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North American Serials Interest GroupNASIG NewsletterVol. 21, no. 1 March 2006 ISSN 1542-3417 NASIG EXECUTIVE BOARD MINUTES Elizabeth Parang, NASIG Secretary Date: January 19th, 2006
Members-at-Large: Ex-Officio member: Guests: 1.0 Welcome (Page) Page called the meeting to order at 8:25 a.m., welcomed Board members and guests, and asked that each person introduce himself or herself. Page reminded those present that because Board members have read all reports before the start of the meeting, only those reports requiring action will be discussed in the meeting. Page noted that the Board meetings are public with published agenda and minutes. 2.0 Secretary's Report (Parang) 2.1 Board Actions Since October 2005 Meeting Parang noted that while there had been lots of discussion, there had been no formal actions. 2.2 Pending Action items from past meetings The SSP (Society for Scholarly Publishing) proposal was again discussed. A suggestion was made that small publishers seeking input could use the HR list, when updated, to locate librarians willing to offer opinions. Chesler felt that publishers would not hold NASIG responsible for any comments made by NASIG members. As an alternative, pairing of publishers with librarians could be part of a mentoring program. ACTION: Chesler will discuss the status of the SSP proposal with October Ivins. Randall noted that NASIG would eventually get PDFs of older Proceedings from Haworth. The PDFs come from the journal version and do not include the indexes but the PDFs are searchable. Page reported that ECC (Electronic Communications Committee) had posted all the conference handouts that had been given to the group. Dalene Hawthorne of ECC will work with the Program Planning Committee to see that the 2006 conference handouts are posted.
3.1 Report from treasurer Robischon reported that memberships are still coming in with the total now at 810. The total memberships for 2005 were 1253. Savage mentioned that last year about 200 people joined after the conference announcement was made. Some members renew mid-year.
Committee spending is under budget. Unspent funds will go to the Contingency Fund as per the Financial Plan. The committees need more accurate budgeting. Where appropriate, committee annual reports should include an explanation of why budget was not expended. ACTION: As designated in the Financial Plan, Robischon and Savage will develop instructions for committee chairs about how to make their annual budget requests and will determine ways for the Treasurer to provide more detailed information for the chairs to aid in formulating these requests. ACTION: Liaisons should work more closely with committee chairs in creating 2007 budgets. 3.3 2005 Conference Report Final The 2005 conference accounting is completely finished and shows a surplus of $29,405.20. 3.4 Procedures for fake registrations (both membership and conference) Fake registrations are only a problem if a wrong credit card number is entered. If NASIG does have to pay a charge back fee, this is expensive. The Treasurer can recognize possible fake entries and contact the person before processing. ACTION: Robischon will create a list of tips on recognizing fake registrations, including examples, for the Treasurer's Manual with assistance from Schmitt. 3.5 Update on networking/conferencing software Netspoke could support a variety of connection methods for the same conference call. Possibly PPC or CPC could try this type of call and report their experience to the Board. Netspoke offers free training sessions. The whiteboard space is real-time; Robischon will ask Netspoke if the whiteboard materials can be saved. 4.0 Online Registration Team (Page) 4.1 Status and timeline Page reported the ORT is starting work now due to the earlier conference dates. Paul Seaman is working with this year's ORT whose members are Buddy Pennington, Chair, Anna Creech, Cecilia Genereux, Sarah George, Rose Robischon, Step Schmitt, consultant, and Fariha Grieme consultant. ORT will work with the Program Planning Committee to get the program set up and will probably ask the Board to test the site. 5.0 Program Planning (Frick, Garner, Novak) 5.1 Review and approve program PPC will be contacting speakers for final abstracts; a few speakers still need to be added. Concerning the vendor demo, PPC had thought of asking serials subscriptions vendors to come and give an overview of 21st century services. The pricing tactics session will follow up from one held ten years ago. Small subscription agents who register should be urged to attend this session and contribute to the Q & A portion. PPC will consider moving this session back to a strategy session. The Hot Topic will be announced about three weeks ahead of the conference and include the names of the persons to speak on the topic. Registration will open at 2 or 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Free time on Saturday should be clearly listed. There will be 10-12 tabletop poster presentations. Randall moved (Emery seconded) approving the conference program as presented and the motion passed unanimously. 