To: Members of the ACRL-LA Board of Directors

From: Lisa Muilenburg

What: Minutes from meeting held on November 6, 2003 @ ACRL-LA Conference

Date: November 10, 2003

Members present: Mary Frances Marx, Van Viator, Rebecca Malek-Wiley, Mike Russo, Lisa Muilenburg, Cortney Rimes, Alma Dawson, and Dennis Tucker.

Guests: Ginger Bryan and Karen Leeseberg.

Members absent: Crystal Lee, Kathy Bordelon, Maureen Olle, Don Smith, Anne Frohlich, Laverne Simoneaux

Meeting was called to order at 8:25 pm.

Lisa Muilenburg agreed to take notes in the absence of Crystal Lee.

Tucker dispensed with the reading of the old minutes since they were not available for distribution and approval. They will be approved at the next meeting.

Reports:

1. Secretary/Treasurer (Tucker for Crystal Lee). Tucker distributed a treasurer’s report prepared by Crystal Lee. The report is not up to date, as it does not reflect the conference expenses and additional registrations. He noted a gift received by Lee from Midwest Library Services for $150 to help underwrite conference expenses. Ebsco underwrote the lunch and the breakfast. Tucker quoted them slightly under the actual cost and this $150 from Midwest will help make up for the additional costs. Member dues collected was highlighted.
2. Archives (Kathy Bordelon). Not present. No report
3. Constitution and By-Laws (Mary Frances Marx). There is no need to change the By-Laws officially to reflect the new procedure of having the President of ACRL-LA host the annual conference rather then the Vice-President. This change allows the President to have 18 months to prepare rather than only 6 months.
4. Directory (Janette Griffin). Not present. No report. Some discussion on the fact that it may be produced only every other year. It was stated that the program was still being worked on in order to produce the directory more efficiently.
5. Legislative Liaison (Maureen Olle). Not present. No report.
6. LLA Liaison (Van Viator). There are 11 programs planned in the Academic Session for the LLA conference. A pre-conference program on non-print materials is planned and maybe one on comparing search engines.
7. Membership (Rebecca Malek-Wiley). Membership report was distributed. Highlights include 234 members. Over 220 in June 2003. It was noted that expired members are kept on the list for 2 years unless it is confirmed that a members has left the organization or the state. Thus, it was emphasized that everyone provide current information on himself and others if possible so that the database can be as up to date as possible. The greatest increase was in student members (7-14). This increase is due to the great work of the membership liaisons and the fact that the word got out that student membership is free. Malek-Wiley suggested that if persons no longer want to be liaisons then to let her know and she may have someone else who has volunteered in their institution. On a final note it was mentioned that 131 members of ACRL-LA are also members of ALA-ACRL. Tucker strongly encourages everyone to join both if possible since they will receive great benefits from both memberships.
8. Newsletter (Mike Russo). A report was distributed and it was noted that although more issues of the newsletter were distributed it was at a cheaper costs because they will be using LSU’s graphic services department rather than Kinko’s.
9. Program ’04 (Don Smith). Not present. No report.
10. Publicity (Lisa Muilenburg). Emails about the conference were distributed on LALINC-L. Individual messages were sent to librarians at Academic Institutions. The local conference was on the ALA-ACRL page but not on the ALA calendar. Next year Muilenburg will make sure that ALA calendar page displays the conference information and that it is sent to American Libraries and Library Journal for greater publicity.
11. Student Liaison (Courtney Rimes). She sent out information on the student list about membership in ACRL-LA being free for students. She added the form to the list.
12. Webmaster (Anne Frolich). Not present. No report.
13. SLIS Representative (Alma Dawson). Has been receiving good responses for membership from students. They are looking at the curriculum and possibly developing a collection development tract.
14. Past President (Laverne Simoneaux). Not present. No report.
15. President (Dennis Tucker). Gave a general “thank you” to the group and a special thank you to Ginger for her support and advice.

ACRL/LA electronic mailing list:

Tucker brought up the possible need for an ACRL-LA list serve that operates separately from LALINC-L since he knows several members of ACRL-LA that are not on LALINC-L. Tucker has set up a trial list on Yahoo Groups. He noted that it could be moderated or not and we could automatically subscribe persons or we could invite persons to join.

Marx made the motion to accept the production of a mailing list. Dawson seconded.

Discussion: It was decided that members would be invited to join and not automatically set up on the list. The list will be moderated for now for both enrollment but not for posting. Tucker will get the trial activated. Muilenburg will get together the invitation list from Malek-Wiley.

Russo made the motion to amend the proposal to say create a Yahoo Group called ACRL-LA then invite entire membership to join. Viator seconded.

Discussion: None.

Tucker called for the vote on the amendment. Motion carried.

Tucker called for the vote on the original proposal. Motion carried.

Conference refund policy:

Tucker brought up an oversight on the part of this year’s registration committee: No refund policy was included in the registration information. One person has asked for a refund. It was suggested that future conference committees include a refund policy that best fits their conference arrangements. As for this conference, it was decided to refund the $5-non-member fee and the $5-late fee, but to keep the rest of the registration costs since the cancellation date was done one day before the conference and arrangements for lunch and dinner had already been finalized and had to be paid for.

Newsletter schedule:

Russo asked for clarification on the production dates for the two newsletters. After a great deal of discussion it was decided that exact dates were not feasible. The general time frame for the two publications will be as follows: One in the spring to announce the election of new officers and one in the fall to announce the conference. It was also decided to have special issues as necessary. There was then some general discussion about having the newsletter distributed electronically via the list once it is created.

Old Business:

The midwinter pre-conference for Information literacy last year paid for Patricia Senn Breivik to speak at this year’s conference. It was decided to let Bill & Bob with CLC know this is how the money was spent since they had given their services free. Tucker will get Bill and Bob’s names and contact information.

The group formally asked President Dennis Tucker to send Bill and Bob a thank you letter for the midwinter pre-conference which enabled the conference to acquire speaker Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik.

New Business:

This year some people from Mississippi College came to the conference. They suggested to Tucker the possibility of a joint conference next year. Smith will be contacted with this idea and perhaps he can contact Joshua?? from ACRL-MS chapter and get his thoughts on a joint conference. If not a joint conference then just inviting Mississippi ACRL to attend our conference which will be in Monroe. Tucker will serve as a liaison to connect the necessary people for this proposal. It was mentioned that if a joint conference is arranged that someone from ALA-ACRL on the national level could perhaps speak. They have their own funding to attend state conferences on occasion. Tyrone is the president this year and will be past-president next year, and he is a big advocate on refocusing ACRL so he might be a good speaker idea.

The next meeting will be in June 2004.

Meeting adjourned at 9:50 pm.