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North American Serials Interest GroupNASIG Newsletter Vol. 14, No. 4 (September 1999) NASIG EXECUTIVE BOARD MINUTES Dates, Time: June 9, 1999 (8:35 am-5:15 pm) Attending: Steve Oberg, President Guests: Connie Foster, Incoming Vice President/President Elect 1.0 WELCOME AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM JANUARY 29 MEETING S. Oberg called the meeting to order at 8:35 am. The minutes from the January 29, 1999, meeting were approved. He welcomed incoming board members Connie Foster, Don Jaeger, and Pat Wallace. The Board discussed whether the minutes need to be officially approved at Board meetings since the Board reviews and approves minutes via the Board discussion list. ACTION: In the future, the Secretary will report approval of the previous Board minutes as an action item. 2.0 TREASURER'S REPORT 2.1 Mailbox Address Change NASIG's permanent address in Decatur, Georgia, has been revised to conform with new postal regulations. The new address below should be used effective immediately. NASIG, Inc. G. Williams reported that NASIG is in good financial shape. Costs for credit card transactions and enhanced NASIGNet services expenses represent major increases in the budget. Due to lower interest rates and receiving conference income at later dates this year, interest income has decreased by approximately $300 for the first four months of 1999. Membership income has remained relatively stable through the years. As of June 1,1999, NASIG has 1,210 members. NASIG's accountant has completed an official audit of NASIG's finances for 1998. ACTION: G. Willams will send a copy of the audit to M. Fletcher, the archivist. The archivist will supply a copy of the official audit to any NASIG member upon request. 2.3 Conference finances to date At this point, it is too early to tell if NASIG will have a surplus from the Carnegie Mellon conference. Conference income to date is $203, 428. However, a majority of conference expenses have yet to be paid. 2.4 Credit card transaction issues At least a third of conference attendees paid for their registration by credit card. As a result, G. Williams' workload as treasurer almost doubled around conference time. She encountered inaccurate and incomplete credit card numbers and many other problems with credit card companies. ACTION: The Board approved funding for student help to assist G. Williams with credit card transactions. 2.5 Dues Increase Scenarios G. Williams presented various dues increase scenarios. NASIG has not had a dues increase in ten years. Members receive many more services for their money than in the late 1980s. Some services, which were formerly donated by volunteer efforts, such as the mailing of the Newsletter, are now contracted out and incur expenses. Credit card transactions, Newsletter and Membership Directory, expanded CE programs, and enhanced NASIGNet services have increased the organization's overall expenses. Motion: G. Williams proposed the following tiered dues structure: US members $25 M. Mering seconded the motion. The Board unanimously passed the motion. ACTION: S. Oberg, D. Tonkery, and G. Williams will write a justification for the proposed dues increase. The justification will be sent to NASIG-L for comments and discussion by the entire membership. ACTION: G. Williams will announce the proposed dues increase at the conference's business meeting. ACTION: The Bylaws Committee will send ballots to the entire membership to vote on the proposed dues increase. According to Article 3, Section 2 of the bylaws, the Board must first approve a proposed dues increase and changes must go to the entire membership for a vote. In order for the proposed increase to pass, 2/3 of the members voting must agree to the change. 3.0 SECRETARY'S REPORT 3. 1 Board roster M. Mering distributed copies of the 1999/2000 Board roster. 3.2 Board decisions since ALA MidWinter meeting M. Mering compiled the following Board decisions since the January meeting for inclusion in the minutes: Declined to provide monetary support for the ACRL President's program on leadership development to be held at this summer's ALA annual conference in New Orleans. M. Mering asked for suggestions on possible future directions she might take with the Professional Liaisons. ACTION: M. Mering will send an e-mail message to the group asking them to provide dates of conferences, updates for the Newsletter and other items outlined in their charge. 3.4 Stationery and envelopes M. Mering brought letterhead with the new URL and envelopes to the conference. She will bring the stationery and envelopes to the committee chair orientation on June 12. 4.0 NASIG 2000 COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS The Board reviewed committee assignments for 1999/2000. D. Tonkery noted that some changes to committee assignments had occurred since the distribution of the 1999 directories. A few assignments have yet to be made. ACTION: The Board agreed to put the updated list in the Newsletter pending final corrections and additions. 