NCLA Executive Board Meeting Minutes-- 25 January 2002

NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Friday, January 25, 2002

Student Services Center
Randolph Community College, Asheboro, N.C.

Attending: Ross Holt, Martha Davis, Diane Kester, Teresa McManus, Vanessa Work Ramseur, John Via, Al Jones, Peggy Quinn, Paula Hinton, Dale Cousins, Theron Bell, Patrick Valentine, Joline Ezzell, Evelyn Council, Jennie Hunt, Linda Hearn, Sherwin Rice, Jan Blodgett, Laura Weigand, Terry Brandsma, Jean Rick, Phillip Barton, Elizabeth Laney, Catherine Wilkinson, Peggy Hoon, Michael Sawyer, Robert James, Mark Pumphrey, Robert Canida, Teresa Wehrli, Beverley Gass, Irene Laube, Suzanne White, Sue Williams

Call to Order and Welcome: President Ross Holt called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. Debbie Luck, Director of Library Services welcomed the NCLA Board to Randolph Community College and shared a short history of the institution.

Introductions and Mechanics of Executive Board: Since this was the first meeting of the biennium with new officers and section/roundtable chairs, Ross summarized basic procedures for the meeting: Officers and section and roundtable chairs comprise the voting members of the Executive Board. Meetings are conducted according to Robert Rules of Order with Phil Barton as Parliamentarian. If a report is being made in which there is a motion, the motion is considered to be on the table and can be acted upon rather than having to move the motion to Old or New Business. Section and round table reports should be submitted to the NCLA website previous to the meeting. If not, copies for each participant can be brought to the meeting.

Ross moved section reports with action items to New Business.

President’s Report:

Full report: http://www.nclaonline.org/execmtg_2002.htm

Ross Holt reported many positive things going on in NCLA even though a number of NCASL members left NCLA to form a new organization. The October NCLA Conference was successful with an offering of 80 programs. NCLA has had some problems related to member services. In the 2002-03 biennium, we need to be aggressive in the restoration of excellent member services and in recruitment of members for NCLA.

Treasurer’s Report:

Full report: http://www.nclaonline.org/execmtg_2002.htm

Treasurer Diane Kester distributed an edited version of the Treasurer’s Report. Balance in the operating budget on December 31, 2001 was $851.83. Four thousand dollars ($4000) was taken out of reserves and $10,000 out of past conferences to fund project grants for conference programs. As of December 31, 2001, NCLA has $31,459 in the checking account and $35,214 in money market/investment accounts. Diane is currently working on resolving some problems with credit card transfers.

Membership Update:

Secretary Martha Davis, who has recently been working to update the membership database, reported that as of January 25, there were 739 members in 2001 and 64 members in 2002. The membership forms, which have been revised to include a date and a place to contribute to the Endowment, can be found on the NCLA website. All Executive Board members were encouraged to submit 2002 membership forms and payment today or as soon as possible. Beginning with this biennium, memberships renew twelve months from the month of payment instead of calendar year. A process will be developed to notify section and roundtable chairs of new members. Security issues have to be considered in order to make the membership list available from the NCLA website.

Section/Round Table Reports

(Full reports for Children’s Services, Documents, Public Library, Reference and Adult Services sections and the NC Library Paraprofessional Association, Round Table on Special Collections, and Technology and Trends Roundtable can be located at http://www.nclaonline.org/execmtg_2002.htm.)

Children’s Services Section:

The Children’s Services Section Board met on December 6, 2001 at the Graham Public Library. Tentative dates for the off-year retreat are October 21-22, 2002 at The Summit. The subject of the retreat will be “Library Services for the Next Generation: Responding to New Challenges”. The next meeting will be held at the Graham Public Library on February 26.

College and University Libraries Section:

No report.

Community and Junior College Libraries Section:

Chair Peggy Quinn reported that the first meeting of the CLCLS Board will be held on Tuesday, January 29 at Wake Technical Community College.

Documents Section:

Chair Paula Hinton reported that the Documents Section sponsors two workshops every year. The first workshop will be held on May 17 at the McKimmon Center at NC State University. More information about the workshop will be available from the NCLA website soon.

Library Administration and Management Section:

Chair Dale Cousins had no report. Because of the problems with the membership database, the ballot for election of 2001-03 LAMS Board members has not yet been mailed. Now that the database is updated, ballots will go out within the next several weeks.

North Carolina Association of School Librarians:

Al Jones, appointed NCASL Chair, will contact former NCASL members and try to recruit new NCASL members in order to rebuild this section. He will represent NCASL at the AASL Affiliate Assembly at ALA Conference this summer.

