ANNUAL REPORT

2001-2002

Christopher Mulready
President

The 2001-2002 year was tumultuous. A sagging economy, rising unemployment, and a plummeting stock market marked the summer of 2001. The world was shaken to the core in the late summer by a series of terrorist attacks leading to the ultimate destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, damage to the Pentagon in Washington, and the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Holiday time included escalating tensions in the Middle East, and early 2002 brought increasing tensions between India and neighboring Pakistan, along with the threat of nuclear warfare. The challenge to leaders everywhere seemed insurmountable.

Our Chapter has weathered these challenges, however, and the year was successful in bringing us closer than ever to our University of Washington Student Chapter. The Chapter meetings kicked off in October with a panel discussion event. “Career Opportunities for Future Information Professionals” was held on the Microsoft campus and was extremely well attended by 52 people. Attendance was about half professionals, half students! This was very encouraging. Huge thanks go to the speakers: Vivian Bliss, Knowledge Management Analyst at Microsoft, Trish Camozzi-Ekberg, Knowledge Integrator at Weyerhaeuser, Katherine Foster, Legal Community Affairs Reference Librarian at Microsoft, and Eleanor Fye, Corporate Memory Program Manager at Microsoft, and to Microsoft for donating the space.

Once again, the Chapter lost membership. We ended the year 2000 with 344 members, and by year end 2001, the number decreased to 314. According to the latest figures, as of May 15, 2002, the Pacific Northwest Chapter had 284 paid, registered members. There are many reasons for the drop off, including competition from other professional associations, layoffs and other job decreases, lack of company support for membership, etc. The Association is aware of this downward trend, and the new focus on simplification, branding and awareness, and bylaws changes will hopefully revive the group, and member numbers should increase. As a result of this decline, our dues allotment was decreased from $4,128 to $3,768. Meeting income and sponsorship increased to $14,915 due mainly to the number of vendors attending the Joint Chapter Professional Development Day held at the W Hotel in Seattle in April 2001.

The Executive Board met 4 times during the year. A sampling of the proposals we voted on: we agreed to donate $100 to the American Red Cross, and $300 to the Roxanna Frost Quality of Life Fund in memory of our beloved member. The Chapter also decided to participate in the Twinning Program (http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc/twinning.html) encouraging Chapters, Divisions, and individuals to support the membership of a developing country librarian for two years. The Chapter decided to sponsor Ms. Nora Fikile of South Africa. The Chapter is also considering adding a Program Planning Chairperson in the future, discussed the archiving of our website, and also instituted an agreement whereby we will have a reciprocal agreement with ASIST and be able to attend each others meetings at the member rate.

I’d like to thank every member of the Executive Board. Becky Withington was an inspiration, and will be a terrific leader in the coming year; Nola Sterling stepped up to the plate to serve as the Grants & Awards Committee Chair, and provided tons and tons of sage advice in her role as Past President, Dawn Duddleson, our Chapter Secretary, was amazing at capturing all of the talking going on at the Board meetings, and making sense out of it; Anna Little, our Treasurer, who kept our money in order, and occasionally let us spend some; and to Jean Sansobrino who brought her wisdom and advice to the Director role. Thanks to all of the Committee Chairpeople for agreeing to take on the role, and for seeing it through to the end. Your hard work and dedication is much appreciated.

This year has been full of learning and adventure, and I thank the Chapter and the Association for giving me the opportunity to serve you in this capacity. I will be continuing in the advisory role of Past President next year, and have also decided to take on the role of Vendor Relations Committee Chairperson. I look forward to better times, and to a stronger, more robust Association.

Rebecca Withington
President Elect

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my year as chapter president-elect and have also found it to be quite a learning experience in program planning and teamwork. The biggest challenge in program planning continues to be breaking even on meetings while still providing quality venues, refreshments and speakers to attract a good turnout and meet members’ needs. The generosity of our sponsors is key to meeting this goal, and I was fortunate to have the able assistance of Conrad Kartanas and Chris Mulready in securing vendor support for most of our meetings.