5.2 Coordination with PPC, ORT, Proceedings and Treasurer The schedule is submitted first to the Conference Planning Committee and then to the Online Registration Team. 6.0 Conference Planning Committee (Moeller, Tenney) 6.1 Schedule, events, venues Jennifer Leffler is a new member of the CPC. The possibility of employing newer technology for recording speakers was discussed but the conclusion was to wait until 2007, as more time was needed to move forward. For this year perhaps a microphone and an MP3 player could be utilized. In order for the blog to succeed, better access to wireless is needed. CPC will look into arranging for 10 simultaneous users. The Board expressed a willingness to pay up to $200 per day for Thursday-Sunday to support wireless access in the public area. The safety of the fun run was discussed. The bulk of the run will be on a Cherry Creek path and be 3-5 miles long. Local events were discussed. The Tattered Cover bookstore will give conference attendees a discount and would allow use of its events room. Ginanni suggested hosting an Open Mike session in the events room, making sure this was adequately publicized. CPC should investigate getting food and drink at a discount from the Tattered Cover café. Moeller reported on three possible baseball games. Many bars and restaurants are located near the ballpark and conference attendees could have a "dine-around" before the game. Midlevel section tickets cost $15. CPC plans to commit for 100 tickets but will check with the Milwaukee CPC to discover how many tickets were sold there. This ballpark is closer to the hotel than the one in Milwaukee. The opening event at Red Rock will have the gift shop open. The buses are set and a jazz group has been lined up to play. Postcards should be sent to a target list. NASIG members will get notices on email. Robischon will work with McClamroch to create a list of non-renewing members and members who do not receive NASIG-L who will receive postcards. Souvenir t-shirts will be provided to CPC and PPC members and to award winners. Other t-shirts will be sold for $15 and souvenir water bottles will be sold for $10. A walking tour will be offered. No commitment is needed; if you show up you pay. Other tours must guarantee a certain number of participants. Dine-arounds will be promoted on Friday and Saturday. Art galleries are open on that Friday evening. One member will do a dine- and movie-around centered on an old movie theater. The Molly Brown room in the hotel has been reserved Thursday-Saturday as a drop-in late night social venue. People can buy drinks at the bar and either stay in the bar area or move to the adjacent Molly Brown room. 6.2 Conference budget The conference budget stands as approved at the October meeting. 6.3 Set registration fee Robischon moved (Chesler seconded) that the basic conference registration fees be kept the same as for last year's conference: $375 for members, $475 for nonmembers and $150 for a single day; the fee for half-day conferences to be $75 for members and $100 for nonmembers; the fee for two day conferences to be $150 for members and $175 for nonmembers. If the Online Registration Team indicates it is feasible, a person could join NASIG at the same time as registering for the conference and register at the member rate. The motion passed unanimously. 6.4 Training sessions for NASIG members on committees (Page, Randall, Novak, Tenney) Training is needed for committee web liaisons, members of the Electronic Communications Committee, members of the Database & Directory Committee, and the Treasurer. CPC should schedule a room in the hotel and plan an instruction session on Saturday from 3:30-5 p.m. The appointment letter from the Vice-President should indicate the need to attend training. Page stressed the need for this training to be a regular part of each conference. 7.0 New Committees 7.1 Library School Outreach Task Force (Maxwell, Ginanni, Emery) Once the Membership Development Committee representative to the Task Force is appointed, the Task Force will prepare a plan with specific action items for review by the Executive Board at their May 2006 meeting. 7.2 Membership Development Committee (Maxwell) Maxwell asked if this would be a permanent or temporary committee. This will be a permanent committee; Savage indicated this committee was part of NASIG's Financial Plan. Board members agreed that periodic committee review should be considered as a Bylaws change. Following discussion the Board agreed that the Membership Development Committee's goal should be listed in the charge as "To maintain or increase membership numbers each year once the optimal levels have been reached." The first goal listed in the draft charge is actually an objective and should be moved to that section of the charge. The objective stated as "To recommend to the Board methods for achieving these target membership levels" should be modified by adding "and carry out Board directives in coordination with other committees." The Membership Development Committee will focus on outreach; it will not be responsible for the membership Directory or database. The immediate concern of the Membership Development Committee is to rewrite the membership brochure and send it to the translator's team. The MDC will be responsible for updating and maintaining the membership brochure. The MDC should examine statistics and make recommendations. ACTION: Maxwell will contact potential members and establish overlapping appointments for the Membership Development Committee. Maxwell will encourage the committee to have recommendations for the October Board meeting. 