Minutes of the Board of Directors

May 21 , 2007

SUNYIT

Attending:

Fran Apollo (President), Susan Zappen (Vice President/President Elect and Program Chair), Deborah Bernnard ( Past President/Nominations and Elections Committee Chair), Jane Kessler (Secretary), Lorraine Melita (Past Secretary), Elizabeth Strickland (Treasurer), Suzanne Preate(Membership Chair), Patricia Hults (Communications Chair)

1. Approval of minutes of the last meeting

Apollo asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Hults moved to approve. Bernnard seconded the motion. The Board voted on the motion and the minutes were accepted as reported.

2. Committee Reports

a. Communications – Pat Hults

Hults would like to change the format of the newsletter this year. She would also like to add more to the website and complete the officers handbook in PDF format. The newsletter is coming up quickly so information will be needed on libraries, librarians, and service.

b. Membership – Suzanne Preate

Preate noted that the membership committee will remain the same. As of May 11, there were 181 paid members. The Conference netted an additional 21 paid memberships making a total membership of 202 members. Preate submitted an example of the brochure which is very close to being completed. She would like photographs or images to personalize it or have interesting graphics for the brochure. Please send any possible images for inclusion.

The membership directory was distributed at the conference and Preate would like the Board to review the directory for typos and let her know what changes need to be made.

Zappen asked if the liaisons were still available. Preate noted that she would like to focus on communications with the liaisons and, as a start, listed their responsibilities in the membership report. Bernnard suggested that Preate also put the responsibilities of the liaisons on the website. Preate noted that a wiki will be started for the liaisons.

Based on member requests, Preate proposed making a condensed version of the membership database available online so anyone will be able to determine the currency of their membership. Several Board members expressed concern over privacy issues but the Board did not come to a final conclusion on the issue. The current membership directory is only in paper.

A discussion of the currency of membership was held. The membership year runs from September 1 through August 31. A member can sign up for the coming year while registering for the spring conference. Preate asked for suggestions for cleaning out the database. Hults asked why the information is retained. Preate noted that information in the database is used to send reminders to past members for possible renewal. There are 700 records total but only 200 current members. Bernnard suggested purging the database but keeping the last time renewed. She suggested purging everything from 2004 then dropping one year thereafter. Preate made a motion to purge the current membership database prior to 2004. In the future, the oldest year will be deleted maintaining a 3 year membership window. Hults seconded the motion. The Board voted and the motion was carried unanimously.

c. Government Relations – Gretchen Lieb: No report

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

Apollo noted that this conference was an excellent program and praised the abilities of the program committee. Bernnard asked if Sharma would be doing the evaluation statistics. Zappen noted that Yu-Hui Chen, a PhD student, will be doing the evaluations and will be in communication with Apollo who will distribute the results. Apollo noted that there are several possibilities for Brown Bag lunches including Siena. The 2008 Conference may be located at Syracuse University.

3. Officer Reports

a & b. President and Past President - Deborah Bernnard

Bernnard stated that Apollo attended ALA not Zappen. Bernnard attended ALA also. Bernnard asked Strickland if she would be covered for ALA since Zappen was not going. Strickland noted that if she were taking someone’s place, her expenses would be covered. Ballots will be discussed later.

c. Treasurer - Elizabeth Strickland

Strickland noted that, as of April 31, 2007, the checking account balance was $26, 179.48. The Newkirk Fund balance was $16,540.93 before $9000.00 was removed for the scholarships. The estimated balance for the Newkirk fund is $7540.93. The fund will not
be able to support three $3000 Newkirk awards next year, but could support three awards of a slightly smaller amount. Strickland asked if Meredith Farkas had wanted an honorarium.

d. Secretary - Lorraine Melita

Melita stated that the letter certifying the straw ballot had been given to the archivist, Michelle Parry. The Chapter Seal was given to Jane Kessler.

4. Old Business

a. Brochure: Preate distributed a draft copy of the Chapter brochure to the Board members. Suggestions and comments followed. Bernnard stated that the brochure looked very good. Bernnard suggested that the information should be specific to each year. The liaisons should be contacted to see how many brochures should be printed in a given year. Zappen suggested using campus printing. Hults mentioned that it could be mounted on the website when it is finished by making it a PDF file. Bernnard noted that Preate did an excellent job.

b. By-law changes : The bylaws change went out with the ballots and will go out again with the new ballots.

c. Gas Mileage : Gas mileage was not brought up to the membership yet. This will be addressed in the current year. Bernnard suggested that the current $.20/mile should tie to the current state reimbursement amount.

d. Banner: Where is the blue and white banner? The Program Committee may have it.

5. New Business

a. Ballots : Norelli suggested a different color ballot. This needs to be done as soon as possible. Bernnard will take over and coordinate with Waltz. Waltz has labels, including new members, from the conference. Ballots will be sent out by June 5th and returned by June 16th.

b. Scholarship : Bernnard will be investigating new scholarship endeavors.

c. Brown Bag Programs : Apollo reported that the Program Committee will be initiating the new Brown Bag programs for the fall semester. Meetings will be held in 2-4 locations in our region in approximately the same time and on closely connected topics. Originally the focus had been town/gown relationships and marketing of library services/contributions to our communities. The evaluations may change that focus OR drive the focus of the next Spring Conference. That will be the responsibility of the Program Committee.

d. Next Board Meeting: The next Board meeting will tentatively be during the week of August 13th. The Board will hold a phone meeting in January 2008.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Lorraine Melita