Programming for the 2001/2002 chapter year was kicked off by the October 9th meeting at Microsoft, featuring a panel of four speakers on “Career Opportunities for Future Information Professionals” planned by Chris Mulready, the new chapter president. The meeting was well-attended, with 52 people registering, including 25 students.

As president-elect, I planned the holiday social, which took place at the Bungalow Wine Bar and Café in Wallingford. Forty-seven members, students and friends turned out to enjoy delicious hors d'oeuvres and wines around the welcoming warmth of the Bungalow's fireplace. Karen Farley was in attendance representing EBSCO, who generously sponsored the meeting. Other special guests included Dee Magnoni, from Zephyr Info Systems in Portland, who was running for a Director position on the SLA Board of Directors and has since been elected to the Board.

In January I attended the annual winter meeting and leadership training with Chris Mulready, chapter president. The leadership training provided many useful tips, and meeting other chapter and division officers and board members was a valuable networking experience. Hearing first-hand about the proposed bylaws changes was eye-opening, too. Chris and I came back inspired to urge all chapter members to acquaint themselves with the changes, give their input, and vote knowledgeably.

In a departure from the usual resume review, the student night meeting on February 7th featured three speakers on “Mentoring, A Tool for Success.” See the student relations chairs’ report for further details.

In March the chapter co-hosted a meeting on disaster recovery with the Law Librarians of Puget Sound, the American Society of Information Science & Technology, and the Washington Medical Librarians Association. Four speakers whose libraries had been damaged by earthquake, flood and fire showed gave dramatic presentations on the aftermath and recovery efforts. The meeting was sponsored by Dialog, Micromedex, and Munters, a moisture damage prevention and recovery firm. In planning this meeting I relied on the invaluable assistance of Jean Pasche and Jean Sansobrino. Attendance for the March meeting was 45.

The chapter’s annual meeting is scheduled for May 22nd at Microsoft. In addition to the chapter’s annual business meeting, this meeting will include a self-guided tour of the Microsoft Museum and a demonstration of the Microsoft Library’s new Intranet format. This meeting was arranged with Chris Mulready’s assistance and will be sponsored byMoreover.com and Factiva.

Attached is a summary of meeting revenues and expenses for the 2001/2002 meeting year to date.

	10/9/01 Microsoft Meeting	12/10/01 Holiday Meeting	2/7/02 Student Night	3/13/02 Disaster Recovery
Meeting Location	Microsoft	Bungalow Wine Bar	UW	SeaTac Doubletree
Expenses
Room Rentals		$200.00	$127.00
Catering/Food	$870.48	$809.62	$1,113.25	$2,380.45
Speakers Fees/Gift	$100.00		$42.40	$111.56
Flyer Copying/Postage	$81.76	$42.05	$82.11	$102.64
Misc. Expenses	$16.31	$89.28
Total Expenses	$1,068.55	$1,140.95	$1,364.76	$2,594.65
Income
Meeting Revenue	$784.00	$895.00	$448.00	$1,035.00
Sponsorship		$500.00	$250.00	$1,250.00
Student Subsidies
Total Income	$784.00	$1,395.00	$698.00	$2,285.00
Meeting Net	-$284.55	$254.05	-$666.76	-$309.65
				($155.25 of meeting net to be recovered from LLOPS, ASIS&T and WMLA)
Cost - Member	$20.00	$20.00	$14.00	$25.00
Cost - Student	$8.00	$12.00	$7.00	$10.00
Cost - Guest/Non-Member	$25.00	$25.00	$18.00	$30.00
Attendance
Members	25	35	23	39
Students	25	9	17	0
Guests/Non-Members	2	3	0	6
Total Attendance	52	47	40	45

Anna-Liisa Little
Chapter Treasurer

The Chapter’s net assets total $13,974 as of April 30th, 2002, down about 26% from last year’s Annual Report. Much of this decrease can be attributed to meeting expenses for the April 2001 Professional Development Day. The Chapter’s audited 2001 Annual Financial Statement showed a year-end closing balance of $10,635.