7.3 Financial Development Committee (Novak, Savage) Savage did not receive any Board comments on the draft charge he circulated. Two possible members have been identified and will be contacted by Page. Page will send out a call on NASIG-L asking interested members to send a letter of interest to Savage indicating previous relevant experience with non-profits. The first year committee work will concentrate on developing plans and a small group of around five is needed. The Past-President will be the Board liaison. 7.4 Charge for Publications/Public Relations Committee (Novak, Savage & Emery) This committee's chair will have the responsibility of printing a copy of all online publications and sending it to the Archivist. The portion of the charge reading "identification of needed publications" should be modified by adding "or updated versions of publications" and the later reference to "updating" should be removed. The Chair's Manual must indicate that each committee needs a public relations person to send information to the Newsletter, notify the Publicist to send information outside NASIG, and to notify other appropriate committees. ACTION: Tenney volunteered to look over Guidelines for Chairs and note what sections need revisions. The Chairs' Manual is a Board publication while each committee has written that committee's Guidelines. ACTION: Novak, Savage & Emery will produce a final version of the Publications/Public Relations Committee charge. Novak will then send out a call for volunteers. 8.0 Financial Plan (Savage) Savage is still working on the chronology. Savage and Novak are looking for a financial planner. Savage will work with the Treasurer on how to provide more information, especially historical information, to the Board and to committees and to provide information to committee chairs about budgeting. All Board members need to be current with the financial state of the organization. The Treasurer must continue to monitor the level of the position's workload and notify the Board if the workload becomes onerous. Once a financial planner is selected, work can start on setting up various endowments. A greater separation between conference and non-conference money will exist in the future. Novak suggested talking to Bank of America concerning what kind of help they offer non-profits in financial planning. 9.0 Technology Plan Page offered a recap of the October discussion that concluded with a stated preference to outsource some functions rather than using volunteers: online registration, online voting, maintenance of the membership database, and overall web design. NASIG needs to issue an RFP - possibly just one but could ask service providers to bid on one or all functions. Also could consider outsourcing evaluation and assessment as suggested by the E&A committee and possibly include surveys. Emery commented that at the time the Online Registration Team process started, she got information from the Texas Library Association that also outsourced all of these functions; the TLA went with one firm for all. The Board consensus was that the first RFP should look for a coordinated system but if not successful, then subsequent RFPs could be sent out for various functions. All of the functions except web design require member validation. Page is still selecting members for an RFP Task Force. The Board should expect a status report by May with an RFP sent out by August that includes a deadline in time for a September conference call on the results. ACTION: Page will appoint an RFP/Outsourcing Task Force which will begin its work in February and provide a status report to the Board in May. The Board must approve the RFP before it is sent out. Current stakeholders need to review the RFP before the Board sees it. The RFP Task Force would create a tally sheet of vital and desired attributes. The Board will examine and approve this checklist. A smaller group would review submissions and send a selection of the best, with recommendations, to the Board. Talking to customers of the vendors is important. A change in Internet Service Provider might be necessary. 10.0 Committee Reports 10.1 Archivist (Parang) The Archivist needs to send a reminder to Chairs-L concerning the responsibility to send appropriate committee papers to the Archives. 10.2 Awards & Recognition (Ginanni) Ginanni received an email from Slagell alerting the Board that a winner of the student Mexican award had been selected. The Board approved this selection. The Board wondered how a dialogue could be developed with the membership concerning corporate sponsorship of awards. This could be a possible brainstorming or blog topic. Possibly groups such as the Society for Scholarly Publishing might sponsor an award rather than an individual vendor. Dialogue might also explore what NASIG could accomplish with commercial support. A service such as Survey Monkey could be used to solicit member input. The NASIG website could contain proposals along with their pros and cons. The Board wondered if corporate sponsorships would be seen as a conflict with NASIG as a noncommercial venue. Investigating this topic is a possible task for the Financial Development Committee. Next year members should be offered the opportunity to donate money when renewing via a check-off box. Page will check with the ORT; this capability may already exist but be masked. If specific categories are listed, Page will let the Financial Development Committee know what they are. 10.3 Bylaws (Maxwell) The chair, Adolfo Tarango, felt the Chairs Manual was fine. The Committee is looking through the Bylaws for changes needed to update the language. The Bylaws Committee does the final wording of bylaw changes but works cooperatively with the committee or person proposing the change. Maxwell will ask the committee to look for instances of very specific detailed dates based on a June conference. 