Minutes of the Board of Directors

Aug. 10, 2007

Skidmore College

Attending:

Fran Apollo (President), Deborah Bernnard (Past President), Pat Hults (Communications Chair), Jane Kessler (Secretary), Liz Strickland (Treasurer), Susan Zappen (Vice President).

1. Approval of minutes of the last meeting

Susan Zappen moved to accept the minutes. Pat Hults seconded the motion. The motion was passed by the Board.

2. Committee Reports

a. Communications – Pat Hults

Please let Pat know about anything interesting going on for the newsletter. She will email the deadline for articles for the next newsletter.

b. Membership – Suzanne Preate - absent, but sent the following report:

"As of August 10, 2007, there were 206 paid members. I am currently preparing to distribute the fall renewals in early September (or earlier). I will work closely with the liasons during this process. The liaison wiki is slow-going but in process. I would like to submit brochure copies to the liaisons at renewal time so they could distribute them to their staffs. The alternative would be to provide an example and send the file electronically so they could print them locally. This may be an individual liaison decision. Would it be acceptable (re: $$$) for me to print limited quantities for this purpose? I would ask the liaisons for recommended numbers for each institution if I went this route.

Given the timing, this would be the first opportunity for input on photographs or images to personalize the brochure (for this printing). Please send any possible images for inclusion if you have thought of any since our last meeting.

Please send edits or suggestions for the next membership directory.

Finally, I wanted to take advantage of this communication vehicle to re-distribute a proposal I made with Board input regarding renewals. This clarification occurred via the Board listserv. A summary is included below:

The following policy is quoted in the Membership manual:

"Those renewing or receiving a new membership with the Spring conference registration (or new/renewal memberships coming in during the same period via the regular membership form) are entered in the database for the remaining membership year and the next membership year as well, per Board of Directors decision."

The "same period" has been clarified in the following way:

Memberships renewed from September through February, i.e., during the first 6 months of the membership year, expire at the end of that membership year.

Memberships renewed from March through August, i.e., during the second 6 months of the membership year, including via conference registration, expire at the end of the following membership year, in essence, those members receive a bonus year."

End of report

Fran Apollo will contact Suzanne Preate and ask her to print some of the brochures and get a cost estimate. Board members agreed that the brochure should be added to the Web site.

c. Government Relations – Gretchen Lieb. (absent, no report)

d. Program - Susan Zappen

Two Brown Bag Lunches will be held in October. The lunches are an opportunity for librarians within a region to get together for lunch and a discussion. The topic for the October Brown Bag Lunches is “Wikis & Blogs.” It is an opportunity for librarians to discuss what libraries are doing, implementation issues, what works and what doesn't’t work, etc. The technology needed to show what you are doing will be available at each location. Water and dessert will be provided.

The dates and location are:

Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Hamilton College
Burke Library, Room 217 (the Graves Room)
Noon to 2 pm
Please pre-register by October 10th with Glynis Asu gasu@hamilton.edu who will send you parking directions

Friday, October 19, 2007
Siena College
Standish Library, Room L26
Noon to 2 pm
Please pre-register by October 10th with Kathryn Johns-Masten kjohns-masten@siena.edu who will send you a parking pass.

The Brown Bag Lunches will be advertised on the ENY/ACRL list serv and our Web site. There will be no fee for the programs. Susan will still like to find a third northern site. SUNY Potsdam is a possibility and Susan will contact Jane Subramanian. She will also ask for volunteers to take pictures and write a brief piece for the newsletter. C. Rudicoff has prepared a bibliography on wikis and blogs that will be distributed at the lunches.

Susan also reported that the planning for the spring conference is well under way and shared the minutes from the planning meeting held in July. The conference will be held at Syracuse University on Monday, May 19, 2008. Board members approved estimates from Schine catering for the conference. Currently, three conference themes are being explored: (1) phases of librarianship (2) assessment and (3) the local library catalog –dead or alive?

Board members discussed the local library catalog topic. Everyone felt there would be lots of interest in this. Suggested speakers were Roy Tennant, Karen Calhoun and Thomas Mann. It would be interesting to have pro and con speakers. Deborah will send board members the URL for a blog about the next generation catalog.

Susan inquired about reimbursement of travel expenses for keynote speakers. We cover travel and lodging for keynote speakers. Long distance travel should be approved by the board. Details about travel expenses for speakers are in the conference handbook, which Liz would like to see. Pat will put it on the Web site with the other chapter documents.

3. Officer Reports

a. President and Past President - Deborah Bernnard

Deborah is looking for nominations for Membership Committee Chair, Treasurer and Vice President/Program Chair. Jean McLaughlin of the University at Albany has expressed interest in running for a board position. Also need nominations for the Excellence in Librarianship Award.

c. Treasurer - Elizabeth Strickland

As of 6/30/2007, the balance in the checking account was $17,792.88. About $700 was disbursed in July. The Newkirk fund has a balance of $7,576.37. Preliminary figures for the Spring conference are:

Income from registrations and vendor support $3,290

Expenses $2,729
Gain $ 561

Liz sent receipts for chapter expenses for printing program brochures to Fran for ACRL reimbursement, who reported that she submitted the receipts and application for reimbursement to ACRL.

4. Old Business

a. Board members agreed to renew our institutional membership ($75) in NYLA and have our Government Liaison work with NYLA members on their annual Lobby Day. Liz Strickland will send the payment.

b. Gas Mileage: It had been suggested at the previous board meeting that the gas mileage reimbursement rate, currently $.20/mile, be tied to the IRS rate. This will be sent out to the membership before the spring business meeting so it can be voted on at that meeting.

5. New Business

a. Susan Zappen inquired about reimbursement for ALA expenses. The 2008 conference will be in California. Board members agreed that ENY/ACRL will cover the cost of the airline ticket. Currently, the officer’s handbook says we will cover $350. There was a discussion about why this did not need to go before the membership when the change in gas mileage reimbursement does. We need to check the by-laws.

b. The next board meeting will be held via conference call on January 8.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20.

Respectfully submitted,

Jane Kessler