Our SLA Chapter dues allotment for 2002 dropped 8% from 4,128 in 2001 to 3,768 in 2002 due to a commensurate drop in membership from 344 at year-end 2000 to 314 at year-end 2001. Meeting income and sponsorship generated $14,915, a 115% increase from 2000, mainly due to sponsorship of the April 2001 Professional Development Day.

Major expenses for 2001 were $20,959 for meeting expenses; $1,282 for gifts and awards; $541 for postage and supply and $484 for travel. Travel allowances were provided for Chris Mulready to attend the 2002 SLA Winter Meeting in Chicago ($253) and the 2002 SLA Annual Conference in Los Angeles ($500). Other expenses included $450 in charitable contributions and $23 in bank charges.

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

Dawn Duddleson
Secretary

As secretary for the 2001-2002 chapter year, my primary responsibility was to take minutes at the chapter board meetings held on October 9, 2001, December 10, 2001, March 13, 2002, and May 22, 2002, and at the Chapter's Annual Meeting, also on May 22, 2002. 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 six executive board votes conducted by email:

• A donation of $100 was made to the American Red Cross in memory of Kay Denfield on behalf of the Chapter.
• The Chapter made a donation of $300 to the Roxanna Frost Quality of Life Fund/Group Health Community Foundation in memory of Roxanna Frost.
• The Board approved a $500 travel stipend each in order for the Chapter president and president-elect to attend the 2002 SLA Mid-Winter Leadership Development Institute in Chicago.
• The Board agreed to have a drawing at the February 7 meeting to award an annual student SLA membership to a student in attendance at the meeting.
• The Board agreed to provide a $300 stipend to support a student's attendance at the 2002 SLA national conference in Los Angeles.
• The Board agreed that Nancy Gershenfeld would receive a professional achievement award from the Chapter at the annual meeting.

Nola Sterling
Past President
Grants & Awards Committee

Grants and awards goals:

• To recognize Chapter members for special achievements throughout their careers
• To support and facilitate student involvement in the Chapter and in SLA
• To inspire Chapter members.

1. Conference attendance for outstanding SLA Student members. One per year.
2. SLA Student membership. One per year. Usually a drawing at beginning of year during first Chapter meeting.

• Develop a formal nominations process for awards to involve the entire Chapter. Establish guidelines and standards for the awards.
• Create space on web site for award nominations.
• Create budget for both grants and awards so that awards equity is ensured and the Chapter can plan its budget.
• Track grants and awards recipients and gifts. Post on web site—inspirational; formally report in Chapter annual report.
• Provide more meaningful award gifts: plaques, glass, engraving.
• Continue grants for students for SLA Student membership and conference attendance.
• Formalize application process for student conference attendance. Form on the web site.
• For students provided with conference attendance grant, require that they write an Interface article on their experience. A Thank You note to the Chapter should also be encouraged. If the student was willing, it might be fun to have him/her give a brief report at the next meeting after the conference.
• Hold SLA Student membership drawing at first meeting of year.
• Continue Career Achievement award, recognizing it may not be awarded each year.
• Determine if the Chapter wants other types of awards or grants.
• Grants and awards continue to be presented at annual meeting.

Jean Sansobrino
Director

In addition to attending Executive Board and Chapter meetings this year, I assisted with planning the venue, food & beverages for the March 2002 meeting on disaster recovery held at the SeaTac Airport Doubletree Hotel.

Jean Pasche
Chapter Archives

Members: Jean Pasche, Chair; Karen Buxton

Significant Activities:

1. Printed archival copy of web issues of Interface, board minutes, annual report, and leadership roster for 2001-2002.
2. Finished weeding files received from previous Chapter Archivist.
3. Created finding list for archived Membership Directories and newsletters, i.e. which years are in which Archives box.
4. Updated Quick Reference notebook with latest Leadership Roster and Chapter Programs.
5. Set policy of not creating a digital archive of the Chapter’s site because that is being handled by the Association office. The current web mistress, Sue Eipert, volunteered to burn a CD, but it will be for the ongoing use of Chapter members and will not become part of the official archives.
6. Created section in Quick Reference notebook for Archives Committee Procedures.