10.4 Continuing Education Committee (Emery) The chairs requested better guidelines for budgeting in the Chairs' Manual. 10.5 Database and Directory Committee (Page) Database maintenance is very labor intensive. Having overlapping terms for co-chairs is desirable. ACTION: Whenever possible while appointing committees this spring, Novak will appoint a Vice-Chair/Chair-in-Training whose term overlaps the Chair's term. 10.6 Electronic Communications Committee (Page) Concerning Board actions requested: The updating of the membership brochures has been assigned to the Membership Development Committee. The ECC should make suggestions/recommendations to the Board as to how to make elimination of duplicate files and archiving of old files a formal procedure. The Working Calendar should indicate lead-time before the conference; online calendaring should be included in the RFP process. ACTION: The Electronic Communication Committee should update committee guidelines so that the NASIGweb password change is in sync with the renewal cycle, changing Feb.1. The ECC should institute a new naming convention for the password. 10.7 Evaluation and Assessment Committee (Page) Marla Baden is the new chair of the committee. The committee is interested in possible corporate sponsorship of an Internet café at the conference with the opening screen being a survey. Online evaluation will be part of the overall outsourcing RFP. If E&A can do an online evaluation this year, the Board authorized spending up to $500 to make it happen. A survey sent to those who didn't attend the conference would ask why they didn't come. 10.8 Newsletter (Simser) 10.8.1 Personnel changes update Kathryn Wesley has accepted the position of Editor-in-Chief. 10.8.2 Should the Newsletter go blog-style? Simser explained the benefits of discontinuing HTML and going to a blog format, noting that the printout of the PDF version is the version of record. Simser will discuss this possibility further with Wesley 10.8.3 Replacements for submissions and/or HTML editors from volunteer pool. Transition to blog-style would eliminate need for HTML editors. 10.9 Nominations and Elections Committee (Savage) The Committee did a great job of putting together a slate of candidates working only from late October to Jan. 15, 2006. The Board extended its appreciation for N&E Chair Anne McKee and each and every N&E member, all of whom worked hard to make this election possible. 10.10 Proceedings (Randall) Randall reported the second call for Proceedings editors netted three applications. Mering, Randall, Saxton, and Simser will interview the applicants via conference call. Overlapping editor terms is preferred and so one person could be chosen for one year and another for two years. Randall noted the desire to have a decision by February 1, 2006. The HTML version has been discontinued because Haworth will provide a searchable PDF version to post. An ambiguous email from Haworth concerning payment to an indexer was discussed. Randall will ask Haworth for clarification as to whether Haworth intends to hire someone. Paying a NASIG volunteer would not be acceptable. 10.11 Professional Liaisons (Chesler) Chesler received no responses to his emails and no Newsletter submissions. The Membership Development Committee could work with this group to funnel membership information to their organizations. The group could also be used to send NASIG conference information to their members; Chesler should coordinate with the Publicist on this possibility. 10.12 Publicist (Savage) Only activity since October was one request for brochures. 10.13 Site Selection Committee (Novak, Page, Tenney) Tenney announced that a contract was successfully negotiated with the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, KY for May 29-June 2, 2007. Because these dates follow the Kentucky Derby, decorations for that event will still exist. The contract includes great room rates: $95.00 per night for a single or double for the Standard Tower room and $115.00 per night for a single or double in the Executive Suite Tower. The Galt is a beautiful hotel and we look forward to a great conference in 2007. Tenney has sent RFPs to possible 2008 sites and is receiving responses. [10.14] Unfinished business The Board commented on the varying committee report formats. A need exists to revise the templates indicating minimum standards: name of committee in full, names of committee members with their affiliation, date, and author of report. Ginanni volunteered to locate the template information and revise if necessary. Page will ask Creech to place the template on the NASIGweb under "Forms." The templates should already be in the committees' web space. There being no further business, Page adjourned the meeting at 4:08 p.m.
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