ALAO Executive Board Meeting Minutes

Submitted by Alison  Ricker

Board Meeting Minutes (approved)

11/21/2008

ALAO Board Meeting Nov. 21, 2008. Approved Minutes, with corrections
Location: OHIONET

Meeting called to order at 10:00 am by President Karen Wilhoit.

Attending: Jo Ann Calzonetti, Ione Damasco, Deberah England,
Brian Gray, Stephena Harmony, Joyce Wright Harris, Angel Jackson, Steven Kenneally, Doug Morrison, Ann Raney, Peggy Rector, Alison Ricker, Chris Rigda, Carolyn Sanders, Susan Scott, Rocki Strader, Judy Verdi, Ann Watson, Tracey Welch Moritz, Karen Wilhoit, Rob Withers.

Absent: Pat Antonelli, Frank Bove, Ken Burhanna, Kiffany Francis, Kristen Kirchgesler, Lindsay Miller.

1. Review of minutes. The minutes from the June 2008 Leadership retreat were approved. The September board meeting was cancelled due to storm-related power outages in the Columbus area.

2. Review/discussion of September and November board reports.
No discussion.

3. Committee and other appointments
Karen will send letters to committee members already chosen to confirm their appointments.

Conference Site Selection committee is still to be appointed. Reviewed the committee procedures approved in June. Louie Mays, Southern State was recommended by Stephena as a committee member with technology/computer expertise. Stephena also agreed to serve as committee member. Karen will consult with them and Doug Morrison to choose another member.

4. 2008/09 budget
Discussion:

The projected income is based on 411 members; renewals may be higher, yielding more income. Angel reports current membership is 611.

Conference vendor revenue at $6,500 is a conservative prediction.

Doug moved to table further discussion until later in agenda, seconded by Ann Watson. Motion approved.

End of meeting discussion and amendments: OCLIS dues of $20 have not been paid for 2008; Alison will ask Glen Horton (OCLIS treasurer) to send another invoice.

Add $150 for a grant to support a student presenter at the annual conference and raise conference vendor fees to $6,650.

Content management system – costs for this year will be taken from the $25,000 reserve.

Deberah moved, Rob seconded, passage of the amended budget. Budget passed unanimously.

5. 2008 Conference review. Karen Wilhoit reporting.

Revenue/expenses are not final, but expect a modest profit of $2,000-$3,000. Responses on evaluations were positive overall. Specific comments on keynote speaker, facilities, food will be very helpful to next year’s committee.

Program sessions received high marks on evaluation forms except for one session. Keynote speaker had mixed reviews; the majority were positive, but there were significant complaints regarding audio and lighting in the large Roberts Center hall. The continuous looping of the welcome slides was distracting since they did not relate to the speaker’s remarks.

The Roberts Center staff members were easy to work with and responsive during the planning period. Timing of the vendor social needs to be reconsidered. Registration was lower than in previous years; several national meetings held in Ohio during the fall may have influenced attendance. Lunch is the limiting factor for finding a conference location with space for 300-350 people to sit together for lunch and awards presentations.

OELMA conference was held the day before ALAO. Some collaboration in the future is desirable. Rob reported that the 2009 planning committee is considering offering online participation for remote conferees.

6. Member Services Task Force report. Ione Damasco reporting.
TF members: Frank, Brian, Angel, Ione, Joyce, Lindsay.
Report distributed. TF is reviewing a list of potential vendors. They propose sending the list of requirements to selected vendors, reviewing the responses, synthesizing those responses for the Board. An integrated Content Management System to handle our Web site along with the membership database is perhaps the best solution for an all-volunteer organization.

Current number of records is 1,700; the TF will request pricing for different numbers of records stored, some purging of records may be possible. Careful review is needed before purging any records.

Vendor demonstrations should be viewed by Rob, Doug and Karen in addition to the TF.

Rob moved approval of the draft, to be reformatted as an RFP from ALAO, with revisions to the document with specific numbers for data fields, simultaneous logins, number of member records

7. Archives Task Force report. Peggy Rector reporting.
Long-term archiving should be a mix of paper and digital formats. Discussion of the difference between old records held by the Secretary/Archivist and permanent (all paper format) archive at Ohio Historical Society. TF recommends converting some paper materials to digital; Alison has already converted older newsletters to pdf.