North Carolina Public Library Trustee Association:

Chair Theron Bell reported no committee members as yet. She hopes to have the committee in place by the next Board meeting in April.

Public Library Section:

Public Library Section 2001-03 Board member ballots have also not been mailed relative to issues with the membership database. Hopefully, the membership list will be ready shortly and ballots can be mailed within the next several weeks. Membership promotion and workshops will be the major goals for this year.

Reference and Adult Services Section:

Chair Joline Ezzell reported that the RASS Board met in November and began discussing a program for Fall 2002.

Resources and Technical Services Section:

Chair Evelyn Council introduced the new RTSS Vice Chair. The next RTSS Board meeting will be in February at Fayetteville Technical Community College. All board and committee members are in place and are experienced members of NCLA. The section is already looking at issues in resources and technical services and wants to be sure that all programs are not just academic programs.

New Members Roundtable:

Chair Jennie Hunt held a reorganization meeting during the NCLA Conference in October. Some committee appointments have been made but she is still looking for a Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. Jennie wants to contact the new members and get them excited about NCLA. She will meet with the section Secretary and Programming Chair in February.

North Carolina Library Paraprofessional Association:

Chair Linda Hearn will have the first board meeting on February 5. The workshop that had to be cancelled at the NCLA Conference on library certification for paraprofessionals will be held in April. American Library Association is offering a membership package for paraprofessionals. Linda urged library professionals to encourage paraprofessionals to join NCLA and ALA.

Round Table on Ethnic Minority Concerns:

Chair Sherwin Rice will lead the roundtable in continuing some projects started last year. Major goals are to have a workshop on diversity issues and try to increase membership.

Round Table on Special Collections:

Chair Jan Blodgett from Davidson College will hold the first meeting on February 6 to begin planning workshops for the non-conference year.

Technology and Trends Round Table:

Chair Terry Brandsma reported that the first meeting would be held next month. Since this Round Table’s main speaker had to cancel at the NCLA Conference in October, Technology and Trends has some extra money and will be glad to co-sponsor a workshop with another section.

Committee Reports

(Full reports for the Endowment, Governmental Relations, Intellectual Freedom, Leadership Institute, Literacy, and Membership committees can be located at http://www.nclaonline.org/execmtg_jan2002.htm. )

Archives:

Chair Jean Rick recently took three boxes of materials from the NCLA Office to the NCLA archives. For archives, she also needs any available member printouts since 1996. Since she was asked to archive NCLA webpages also, Jean asked that Bao get a copy to her before any changes are made. In response to Teresa McManus’s comment that section chairs need information on what to archive, Ross noted that the information is available in the NCLA Handbook on the Web.

Commission on Charter/Home Schools:

A report will be available at the next Board meeting.

Conference Committee:

Since Vice-President/Conference Chair Pauletta Bracy could not attend the meeting, a report will be made at the next Board meeting.

Constitution, Codes, and Handbook Revision:

Chair Phil Barton asked the Board members to forward names of anybody interested in serving on this committee. Plans for the committee include a review of the minutes of the last few years to be sure that all changes got into the NCLA Handbook, and exploration of a different format for the electronic version of the Handbook so that it will print with page numbers and consecutive pagination. With this accomplished, an index can be created for the electronic version of the Handbook.

Continuing Education:

No report.

Development:

Chair Elizabeth Laney distributed a list of contributors and a contribution form for examination by the Board members. The continuing goal of the Endowment Committee is to receive a contribution from each member of NCLA. Only 48 members have contributed to the NCLA Endowment so far. When they are asked for large gifts, outside businesses and organizations look first to see how many members have contributed to the Endowment before considering a contribution. The long-term goal is to have $100,000 in the Endowment by 2004. Elizabeth urged all Board members to contribute some amount, however large or small now, and plan to contribute again later. A place to indicate Endowment contributions is now on the membership from. A letter of acknowledgment is sent to the contributor and the person honored. Teresa McManus complimented Elizabeth on her work. Beverley Gass expressed concern that a person who contributed one time will always be considered a “Friend”, as this seems to discourage making annual contributions. Elizabeth explained that a person would move up to the next level of giving as total contributions accumulate. Beverley suggested that NCLA conduct an annual fund raising campaign with some reward attached. Ross suggested that members consider making contributions in honor or memory of another person. Elizabeth was also concerned that a page is not available in the upcoming NC Libraries on which to list the contributors as planned. Ross will contact Frances Bradburn.

