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North American Serials Interest GroupNASIG Newsletter Vol. 18, no. 4 December 2003 ISSN: 1542-3417 EXECUTIVE BOARD MINUTES Bea Caraway, NASIG Secretary Date, Time: October 23, 2003, 8:16 A.M. - approximately 5:30 P.M.Place: Milwaukee Hilton City Center, Kilbourne Room, Milwaukee, WI Attending: Members-at-Large: Guests: 1.0 Welcome (McKee) McKee called the meeting to order at 8:16 A.M. and welcomed board members and guests. She made one change to the agenda: for item 7.12, substitute a report on the mentoring program for the scheduled report on peer organizations. McKee said that she planned to ask for formal votes more frequently than may have been the case in past board meetings. Persing volunteered to be the time keeper during the meeting. 2.0 Secretary's report (Caraway) 2.1 Board actions since board meeting June 25, 2003: 7/30/03 Board voted to move the NASIG archives, with the exception of the conference souvenirs, to a permanent home in the archives of the University of Illinois. 7/31/03 Board voted to accept the PPC 2004 program format recommendation. 10/01/03 Board accepted, with thanks, the final report of the 2003 Conference Planning Committee. 10/17/03 Board happily accepted the 2004 conference logo (to be used on anything conference related, including the Proceedings) upon recommendation of the 2004 CPC. Persing moved (Tenney seconded) that the board approve the list of board decisions as recorded. Motion passed unanimously. 2.2 Board roster updates Caraway distributed copies of the 2003/2004 board rosters and asked board members to make corrections. 2.3 Revisions to the executive working calendar Caraway asked for changes needing to be made to the executive working calendar. None were noted. Caraway asked that board members contact her as they work with the calendar and discover inaccuracies. Caraway asked for clarification about the mechanism for making changes to the executive board working calendar. All agreed that all changes should go through the board liaisons to the secretary and from the secretary to the web master. The secretary will in turn notify board members of all such changes. Caraway reported that she had received no more NASIG banners since the June board meeting. ACTION: Caraway will post one more call for banners to NASIG-L. 3.0 Treasurer's report (Novak) 3.1 2003 budget (expenditures, detailed, balance sheet) Novak reported that NASIG had a total equity of $150,203.51 and liabilities of $0.00 as of October 11, 2003. Some committees have over expended their budgets due to unanticipated expenses, e.g., implementation of online registration and facilitation for strategic planning. 3.2.1 2003 conference The 2003 conference posted income of $162,643.24. Expenses as of October 11, 2003 totaled $143,914.69; however, Novak has just received a few more invoices totaling approximately $2,000. 3.2.2 Proposed 2004 budget The telephone category in the administrative budget received an increase of $200 to cover conference calls. Committee chairs who need to make conference calls should ask for help from their board liaison to set them up. Following a period of questions, answers, and discussion, Tenney moved (Cook seconded) that the board adopt the proposed 2004 budget. Motion passed unanimously. 3.2.3 Operating reserves (McKee) McKee addressed NASIG's lack of a plan for putting money away to cover operating expenses in the event of a period of financial difficulty. Our only income is from dues, which pay for 25-30% of annual operating expenses, from the income we receive from our publisher, Haworth Press, based upon the Proceedings, and from any surplus that may result from the conference. To make up the difference between income and expenses, we rely on conference surpluses from two or three years ago. However, conference surpluses are unpredictable and unreliable, and in some years, the conference runs a deficit. The kernel of such a "rainy-day fund" could be the Schwab account, to which NASIG has added some money over the years and from which it has withdrawn nothing for several years. McKee argued for creating a long-term plan for building a surplus which would allow NASIG to continue to exist in the event of a financial disaster, e.g., having to cancel a conference at the last minute. ACTION: The Finance Committee will study the issue and report back to the board. [Order of agenda items changed as indicated below] 7.0 Committee reports 7.1 Archivist's report (Caraway) Caraway reported that archivist Lange has reminded committee chairs to send materials for the archives, has filed materials and updated the inventory as she has received them, has continued to correspond with the University of Illinois regarding details of the transfer of materials, and has begun the folder-by-folder listing of materials required by the University of Illinois. As soon as the University of Illinois archives supplies the board with a memorandum of understanding, the board will be able to vote to accept the memorandum. Following that action, Holley Lange, NASIG archivist, can proceed with the transfer of materials to their permanent home. The board members extended their appreciation to Lange for her work on behalf of NASIG. ACTION: Caraway to follow up with Lange about the memo of understanding. 