Karen Croneis
kcroneis@bama.ua.edu

Chair Elect Michael Fosmire, Past Chair Kris Fowler, and I attended SLA's Winter Meeting in New Orleans recently. The two most frequently discussed topics were the unseasonably cold weather (hard freezes, no less) and changing our organizational name from Special Libraries Association to something broader and more inclusive.

A name change was the key recommendation of the Branding Task Force. Information presented at the Winter Meeting can be found at: http://www.sla.org/content/leadership/resource/ldi/LeadershipSummit2003.cfm. The two most informative documents on that page are "Choosing a New Name—Pandora's Quandary," and "Cool Reading for Librarians," a bibliography and notes on branding. The Branding Task Force link is to a PowerPoint presentation and the Overview of Activities outlines what the task force has done since its January, 2000, inception.

The membership will vote on a name change during the business meeting to be held at this June's Annual Conference in New York City. Actually, there will be two votes. The first vote will be attendees' preference between the two suggested alternatives: SLA (initials which will be treated like OCLC is now), or Information Professionals International. The second vote will be on changing our name from Special Libraries Association to the name chosen in the first vote.

Speaking of voting, please be sure to return your ballot for 2003-2004 SLA Officers by the Friday, March 7, deadline. Information about candidates including their remarks at the Winter Meeting can be found at http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/Structure/200203BoardofDirCan.cfm.

For those who are already looking ahead to NYC, the schedule of PAM events follows. When our round table moderators ask for suggestions, please reply! The exhibits, keynote speakers, and PAM's Hospitality Suite will be in the Hilton. At this point, HQ expects that most of the division programs will be in the Marriott Marquis. Any questions, please contact me. Looking forward to seeing you all in the Big Apple!

Saturday, June 7

6:30 p.m.     Early Bird Dinner (off site)

Sunday, June 8

7:30- 9:00    DPAM Networking Breakfast
9:30-11:00   DPAM PAM-Wide RT
11:30-1:00   DPAM Newcomers Luncheon (by invitation, off site)
1:30- 3:00    DPAM Vendor Update
4:30- 6:30    DPAM 2002-2003 Board/Committee Chairs Meeting
7:00-10:00   DPAM Open House (Hilton Suite)

Monday, June 9

7:30- 9:00    NO CONFLICT - Breakfast with vendors in Exhibit Hall
9:30-11:00   NO CONFLICT - General Session
11:30-1:00   Astronomy RT Part 1
1:30- 3:00    Astronomy RT Part 2
3:30- 5:00    Serials Pricing
7:00-10:00   DPAM Open House (Hilton Suite)

Tuesday, June 10

7:30- 9:00   DPAM Annual Meeting and Breakfast
9:30-11:00  NO CONFLICT - General Session
1:30- 3:00   Physics RT
3:30- 5:00   Computer Science RT
5:30- 6:30   NO CONFLICT - Exhibits
6:30- 9:00   DPAM No-Host Dinner (off site)

Wednesday, June 11

7:30- 9:00    DPAM 2003-2004 Board Meeting/Committee chairs
9:30-11:30   NO CONFLICT - SLA Business Meeting
12:00-1:30   Mathematics RT
2:00- 3:30    Professional Development in Developing Countries

Thursday, June 12

9:00- 1:00    Field Trip (off site; cost $20) American Museum of Natural History
                   (Rose Center for Earth and Space, Hayden Planetarium and Sky Show,
                   Perkin Reading Room)