Idaho Library Association Annual Conference - Boise, Idaho

General Membership Meeting

First Session

October 7, 1999 DRAFT Minutes

                                   

Call to Order

Dawn Wittman, Association President, called the meeting to order at 8:35am with a quorum of members present.  In her greeting remarks to the membership, she gave thanks to Ron Force as this year’s first-vice president conference chairperson and to Janet Strong as local arrangements chairperson.

 

Business

Restructuring Committee, represented by Kevin Booe

Proposals for change are available at the registration table and will be voted on at the Second General Session on October 8, 1999.  These proposals include: a) reducing the term of office for president of the Association; b) dissolving the Trustee/Friends Division; and c) modifying the ALA representative term of office from four years to three years to conform with ALA Bylaws.

 

Legislative Committee, represented by Lynn Melton:

John Watts, our first lobbyist, represented the Idaho Library Association this past year.  Although there appears to be no library legislation to be presented to the state legislature this year, there are rumors of potential legislation with library impact.  These may include issues dealing with pornography and minors using the Internet in public/school libraries; removal of city library trustees; and a youth representative on library boards of trustees.

 

Introductions and acknowledgments

Division Chairs

Academic: 1999 Chair Jennifer Ashby; 2000 Chair Rosmarie Fuoad

Public Libraries: 1999 Chair Max Leek; 2000 Chair Robert Wright

Ed. Media: 1999 Chair Marlene Earnest; 2000 Chair Mary Edmund

Trustees/Friends: 1999 Jennifer O’Laughlin, filled the remainder of John Poole’s term and will continue as Chair for 2000.

 

Local Arrangements Chairperson

Janet Strong

 

Pacific Northwest Library Association President

Karen Labuik, PNLA President, spoke about the challenges PNLA has tackled the past year.  These challenges  include a reorganization of the Association and regrouping for crisis management.  The Association is now in a stage of revitalization with a new mission statement, as well as proposed changes and programs.  The Association recently faced such issues as lack of focus and duplicating efforts of state/provincial associations. The PNLA Board focused its efforts on revitalization of the Association, redefinition of its mission, and regaining its regional nature.  Idaho is very well represented on the PNLA Board with Bob Hook as treasurer, Susannah Price as second vice president, and Janet Strong as ILA’s representative to PNLA. Karen invited the membership to attend the next PNLA Conference May 25 - 27 in Kelowna, British Columbia.

 

Keynote Speaker Patricia Kempthorne (First Lady of Idaho)

Patricia Kempthorne spoke about the importance of what we do as librarians and applauded our efforts in focusing on the importance of reading.  Promoting the importance of reading is a goal she shares with our profession.  She reminisced about her love of reading was triggered by being read aloud to by her grandmother.  The stories she recalled were Cat and the Hat and Pokey Puppy.  As she grew up, she was caught up in the adventures of Nancy Drew.  As an adult she loves to read Louis L’amour western novels.  In a reference to the vast collection of materials in the Library of Congress, she believes books define who we are as Americans.  The written word is our record of history.  Technology has given us the power to alter history.  Therefore, there needs to be a balance between technology and print.

 

Community mobilization can only come from the 'connectiveness' of families.  Libraries are an important part in what brings us together as a community.   Libraries help us find our commonality in a safe environment.  Stressing the importance of children, family and reading together, Mrs. Kempthorne believes that reading to children can make a difference in strengthening youth against adversity and violence.  In her program of “Success by Six” - stressing the importance of the first six years of a child’s life - Bank of America has a four-year commitment of providing ten million dollars per year to fulfill her goal of reading at grade level by grade three.  She concluded with the concept that “knowledge is the light of our future.”

 

Dawn Wittman presented Mrs. Kempthorne with two candy bars as a thank-you to the Governor for his support of the statewide magazine database project funded by the Idaho state legislature.  These candy bars represented the cost per person in Idaho ($.39 each) to fund the LiLI-D database project.

 

Adjournment

The First General Session adjourned at 9:55am.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Christine Reynolds, ILA Secretary