7.2 Awards and Recognition (Randall) Randall reported on actions taken by the committee since the June board meeting, including revising award announcements prior to the 2004 cycle and updating FAQs to reflect any related changes. Procedures for blind review of Tuttle award applications were completed. The board directed that all applications be subject to blind review. ACTION: Randall to direct the committee to institute blind review procedures for all award applications. For the sake of clarity, the board asked that the committee revise the documentation and announcement for the Fritz Schwartz Award to provide an unambiguous statement that the award is intended for students enrolled in master's degree programs in library science, not in doctoral programs. ACTION: Randall to direct the committee to specify that eligibility for the Fritz Schwartz Award is limited to students enrolled in an ALA-accredited master's degree program. Board discussion centered around a question put forward by the committee itself, that is, whether the committee might not be able to function as effectively with fewer members. At present there are 18 members including the co-chairs. Board members suggested several alternative schemes for committee composition. ACTION: Randall to work with VP/Pres.-Elect Savage to discuss these alternatives further and report back to the board. McKee informed the board that Bill Cohen, Haworth Press (publisher of the NASIG Proceedings) had offered to co-sponsor the student grant awards. The board reaffirmed that this goes against NASIG's policy prohibiting sponsorship by commercial entities. The co-chairs thanked outgoing members for their contributions and extended a warm welcome to new committee members. 4.0 Conference Planning Committee (Cipkowski and Novak) Cipkowski and Novak presented the report of CPC progress to date. Cipkowski began by noting that the CPC consisted of a reasonable number of members-9 members and 2 co-chairs. Assignments have been distributed to them and work is well under way. The Hilton Milwaukee City Center will be the conference hotel, charging $105 plus tax per night for single or double occupancy. Some nearby hotels are slightly less expensive while others are slightly higher. The 2004 conference logo has been designed and will appear on conference materials. Regarding rights to use the logo for various purposes, the board agreed that a model agreement should be drawn up and included in the CPC manual for use by each CPC. ACTION: Tenney will investigate some existing permission forms of this sort and recommend a draft. Regarding souvenirs, the board reaffirmed its decision from 2 years ago to not pass on unsold souvenirs for more than 2 years. Louise Diodato, committee member in charge of souvenirs, suggested the idea of selling some library-related, locally produced items on a consignment basis. The board thanked Louise for her creative thinking. ACTION: CPC to investigate this idea further and report back to the board. The opening session is tentatively planned to take place at the Milwaukee Public Library and the opening reception to follow in the Milwaukee Public Museum. The conference web site should be ready to go live as a "skeleton" site by November 15, 2003. Additional information will be included as time goes on. The CPC asked for direction on whether to organize a fun run this year. The board would be happy to see a fun run for attendees but has some concern about safety and liability issues on city streets. ACTION: Cipkowski to work with the CPC to find out what, if anything, is required by the city in order to have a fun run; also to find out if anyone in local running clubs would be willing to help out with the run. The board discussed the idea of setting member and non-member rates for conference attendance but came to no firm conclusion. The discussion was tabled until the next day's meeting. Todd O'Leary, of the Milwaukee Convention and Visitors Bureau, joined the board and showed samples of the publications his organization can provide for no charge or a minimal charge. These include city maps, photos of Milwaukee attractions to include on the conference web site, calendars of local events, and so forth. He can also send promotional materials to NASIG continuing education events that take place before conference registration closes. Volunteers are available to stuff conference packets at no charge. For a modest fee ($13.50 per hour, minimum 4 hours), the bureau can also offer to staff a visitor information desk in the hotel for providing restaurant and other information and for making meal reservations. The remainder of the day's agenda consisted of a tour of places where meetings or events may occur: the public library, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the library's meeting rooms at Marquette University, Miller Park, and the Hilton meeting and reception rooms. Agenda item 4.1 (rate structures for the conference - member vs. non-member) was deferred until later in the meeting. The afternoon's tours and the day's work concluded at approximately 5:30 P.M. NASIG Executive Board Minutes (cont.) Date, Time: October 25, 2003, 8:15 A.M. - 5:36 P.M. 7.0 Committee reports (cont.) 7.3. Bylaws (Tenney) Tenney reported on the committee's progress since the June 2003 board meeting, which included revising committee guidelines to reflect the changes which had been made to the bylaws in the spring 2003 vote. 7.3.1 Clarification about length of term for members-at-large In response to an earlier request from the board, the committee investigated term limits and restrictions on people who fill out partial terms in the case of an unexpected vacancy. The board was interested in knowing if a person filling out an unexpired term could be nominated for reelection to that same position. Their finding: NASIG uses Robert's Rules of Order except in cases where NASIG's bylaws differ explicitly, and Robert's states that "an officer who has served more than half a term...is considered to have served a full term." Consequently, the Bylaws Committee advised that the current bylaws cover this matter sufficiently and recommended that they not be changed. The board gratefully accepted their recommendation. 