Minutes of the Board of Directors

Jan. 10, 2007

Conference Call

Attending:

Deborah Bernnard (President), Francine M. Apollo (Vice President/President- Elect/Program Chair), Lorraine Melita (Secretary), Elizabeth Strickland (Treasurer), Patricia Hults (Communications Chair), Gretchen Lieb (Government Relations Chair), Suzanne Preate (Membership Chair)

1. Approval of minutes of the last meeting

The minutes were approved as submitted.

2. Committee Reports

a. Communications – Pat Hults

Hults will be changing the format of the Newsletter from HTML to PDF. This will make preservation of the Newsletter more efficient and allow format changes to be made more easily. Hults would like pictures to be included with any Newsletter reports. The next issue will feature new sections highlighting a specific library and a specific librarian. RPI will be featured first as it has won many awards in the past. Bernnard asked if the librarians should be ENY/ACRL members. Hults will feature member librarians. Hults reminded the Board that the deadline for getting all information to her is February 1st. Note: after the meeting there was further discussion on the board listserv and it was decided not to restrict featured librarians to ENY/ACRL members.

b. Membership – Suzanne Preate

The membership renewal for fall 2007 targeted members who had last renewed in 2005 or 2006 which represented 72 separate institutions or companies. Thirty-four liaisons assisted with the distribution of renewal forms. As of January 10, 2007, 160 renewals from 55 unique institutions or companies have been processed. Twenty-two are new members and of the total renewals to date, 64 are “known” members of national ACRL. An email renewal reminder will be sent to the entire membership at the beginning of February. Updated email addresses for the ENY/ACRL forum are sent periodically to the Communications Chair to help maintain an up-to-date communication vehicle. Membership checks for deposit are sent to the Treasurer on a monthly basis using registered mail. Preate’s receipts for reimbursement are also sent at this time. The current Membership Committee is listed on the web site at http://www.enyacrl.org/committee.php.

c. Government Relations – Gretchen Lieb

• ACRL is creating a new Legislative Advocate program in order to complement the work done by Chapter networks and Chapter legislative advocates. Interested persons, including chapter legislative advocates, are being encouraged to apply for these positions. Kara Malenfant, ACRL Scholarly Communications & Government Relations Specialist, is coordinating the appointments for this new network of representatives with the participation of the ACRL Government Relations Committee. This network of representatives will not be tied to chapters. Successful applicants will be asked to serve their profession with a two-year term, which may be renewed upon review by the Government Relations Committee. Legislative advocates will be recognized and honored on the ACRL Web site, annually in C&RL News, and during ALA Legislative Day activities. More information is available at the ACRL website: www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/washingtonwatch/acrladvocates.htm
  
• NYLA lobby day is March 13th. Regional coordinators will work with NYLA coordinators. Bernnard asked Lieb to contact the regional coordinator to see how we can get involved. Bernnard also asked what issues were being discussed. Lieb noted money for public libraries. Hults mentioned that funding for academic research databases was also brought up. Lieb will look into this. Other topics may have included APA libraries, NYS Higher Education, NOVEL databases. Lieb spoke to Sharon Bonk about this. Hults mentioned that Bonk put a letter in the last newsletter about this. Hults added a legislative advocacy section to the website.

d. Vice President/President-elect/Program Chair - Fran Apollo

The keynote speaker will be Meredith Farkas. Decisions have to be made as to who will lead the break-out sessions which will deal with using technology to get where you want to be, purchasing the technology, and disasters and how to avoid them. Preate felt this was a good place to communicate. Send Bernnard all the lists for participants. The wrap-up speaker may be Frank D'Andraia . A panel is needed for the afternoon. Bernnard asked about costs involved. Apollo noted that the speaker would want an honorarium. Brown-bag events for 2007 need to be discussed. Marketing outreach, town & gown relations, Brown Bags regarding membership of committee will be discussed. A program chair for next year needs to be chosen. Bernnard noted that the Brown Bags can be small but should be quality sessions. A policy should be in place by next year. Bernnard asked that the membership committee let the Board know if they need help in any way. The date, title, and keynote for the conference will be put on the website.

3. Officer Reports

a. President - Deborah Bernnard

Bernnard attended the Albany Symposium. It was very good and she recommended that the Chapter sponsor it next fall. She will be attending Mid-winter ALA and will be attending the Chapters Council. A report will be in the newsletter. She reminded Barbara Via and Kathy Dwyer to submit information for the Newkirk Fund.

b. Past President - Mary Anne Waltz absent

Hults submitted this report for Waltz. Bernnard noted that work towards the general election needs to begin. Waltz will ask for nominations for Vice President/President-Elect/Program Chair from the membership via the Newsletter and email list. She has names of members who may be interested. If the incumbent Secretary and Communications Chair are not interested in or available for re-election, these positions will be included in the same announcement. Past presidents have indicated that this nomination process is more successful conducted at the beginning of the spring semester rather than in December as suggested in the handbook calendar. Waltz also has the call for nominations for Librarian of the Year ready to go.

c. Treasurer - Elizabeth Strickland

Strickland sent reports from November before the meeting. The checking account balance as of December 2006 was
$19,251.50. The Newkirk Fund balance was $16,253.88 as of November 30th. The December 2006 Newkirk statement was not available at this time. Strickland wanted to know if an annual report was needed. Hults noted that it is presented to the membership at the spring conference. An application was made to ACRL for reimbursement of postage expenses in the amount of $118.62. The application was not approved by ACRL as these expenses were not considered “educational.” In the past postage expenses were approved, but ACRL reimbursement guidelines have become much stricter. Bernnard reported there has been listserv discussion about how confusing the guidelines are. Strickland spoke to Megan Griffin at ACRL. Griffin thinks our sponsorship of last fall’s SUNY Symposium will meet the reimbursement guidelines for this year’s application. Bernnard added that perhaps the Brown Bags would be reimbursable since their focus is educational.

d. Secretary - Lorraine Melita

Melita will send Parry the by-law information and
previous minutes.

4. Old Business

a. Brochure: Preate is working on the membership brochure with assistance
from Hults. Preate has received the drafts that John Thomas and Pat Hults have
produced. The brochure should be ready for the spring conference. Bernnard
said that these brochures would be helpful to hand out to the library classes when
she speaks to them. The brochure is coming together.

b. Lobby Day: This was discussed in the Committee Reports (2C) section.

c. By-law Changes: A straw vote to change the by-laws to reflect a move from 2 annual conferences to a single annual conference was sent out in the fall. As the straw vote favored this change, a verifying membership vote will be added to the annual ballots. A vote verifying the change of the Newkirk Research Fund.

d. Gas Mileage: The change to use the state rate for gas mileage
reimbursement will also be brought to the annual meeting.

5. New Business

a. Symposium: The cost to attend the Symposium was $35. It was suggested that a
member of the Membership Committee attend similar conferences in the future to
staff an ENY/ACRL information booth. NYLA attended but had to pay for a
space. ENY/ACRL was invited to support this. Bernnard got the closing
remarks. More members should have attended. Perhaps ENY/ACRL could
subsidize members attending who worked at the table. Hults asked if the
Symposium would give one free pass for our support. Could this be a cross over
training? This should be open for attendance to the entire membership.
Bernnard will talk to the Symposium people for more information. There were
tables available for vendors, but very few took advantage of them.

b. Brown Bags: Fall sessions should be held. Bernnard will talk with NYLA about
them.

c. Bernnard: Bernnard will be on sabbatical from February 10th threw August 10th
but will be available through email.

A meeting will be held after the conference in May with emails in between.

Respectfully submitted,

Lorraine Melita