There's a lot to tell, so I'll just tell it.

Administrative Office

NCLA has a new administrative assistant: Caroline J. Walters begins work on Monday, July 15. She leaves a position at UNC-Chapel Hill in which she manages a grant program that funds research into families affected by cancer; that program is ending. She will begin the Public History masters program at N.C. State University in the fall while continuing with NCLA. Caroline brings with her a long list of accomplishments and comes highly recommended.

She takes over, of course, from interim administrative assistant Cathy Rocco. Cathy has played a critical role in restoring the functioning of and confidence in the administrative office. She has been dilligent and dedicated. Both for myself and on behalf of NCLA, I thank Cathy profusely for her work.

Through the efforts of Treasurer Diane Kester, NCLA has recouped over $15,000 from our bonding company in a settlement of our credit card misuse claim.

Website

A new website is posted at the main NCLA URL, www.nclaonline.org. The graphic design is entirely tentative (the logo is adopted from the tabletop display, and not necessarily official); it's the reorganization of information that's important. Links for doing business with NCLA can be found top left; links for organization-wide activities can be found top right; section and round table links are in the left margin; and news/events links are in the righthand margin.

Please take a look at it and contact Bao (bcchang@unity.ncsu.edu) with any recommendations.

Lobbying

NCLA, in partnership with the North Carolina Public Library Directors Association, is officially lobbying the North Carolina General Assembly. This effort includes using paid, registered lobyists. The focus is on preserving State Aid to Public Libraries and NC LIVE. So far, it looks like the State Library, univeristy system and community colleges have been able to keep NC LIVE fully funded in their budgets. The story is different for State Aid; as of this writing it looks like the fund will suffer an 8-11 percent cut. For more details on the lobbying effort, see my column in the E-News at http://www.lib.ecu.edu/NCLAnews/e-newsjun2002.htm#president. For more details of the expected impact of state and local budget cuts on public libraries (including eleven branch closings across six public library systems), see "Snapshots of the Double Whammy" at http://www.nclaonline.org/announce/snapshots.html.

There also seems to be a critical mass building for some kind of ongoing, coordinated, state-level lobbying effort on behalf of all types of libraries in North Carolina. There's a long list of issues that affect libraries: funding, NC LIVE, confidentiality, intellectual freedom, UCITA, copyright, preservation, retirement funding, technology/access, State Library/LBPH and more. NCLA's tax-exempt status allows for only a limited amount of direct advocacy (only about 5 percent of such an organization's annual budget can go for lobbying), but we should be a key part of a broader lobbying effort. Once current legislative issues are settled, expect some kind of commission to explore how to increase library clout at the state level.

Fundraising

Lingering from January and now appointed is the Fundraising Liaison Committee. The purpose of this committee is to coordinate among all the NCLA groups seeking to raise money. Treasurer Diane Kester has agreed to serve as chair; the committee includes Development Chair Elizabeth Laney; Scholarships Chair Sue Williams, Leadership Institute representative Tim Daniels and a member of Conference Exhibits yet to be appointed. The charge of this committee will be to ensure that the NCLA avoids duplication of effort and duplicate solicitation of funding sources; and to create a "ways to give" document that can be provided to potential donors. Any other NCLA group that plans to seek outside funding should delegate a representative to this committee.

Vendor advisers

To complement the Fundraising Liaison Committee, I have appointed a Vendor Liaison Council to advise and assist any NCLA group that might benefit from vendor input as it plans activities. Fundraising groups, obviously, and the Conference Committee come to mind. Agreeing to serve so far are Chris Egan of UNC Press, Craig Flansburg of Gale, Scott McCausland of epixtech, Merrill Smith of EBSCO and Anne Waters of John F. Blair. Although they will not necessarily be available for regular meetings, they will be available to us on an as-needed basis.

That’s a lot to tell, and its told.