7.3.2. Clarification on termination of a member's rights In response to the recent improper use of the NASIG Directory by a NASIG member, the board asked the Bylaws Committee to investigate whether the section on membership needed revision to include information on member responsibilities and behavior. As in the case of term lengths, the committee advised the board that Robert's included procedures to cover such situations and that no major revision to the NASIG bylaws was required. The committee offered a draft statement that could be added to the NASIG bylaws, and Savage suggested including a statement to the effect that power to decide on sanctions for violations rests with the board. . The committee also recommended adding to the NASIG-L FAQ specific guidelines to cover responsibilities of members, appropriate behavior, and actions to be taken when infractions occur. ACTION: Tenney to ask the Bylaws Committee to revise their draft statement for the bylaws, to draft a section on member responsibilities and behavior for the NASIG-L FAQ, and to send the back to the board for approval. Tenney noted that the committee had collaborated with the Nominations and Elections Committee on the question of petition candidates. McKee commended both committees for modeling effective collaboration and thanked the members of the Bylaws Committee for their hard work. 7.4 Continuing Education (MacAdam) MacAdam reported on activities since the June board meeting. These included a successful mentoring program at the 2003 conference, with 40 pairs of mentors and mentees participating. Following the 2003 conference, the mentoring program began reporting temporarily to past president Eleanor Cook. In addition, the committee awarded the Mexican Student grant to Pablo Carrasco Renteria. Following the 2003 conference, the responsibility for this grant was shifted to the Awards and Recognition Committee. Continuing education events since June 2003 included 1) an SCCTP Integrating Resources workshop as a preconference to the Kentucky Library Association's annual conference (NASIG offered partial sponsorship) and 2) a program entitled "Managing, Controlling, and Cataloging the Elusive Electronic Journal," offered at the Pennsylvania Library Association's annual conference (NASIG offered partial sponsorship). Several events for 2004 are presently in the planning stages. The discussion on library school outreach was postponed until the board reached the agenda item on the Public Relations and Outreach Task Force. In response to McKee's question as to whether the Continuing Education Committee had developed any of their own ideas for CE events, MacAdam said that they had not. Board members contributed several ideas, including taking up unused ideas from the call for program ideas for the 2004 conference. The co-chairs expressed special appreciation to immediate past members Lisa Furubotten and Elizabeth Parang for their much-missed expertise in planning events in Mexico and Puerto Rico. The board thanked the members and co-chairs of the Continuing Education Committee for their enthusiasm and commitment. 7.5 Database and Directory (Persing) Persing reported that renewal letters had been mailed on October 3, 2003, at a total cost of $628.11, and that as of October 10, 2003, NASIG membership numbered 1338. The committee also piloted a web-accessible printable version of the online Membership Directory, which is updated twice monthly. As usual, the committee has done a good job of executing its schedule of Directory maintenance and updates. 7.5.1 Print-on-demand Directory The committee prepared a recommendation to the board regarding the future of the commercially printed NASIG Membership Directory. A printable online version of the Directory offers these advantages: 1) it would avoid the current problem of the print version having outdated information almost as soon as it is distributed, 2) an online, printable version would be updated twice month and will therefore make an accurate version available to members virtually all the time, 3) it would be far less expensive to produce. In the ensuing discussion, Persing noted that producing a printable online Directory would save $6,000-$7,000 annually. Page said that any printable version must be effortless to print, and therefore should probably be in PDF. Savage added that the searchable database must remain available to the membership, and not be replaced by a printable version only. MacAdam asked what last year's membership survey revealed about opinions of an online-only Directory, but no one present had the answer readily available. Simser suggested that both versions (commercially printed and online printable) should be available for at least a year. McKee expressed her opinion that moving exclusively to a printable online Directory entailed too much change for now. In response, MacAdam suggested tracking the number of times the printable version is downloaded during this year. ACTION: Persing to find out from ECC if it is possible to track the number of times the printable Directory is downloaded. ACTION: Persing to ask the chair of D&D to include, with each NASIG-L announcement of new members, a reminder that a printable version is available on NASIGWeb. The board thanked the committee for their initiative in offering a recommendation to the board. 