About NASIG
|
North American Serials Interest GroupNASIG Newsletter Vol. 14, No. 2 (April 1999) MINUTES OF THE NASIG BOARD MEETING Meg Mering, NASIG Secretary Attending: Steve Oberg, President Steve Savage, Newsletter Editor 1.0 Welcome and Approval of Minutes from November 13-14 meeting S. Oberg called the meeting to order at 2:40 pm. The minutes from the Nov. 13-14, 1998 meeting were approved with one addition. A sentence will be added to the RC&M report which indicates that J. Johnston printed additional membership brochures. 2.0 Treasurer's report After final expenditures were incorporated, the Boulder conference is showing a surplus of $14,935.00. 1032 individuals have renewed their memberships for a total income of $19,818.00 thus far. The financial status continues to be good. G. Williams prepared a report analyzing expenses versus income over the past three years. The Board discussed why these figures vary. For instance, the Newsletter costs were not included consistently each year, because the bills for the December issue are often received in January and therefore may be paid in the next calendar year. G. Williams will refigure the report so that the Board can review it again with the missing figures. G. Williams noted that the Board has approved using surplus funds to support core activities which the Strategic Plan says should be covered by membership dues. The Board continued discussion of a modest dues increase that was first proposed at the Fall 1998 meeting. This also led to a discussion of reviewing the Strategic Plan. ACTION: S. Oberg will appoint a task force to review the Strategic Plan. ACTION: The Taskforce will make a report to the Board. Instituting a credit card payment option for NASIG members is proceeding. It will be for VISA and MasterCard only. Insurance coverage must be resolved immediately so NASIG will be covered for the Carnegie Mellon conference. ACTION: G. Williams will complete insurance arrangements as soon as she receives the appropriate address information from Carnegie Mellon. ACTION: Board will formally consider a dues increase. G. Williams will present various financial scenarios to facilitate the decision making process. 3.0 Volunteer Efforts discussion S. Oberg asked the Board Liaisons to share reports from committee chairs on their needs for extra help and their thoughts on paid staff for NASIG administrative duties. The Board decided not to go in the direction of hiring central, paid staff. ACTION: Board Liaisons will continue to assist their committees in better understanding how they can hire extra help. A primary means for publicizing availability of funds for extra help will be the Committee Chair Orientation session which will be held each year at the conference. ACTION: The Board agreed to look at all aspects of the organizational work and examine other areas where NASIG can successfully "outsource" operations similar to what has been done for printing and distributing the Newsletter, for support service for NASIGNET, etc. 4.0 Committee Reports 4.1 Archives Due to illness, M. Fletcher has not completed a list of missing items from the archives. When the list is ready, the Board will be asked to assist in locating these items. The Board discussed if the archives should include NASIG artifacts, which would include conference souvenirs and other tangible items. The Board affirmed that the archives should include artifacts. ACTION: S. Davis and M. Fletcher will create a list of artifacts from past conferences and will post a call for donations of the same to the archives. No perishable items will be collected. The CPC manual will be updated to reflect that one sample of each souvenir should be sent to the archives. 4.2 Awards & Recognition The Committee has divided itself into subcommittees to facilitate review of the various awards. All awards have been widely announced and information and application forms are available on NASIGWeb. We especially need to encourage and recruit people for the Tuttle Award as one deadline cycle has passed with no applicants. It is a new and unique award and will need further publicity. 4.3 Bylaws D. Tonkery suggested that the committee review Article 10 of the Bylaws which state what happens if the organization is dissolved. The current language is vague. ACTION: Ask S. Davis and others for an historical perspective of why the Bylaws were written in this manner. Subsequently, S. Davis confirmed that this article was written to conform with language in NASIG's articles of incorporation. 