1. Deposit files prior to 1998 with University of Washington Libraries Archives Deptartment. Ownership question must first be negotiated between SLA and the UW.
2. Completion of labels for photos in the 50th Anniversary party photo album. Chapter Archivist will check with Board before including this item with archival materials. Once deposited with UW, it cannot be removed. It may be more appropriate for Archivist to keep with “current” files.
3. Recruit third member for Committee to serve as co-chair, with expectation that the co-chair would become chair after one year.

Jan Schueller
Government Relations Committee

Again the primary function of this committee continues to be serving as conduit for the dissemination of governmental and legislative information from the national SLA Public Policy Department, currently directed by Doug Newcomb, and other relevant sources such as the American Library Association's ALAWON alerting service (ALA Washington Online). The ALA program includes information on issues relevant special librarians, as well as to its traditional audience of public and school libraries. It is a useful complement to the 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 listserv.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was of continuing interest this year. A report from the US Copyright Office in October regarding the expansion of "first sale doctrine" to permit digital transmission of lawfully made copies of copyrighted works recommended no changes, which is of concern for resource sharing via interlibrary loans. The regulatory and legislative aftermath of the September 11th attacks have also been pertinent, with some previously available government information "disappearing" from websites. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2001 which has ramifications for ISP privacy policies. And UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, which has the potential for contract law to supplant copyright law, has also been on the radar, and will continue to be, although still passed only in Virginia and Maryland.

Of course Governor Locke's proposal to close the Washington State Library was a more local issue which required the attention of the GR Chair and the Chapter as a whole. The merger of WSL into the Office of the Secretary of State will bear watching, but all in all the functions we all depend on should continue.

Goals for the rest of the year will continue to include: determine ways to focus attention on regionally relevant legislative issues/concerns; 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 DMCA: Microsoft, Napster, and legislation regarding the extension of personal copyright to 75 years after the author's death.

Frances DeMarco
Interface Newsletter Editor

The Interface is now an online newsletter with four issues a year. Thanks to Sue Eipert, the online Interface has the look of the print version. The President’s Message, Chapter News, New Members, continue to be regular columns. Others, such as Listserv information, Board Meeting Minutes and Events have been shifted outside the Interface into the realm of the chapter home page. New columns for the Interface are ‘Members in the Spotlight’ and ‘Musings’. On occasion, I found the title ‘Musings’ for an article flippant , so I used “Feature Article” instead.

I worked closely with the webmaster, Sue Eipert, in generating issues. I spent my time as editor reminding board members and committee chairs to submit their reports. David Hurly, SLA-UW President regularly submitted a student chapter report. I put out a call for articles and news items on the listserv. Maryann Ward responded with her article on doing a needs assessment (Interface, Winter Issue). Other chapter members provided or suggested news items. I appointed people to write up articles. Rebecca Withington, our new president, wrote an article about the Sound Transit Technical Library in the winter issue. Dan Trefthan wrote two articles for the fall and spring issues. I wrote an article about Carolyn Ruby, a Idaho chapter member for the fall issue. Jean Pasche suggested I use an article from the UW Columns Magazine about Betty Wagner (Interface, Spring Issue). Judy Davis contributed a book review for the spring issue.

Kim Emmons
Student Relations Committee

Committee Members:
Kim Emmons, Co-Chair
Washington Research Foundation
kemmons@wrfseattle.org
Julie Cook, Co-Chair
Information Services Librarian
Engineering Library
University of Washington

Major accomplishments and activities:

Liason for the SLA-UW:
UW Student SLA Officers:
David Hurley, President
Mike Pruzan,
Cathy Stickley, Treasurer
Renee Remlinger
Bonnie McTaggert

The student relations committee met several times with the student SLA officers to give them input, advice and contacts for their programs throughout the year. We also attended most of these events, including tours and brown bag lunches. We are very pleased to note that this outstanding group of individuals won the Special Libraries Association Student Academic Relations Committee (SARC) Certificate of Merit Award. SLA-UW submitted entries for two categories - Outstanding Leadership and Innovative Programming - and won first place for both. The student officers also provided extensive support in the annual SLA sponsored event organized by the student relations committee and detailed below.