7.5.2 Conversion of membership Directory to SQL server Schmitt led off the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of converting the database, which is presently in Access, to SQL. The disadvantage is that it is more complex to manage than Access and that, consequently, the Electronic Communications Committee would be heavily involved in conversion and in ongoing technical support. Advantages include 1) being able to have a tiered fee structure in online registration for members and non-members (because there could be membership look-up via a link from the registration form to the database, and 2) being able to maintain a permanent record of each member's NASIG-related activity, e.g., one's committee assignments and offices held. Treasurer Novak indicated that she would be more comfortable with one more cycle of the new online registration before making yet another change to the process by converting the membership database to SQL. After considerable discussion, Persing recommended that the Electronic Communications and the Database and Directory Committees convert the membership database to SQL in time for the 2005 round of renewals and conference registration. ACTION: Persing to ask ECC to begin investigating what would be involved in such a conversion schedule. 7.5.3 Deadline for renewals or new memberships In the event the board institutes a member/non-member fee structure for conference registration, the deadline for joining or renewing in order to be eligible for the member conference fee must be figured only after taking into account the timeline for processing new and renewed memberships, the database purge for non-renewed members, the printing of labels from the database for ballot mailings, and the opening of conference registration. Persing must check on these schedules before being able to recommend a deadline for renewals or new memberships. ACTION: Persing to verify the scheduled times for the above activities and recommend to the board a reasonable deadline for renewals or new memberships. 7.6 Electronic Communications (Persing) Persing reported that in addition to the committee's routine activities since the June board meeting, they have begun tracking statistics for hits on the Newsletter at the request of the Newsletter editor. In response to a number of reported problems in accessing NASIGweb after the posting of NASIG-L announcements that direct attention to the web site, Bee.net removed the company's standard limit of 100 simultaneous users so that NASIGweb users now have unlimited access. No problems have been reported since this change in access levels. Anna Creech is working with Newsletter editor Char Simser to create an online conference photo gallery. Four new listservs (PPC1-L through PPC4-L) were created for the Program Planning Committee subgroups; they can be reused each year. NASIG now has a total of 33 listservs. In response to a previous request for a recommendation to the board about adding a search-enabled feature to NASIGWeb, the committee asked for specific guidance as to what should be accessible to the search tool: public pages only or password-protected areas, too? In the latter case, non-members might well retrieve links to pages, including all of the Newsletters, that they would then be blocked form viewing. After some discussion on this point, Persing moved (Page seconded) that the Newsletter no longer be password-protected. The motion passed unanimously. This action cleared the way to consider once again what portions of the web site should be searchable. Simser asked if it would be possible to exclude the Newsletter from a given search in order to reduce the number of hits, if one so desired. ACTION: Persing to find out if one may exclude certain areas of NASIGWeb from a search, e.g., the Newsletters. Following discussion, Persing moved (Cook seconded) that the ECC create indexing for all non-password-protected areas of NASIGWeb. The motion passed unanimously. The board extended its gratitude to the Electronic Communications Committee for their diligence and conscientiousness. 7.7 Evaluation and Assessment (Schmitt) Schmitt report that in all, conference attendees turned in 238 conference forms, 47 preconference forms, and 38 poster session forms. The EAC keyed in ratings and comments and created summary reports, which were then distributed to the appropriate recipients. In addition, since this was NASIG's first year to be in hotels, not dorms, the EAC, at the request of the board, created a short survey emailed it to the approximately 60 attendees who did not stay in one of the conference hotels. This survey confirmed that some attendees chose to stretch their conference dollars by selecting less expensive accommodations. There was discussion about the inclusion of individual speaker ratings in the conference evaluation form. The current procedure involves sending a reminder to each speaker that his or her evaluation is available upon request. Depending on how many speakers typically request evaluations, the committee