Government Relations:

Chair Peggy Hoon plans to have a meeting of this committee soon to begin preparations for Legislative Day on May 6-7. She encouraged library professionals to plan to go.

Intellectual Freedom:

Mike Sawyer, who won the Intellectual Freedom Award this year, was asked to be Chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee. Mike distributed his report and supporting documents which listed six issues that need to be monitored. To date, he has not received reports of any challenges to intellectual freedom in North Carolina. Last year, a form was available on the NCLA website on which to report challenges. Bao will be asked to update this form and make it available again on the website. It was suggested that Mike also post some messages to the NCLA listserv and communicate with public library directors. Sandy Cooper reinforced the fact that the confidentiality issues addressed in the Patriots Act are very critical to all libraries-especially public libraries. She referred to some important Web addresses listed on that handout.

Leadership Institute:

Chair Robert James reported that the Leadership Institute will be held at Brown Summit on October 14-18, 2002 with Barbara Moran as coordinator. The application for the Leadership Institute can be found on the NCLA website. Robert is seeking volunteers for the fund-raising and applications review subcommittees.

Literacy:

Chair Mark Pumphrey reported that the Literacy Committee met in January and set goals for the biennium. This committee wants to sponsor an English as a Second Language workshop this fall and also do a conference program on this subject.

Membership:

Co-Chairs Teresa Wehrli and Robert Canida reported that recruitment of members is the number one goal of this committee. Some suggestions have already been generated and are available on the NCLA website. Each section chair is asked to submit the name of a liaison to this committee. The Membership Committee will invite that liaison to join the committee when it is concentrating on a certain group of library professionals. Board members are encouraged to take some NCLA brochures and plan to use the NCLA display available from the NCLA Office. The hope is to get a second display so that one will be available for use on each side of the state.

Nominating:

Chair Beverley Gass had no report at this time.

Scholarships:

Chair Sue Williams had no report at this time.

Other Reports

ALA Councilor:

Vanessa Ramseur represented NCLA on ALA Council for the first time at the recent ALA Conference in New Orleans. She found ALA Council and how it works to be very interesting. She also attended a pre-conference on library leaders, orientation for new ALA Council members, and ALA Chapter Relations Committee meetings. She will submit her full report to Bao to be placed on the NCLA website.

SELA :

John Via reported that the SELA Biennial Conference will be held in conjunction with the South Carolina Library Association in Charleston on October 4-6, 2002. The African American Issues Roundtable, which was started by the NC delegation, will sponsor an all-day pre-conference. Let John know if you are interested in presenting a program on Hispanic services at the SELA conference.

State Library:

Sandy Cooper distributed newsletters to Board members. Recent discussions have revolved around public school participation in the NCLIVE project. The NC Legislature has mandated that the State Library work out a way to collaborate with school librarians to provide resources in addition to those available through NC WISE-OWL. The Department of Public Instruction continues to decline to participate in NCLIVE.

Old Business:

The only item of old business regarding Charter Schools will be presented at the next Board meeting.

New Business:

(Full reports for the Round Table on the Status of Women in Librarianship, Operations Committee, Finance Committee, and North Carolina Libraries can be located at http://www.nclaonline.org/execmtg_jan2002.htm.)

Round Table on the Status of Women in Librarianship:

Chair Laura Weigand described the membership of this Round Table as very diverse in gender and library type and wants to co-sponsor a workshop this fall with another section. RTSWL also wants to offer a new award at the conference to recognize the contributions of someone who advanced the status of women in librarianship. A motion was made to authorize the award and give RTSWL permission to solicit money for the award from outside groups. This action would also require a by-laws change. Ensuing discussion revealed that NCLA has no written guidelines for the solicitation of corporate funding. The motion was withdrawn after RTSWL changed its request to just permission to offer a new award. Approval by the Board is not necessary to create a new award. Approval by the Board is necessary to authorize solicitation of funds for awards. Ross will appoint a committee from the members of the Development and Leadership Committees and the past chair of Conference Exhibits to work on recommendations for guidelines to solicit corporate funding on behalf of NCLA.

Operations Committee:

Chair Irene Laube passed out copies of the Operations Committee report and information about options for the currently vacant NCLA Administrative Assistant’s position. Ross explained that Maureen Costello resigned the position on November 21, 2001. Since that time, NCLA volunteers have worked to update office records and deal with customer service issues. Diane Kester and Martha Davis have reconstructed the finances and membership database. Irene Laube and the Operations Committee have been working on guidelines for the Administrative Assistant’s position.

