Executive Board Meeting
October 6, 1999 Minutes
(Amended and approved by the Executive Board, November 3, 1999)
Present
Charles Bolles, Susannah Price, Larry Almeida, Max Leek, Jennifer O’Laughlin, Sandi Shropshire, Dawn Wittman, Mary Edmonds, Karen Labuik, Erin McCusker, Christine Reynolds, Janet Strong, Ron Force, Ruth Cochran, Kevin Booe, Camille Wood, Robert Wright, Marlene Earnest, Jennifer Ashby, Rosmarie Fouad, Dan Lester.
Call to Order
The Executive Board Meeting was called to order at 4:15pm.
Announcements/Welcome
Dawn Wittman, President, asked people to introduce themselves and to include their position on the Board and what library each person represents. Barbara Greever, ILA secretary will not be attendance due to family emergency. Christine Reynolds we begin her responsibilities to facilitate the recording of the minutes.
Revisions to Proposed Agenda
Changes to the Proposed Agenda [Attachment I] include: Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Idaho Librarian editor will give her report at the Saturday October 9, 1999, Executive Board meeting. Minutes of the April 13, 1999, meeting will not be approved until the October 9, 1999, meeting to allow the Board members an opportunity to review them.
Board Reports
President
Wittman read a request from Public Library Association asking for ILA’s formal support of their request to hold PLA 2004 Conference in the Northwest. Moved (Bolles/Almeida) that ILA email a formal letter of support for a PLA 2004 Conference in the Northwest, passed unanimously.
Dan Steiner is developing a grant proposal (possibly an Albertson’s grant) to help fund a book award for children. This book award will focus on literature for kindergarten through third grade and will be channeled through Idaho Library Association. The target age range was selected to avoid conflict with the Young Reader’s Choice Award sponsored by Pacific Northwest Library Association.
As a show of support for regional library associations, Montana Library Association has created a hyperlink from their homepage to Idaho Library Association’s homepage. Wittman suggested that Dan Lester, ILA Webmaster, create a link to other regional library associations in addition to the hyperlink to Pacific Library Association.
First Vice-President
Ron Force announced that the conference programs are late arriving. Christine DeZelar-Tiedman encountered car problems in route from Moscow and the programs are with her. An early estimate of the conference revenues shows a $6000 profit.
Second Vice-President
Larry Almeida reported that each Spring Regional Conference was successful. Each region has a chairperson who will succeed for developing next year’s conferences. [Attachment II] It was noted that the regional conference chairpersons needed ILA Board approval (Kevin Booe). In further discussion, it was concluded that no second to the motion was required. Passing on guidelines to each regional chairperson would be helpful in structuring next year’s (2000) conferences.
Almeida indicated that ILA has a 501C6 would we might also need a 501C3 to enable the Association to accept donations that are tax deductible. [Attachment III] Other recommendations discussed in the ALA Orientation meeting included: associations are more solvent with a savings of one year expenses; and associations should require two signatures on checking accounts for increased accountability.
Treasurer
Sandi Shropshire highlighted several items of interest: Lobbyist expenses is a new line item for this past budget year [Attachment IV]; reports for a four year membership review and a current bank account review [Attachment IV]; a subset of the budget features the current financial conference report [Attachment V]; and an eight year history of conference financial activities. [Attachment V] Wittman reminded Board members to give Shropshire their budget requests by October 9, 1999, Executive Board meeting.
Past President
Susannah Price, as chair of the nominating committee, reported there is still confusion on the membership’s voting practices. Many members invalidate their ballots as they vote for more than one division. Does the ballot need to be changed, and if so, how can the ballot be changed to devise a better ballot with clearer instructions? Other suggestions from the Board included improving on the timeliness of receiving the conference packet and ballot. Allowing electronic or fax return of the ballots may also facilitate more returns as this year’s ballot resulted in only ten percent of the membership electing new members to the Board. [Attachment VI] Price noted no reference in the Association Bylaws to destroy the ballots.
State Librarian
No report.
Division Chairs
Wittman charged the division chairs to look at their bylaws and the staggered election process, then report the results at the Saturday Executive Board meeting.