may rethink including the individual speaker sections on the evaluation form. Options for streamlining the process are having EAC send out speaker evaluations automatically or having the Program Planning Committee send a request form to each speaker. ACTION: Schmitt to find out from EAC how many speakers requested an evaluation report this year. 7.7.1 A major issue now being considered is whether or not to move to a web-based evaluation form. President McKee has appointed a task force to study the issue, including reviewing current options and resources available for web-based surveys and related electronic data analysis tools. McKee will announce the names of the task force members in the weeks following the fall board meeting. The task force is to submit its final report to the board by the January 2004 board meeting. Schmitt is to serve as the task force's liaison to the board. If the task force were to recommend and the board to approve adopting such a tool, implementation would not take place during 2004. The primary concern of the EAC when considering a web-based application is the time that would be required to redesign the form. 7.8 Newsletter (Simser) Simser reported on activities since the last board meeting. Staffing changes: Carol MacAdam, Step Schmitt, and Pam Cipkowski stepped down from their positions on the editorial board to assume responsibilities on the NASIG board and with the Conference Planning Committee. Five new staff members joined the Newsletter: Susan Andrews (columns editor), Sharon Heminger (copy editor), Maggie Rioux (profiles editor), Mykie Howard (html editor), and Kathy Kobyljanec (conference editor). Kathy Kobyljanec's work as conference editor has ended; she will now maintain the NASIG "Calendar of Events." (This responsibility was previously assumed by the html editor.) Despite the changes, the most recent issue of the Newsletter appeared in both the html and pdf versions the within a few days of the September 1 deadline. Regarding the change from the Newsletter's being password-protected to its being a publicly-accessible document, Simser indicated that she would include an announcement to that effect when she sends the link out to NASIG-L for the next issue. Reporting on progress toward creating a digital archive of conference photo, Simser announced that Anna Creech (ECC member) was working with her on this project. A tentative proposal would be to have an index list of all the annual conferences with links to each set of photos. In addition, there could be a link from the annual conference web site itself. This could also be the place to link to a photo gallery of all souvenirs from past conferences. Cook suggested setting as a goal to have photos up and available by the 20th anniversary conference. Schmitt brought up the question of needing permission from the people pictured in the photographs. Most thought that it would be sufficient to get permission from the photographer only. Novak then moved (Tenney seconded) that the Newsletter editor move forward with a digital photograph archive. The motion passed unanimously. ACTION: Persing will ask ECC to provide help with technical specifications. 7.9 Nominations and Elections (Cook) Cook reported that Nominations and Elections had issued calls for nominations according to its usual schedule, i.e., during and in the weeks following the 2003 conference. 7.9.1 Proposed Bylaws Change N&E assisted the Bylaws Committee by giving input on a proposed revision of article VII, section I of the bylaws. The revision would allow nominees by petition to appear on the official ballot. If approved by the membership, the change would take effect for the election of officers and members-at-large for 2005. Discussion centered in part on the timing for board approval of the slate of candidates and distribution by the Nominations and Elections Committee of that slate to the membership. These dates and the deadline for membership renewals must be synchronized in order to verify the membership status of petition candidates. As the bylaws language includes no dates, the Nominations and Elections Committee will work out the timing in cooperation with the Database and Directory Committee and the treasurer in order to establish a workable process. ACTION: Cook to ask N&E to work with D&D to establish a workable timeline for distributing the official ballot, receiving petition ballots, and verifying membership status. In further discussion, McKee expressed concern over the small number of endorsements required by the proposed bylaws language (10) in order for a petition candidate to appear on the ballot. Randall suggested that every call for nominations include a link to a page detailing the petition process. Cook moved (MacAdam seconded) that the text of the bylaws revision as amended be sent to the membership for a vote. There were 9 yes votes and 2 abstentions. The motion passed. After the vote, the question arose as to whether or not a position statement would be required of a petition candidate. ACTION: Cook to ask N&E to determine whether or not a petition candidate is required to submit a position statement. The board thanked the Nominations and Elections Committee and Bylaws Committee for working so well together on the question of petition candidates. 