SLA Fellows Meeting
Nashville, Tennessee
June 6, 2004

Attendees: Stephen Abram, Lynn Berard, Liz Bibby, Susan DiMattia, Jane Dysart, Judy Field, Bill Fisher, Richard Geiger, Doris Helfer, Cindy Hill, Richard Hulser, Sylvia James, Janice Lachance, Trudy Katz, Susan Klopper, Agnes Mattis, Lynne McCay, Dorothy McGarry, Lyle Minter, Dottie Moon, Peter Moon, Wilda Newman, Sylvia Piggott, Karen Kreizman Reczek, Ethel Salonen, Jean Scanlan, Donna Scheeder, Ruth Seidman, Barbara Semonche, Barbara Spiegelman, Sandy Spurlock, Jim Tchobanoff, Dan Trefethen, Gloria Zamora.

Guest: Janice Lachance

  1. Meeting was called to order by Convenor, Lynne McCay at 1:05 pm.  

  2. Minutes of the June 8, 2003 meeting in New York City approved with the following amendments:

v     Correct spelling of Fellows under 1) Approval of the minutes;

v     Correct spelling of Lachance and Lynne McCay in 4) New Business

  1. New Fellows were pinned:
  1. Thanks to the Fellows Awards Committee (Lynne McCay, Dottie Moon, Peter Moon and Sandy Spurlock) for their time and effort in the submissions for the 2004 Award Nominees. Several Fellows were recognized with awards this year. Lynne also thanked the Fellows Volunteers who agree to assist this Annual Conference. This included those who agreed to speak at the First Timer’s Reception on: Conference Experiences – networking, exhibits and sessions; the Tipsters and those who were going to share Memorable Conference Experiences. (Stephan Abram, Liz Bibby, Jane Dysart, Bill Fisher, Donna Scheeder, Barbara Semonche, Barbara Spiegelman, and Dan Trefethen)  Lynne also thanked the exhibit tour guides: Richard & Susan – News/Current Events; Dottie – CI; Sandy Spurlock – Sciences and Pharmaceuticals; Sylvia & Agnes – Business and Gloria – Legal/Government.  
  2. Congratulations to the Fellows who were 2004 Award Winners:
  1. Executive Director, Janice Lachance’s Remarks: Janice offered her congratulations to this year’s Award Winners who are Fellows. She also thanked the Fellows for all that they do for the Association and our continual contributions. She is enjoying the job very much. The monthly conference calls with the Board of Directors has helped to expedite decisions and provides a means to talk through issues and opportunities as they arise. This new and efficient process, along with the new focused mission and vision statement has allowed her to gear her objectives and the staff and resources toward getting things accomplished in a new way. Janice thanked everyone involved for their support and especially, Cindy Hill for the time she spent with Janice each week.  
  2. President, Cindy Hill’s Remarks: Cindy visited many chapters this year. Members asked tough questions and this helped her better understand what people wanted to know. Efforts were made this year to be more transparent: Board to members, AOOC and Finance Committee to the Board, and so on. She also spent time visiting with the exhibitors the last few days and feedback was very positive on the hall and traffic. She also had time to talk with a lot of first timers.
     
