was a brief discussion of Student Night and lessons learned from that meeting. The challenge is to offer content that meets the students’ needs and interests and also attracts chapter members who provide the networking and mentoring opportunities for students.

Leadership Transition

Katherine is planning a summer get-together for continuing, incoming and outgoing officers and chairs to exchange information. A suggestion was also made for the president-elect, president and past president to schedule an additional meeting since these board positions require the most information sharing.

Treasurers Report

We have been breaking even on our meetings due to vendor sponsorship and affordable venues. We received our dues allotment of $3552 from HQ. We have $5570 in our checking account.

New business

None.

The meeting was adjourned 5:45. Minutes submitted by Becky Withington.