Irene reviewed the functions of the NCLA Administrative Assistant with changes suggested by the Operations Committee in its meeting on January 11. In order to maintain more business-like “checks and balances”, the Operations Committee recommends that all check requests go directly to the Treasurer who will be responsible for generating and mailing all checks. John Via commented that the Administrative Assistant should continuously keep section chairs informed of the addition of new members now that memberships run from the month of payment rather than calendar year. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the functions of the NCLA Administrative Assistant as revised.

NCLA Board members next considered the general description of work and supervision of the NCLA Administrative Assistant as is now printed in the NCLA Handbook. The Operations Committee now chaired by Irene Laube will supervise this position in conjunction with the NCLA President. Diane Kester said that the Administrative Assistant should also be responsible for adding new members to the NCLA listserv. Other additions included the ability to be bonded and to lift up to 30 pounds. All NCLA Board members then voted to accept these changes to the general description of work and supervision of the NCLA Administrative Assistant.

NCLA Board members next examined four options for office hours and location for the NCLA Administrative Assistant while considering if we want to hire the best person we can hire or the best person in the Raleigh area. Option A: The Administrative Assistant keeps daily office hours in the NCLA Office available to members from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Option B: The Administrative Assistant keeps regular office hours in the NCLA Office, but can have some flexibility in setting the office hours. Option C: The Administrative Assistant will work in the NCLA Office two days per week and maintain phone, e-mail, and fax availability on other days at an offsite location. Option D: The Administrative Assistant maintains the NCLA Office in his/her home or at an office space in the town in which that person lives.

After discussion, a motion was made by Teresa McManus that the NCLA Board approve Options A-C, authorize the Operations Committee to entertain proposals from candidates for the position, and that the Operations Committee finally establish the hours and place of work for the NCLA Administrative Assistant. Phil Barton seconded the motion. Jean Rick added a “friendly amendment” that all NCLA records will physically remain in the NCLA Office. John Via added a “friendly amendment” that Option C allow the Administrative Assistant to work in the NCLA Office at least one day a week instead of two days a week. The motion with the friendly amendments passed.

John Via made a motion that the NCLA Executive Committee be authorized to approve the hiring of a new Administrative Assistant. The motion passed without opposition.

Finance Committee:

The Finance Committee Report states: “With several important issues pending before the Executive Board at this meeting, most of which have major budgetary implications, it was difficult to come up with a budget proposal prior to the meeting.” Therefore, Chair Catherine Wilkinson on behalf of the Finance Committee presented three budget proposal options and described the impact of the various issues before the Executive Board. Proposal C would require less money to be taken out of reserves. Some suggestions were that hours for the Administrative Assistant be dropped to 25 hours per week, that the Operations Committee be given some flexibility in salary for the Administrative Assistant, that projects grants and committee expenses could be reduced. Having provided some information for the Finance Committee, the discussion was then suspended.

North Carolina Libraries:

New editor Al Jones made a motion that a plaque be presented to Frances Bryant Bradburn in appreciation of her service to NCLA as editor of North Carolina Libraries 1985-2002. The motion unanimously passed. Al will also interview Frances for the next issue of the journal.

Al then made a proposal on behalf of the North Carolina Libraries Board to publish the journal in electronic format. Discussion included the fact that many state library journals are already electronic and that an electronic journal will hopefully save money. The electronic journal will continue to be refereed and be published quarterly with an annual compendium. The annual compendium could possibly be printed and mailed to members. Al made a motion that North Carolina Libraries be converted to a journal in electronic format with an annual compendium. The motion passed with no opposition.

Al Jones is also giving $100 to the Endowment in honor of Frances Bradburn and challenged other NCLA members to do the same.

Marketing and Publications Committee:

The Marketing and Publications Committee presented the following suggestions: to design a new NCLA logo appropriate for all formats; to redesign the NCLA website; to add member status check, online registration for conferences and workshops, and other member services to the website; to provide a website template for the section websites; and to host all section websites on the NCLA server.

The Marketing and Publications Committee also proposed that NCLA and the State library collaborate to revive the publication of the Tarheel Libraries newsletter. Joint editors of the newsletter will be Kevin Cherry and Frannie Ashburn. It will be published in print bi-monthly, will contain news about NCLA and librarians’ accomplishments and activities, and can be an added benefit of membership for NCLA members. After an examination of the “Tar Heel Libraries Draft Mission Statement”, a motion was made and passed to revive the publication of Tarheel Libraries.

Announcements:

NCLA Board meetings will be held in the following locations:

April, 2002- Elon College; July, 2002 – Fayetteville State University; October, 2002-Davidson College; January, 2003- King.

The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Martha Davis, Secretary