  3. Incoming President, Ethel Salonen’s Remarks: Reiterated her talk to the Leadership Summit earlier that morning. Jumping to 2009 – what would the name of SLA be? She reviewed the new mission and vision statements, and discussed how the structure of SLA might differ in the future, e.g. no Divisions but Communities; Chapters could be done by regions or neighborhoods.  Ethel also mentioned the Board action to consider changing the SLA calendar year to January – December. Her sense was that the leaders want change. Ethel also discussed changing our definition of who is a member to be anyone who is interested in collaborating on relationships with the Association, its strategic partners and Association staff. Ethel wants to make some changes and some progress and doesn’t care if she is liked or not. Asked that the Fellows join her in her efforts and provide support for these coming initiatives, along with Cindy, Janice and the new Board.  
  4. Actions of the Board of Directors:  
    1. New Chapter: Australia/New Zealand
    2. New Division: Competitive Intelligence
    3. Student membership category clarified
    4. Clean audit
    5. No change in reimbursement for leaders other than the Board of Directors
    6. No change in dues structure at this time
    7. Change in reimbursement to the Board: Fixed amount can now be spread out and also now available, $500 for candidates; and $5000 for non-USA and non-Canadian Board members
    8. Conference Planning Committee  – add a member from the Exhibitor Advisory Council and the Division Cabinet Chair-Elect
    9. General Committee charge was revised to have Association staff as ex-officio members (non-voting)
    10. Conference Committee charge revised
    11. Research Committee charge revised
    12. Dissolved Consultation Committee at their request
    13. Adopted a statement on open access
    14. Revised status of Alabama chapter
    15. Charge Strategic Planning Committee to report back to Board in October  
  5. Referrals of the Board of Directors:
    1. Division Cabinet to investigate creating a Medical Division
    2. Association staff to study changing Governance year; report due in October
    3. Division and Chapter Cabinet to provided questions on the above B. to staff
    4. To the Finance Committee – explore adoption of international standard on dates/year etc.
    5. To the Professional Development Committee -The Professional Development Business Plan
    6. To SARC and Fellows – Inviting students to Board meetings with the intent to involve them more in the conference and in Chapters and Divisions. 

  6.  Possible Changes to Committee Structure: Bill Fisher will be chairing a new Task Force to explore the current committee structure. (Currently there are 18 committees and the goal is to have 16.) This will include new ways to group committees, eliminating some committees, and possibly changing where they report to and how members are selected. Report due to the Board in October.  
  7.  Discussion of Board Referral F. to the Fellows: Incoming co-convenors will be Dottie Moon and Lynn Berard, and they will be responsible for identifying 2-3 students from various library schools (put forth by school Deans, etc.) who will observe the Board in 2005. Donna Scheeder volunteered to assist. There was much discussion and ideas generated on how to generate student involvement and participation. This discussion should be continued on the Fellows discussion list, and/ideas should be forwarded to Dottie & Lynn. 

  8.  Fellows Pins: Lynne McCay answered a question regarding whether the Association provided any funds to this committee. The Association provides $100/year for each committee/group. In the past, these funds have been use for photocopying agendas, etc. for the Fellows meetings. The group has almost run our of Fellows pins. How to fund the purchase of more was discussed. Bill Fisher graciously offered to pay for the purchase of new pins. Fellows are encouraged to reimburse Bill, if they so desire.  
  9.  Fellows Web Site: Barbara Semonche was thanked for all of her hard work and efforts on maintaining the web site. There have been no changes with the exception of eliminating the @ sign from people’s e-mail addresses. Barbara asked that each person please check his/her e-mail address information to ensure it is correct. Please also review your bio and photo and let her know if the information is not current. Barbara continues to publish the “Virtual News” 2x/year (more or less). She looks forward to maintaining the site for a few more years until she retires.  
  10.  Fellows Community of Practice: Lynne McCay volunteered to be the facilitator. She had no response to date. The intent would be to provide open interaction beyond our group and to involve outsiders. Richard Hulser volunteered to help. 
     
  11.  New Business:
    1. Suggested that a new photo of the Fellows group be taken.
    2. Stephen Abram mentioned some political work being done at the Canadian Library Association. He suggested that participants take a look at the CLA web site where several documents are available. Janice commented that SLA has some efforts underway in the area tied to the International Platform.
    3. New convenors for 2006 – Lyle Minter and Susan DiMattia volunteered to be co-convenors.  
  12.  Meeting adjournment: Lynne enjoyed convening the group. She was formally thanked by all. Meeting adjourned at 2:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Karen Kreizman Reczek
Meeting Scribe