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North American Serials Interest GroupNASIG Newsletter Vol. 14, No. 1 (February 1999) MINUTES OF THE NASIG BOARD MEETING Attending: Steve Oberg, President Steve Savage, Newsletter Editor S. Oberg called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. in the Class of 1987 Room in the University Center. He informed the Board that Virginia Keister, Cindy Hepfer's mother, had recently passed away. ACTION: The Board approved making a donation to the Parkinson Disease Foundation in memory of Virginia Keister. The minutes from the June 17, 1998 meeting were approved pending corrections. The corrections to the minutes will be reflected in the Web version of the minutes. 2.0 Secretary's Report 2.1 M. Mering distributed revised Board rosters reflecting changes for C. Diedrichs and F. Wilkinson. 2.2 M. Mering compiled the following Board decisions since the June meeting for inclusion in the minutes: Authorized registering an Internet domain name for NASIG. The Board discussed improvements to the call for papers proposal process to alleviate possible confusion or misunderstandings about what PPC expects from a proposal. J. Mouw suggested that some sample proposals be posted to NASIGWeb. In the past, the secretary sent out the call to NASIG-L, and the Publicist sent the call to all other lists. ACTION: For the sake of efficiency, the secretary will handle all publicity related to the call for papers in the future. 2.4 D. Tonkery will be making room arrangements for the January 28-29, 1999 Board Meeting at ALA's MidWinter meeting in Philadelphia. 3.0 Treasurer's Report 3.1 G. Williams stated that the University of Colorado conference is showing a surplus. A few late expenses may yet be incurred. However, these would be minor and the conference will still show a surplus. 3.2 G. Williams reviewed the balance sheet as of 10/28/98 with total assets of $169,697.47, and 1998 expenditures of $39,973.21. Williams noted that the organization had to dip into the surplus to meet expenses. While the budget for the past few years has exceeded anticipated income because of the substantial surplus, the Board needs to continue to monitor spending to ensure that one year's operating expense is maintained as a surplus as per the Strategic Plan. 3.3 The proposed budget for 1999 is essentially the same amount as for 1998. The budget for 1999 is $103,815. ACTION: The Board approved the 1999 operating budget pending any changes resulting from committee reports later in the meeting. 3.4 As of November 9, 493 members had renewed their memberships for 1999. 43 new member have joined the organization. G. Williams noted that the Canadian dollar has decreased in value and recommended that the Board consider adjusting the Canadian dues rate. The Board went on to discuss our current overall dues structure in more detail. ACTION: The Board will consider issues surrounding the current dues structure. 3.5 The Finance Committee has been considering the possibility of NASIG applying to accept credit cards, particularly having in mind offering payment of conference registrations by credit card as an option for future conferences. Credit card transactions could also potentially be utilized for payment of membership dues and conference souvenirs. Paying by credit card would be easier for non-U.S. members. Due to higher transaction fees for acceptance of American Express, NASIG would only apply for Visa and Mastercard transaction capabilities. To apply for authorization to utilize credit card transactions requires a one time $125 application fee. If NASIG's application is accepted, NASIG would be charged fees for each transaction, and would need to either purchase or lease the necessary equipment to transmit credit card transactions. G. Williams presented cost estimates for either option. Issues yet to be resolved include the amount of the Treasurer's time needed to process transactions, and how to cover the fees for those paying by credit card. ACTION: G. Williams will file an application form for authorization to use credit cards ASAP. The Board will make a decision on the purchase/lease of equipment once the application has been accepted. G. Williams continued by describing difficulties inherent to accepting certain other forms of payment such as purchase orders. ACTION: Purchase orders will no longer be accepted in lieu of payment for conference registrations. 4.0 Committee Reports 4.1 Archives S. Davis pointed out that NASIG needs to address the issue of electronic archives and asked the Board for advice on how to proceed. The Electronic Communications Committee is also interested in this issue. ACTION: S. Oberg will appoint an ad hoc task force to define the issues surround electronic archiving and to develop a plan for electronic archiving. The task force will be chaired by M. Fletcher. Members of the task force will include representation from the Electronic Communications Committee, the Newsletter, and a member-at-large. 4.2 Awards & Recognition ACTION: The Board reviewed and accepted a biographical description written about Fritz Schwartz for the Fritz Schwartz Scholarship award. A sentence about F. Schwartz's interest in training and mentoring new people will be added to future announcements of the award. Winners of the award will be given copies of the biographical description and a tribute about Schwartz published in SISAC News. ACTION: The Board voted to grant 10 student grants, 1 Fritz Schwartz Scholarship, and 3 Horizon Awards in 1999. ACTION: Maintain descriptions of and application forms for the awards throughout the year on NASIGWeb. The descriptions should include application deadlines. 4.3 Bylaws. 4.4 Continuing Education A very successful continuing education workshop on serial holdings was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The workshop was presented by Frieda Rosenberg and Mary Ann Van Cura. SOLINET shared the surplus generated by this session with NASIG. 