7.10 Proceedings (Randall) Randall reported that the manuscript submission deadline for the conference Proceedings was changed to October 31 this year, about a month later than in the past. All the papers but one were submitted. One paper from the 2002 Proceedings was inadvertently omitted but will be included in the 2003 Proceedings (with an editorial comment) and in the online version of the 2002 Proceedings. The indexer for the 2003 Proceedings will be LadyJane Hickey McKee announced that she will appoint a task force to investigate all potential outlets for publication of the Proceedings. Haworth currently publishes the Proceedings. 7.11 Publications (Page) Page reported that the online conference handouts were a glowing success, thanks to Michelle Seikel and Rick Anderson. Betty Landesman and Lillian DeBlois continue to work with Frieda Rosenberg on the NASIGuide to the serial holdings format. Marit Taylor is fine-tuning the human resources directory on NASIGWeb. Page introduced the topic of possible involvement of the Publications Committee in a project to preserve ezines. NASIG member Steve Oberg had suggested the idea to the committee. After some discussion, the board asked Page to request that the committee survey what related projects, if any, are presently under way outside NASIG. ACTION: Publications Committee to investigate what projects are under way to preserve ezines. 7.13 Program Planning Committee (Savage, Geller, McElroy) Geller and McElroy reported that the PPC is pleased with the response to the three calls for programming ideas rather than the traditional call for proposals that had a single deadline in August. They recommend that this approach be continued next year with some refinements. Another change this year consists in the PPC taking an active role in finding appropriate speakers to take on topics of great interest, rather than only primarily choosing among ready-made proposals that were submitted. A third change is the creation of subgroups of committee members not along program-type lines (plenary, concurrent, workshop), but rather according to implementation of various changes to the program structure (poster sessions; working lunches; exhibits; business meeting; and handling paperwork, both within the PPC and for the presenters). The co-chairs went over a very preliminary outline of possible programs and discussed with the board some changes in scheduling that may be required because of room configurations at the conference hotel. ACTION: PPC to finalize the program content and schedule for the 2004 conference. 4.1 Rate structures - member vs. non-member (deferred from Friday's agenda) Board discussion revealed no dissent on the topic of charging a higher conference fee for non-members than for members. Most organizations, including ALA, do this. It may motivate people to join NASIG, and if not, it will create an added benefit for NASIG members by helping to defray some small part of the cost to members. Persing moved (MacAdam seconded) that NASIG set higher fees for non-members than for members. The motion passed unanimously. The fees for the annual conference will be set, as usual, during the January board meeting. 7.14 Site Selection (Page, Tenney) For the 2005 conference, to be held in Minneapolis, Page collected comparative information on costs, services, and facilities for three hotels, the Hilton, the Hyatt, and the Marriott. After careful consideration of this information, the board decided to drop the Marriott but to ask Page to negotiate food prices further with the Hilton and the Hyatt before a final decision is made. ACTION: Page to pursue further negotiations and report back to the board, with a goal of signing a contract with one or the other of the hotels by December 12, 2003. For the 2006 conference, Page and Tenney have sent inquiries to and requests for information from Denver, CO, Memphis, TN, and Charlotte, NC. Denver and Memphis have responded. A NASIG member contacted NASIG concerning the possibility of holding the 2006 conference at their campus. If a complete preliminary site selection checklist form is completed and returned, the site selection team will investigate further. 7.16 Publicist (Cook) Cook indicated that she had sent 80 English and 10 Spanish brochures in response to requests from NASIG members to be distributed at regional events. To the list of lists that NASIG announcements go to, she has added LibAdmin and ERIL-L. She has also added our corresponding members as well as contacts from Australia and New Zealand to her address list. Lisa Furubotten has agreed to serve as the contact specifically for the Mexican list, which has proved difficult to subscribe and unsubscribe to. The publicist will forward announcements to her to forward on to the list. In response to Cook's comments about the time-consuming nature of the work and the need to use a separate email address to accomplish it, Savage suggested having ECC establish a generic publicist email address, which would allow for permanent subscription to the appropriate lists. ACTION: Persing to ask ECC to create an email address for the publicist. 8.0 New Business 8.1 Appointment of Newsletter editor as board ex-officio (McKee) McKee put forward for discussion the idea of making the position of Newsletter editor an ex-officio board position. After very brief discussion, Novak moved (Savage seconded) that the position of Newsletter editor be an ex-officio member of the board. The motion passed unanimously. Randall then moved (Persing seconded) that any ex-officio board member be a non-voting member. The motion passed unanimously. 