Board members should refer to Procedures Manual for guidelines on retention of records. Alison will confer with Oberlin archivist; Karen will confer with Denison Records Manager for advice on records retention. Board agreed to convert appropriate records to digital format, with a goal of depositing materials in OhioLINK DRC. Members who are willing should talk with people at their own campus about hosting the materials in DRC.

8. Member Benefits/Retiree Task Force report. Angel Jackson reporting.
Recommendations for long-term member and retirees:
• Membership rates discounted for retirees
• Free membership for 25+ consecutive years
• Full access to all benefits of membership
• Discounted conference rate – suggested the same as student rate
• Could serve on committees, stand for elected office if still desired

Discussion: Free membership for long-term members would be nearly impossible to manage, without an accurate member database to track consecutive membership years.

What are the benefits for current members?
• Only members can vote.
• Content management system could give tiered access to web site, including newsletter.

Board action: Retiree dues rate was established, to be equal to student member dues.

9. IG Coordinator position description. Deberah England.

Revised document distributed by Deberah. Remove “Serves as back-up for IG Chairs as needed.” Approved for insertion in Manual, with removal of the section that outlines the interest groups; that section will go into a different part of the Manual.

10. Webmaster position
Karen received responses from 4 members who are interested in serving as co-webmaster. Need a response from Frank.

11. Status of instruction clearinghouse. Do we want to continue maintenance? Mel Jensen, current coordinator of the clearinghouse, has sent updates to the webmasters that have not been uploaded yet. Board agrees it is worth maintaining. Karen received information from Ken Burhanna regarding a member at Kent State University willing to work on this aspect of the web site. She will follow up with Frank.

12. Purchase of display board for IG use. Proposed by Judy Verdi.
Discussion tabled until February meeting. Judy will bring a specific proposal for a board (with dimensions, materials, shipping weight, price).

13. Support Staff presenter grant. Judy Verdi reporting.
Discussion points:
Coordination between SSIG and Conference Program Planning committee needs to be strengthened. Describe the grant and how it is to be administered in the procedures manual. Include a description of the grant in the call for conference program proposals. Consult minutes after 2007 conference for any record of grant specifics. Task force named to write the grant description and procedures: Judy Verdi, Doug Morrision, Deberah England; they will consult with Betsy Blankenship and report at the February meeting.

Essential points to include: Purpose of grant is to encourage participation of support staff in ALAO conference, membership is not required, grant can be used to cover travel, registration or supplies needed for presentation.

14. Status of Collection Management Interest Group.
No current chair. One person has indicated interest in co-chairing CMIG, but needs someone to work with. Perhaps a broader scope would appeal to more people. Karen, Rob, and Deberah will work on this issue.

15. Government Relations Team. Ann Watson reporting.
Proposal approved by Board: change “Team” to “Liaison,” similar to other liaisons on the board to organizations. Change travel “award” to “grant.” Ann will rewrite the procedures document to reflect the change.

16. Awards procedures – Deberah England.
Document drafted to provide guidelines for awards given by the association.

17. Proposal to use WebJunction for communication concerning ALAO events. Alison Ricker reported. WebJunction was the focus on a recent OCLIS Board meeting. It is intended as a communication site for all library related news, organizations, and associations in the state. Board was generally favorable; Alison will contact Lindsay for further discussion.

18. Newsletter archive – paper-only newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s have been converted to pdf by a student assistant, under Alison’s supervision. No decision made on where to archive the files for public use.

19. Proposal for Student Presenter grant – Deberah reporting.
Clarify: grant, not award. Make this analogous to SSIG presenter grant. Use language similar to diversity scholarship. Deberah moved, Brian seconded, motion passed to work on this proposal. Deberah, Karen, Christine will work on this.

20. TEDSIG webpages. Discussion postponed.

21. New Business.

Peggy would like to add to agenda: purchase of new poly folders. Translucent portfolios with new ALAO logo: $1,030 for 750. Moved by Peggy, with the caveat that she will look for portfolios that are environmentally friendly, seconded by Alison, passed unanimously.

Call for continuing education grant needs to be posted, but updating the ALAO web site has slowed in the past several months. Christine will send the pdf to Rob and Lindsay, they will post it.

Adjournment.

NEXT MEETING: February 20, 2009