4.4 Continuing Education The Committee is quite busy with a number of co-sponsored events this year. The Board would like to encourage stand-alone CEC events and discussed various ways of developing stand-alone events for next year. A support mechanism needs to be developed to achieve this goal. Suggestions included partnering with library science programs; designating a specific subcommittee or point person to develop these; and creating repeatable, "canned" programs that can be offered in different regions. CEC members should be proactive in seeking feedback from participants at the annual conference concerning particularly popular plenaries/workshops that would lend themselves to repetition on a regional basis. CEC could post a call for suggestions via NASIG-L for possible "repeat performances." ACTION: The Board Liaison for CEC will review the full evaluation of the conference and will summarize the top sessions based on the evaluations. This summary should be completed as soon as possible after the EAC shares this document with the Board. This information will be passed to the CEC for their consideration and will also be posted to the Board list. The current Board Liaison for CEC, E. Cook, will do this as soon as possible after the Midwinter Board meeting. S. Davis will add this task to the master calendar. 4.5 Database & Directory Committee activities are running smoothly. Renewals are arriving at about the same rate as last year. The online Directory is updated once a month. 4.6 Evaluation & Assessment At the 1998 Fall board meeting, the Board asked EAC to review the conference evaluation form and make suggestions for improvements. The Board discussed the Committee's suggestions for change to the evaluation form. ACTION: The Board decided not to make any changes to the evaluation form for the 1999 conference. EAC suggested that the evaluation form be made available on NASIGWeb. The Board discussed the possibility of using an interactive form so people could fill out the conference evaluation form online after they returned home. The Board decided not to pursue an interactive evaluation form at this time. ACTION: EAC with ECC's assistance, will investigate posting the form on NASIGWeb. They will look for ways to accomplish this task with a minimum amount of work. ACTION: EAC will send out a reminder on NASIG-L about filling out the evaluation form. The reminder will include information on who to contact for a new form and the URL of the PDF version when that is available. 4.7 Nominations & Elections Bob Persing, Chair of Nominations & Elections, will be contacting all slated candidates shortly to reconfirm their willingness to be on the ballot. He will send letters to those in the pool, but not selected for the slate. The pool of candidates to choose from was very good this year. The target date for ballot mailing is mid-February. The candidate profiles will be placed on NASIGWeb. 5.0 Program Planning 5.1 C. Foster and J. Anemaet, the PPC Co-Chairs, distributed a revised program for the 1999 conference and copies of the letter which will be sent to speakers. The Board reviewed these documents and made minor changes. M. Wilhite will assist J. Anemaet in selecting people to introduce the 22 workshops. A. McKee, the other PPC Co-Chair, was not able to attend this Board meeting. 5.2 The Board and the PCC discussed the program idea "Harnessing the Power of NASIG." This idea grew out of conversations between S. Oberg and Regina Reynolds, a NASIG member. She proposed an issues session that results in an action agenda. The actions are not to be taken by NASIG as an organization but rather by individual attendees who agree to take further steps. Members of the Board noted that NASIG's mission is to foster education and communication and not to make policy about serial related issues. The Board supported the idea of having more sessions with more audience participation. Last summer's workshop "Dear Abby, Dear Abbott" was completely a discussion format and was very well received. 5.3 The Board and the PCC explored the idea of having poster sessions at annual conferences. Poster sessions can be a good opportunity for junior librarians to ease into public speaking at a national level. 6.0 Task Force Reports 6.1 Library School Outreach S. Oberg recommended that NASIG take a new approach in dealing with the issue of library school outreach, and the Board concurred. ACTION: The taskforce will be disbanded and thanked for their work. The Board approved S. Oberg's working with the various existing committees to incorporate some of the questions the task force intended to pursue. 6.2 Electronic Archiving The taskforce has yet to be appointed but will be shortly. It will include representatives from the Newsletter and EEC in addition to M. Fletcher. 6.3 PPC manual J. Luther, S. Gurshman, and C. Hepfer are meeting during MidWinter to further revise and improve the mannual. Depending upon their progress, further work may still be needed. The goal remains to develop a full manual in time for the 2000 PPC. 7.0 NASIGNet RFP Task Force Final Report Taskforce members identified and investigated potential Internet Service Providers. In December 1998, Requests for Proposals (RFP) were sent out to a list of previously identified Internet Service Providers. After reviewing the responses to the RFP, the Taskforce recommended that NASIG select Bee.Net, an Internet Service Provider located just outside of Philadelphia, because they could best suit NASIG's needs. Bee.Net was very responsive to the Taskforce's initial inquiries and was quick to respond to the RFP. NASIG has requested more services from the new Internet provider, therefore the costs will be higher than in the past. The