ILA Executive Board Meeting

October 3, 2001

 

The Meeting was called to order at 4:04 pm.

 

Present:  Charles Bolles, Anne Abrams, Sue Bello, Kevin Booe, Carol Silvers, Vicki Kreimeyer Brown, John Pool, Dan Lester, Sandra Shropshire, Rosmarie Fouad, Marlene Earnest, Pamela Bradshaw, Kay Flowers, Ron Force, Susannah Price, Tim Hillebrand, Larry Almeida, Chris Ashby, Heather Stout

 

Minutes:  Minutes were passed out and reviewed.  Kevin Booe moved to approve the minutes as written.  Carol Silvers second.  Motion passed. Dan Lester advised everyone to please send all future correspondence to Heather Stout, Secretary, in electronic format, either on disk or as an attachment.

 

Reports:

 

President’s report:  Larry Almeida stated that several issues needed to be covered today.  First is correspondence from Gerald Hodges, requesting the board to select two individuals to be sent to ALA in January to participate in “Leadership Development Training.”  Larry submitted the President’s Annual Report.  (Attachment A)

 

Vice President’s Report: Marlene Earnest reported that all 80 rooms contracted at the hotel are being used and we have 43 exhibitors.  Wireless network was just installed and everything is working so far.  There were 55 attendees at the pre-conference.  Currently there are 155 registered for the regular conference. (Attachment B)

 

Treasurer report:  Pamela Bradshaw has submitted treasurer’s report (Attachment C) from the last meeting.  The April minutes are still in need of Jennifer Ashby’s signature.  Public Libraries memberships are up. Charlie Bolles inquired why that had happened and Anne Abrams replied that more flyers, etc had been sent out to them this time.  Pam also informed the board that the books need to be audited.  She researched the cost and estimated it to be around $1-2000.00.  Pam suggested the possibility that an accounting student from BSU might be interested in auditing the ILA accounts. Further suggestions included looking into the possibility of consulting an accounting class.  This was done in the past.  Pam Bradshaw and Sandy Shropshire agreed to meet together to look at possible solutions.  Anne questioned some reimbursements regarding membership and agreed to work together in resolving this issue.

 

Past President:  Ron Force reported that he could not report on ballots, as they had not yet been tabulated. The final results will be available on Saturday.  As there were no contested races, it looks like Romy Fouad will be Vice President/President Elect, Penni Cyr will take over as Chair of Educational Media, Susanna Price is the PNLA rep elect, and Tim Hildebrand will Chair the Trustee/Friends.  There is still no chair for Public Libraries.  Larry reminded the retiring chairs to please let him know who will be replacing them at the close of their tenure.  Several positions are currently not coordinated with their true succession, due to people leaving before their tenure is up. 

 

Idaho State Library:  Charlie Bolles reported that ISL had filled the Networking Consultant position with a woman named Gina Petroachini.  They are currently advertising for an Electronic Resources Librarian who will be responsible for both LiLI-D as well as some print resources.

 

Division Chairs:

 

Educational Media Division -  Sue Bello reported that on May 10th, ILA representatives met with Marilyn Howard.  Gene Shakleford took part in the meeting as well.  Issues discussed included legislative issues regarding school libraries.  Several school librarians were also able to attend the Valley View hospital conference.

 

Public Libraries:  Kevin Booe submitted the annual report (Attachment D)

 

Trustees/Friends: Tim Hillebrand reported that he had examined the possibility of making statewide mailing lists but was unable to receive lists directly from ISL.  He also looked at possibly creating another list via library directors, but he did not receive a lot of replies. Tim also reported that since no mailings were sent this past year, was it possible to request that the mailing fees be transported into the next year.  Charlie Bolles remarked that ISL now does have permission from all but 3 public libraries to include their names for mailing purposes. Also, several library addresses are available on the LiLi web page.

 

Academic/Special:  Romy Fouad submitted her report (Attachment E) and reported that the committee has talked about themes, but has not set any goals as of yet. 

 

PNLA Representative: Janet Strong is sick, no report, but it is hoped that several ILA Board members can attend the PNLA conference in Missoula next August.

 

ALA Representative:  Kay Flowers reported that ALA is drafting a proposal to approve post MLS certifications.  This would require a 501(C)3 organization to be created to award the certification.  Any thoughts on this issue, please contact Kay Flowers.  Another ALA Proposal being considered is to replace current accreditation by ALA, to include ALA, AALL, and ASIST, etc. to make the process more representative.  No recommendations have been made currently, but it will be discussed at the Atlanta conference.  CIPA:  The official suit is called: “ALA VS the United States.”  The suit is still in the courts. Since the tragedy of Sept 11, ALA is drafting a letter to congress concerning privacy issues, issues of constitutional freedoms, search and seizure, etc. 

 

Committee Reports:

 

Legislative:  Vicki Kreimeyer Brown submitted her annual report (Attachment F) and encouraged the members of the board to attend the Thursday morning program with John Watts.  She presented a resolution advocating library service support from the legislature. (Attachment G)  She also encouraged all members to attend the January 10th breakfast with the Idaho Legislature.  Caldwell and Kuna Libraries are organizing the breakfast. 