Student Night

The program for student night received high praise from students and professionals who attended. The theme for the program was “Mentoring”. Meesha Ginter, from WISE gave a wonderfully inspirational talk on the general topic of mentoring. Lynnea Erickson from the iSchool spoke specifically about what vehicles were available at the iSchool to foster interaction between professionals and students. Dan Trefethan wrapped up with a talk that was both informative and inspirational, introducing students to the SLA organization and it’s structure, and encouraging them to get involved. Professionals from multiple library organizations in town were invited to participate for the same entrance price as SLA members.

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

As was the case last year, the U.W. iSchool allowed us to charge expenses to their account, with SLA reimbursing the School, which also saved time and money.

A free student membership to SLA national was raffled, the award going to Elaine Chu.

Place: HUB Rm. 108, University of Washington
Time: 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $14.00 member of SLA or other professional library org., $18.00 guest, $ 7.00 student
Speakers: Meesha Grinter, Assoc. Director, WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), UW College of Engineering: “Mentoring, A Tool for Success”
Dan Trefethen, Boeing, Inc., SLA Fellow: “Models for Mentoring in SLA- Formal and Informal Mentoring the SLA Way”
Lynnea Erickson, Students Services Administrator, the Information School: “Making Connections with Students at the Information School”
Food: UW Catering; Beverages: Trader Joe’s
Menu: a variety of hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine & soft drinks, coffee and dessert.
Attendance numbers: 24 Members, 18 Students, 0 Guests
Revenue: $455.00

Expenses:

• UW HUB Room Rental Charge (reserved by UW-SLA for discounted price) $42.00
• Cleaning/Maintenance Fee $25.00
• Equipment Rental, UW HUB PA system $25.00
• Monitor w/VHS player $25.00
• Table skirting $10.00
• Total Room Charges UW HUB $127.00

• Food total $592.00
• Beverages $54.00
• Servers, Bartender, Beer&Wine service charge $284.00
• Catering Total $930.00

• Banquet Permit $10.00
• Beverages (wine, beer, soft drinks) $173.25

• Flyers
• Gifts for presenters

1. Consider repeating this as an annual mentoring themed event? (Feb. is National Mentoring Month for SLA)
2. Better promotion to students
3. Better promotion to professionals
4. Increased vendor support ($250 was procured for this event!)
5. This event was during midterm for students- perhaps another date would allow better attendance.

Mary Whittaker
Lending Library

Significant Activities:

• Circulated 20 items from the collection; and currently route newsletters to 13 individuals each month.
• Created reversible bookmark/return address label for Lending Library.
• Negotiated another three-for-two subscription renewal price for Cyberskeptic's Guide to Internet Research.
• Purchased the SLA 2001 Salary Survey.

Dan Trefethen
Discussion List

The PNW discussion list has been running at around 160 to 170 members most of the year. It has been instrumental in distributing selected job notices, news of chapter activities, announcements of activities at the UW I-school, and the monthly review of the chapter's subscription to the Cyberskeptic's Guide to Internet Research.

In late May, 2002, SLA headquarters made the transition to a new list software, Lyris List Manager, which provides a web-based interface for subscribers. The transition appears to have been made seamlessly, and users have responded favorably to the easy-to-use menu on the web. The web address for the list is http://lists.sla.org. Users log in by simply entering the e-mail address they use for the list (and leaving the password field blank). There is an option for new users as well.

At the present time we have not yet changed the instructions on our website about subscribing to the list, and the various commands. I was waiting to make sure the new software was working properly. When I get a moment, I will craft a new set of instructions for the website and forward it for posting.