Academic/Special
Jennifer Ashby indicated the Division would be reviewing their bylaws.
Ed. Media
Marlene Earnest highlighted the assistance of Marj Hooper and Gard Hanks as consultants to create a strategic plan for the implementation of certificated librarians in public schools. [Attachment VII]
Public Library
Max Leek reported that the Public Library Standards are viewable via the Internet and that he expected no Division action on them. Even though the Division bylaws are viewable on the Internet, Leek has not received much response to the suggested changes. 2000 will be the first year a public library will receive the Library of the Year Award.
Trustee/Friends
Jennifer O’Laughlin indicated the Division meeting would be focused on the proposed dissolution of the division. [Attachment VIII] The majority of memberships are paid for through public library funds. If the Division is dissolved, issues such as how the group will make the transition into the Public Library Division will need to be reviewed. Leek indicated that Marshall Public Library would continue to support library trustees with paid membership either as division members of the Trustee Division or the Public Library Division.
PNLA Representative
Kevin Booe reported on the successful PNLA conference with 220 in attendance. Fiscally, PNLA is doing well. [Attachment IX]. Karin Labuik, PNLA president was introduced to the Board at this time.
ALA Representative
Camille Wood presented a written Annual Conference Highlights report. [Attachment X] Also discussed were the censorship problems experienced recently by the Nampa Public Library. [Attachment XI] As a result of the conflict, the Nampa City Council withheld $50,000 of library funding.
Committee Reports
Scholarship
Trustee, librarian, scholarship, and legislative awards of the year will be presented at the Thursday, October 7, 1999, banquet. Booe indicated that a written committee report would be available after the conference.
Website / Advertisements
Dan Lester requested input on changing servers for the website. The current sever, Micron, is charging $5.00 per month and supports limited visual appeal. If the Board decides to use another server based in Michigan for the ILA website, the cost would be $10.00 - our current budgeted amount for web hosting. The advantage of using a different server is that it supports Webpage 2000 - a more interactive format. If Micron would continue to be used, the charge for a comparable service would be $75.00 per month. It was a consensus of that board that no vote was needed, as the affected budget amount does not change. Lester was advised to the make the change as requested.
Material sent to Lester for the ILA website should be in ASCII, Word, Corel - any format which can then be transferred electronically. Column or tabular information is best facilitated in spreadsheet formats such as Excel - do not use tabs. Lester is planning on mounting photographs of the current conference onto the website to improve its visual appeal.
Officer, Division, and Committee reports should be sent to the secretary (Reynolds), who will then send the information to Lester for the ILA website and to DeZelar-Tiedman for the Idaho Librarian. Refer to ILA Website Guidelines [Attachment XII]
Communications / Advocacy
Wittman and Booe recommend that the Speakers Network Committee and Idaho Library Advocates Network be dissolved. No vote is required to dissolve an ad hock committee. The Public Relations and Advocacy Committee will continue the role of advocacy to better reflect the objectives of the Association’s mission of advocacy. The reorganized Public Relations and Advocacy Committee can help speak out concerning such issues as the Nampa Public Library censorship challenge. The Committee can help promote positive aspects of libraries.
Membership
[Attachment XIII] Ruth Cochran responded to several suggestions to change the membership form. Changing forms is confusing and she recommends that the form should not change. Some discussion about changing the membership year from October to October may be less confusing for the membership as the date would coincide with the annual conference. Another suggestion was to place the membership form on the ILA website. Division chairs need to let Cochran know if they want additional forms for their own division mailings or if the membership forms need to sent out in the regional conference mailings (regional conference mailings are sent to all school and public librarians regardless of ILA membership). Forms are printed in December.
Restructuring / Organization
Report during Saturday, October 9, 1999, Board meeting.
Legislative/Lobbyist
Report during Saturday, October 9, 1999, Board meeting.
Meeting Dates
The next Executive Board meeting will be held October 9, 1999, 8:30am in the Riverside Board Room, Doubletree Inn Boise.
Additional Business
None
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 6:08pm
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Reynolds, ILA Secretary