8.2 Registration fee waiver for PPC co-chairs (McKee, Savage) The question proposed for discussion was whether the co-chairs of the Program Planning Committee should have the conference registration fee waived. The reimbursement policy stipulates that members and co-chairs of the Conference Planning Committee receive waivers of the conference registration fee. The board reached no agreement on the question and tabled it for discussion at a later board meeting. 8.3 UKSG proposal (McKee) Following the June 2003 board meeting, McKee contacted the UKSG and asked for a proposal for cooperating on Serials e-News. The draft letter from the UKSG came in August 2003 and reflects the key points enumerated by the NASIG board at the June board meeting. Important clarifications that arose during the discussion included the fact that Serials eNews would not replace the NASIG Newsletter and that the distribution of the publication would be via NASIG-L. It was mentioned that cooperating with the UKSG on Serials eNews would help move us toward one of the goals in the new strategic plan, i.e., to increase NASIG's visibility worldwide. At the end of the discussion, there was no consensus. McKee offered to contact UKSG again to ask for permission to distribute an electronic copy of a back issue to the NASIG membership in order to find out what members might think of it. ACTION: McKee to ask for permission to distribute a copy of Serials eNews to the NASIG membership. 8.5 Late-night socials (McKee, Cook) Past-president Cook reported that the hospitality suite next to her room at the Portland Marriott had served as the location for unofficial late-night socials during the 2003 conference. The invitation spread by word of mouth, not to be exclusive but in order to be discreet about bringing our own food and drink into the hotel. All interested NASIG members and guests were welcome. Approximately 40-50 people came each evening, and on the first evening most of the student grant winners attended. Mentoring pairs also attended. Guests were invited to "BYOB" (which a few did), contribute snacks (which one did), and make contributions to help defray the cost (which several did). Cook recommended providing a similar arrangement in Milwaukee, for the cost would be minimal (the cost of the room and the cost of food and drink brought in but not catered by the hotel). During the discussion which followed the recommendation, it was noted that the costs to host a hospitality suite in a hotel are much higher than to have a space for a late-night social on campus. Usually such campus rooms are free of charge, and the catering costs are minimal. At a hotel, to the cost of the room must be added the cost of hotel catering, which is prohibitively expensive. However, trying to "sneak" food and drink into the suite was strongly discouraged as an alternative. Page suggested that board members instead volunteer to lead groups to bars, coffee shops, and so forth each evening. Daily announcements could include information about such groups, and the information could also be posted to the message board. The CPC will suggest suitable places close to the hotel in Milwaukee. 8.4 Purchasing a NASIG-owned laptop for CPC (Tenney, Schmitt) Background information: The biggest obstacle to online registration is getting good technical support for the registrar. The availability of good tech support depends upon where the registrar is located and whether he or she has someone to trouble-shoot as needed. Proposal: NASIG would buy a PC and printer. A designated member of ECC would set up the laptop with the required software and files and mail it to the registrar, who can bring it to the conference in order to conduct on-site registration. Presently, the registrar must own or be able to borrow a laptop to bring to conference. At the end of the conference, the registrar could give the PC and printer to the designated ECC member for reworking before the next round of conference registrations begins. Cost: $1500-$2000. Discussion centered on the cost relative to the benefit of this expenditure compared to other potential expenditures. The board also discussed in what ways various possible expenditures might further particular strategic goals. Examples include the cost of cooperating on the UKSG publication, Serials eNews, which would enhance NASIG's visibility worldwide, and the cost of awarding conference grants to students, which we assume helps further our goal of identifying and recruiting new serials to the profession. Determining the relative importance of various goals and the extent to which the action would help us attain them was a task the board could not accomplish on such a limited schedule; the topic promises to be an ongoing point of discussion. Regarding student awards, Schmitt suggested having a fund-raiser to earn money to fund some of the student awards if the board decided to give fewer of them. Novak suggested tabling the issue of a NASIG-owned PC until we can find the money to carry out the recommendation. ACTION: Each liaison is to examine his or her committee budgets and report on any possible extra funds. Since the topic of student grants had been brought up, consideration was given to the number of grants to be awarded for the 2004 conference. After discussion, Cook moved (Persing seconded) that NASIG award up to three student grants, one Fritz Schwartz, one Horizon, one Mexican Student Grant, and up to one Tuttle award in 2004. The motion passed unanimously. 