Executive Board Meeting, S.F. Bay Region Chapter, SLA
December 10, 2002
Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
San Francisco, CAPresent: Tamara Horacek, Nancy Adams, Jaye Lapachet, Beth Graham, Maggie O’Brien, and Lauri Flynn
Absent: Bonnie Willdorf
Meeting called to order by Tamara Horacek at 5:52 p.m.
1. Welcome: Tamara welcomed all in attendance and thanked them for coming and doing such a great job.
2. Previous Meeting Minutes: Approved the minutes of the October 29, 2002
Executive Board meeting.
3. Treasurer’s Report: We have paid $1000 deposit for May 2003 joint meeting. We have also paid $500 deposit toward the January meeting. We have $34,526.59 in the pooled account and about $10,000.00 in the checking account. We may need to pull some money from the pooled account, if the checking account dips too much.
4. Finance Report: Nancy led us through the Year-to-Date figures against Excepted Budget. We show a balance in the red, but there are a lot of monies yet to be received. Not printing a directory will save us some money. Jaye asked about the subsidies for chapter meetings. Tamara explained that the chapter does subsidize and that we do need to monitor costs, but that the point of the meetings is not to make money. We will be able to ascertain our true financial health at the mid-year financial review meeting in January. There was also a discussion of sponsorship and a review of meeting expenses, gratis meals etc. We started a discussion of our fundraising structure and sponsorship levels. Tamara commented that Robert Burke has been trying some new approaches, as our past methods are outdated given the economy and mergers among companies that were previous sponsors.
5. Program Update: Jaye Lapachet and Lauri Flynn reported that Lincoln Cushing, Hospitality Committee Chair, is in the process of identifying a location for our March 2003 meeting. Everything is on track for the January 30, 2003 dinner meeting, which we are co-hosting with BayNet. There was some discussion about BayNet’s receipt of our check for the deposit on the Atrium Restaurant (the January meeting location.) Nancy will follow up with Wess Murdough, BayNet liaison. Tours is proposing another event: a tour of CBS MarketWatch facilities.
Old Business
7. Leadership Training: Maggie O’Brien and Beth Graham reported that the feedback about the Leadership Training, held December 6, 2002, with Max Latham was very good. We polled those in attendance and will try to give at least 6 weeks notice for the meeting. Attendees also preferred a September vs. December date.
8. Chapter Brochures: Tamara asked several questions about the Chapter brochures including the number available, artwork location, printing and updating. Tamara will explore this further.
9. Chapter Bylaws & guidelines changes: Tamara and Maggie reported that the change in the Association’s By-Laws will require that each unit review and redraft its own guidelines and operating procedures. Tamara and Beth will learn more about this at the Winter meeting in January 2003.
10. Web Proposal: On behalf of Nick Robinson, Web Committee Chair, Tamara presented the plan for revamping the Chapter website. This topic garnered much discussion and Tamara asked that we finish the main business of the meeting and come back to this topic at the end.
11. Chapter Bulletin Indexing Project: Earlier this year, Terry Dean and a group of dedicated indexers, finished indexing the complete run of the chapter’s bulletin through 1995. This was an extraordinary, multi-year effort and the plan is to find a way to post the index on the Website. Ideally, we would have a searchable database for these. Issues of copyright and permission came up as well as what process for retrieval of articles prior to 1996 (1996 and later are available on the chapter Website.) The archivist does not have the time to handle document retrieval. We also discussed having a position on the Bayline staff for an indexer to keep the index current.
New Business
12. Brief Committee Reports & Discussion:
Directory: Still need to advise chapter members of the decision to trial an online-only chapter directory. Tamara has addressed this in her President’s column and will send something out via the Discussion List. This will also mean that the function of the Directory Committee will be more of a resource for assisting members with access to the online version.
Archive: John Gallwey is looking into formalizing our arrangement with UC Berkeley regarding the housing of our archives there.
Membership: Beth Graham reports that we have 507 members.
Professional Development: Gina and her committee are co-hosting the spring PD workshop about virtual reference with BayNet.
Tours: Terry Richards is looking at CBS MarketWatch for a spring tour.
Hospitality: Lincoln Cushing is doing fine; tried a new venue for the November 2002 meeting—Anna’s Jazz Bistro in Berkeley.
Academic Relations: Jenny Kanji coordinated the fall event at SIMS with much success.
Government Relations: Tasha Bergson-Michelson has been posting information as she receives it to the Discussion List. It is still challenging to sort out exactly what the Government Relations committee should do. Headquarters has not been as helpful as was hoped.
Nominating: The committee is meeting in the next week to strategize and identify candidates.
Advertising: Mary Keba keeps sending those checks in!
Mailing: Saundra Lormand reports all is well.
Fundraising: Robert Burke is trying new approaches as the landscape for fundraising has changed. The old, tried and true methods with tiered sponsorship levels are not yielding the same results. (See #4 above for additional information.)
Strategic Planning: Rita Evans is working on the chapter Needs Assessment survey, which will be distributed in the first quarter of next year.
Networking: Camille Reynolds keeps the Discussion List lively with postings of events, classes and articles of interest.
Consultation: Barbara Janis is patiently waiting for consultation calls, but none so far.
Bayline: Everything is just peachy per Steve Cooney. Article contributions are welcome!
Discussion List: All is well reports Deb Hunt.
Finance: Sara O’Keefe continues to monitor our budget. No problems thus far.
Credit Card: Bill Van Niekerken says that everything is fine.
Reflector: Linda Yamamoto wants to remind people to inform her when their email addresses change--otherwise, no problems.
13. Spring SIMS event: All agreed that this was a great idea, although it may not be viable for this chapter year as Academic Relations budgeted for only a fall event.
14. Set tentative date for Mid-Year Finance Review: January 14 or 15 will be the date for the mid-year review meeting.
15. Reminder: Joint Board and Council meeting February 4, 2003.
16. Web Proposal (revisited): All present acknowledged Nick for his great work on the Website and were excited about a site redesign. Some issues that were discussed were the need: to have a detailed project scope and timeline; to solicit multiple bids, and to use contract language that ensures the chapter owns all the work. We also talked about the importance of having input from members. The strategic planning survey will have questions and a section for comments specifically about the Website. There were lots of suggestions for content including lists of past officers, award winners, speakers, meetings, etc. Rita Evans and Bonnie Willdorf have volunteered to work with Nick. The project may require a phased implementation.
Adjourned at 7:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Maggie O‘Brien Maggie O’Brien (filling in for Bonnie Willdorf.)