Meeting Minutes

NCLA Governmental Relations Committee Meeting
March 4, 2002
10:30AM to 12:00NOON
D.H. Hill Library, NC State University

Present: Annis Barbee, June Brotherton, Kevin Cherry, Peggy Hoon, Nancy Gibbs, K.T. Vaughan, John Via.

1. Membership Update

New members:

Annis Barbee, paraprofessional, NCSU Libraries
KT Vaughan, NCSU Libraries Fellow, Scholarly Communication

Departing members:

Deanna Harris, public school librarian

The committee reviewed the current membership and discussed strategies for increasing representation on the committee both geographically and by type of library. Current membership represents primarily academic libraries, public libraries, and the state library from the Triangle, Triad, coast, and mountain regions. The committee would like to include school libraries, community college libraries, and have other regions of North Carolina represented. The committee felt that recruiting through networking was still the best route although soliciting from the NCLA membership at large and the executive board was also acceptable.

2. National Library Legislative Day

ALA's National Library Legislative Day this year is May 6th and 7th. We are in the process of scheduling the appointments and have secured a room in Rayburn for a luncheon from 12 to 1:30 p.m. on the 7th. The committee then discussed recruitment for the North Carolina contingent. Again, the need is for school librarians, community college librarians and geographical diversity.

The committee would like to investigate bringing NCLIVE mementos to our reps this year.

3. Federal and State Issue Development

Federal

In years where the committee has determined that there are issues specific to North Carolina libraries (issues that deviate or are in addition to the identified ALA issues), the committee would like to explore taking non-librarians with us to Washington, D.C. on Library Legislative Day. It was felt that finding non-library partners supportive of library issues, such as community leaders, business persons, or the school superintendent, who would be willing to lobby our federal congressional representatives with us, could be very effective. Various ways of soliciting funding for their travel from local businesses and organizations was also discussed.

However, since time is short and we have no such North Carolina-specific issues identified, it was decided that we would primarily follow the ALA recommendations for issue discussion at Library Legislative Day.

State

The committee decided that it would like to be more pro-active at the state level and develop a plan for advancing selected issues of importance to all libraries in North Carolina.
The committee will develop a process for supporting a specific issue through the vehicle of a specific issue selected this year. Although several issues important to libraries in North Carolina were discussed, the committee felt that increased support of NCLIVE was at the top of the list. It is perceived that many legislators as well as the populace at large do not fully appreciate the richness and importance of NCLIVE to all of the libraries in North Carolina and, consequently, to all of the citizens of the state. This lack of appreciation may result in cuts to the funding for NCLIVE in this time of severe budget cuts.

The preliminary "proposed" plan for state level issue development is:

o Draft a resolution in support of NCLIVE and seek NCLA Executive Board approval
o Create an "issue packet" containing:

1. The NCLA Executive Board resolution
2. Background sheet on NCLIVE
3. Question for a local supporter [to be used to ask legislator/candidate when election-cycle town meetings begin; committee to draft local supporters to attend these town meetings]
4. Sample follow-up letter for legislator/candidate
5. Sample letter to the newspaper

o Other ideas include: contacting various groups in the state for support such as the League of Women Voters, Farm Bureau, interested local businesses, etc. Local sponsors could carry the issue to county or district party conventions possibly presenting a resolution to a local party platform.
o Coordination with NCLIVE is important.
o Investigating how much is spent per citizen for NCLIVE compared to similar initiatives in Ohio and Virginia
o Develop a list of questions that can be answered through resources available in NCLIVE.
Kevin Cherry is to draft the NCLA Executive Board Resolution. The committee adjourned requesting a follow-up meeting in mid-April with a telephone conference hook-up that would allow participation by geographically distant committee members.