Conrad Kartanas
Vendor Relations

With the help of Frances DeMarco, Susan Eipert, Rebecca Withington, Chris Mulready, and many others, we were able to raise funds for the Pacific Northwest Chapter from a variety of sources and vendors. My sincere thanks to everyone who helped make these events successful for all members of our Chapter.

Vendors took advantage of Sponsor Opportunities by choosing to advertise on our online newsletter and in our sponsors/advertisers directory, but for the most part they took advantage of sponsorship of the Chapter Events that took place throughout the year.

For a complete listing of people involved in sponsoring events see the Sponsor Directory.

Vendor Support – Conrad Kartanas, Chair
Vendor support was found for 5 events. The Holiday Social was sponsored by EBSCO. The February Chapter Meeting / Student night was sponsored by divine/Faxon Library Services. The March Chapter Meeting on Disaster Recovery was sponsored by Munters, Micromedex, and Dialog. The May Annual Meeting was sponsored by Moreover, Factiva, Lexis/Nexis, and organized by Microsoft.

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

Holiday Meeting 12/10/01
$500 from EBSCO

Student Night 2/7/02
$250 from Divine

Disaster Recovery Meeting 3/13/02
$500 from Dialog
$550 from Micromedex
$200 from Munters

Annual Meeting 5/22/02
$500 from Moreover
$500 from Factiva
$500 from Lexis-Nexis

Sue Eipert
Communications

The Communications committee met as a group in December to discuss various issues of web and list policy. The general organizational scheme of the web site and the online Interface was discussed, as was the designated responsibilities for various sections of the site. It was decided to try an online registration form, but to not pay for credit card capability. Headquarters is providing password capabilities for chapter and division web sites. We decided password access was unnecessary for any of the current content, but would be necessary if when and if we provide access to chapter member information on the site. Headquarters is scheduled to provide the capability next year for us to have a link on our site to our chapter members' information in Headquarters' member database, so the issues will be revisited then.

We tried using an online form for meeting registration for two chapter meetings, but realized that this made it too easy for members to postpone payment until the night of the meeting, and then not show up. Since it is necessary to mail in payment anyway, we, along with the program chair and the hospitality chair, decided to stop using a online form.

Various issues were discussed throughout the year relative to archiving the Interface and the web site. Decisions are being recorded by the chapter archivist.

The online Interface is well established now as a quarterly online periodical, with additional news added as available.

Sharon Tang
Membership

During my tenure as Membership Chair, my focus was on streamlining processes for this position. This included writing form letters for welcoming new members and for members whose memberships have expired. Additionally, I will be passing on a list of membership marketing opportunities to my successor.

The Pacific Northwest Chapter voted in March 2002 to sponsor an international member for the duration of two years. I've faciliated the membership for a candidate from George, South Africa.

Membership this year has seen a steady decrease. As of May 15, 2002, the Pacific Northwest Chapter had 284 paid, registered members. This is down slightly from 324 members in June 2002.

Lauri Ellis
Public Relations

Anthony Blue, Public Communications Specialist at SLA headquarters provided press release information that was disseminated to the PNW listserv. I also provided local media information to Anthony. Information about each meeting was distributed to a range of library-related listservs. Details about the May 22nd annual meeting were faxed to The Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer for publication in their business events calendars.

Barbara Wetzel
Hospitality

I handled photocopying and mailing (Bulk Rate preparations) for the meeting flyers, sent occasional reminders to the Program Chair/President-Elect to send out email announcements, and handled the registration process (receiving the mailed registrations and checks, creating nametags and receipts, and covering the registration table at each meeting). The President, President-Elect, and other Board members were very supportive when I had questions, usually involving fine-tuning our registration process and definitions (students vs. guests, for example). It was a pleasure to work with Chris and Becky, and I enjoyed getting to know more of the chapter members.

Employment

As Employment Chair, I received only a couple of questions regarding Employment, networking, etc. These were from people who were new to the area or to the profession, and I was able to respond via email, either directing them to our webpage, or to a particular contact within the Chapter. We were contacted regarding sponsorship of a "Job Club", which we decided against; it was subsequently sponsored by the Information School Alumni Association.