7.15 PR/Outreach Task Force recommendations In response to its charge "to review the former RC&M Committee's charge and responsibilities, and recommend a replacement committee that can address these needs and others that are relevant to public relations and outreach efforts," the PR/Outreach Task Force report offered a proposal which took the charge into account and also considered how it related to the strategic plan. Their recommendation is that rather than attempt to accomplish everything with volunteers, NASIG form a relationship with a firm familiar with the library and serials communities to provide professional management in the following areas: membership acquisition and management, organizational news and public relations, and professional organization liaisons. While volunteers are essential to NASIG and show great dedication, the task force believes that the expertise and time required to offer professional management as noted above may not reasonably be expected of volunteers. Discussion: Savage noted that membership acquisition and management are qualitatively different from organizational news and public relations or professional organization liaisons and could perhaps continue to be accomplished by volunteers. Page wondered how we could execute the recommendation of the PR/Outreach Task Force. She suggested asking a new task force to investigate how the proposal could be carried out and how much it would cost. McKee noted that Betty Kjellberg could give us some starting points for such an investigation. The new task force could be made up of some of the PR/Outreach Task Force members with some new ones added. Page would like to see the proposal fleshed out with several different scenarios. ACTION: McKee to appoint a task force to determine various options and their costs for implementing the recommendations of the PR/Outreach Task Force. As for the mentoring program, which had been supposed to move from the Continuing Education Committee to the now-disbanded RC&M, Cook suggested that it become the Mentoring Committee, perhaps with library school outreach as part of its charge. McKee disagreed with the notion of turning it into a committee now. Tenney proposed letting the mentoring program continue to work independently and report to the past president for at least until after June, then revisit the question, to which everyone agreed. With regard to the question of library outreach, which was one of the issues the PR/Outreach Task Force had been asked to consider, pending the results of the new task force, the board directed MacAdam to ask Deberah England and Kim Maxwell to compile a list of contacts at all of the ALA-accredited schools. 9.0 Other business Novak observed that the afternoon of tours to local facilities selected for social events, opening sessions, and meeting spaces were not a good use of the board members' time. She suggested, and the board agreed, that in the future, a 1-hour drive around the city would suffice, and only if CPC had a concern about a particular location should the board visit it at length. Savage noted that perhaps not all committee reports need to be discussed at the board meeting. McKee agreed strongly, suggesting that only those committees with action or discussion items listed should be allotted time on the board agenda. Novak asked each liaison to instruct his or her committee chairs to send invoices to her before December 31. She also asked that board members send her their invoices right after the board meeting. As each committee had been asked to submit a draft of a report form that would include, among other pertinent elements, any significant statistics collected, the board examined and offered suggestions for each committee's report form. The board agreed that the generic report form should be in Times New Roman, 12 point, with 1-inch margins. The web liaison for each committee is to store the report template on the committee's web page along with a reminder about the formatting requirements. ACTION: Each liaison to inform his or her committee chair(s) of the formatting requirements for the reports and to ask the chair to have the web liaison mount the template and instructions on the committee's web page. 8.8 Commercial aspects discussion, including COUNTER (all) When discussing the advisability of joining COUNTER at a cost of $500, the board quickly agreed that we cannot take this on until our finances are healthier. The question of involving commercial NASIG conference participants by way of product reviews elicited considerable discussion. Conference participants who work for vendors that supply a particular product or service could all have a brief time to demonstrate the product or service to other interested NASIG attendees. Advantages noted were that such reviews had a strong educational function and that they supported the strategic plan's goal of reaching out to the vendor community more effectively. Disadvantages noted were that product reviews were too much like selling, that they presented uneven opportunities for vendors, and that they were in conflict with NASIG's current non-commercialism policy. After long discussion, Page moved (Savage seconded) that we add to the 2004 conference program product demonstrations focused on a particular topic or product area to be recommended by PPC. There were 7 yes votes, 2 no votes, and 1 abstention. The motion passed. Novak moved to adjourn. No second being required, McKee adjourned at 5:35 P.M.
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