4.5 Database & Directory 4.6 Electronic Communications Margi Mann and Rob Waltner were appointed as the new assistant listowners. Yvonne Zhang is now responsible for the NASIGWeb Job Listings service. Stephanie Schmitt, NASIG Webspinner, worked with Newsletter Editor S. Savage to establish new procedures for communication between ECC and the Newsletter Production Editor. The September Newsletter was mounted on the Web and indexed. Beth Jane Toren, ECC liaison to the Newsletter Editorial Board, is working with Steve Savage to convert gopher files of old Newsletters to HTML coding. 4.6.1 1999 Metadata Pre-Conference 4.6.2 ECC RFP report The RFPs will be due by December 30. Hopefully, the move to a new provider will be in progress by the January Board Meeting. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the current Internet host provider, is supportive of the change, which should help make the transition a smooth one. Once the move is complete, announcements will be made on NASIG-L and other discussion lists. ACTION: At its January 1999 meeting, in light of the move to a new Internet host provider, the Board will take the opportunity to discuss changes to NASIGWeb. ACTION: Once NASIG has a new Internet host provider, the new domain name will be implemented. 5.0 Campus Tour Susan Tate of Carnegie Mellon University's Office of Special Events gave a tour of the campus. The tour included seeing class rooms, auditoriums, and dining facilities which will be used at next summer's conference. 6.0 Site Selection for 2000 and beyond 6.1 The conference for 2000 has been set for June 22-25. In early December, F. Wilkinson and D. Tonkery will make a site visit to the University of California, San Diego. They will meet with Karen Cargille and campus conference planners. ACTION: Wilkinson and Tonkery will report on their site visit. The conference for 2001 is tentatively scheduled to be held at Trinity University in San Antonio. 6.2 The Board reviewed a proposal for Brigham Young University to host the 2002 NASIG Conference. Unfortunately, because of BYU policies, the Board felt that this site would not be appropriate for the conference, although the Salt Lake City area has a great deal of appeal. F. Wilkinson will contact the proposers with the Board's decision and encourage them to put forward another proposal for a different site in the Salt Lake City area for 2003. The Board would like to avoid having three out of the last four conferences in the west. Other possible sites for 2002 and beyond were discussed. ACTION: F. Wilkinson will continue to pursue sites and dates for conferences in 2001 and beyond. 7.0 Serials Cooperative Cataloging Training Program On November 11, NASIG sent a contribution of $2,000 to the Library of Congress to be used toward the train-the-trainer component of the CONSER Serials Cooperative Cataloging Training Program. Jean Hirons will provide NASIG a report on how the money is spent. Steve Shadle (University of Washington) and Hirons will conduct a pilot train-the-trainer session at Wayne State University in February, 1999. 8.0 Proposal for Affiliate Chapters Julia Gammon has proposed that NASIG have regional and state affiliate chapters. A. Ercelawn will contact J. Gammon for further information and to discuss possible benefits. Ercelawn will also refer the matter to Regional Councils and Membership Committee. S. Davis suggested the Committee could consider the idea of overseeing the development of a regional networking node structure. 9.0 Proposal for a NASIG photographer S. Davis proposed that NASIG should have a formal photographer to provide a consistent photographic record of conferences. Every conference could have a photo display. Photographs could be part of the Web site. The Board discussed whether photography was a responsibility of the Archivist. Other issues considered by the Board included: use of a single volunteer or a rotating assignment, and financial support for a camera, film, and development. ACTION: In consultation with M. Fletcher, NASIG Archivist, S. Davis will post a call for a NASIG photographer for the 1999 conference to NASIG-L. A message will also be posted to NASIG-L asking for donations of pictures from earlier conferences. The Board authorized the purchase of a digital camera for use by the NASIG photographer. 10.0 Leadership Development The Board submitted two proposals on leadership development. The Program Planning Committee has accepted the proposal on scenario planning as a pre-conference. The speakers will be Nancy Rea and Stacey Aldrich, both from the state of Maryland. The pre-conference will be limited to 40 participants. "LEADING FROM ANY POSITION II: WHOLE SYSTEM CHANGE", which would be a follow up to last summer's initial leadership preconference, was not accepted by the program committee for the 1999 conference. The Board discussed having the follow up session or other leadership topics as continuing education programs. ACTION: The Board approved repeating the enneagram session as a continuing education program. (The Board meeting resumed Saturday morning at 8:30 in CMU library's lovely Fine and Rare Book Room.) 11.0 Conference Planning Committee D. Novak, the 1999 Chair of the CPC, reported that much progress has been made with the planning of the conference. Dorm rooms have been reserved for conference attendees. Arrangements have been made for meals and catered events. The Carnegie Music Hall (off campus) and on campus meeting rooms have been reserved. The Gateway Clipper Majestic has been booked for a dinner/dance. A "Night On Your Own" has been planned for Saturday night. Events being considered for the evening, which will be offered on a cost recovery basis, are a Pirates baseball game, Kennywood Amusement Park, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Civic Opera production, Andy Warhol Museum, and Heinz Regional History Museum. Possible tours for after the conference are to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh, and some other historical Pittsburgh landmarks. Needless to say, the planning for the late night socials is underway! ACTION: May 21, 1999 will be the deadline for registering for the conference. 