Board agreed that it was money well spent. ACTION: M. Rioux will ask for further clarification on the indexing and other capabilities offered by Bee.Net. ACTION: The Board provisionally selected Bee.Net as NASIG's new Internet Service Provider, pending a face-to-face meeting between the ECC Co-Chairs and Bee.Net. The Board thanked the RFP taskforce for its work. Members of the Taskforce included Stephanie Schmitt, Beth Toren, Robb Waltner, Amanda Xu, Mike Randall, Donnice Cochenour, D. Tonkery and Board Liaison M. Rioux. UNC is agreeable to maintaining NASIG's Internet and discussion list operations until such a time as the transfer to the new Internet Service Provider can be arranged. Because this process is taking longer than anticipated and will extend beyond the current contract, the Board will consider an additional payment to UNC to cover the extension. 8.0 Site Selection for 1999 and Beyond 8.1 On December 1, 1998, F. Wilkinson and D. Tonkery made a site visit to the University of California, San Diego. They were very impressed with the campus and its facilities. They felt the distance between the dorms and the meeting rooms was an easy walking distance. The dorms are very impressive, designed more like apartments with full kitchens. Unfortunately, no auditoriums with graduated seating would be available to NASIG during the conference. Ballroom (flat) seating will also only be available on Saturday and Sunday at Carnegie Mellon. ACTION: The Board officially selected the University of California, San Diego as NASIG's conference site for 2000. The dates for this conference will be June 22-25, 2000. 8.2 The Board again considered a proposal from Brigham Young University to host the conference in 2002 or 2003. Board members expressed a concern that several recent conferences will be held in the west (San Diego ?2000 and San Antonio ?2001). They also did not feel comfortable with the potential BYU Honor Code conflicts and issues. ACTION: The Board affirmed its earlier decision to drop BYU from active consideration, but that the Salt Lake City area remains a viable location with a great deal of appeal. The Board encourages a proposal for another site in this region for 2003 or beyond. 9.0 Committee Reports, continued 9.1 Electronic Communications R. Waltner is working on the metadata preconference text for the conference brochure. The three speakers (Jane Greenburg, Bradley McLean, and Stuart Weibel) have already submitted their abstracts for the conference brochure. Routine maintenance activities have continued for the various NASIG discussion lists. R. Waltner has begun training as backup listowner in anticipation of becoming principal listowner in 1999/2000. Revision of the NASIG Listowner Manual has begun. M. Randall informed the Board that preparations are underway for the move to a new host provider. ECC members have been involved with remote training in UNIX navigation for the site and have worked with S. Savage on a more efficient approach to posting the latest Newsletter. Routine maintenance activities have continued, such as calendar updates, changes to committee rosters, putting up the time-dated announcements for nominations, grant, awards, etc. The committee expects to work with the Conference Planning Committee to make the 1999 annual conference brochure available on NASIGWeb. 9.1.1 The Board reviewed and provided feedback to ECC's suggestions for redesign of and enhancement to NASIGWeb. ACTION: ECC will begin implementing these changes to NASIGWeb. 9.2 Newsletter The conversion of gopher Newsletter files to HTML has begun and should go fairly quickly. The President's column for the April 1999 issue will be a dialog between S. Oberg and S. Savage about the Spring 1998 Newsletter survey. 9.2.1. Because the Newsletter's masthead will need to be redesigned for the bulk mailing permit, the permit application may be delayed until March 1, 1999. 9.3 Proceedings Haworth Press shipped page proofs to Trinity University in mid-January. Co-editors Beverley Geer and Bea Caraway reviewed the proofs and spot-checked for mistakes throughout the approximately 600 pages of text and figures. They shipped the corrected proofs back to Haworth before the end of January. After Haworth completes their work on the manuscript, it will be sent to the indexer. Jeffrey Bullington will prepare the HTML version of the Proceedings for NASIGWeb. B. Geer and B. Caraway will revise and update the Proceedings editors manual and pass it on to the 1999 team. 9.3.1. The Proceedings Editors Search Committee recommended that the Board select a team of catalog librarians at IUPUI University Libraries, consisting of Michelle Fiander, Joseph Harmon, and Jonathan Makepeace. The Search Committee believed that the team's qualifications and experience meet NASIG's requirements in producing print and electronic versions of the Proceedings. ACTION: The Board approved the appointment of M. Fiander, J. Harmon, and J. Makepeace as the 1999 Proceedings Editors. The Board thanked the Proceedings Editors Search Committee for their work. Members included A. Ercelawn (Chair), B. Caraway, Johanne LaGrange, and Margaret Jasinski. 