 

Membership:  Anne Abrams proposed several membership changes that will be available for adoption at the January meeting.  These proposals are hoped to increase membership by the following: instituting a $15.00 membership for new members for 3 yrs.  Also instituting a $200 corporate rate, perhaps allowing corporations the ability to display their logo, etc, on the ILA web page and/or possibility of  permission being granted to send out a mailing to members.  A flat institutional rate was also discussed. Anne is also looking at targeting large libraries in Idaho at a special membership rate.  Discussion continued about the possibility of instituting higher conference rates for non-members as well.  There is currently only a $20.00 difference; perhaps a $40.00 difference would make a difference.  Anne also thanked Kay Flowers for printing the conference packet.

 

Business/Action:

 

Vicki Kreimeyer Brown reported that John Watts recommended that ILA join the Idaho Taxpayers Association.  As a member of the Association, ILA would be able to access and use their information.  The cost to join is $150.00.  Vicki would like to see this approved.  Dan Lester moved that ILA join the Idaho Taxpayers Association; Sandi Shropshire seconded it.  Motion passed.

 

Recommendations from Law Division Task Force:  Larry Almeida asked if members of the board had seen the information, but only four members had.  Gardner Hanks and the task force worked this past year to update legal language to update libraries.  Larry has a copy of it and it is available for review and discussion.  Two workshops are available at this conference for interested members.  One of the major impacts of the document will make it easier to consolidate districts and it will also have a large impact on rural library service.  There was a summer mailing about this, as well as new information gathered in August.  Larry will be very busy at the legislative level if law revision task force is approved.  Vicki reported that the three-year contract with John Watts runs through 2002.  It includes a fee increase to $8000.00 with a provision to negotiate an additional fee if the Board feels it needs additional services provided by John Watts to advocate for passage of the Law Revision.  This is above his base fee.  It has been estimated at $15,000 above his base fee.  His current fees come out of the operating budget, however, most associations take fees out of membership dues. Any membership change however, must be presented to the organization first.

 

John Watts commented to the board that libraries would always be scrutinized because our budgets will always come from taxes and are always subject to being cut.  What the role of the library is needs to be understood by the legislature.  We constantly need to remind our legislators of issues/decisions made but not always implemented (ex. Media Generalists).  Charlie Bolles and Vicki Kreimeyer Brown remarked that the ILA Board needs a focused priority list to deal with the legislature.  Larry Almeida remarked that there is a large ILA reserve account and asked Pam Bradshaw to look into using those monies in that capacity.  This decision has been tabled until the Saturday conference meeting.  Anne Abrams also discussed the possibility of raising the institutional rate. Vicki discussed the possibility of assessing a certain monetary amount per institution, with the additional rate to be devoted to legislative lobbying.  PNLA and Washington State already do this.  More detailed discussion at Saturday’s meeting.

 

Larry Almeida brought up proposed changes in the by-laws. As the Idaho Librarian is no longer in print, but only in electric format, the following changes in the by-laws have been proposed:  Charlie Bolles moved  “From article IV to the end of the bylaws, all references to the Idaho Librarian will be replaced by the words “whatever official publication of the association that the board shall direct.”  Kevin Booe seconded the motion.  All other references before article IV will be dealt with by membership changes.  Discussion occurred and the motion passed. 

 

Larry Almeida opened up discussion on membership changes.  Section 3 will need to be changed to concur with Anne Abrams’ proposed changes.  Vicki suggested that levels could be determined by board annually, with section 3 being removed.  Motion by Kay Flowers:  Replacement wording for Article II, Section 3 will read: Dues :  Membership dues and categories will be decided annually by the board.  Motion seconded by Sandy Shropshire.  Motion passed.  (Attachment H)

 

Vicki Kreimeyer Brown read a proposed resolution advocating ILA’s support for passage of the State Library’s proposed budget in the 2002 legislative session (Attachment I).  Motion to accept resolution as circulated by Charlie Bolles.  Kay Flowers seconded.  Motion passed.

 

Web advertising: Tim Hillebrand reported that his committee had looked at many web sites to see what how they had used advertising and logos.  Penni Cyr reported that she did see some advertising links, but there seemed not to be a  precedent.  Dan Lester suggested that the ILA web page might be a place to show corporate sponsorship.

 

Larry Almeida announced that the Librarian of the Year Award has been changed to the noon luncheon on Thursday.  Tickets are still available.

 

Larry Almeida brought up the possibility of the need to increase start-up monies for regional conferences.  Each account must be closed every year and some regional conferences have expressed the need for additional start-up funds for planning.  Kevin Booe motioned to increase start up money for regional conferences from  $600 to $750.00.  Motion seconded by Romy Fouad.  Motion passed.

 

Sandi Shropshire requested to be put on the Saturday agenda.

 

Larry Almeida asked for input to schedule the board party:  Kay has volunteered her house, but transportation needs to be arranged.  John Pool asked for a show of hands as to how many people would be able to come.  The party is scheduled tonight, Wednesday, Oct 3rd, 9:00 pm at Kay Flowers’ house.

 

Romy Fouad , pledged $25.00 for drinks on Friday night and requested donations from the board for the Friday event.

 

Sandy Pratt volunteered to be conference chair for annual conference at Post Falls in 2003.  Charlie Bolles motioned that Sandy Pratt be appointed to conference chair for the annual ILA conference at Post Falls in 2003.  Dan Lester seconded.  Motion passed.

 

Sandy Carlson was introduced as the new President from PNLA.  She will be speaking at the reception this evening.

 

Meeting adjourned at 6:00 pm.