12.0 Committee Reports 12.1 Evaluation & Assessment The Board reviewed the evaluation of the University of Colorado at Boulder conference and discussed the pros and cons of putting together such a lengthy evaluation. The seemingly low return rate was also noted. ACTION: The Board requested E&AC to review the conference evaluation form prior to the 1999 conference. 12.2 Newsletter Style sheets are being developed for both the print and the online versions of the Newsletter, as the basis for possible future use of SGML or XML. Beth Jane Toren is working with S. Savage to convert gopher files of old Newsletters to HTML format. The Newsletter survey indicated an interest in a number of new features and continuance of some current features. ACTION: Profiles and list of new members will be added to the Newsletter. Committee rosters will not be added to the Newsletter because this information can readily be found on NASIGWeb. Periodically, the Newsletter will publish a reminder and the URL for this information on NASIGWeb. The Board asked for an update on the application for a bulk mailing permit for the Newsletter. The permit would be applied for in Maine since the Newsletter is mailed from that state. ACTION: The Newsletter Editor, Distribution Editor, and the Treasurer will work together to finalize the application for a bulk mailing permit in Maine. The Treasurer will provide information documenting that NASIG is a non-profit organization. 12.3 Nominations & Elections The Board discussed the Committee's question of whether candidates should retain committee assignments if elected. Because of the work involved in serving both on the Board and on a committee, the elected candidate should not be expected to serve on both. The Nominations & Elections Committee is not interested in putting forward this concern as a bylaws change. The Nominations & Elections guidelines will reflect that elected candidates will need to resign from committee appointments if elected to the Board. 12.4 Proceedings Due to a misunderstanding, six of the concurrents at the 1998 conference were not tape recorded. These recordings are useful as backups for the Proceedings, so it is important that all concurrents are taped at future conferences. The tapes should be of archival quality and accurately labeled. The CPC and PPC manuals should reflect this decision. The 1998 Proceedings Editors will not be able to edit the Proceedings for 1999. ACTION: S. Oberg will appoint a search committee for editors of the 1999 conference Proceedings. A. Ercelawn will chair the committee. 12.5 Publications 12.6 Regional Councils & Membership RC&M has been actively promoting NASIG in a variety of venues. Linda Smith-Griffin made two presentations to library school classes at Louisiana State University. She also distributed NASIG brochures at the Louisiana NOTIS User Meeting. Board liaison, A. Ercelawn distributed brochures at a workshop sponsored by the Kentucky Library Network. Displays using NASIG banners were mounted at the Mississippi Library Association and Ohio Library Association meetings. 13.0 Program Planning Committee C. Foster, A. McKee, and J. Anemaet, the PPC Co-Chairs, distributed a tentative program for the 1999 Conference. The Board reviewed the document and made a number of suggestions for additional speakers and changes in the focus of some sessions. This summer, the deadline for proposals was extended from August 1 to August 21. During the three weeks of August, the pool of proposals nearly doubled. ACTION: The deadline for proposals will be extended to August 15 for all future calls. The Board identified program topics for further discussion at its MidWinter meeting: Regina Reynolds, S. Oberg, and others have suggested having a workshop at a future conference entitled "Harnessing the Power of NASIG". It would be facilitated by officers and Board members, past and present, by developing some questions, anticipated outcomes, and implementation of ideas. 14.1 Ad Hoc Program Planning Manual 14.2 Library School Outreach ACTION: Progress report ACTION: Final report 14.3 NASIG-L Guidelines 15.0 Volunteers and Supporting NASIG Services: A Discussion
S. Oberg led a discussion on future directions for NASIG volunteerism. NASIG began as a totally volunteer organization and continues to depend heavily on the volunteer efforts of its membership. In November 1994, the Board investigated ways to alleviate some of its workload, including the costs for paid administrative assistance. As a result of these investigations, several steps were taken. Funds are allocated to the Board, especially the President, to provide administrative support when needed. Printing and distribution of the Newsletter and Membership Directory have been outsourced. The Board approved financial guidelines to assist the Board and committees in determining appropriate activities to be financially supported. However, it is often difficult to recruit members for various assignments, such as committee or task force chair. NASIG members do not have as much time to devote to NASIG as in the past, which may deter potential new or qualified candidates for offices. The Board considered the question of how to best manage the work of the organization as well as the ramifications of any changes NASIG might make in the way it conducts business. Volunteer involvement is one of the cornerstones of the organization and needs to be encouraged, but can that effort be used more effectively? Are there more activities or tasks which can be handled outside the volunteer arena. ACTION: The Board will continue this discussion. Liaisons were requested to discuss this issue with their committees, and to report responses back to the Board. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm. The next Board meeting will be held the afternoon of January 28 and the morning of January 29, 1999 in Philadelphia. |
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