9.4 Publications Doug LaFrenier, Tina Chrzastowski, and Pam Matthews are putting together a short questionnaire to survey the NASIG membership on its needs in terms of publications. B. Geer and Jennifer Edwards are surveying the current NASIG committee chairs for their thoughts on ways the Publications Committee could be of service to the organization. Ladd Brown has volunteered to investigate what other organizations are doing in terms of publications, and to discuss with past chairs of the Conference Planning Committee the feasibility of the Publications Committee taking over the publication of the Conference Handout Booklet. 9.4.1 Katina Strauch, editor of Against the Grain, approached S. Oberg about the possibility of providing NASIG members with copies of Against the Grain at a reduced subscription rate by virtue of their NASIG membership. The Board felt NASIG should avoid an agreement with a commercial publication such as Against the Grain. Currently, the SISAC newsletter includes a column about NASIG; however, NASIG and SISAC have a formal liaison relationship. There was a suggestion that NASIG could provide more information about its activities to Against the Grain. ACTION: The Board referred the issue of NASIG's relationship to serials related publications to the Publications Committee for further study. 9.5 Regional Councils & Membership Linda Smith-Griffin, the Chair of RC&M, is continuing her effort to identify the active state and provincial representatives. A call was sent out to all regional representatives to verify their contact information. Through this process, a number of vacancies were identified. The Chair is in the process of sending files to Anne Frohlich who volunteered to start converting RC&M documentation to HTML for use on NASIGWeb. 9.5.1. Julia Gammon has proposed that NASIG investigate having regional and state affiliate chapters. Since the fall board meeting, A. Ercelawn has contacted J. Gammon for further information and to discuss possible benefits. She also referred the matter to RC&M. The Committee is reluctant at this time to endorse the establishment of chapters. ACTION: The Board decided to table this issue for the time being. Legal and financial implications of establishing chapters would require further investigation, and RC&M is currently considering some restructuring. 10.0 Secretary's report 10.1 M. Mering thanked E. Cook for taking minutes for the first part of the meeting. 10.2 M. Mering distributed revised Board rosters reflecting changes for C. Diedrichs. 10.3 M. Mering compiled the following Board decisions since the November meeting for inclusion in the minutes: a. Authorized spending up to $2,900 to fund travel and lodging for Jean Hirons and Steve Shadle, the instructors for the pilot serials cataloging session at Wayne State University, as further NASIG support of the Serials Cooperative Cataloging Training Program. Wayne State University will pick up other costs associated with this session. b. Agreed to start accepting Visa and MasterCard credit transactions after successfully applying for vendor approval to provide this service. Due to its higher fee structure, the Board did not approve acceptance of American Express credit card payments. c. Agreed to retain the password for member-only areas of NASIGWeb until after the move to a new Internet host provider is complete. d. Decided that starting with the 1999 conference, Regional Councils & Membership will send conference brochures to non-members who attended the previous year's conference. The Conference Planning Committee will provide RC&M with a list of non-members who attended the previous year's conference. e. Agreed to ask the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Graduate School of Library and Information Science to provide a link between their LIS Student Awards and Honors' web page and the NASIG student awards on NASIGWeb. f. Approved changing the deadline for registering for this summer's conference from May 21, 1999 to May 14, 1999 to accommodate Carnegie Mellon University's internal needs. g. Approved the slate of candidates for Vice President/President Elect, Treasurer, and Members-at-Large presented by the Nominations & Elections Committee. 11.0 Conference Planning Committee D. Novak, the 1999 Chair of the CPC, reported on the progress of conference planning. All special events plans are now in place. Carnegie Mellon University's Registrar still needs to release specific meeting rooms NASIG can use during the conference. CPC still needs to discuss audiovisual arrangements with the University's Instructional Technology Department. The Board advised D. Novak that EEC has agreed to assist CPC with a web site for the conference. ACTION: The Board agreed that the conference fees for single accommodations will be $350, doubles will be $325. Commuter (off-campus) fees will remain the same as last year, $250. Additional meeting agenda items will be discussed on the Board discussion list. The meeting was adjourned at noon. The next board meeting will be held June 9, 1999 at Carnegie Mellon University.
|
Quick Links
|