5.0 NASIG PHOTOGRAPHER Since there was no response to a call for candidates for the position of official NASIG photographer, S. Oberg volunteered to incorporate this duty into his role as publicist for the next year. Following on the Board's prior expression of support for purchasing a digital camera, S. Oberg examined various cameras to purchase for the organization. Many photo developers now routinely offer provision of digital versions of regular print photographs as an optional service at a low cost. S. Oberg recommended that this service be investigated and used in lieu of purchasing a digital camera. ACTION: S. Oberg will issue a call for conference photographs on NASIG-L. 6.0 COMMITTEE REPORTS 6. 1 Archives M. Fletcher has completed a preliminary inventory of materials in the archive. The Board discussed what items should be sent to the Archivist. ACTION: The Board agreed that the following items should be sent to the Archivist: Board rosters, EEC's 1998 RFP for a new Internet Service Provider, contracts, Conference Proceedings, membership brochures, the President's manual, and committee annual reports. 6.2 Awards & Recognition F. Wilkinson reported that due to the overall smaller number of applications received during the 1998/99 award cycle, the Committee acted as a whole in ranking applications. The Committee was very pleased that although there were fewer than usual applicants, the applications received were of uniformly high quality. One of the other distinguishing characteristics of this year's applications was that they covered a wider geographic distribution than in previous years. The Committee received its usual mix of applications from Canada and the United States, but it also received Horizon applications from Mexico and Hungary. Karen Darling is the first recipient of the Marcia Tuttle International Grant. She will be recognized at the conference opening session, which will help generate more interest in the Award. ACTION: RC&M will be asked to assist A&R to improve publicity for the awards. 6.3 Bylaws E. Cook reported that in February, the Committee was asked to research the reason for Article X. Article X states: "In the event of the dissolution of NASIG, all assets and property remaining after meeting necessary expenses shall be distributed to such organizations as shall under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, subject to an order of the Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York" Article X was not included in the original NASIG bylaws. It was added in the first bylaws revision which was adopted August 1, 1989. ACTION: The Board thanked the Committee for clarifying this issue. 6.4 Continuing Education E. Cook reported that CEC had a busy spring. On March 4, NASIG sponsored speakers S. Oberg and M. Rioux attended IX Foro Transfronterizo de Bibliotecas in Mexico and presented a program entitled "Intellectual Access Issues for the Digital Library". On March 5, S. Schmitt gave a Web/HTML presentation at the 8th North Carolina Serials Conference. On March 16, NASIG and the Louisiana Library Association's Serials Section co-sponsored a pre-conference to the annual LLA conference. Julia Gammon gave an afternoon workshop on electronic license agreements. CEC is working very hard on additional programs for the remainder of 1999. Programs are in the planning stages for California, New England, Florida, Atlanta, Ohio, and Mexico. S. Oberg and Beverley Geer will be presenting a paper on integrating digital and traditional resources in academic libraries at En Linea 99, to be held October 13-15 in Monterrey, Mexico. 6.5 Database & Directory E. Cook reported that the Committee mounted the Directory and the D&D Web pages to the new server via Microsoft FrontPage. ACTION: D&D was asked to investigate the possibility of an interactive Web accessible database. NASIG members have been very good about sending address changes to the Committee. This year's mailings each resulted in approximately 4 pieces of returned mail. Membership renewal rate was 86% this year. 6.6 Evaluation & Assessment E. Cook reported that the conference and preconference evaluation forms were created for the Carnegie Mellon conference using the Survey-Pro software. This summer Committee members will complete data entry from evaluation forms. Using the Survey-Pro software, reports will be generated for the NASIG Board and specified committee chairs by the fall Board meeting. 6.7 Nominations & Elections S. Davis reported that the return rate for this year's election was almost 49%. The Board discussed ways of promoting leadership in the organization and how to spot talent. The Board would like to see more members willing to run for Vice-President/President-Elect. 7.0 SUPPORT FOR INITIATIVES 7.1 Guidelines? Internal (within NASIG) vs. External? Funding? This spring, the Board declined to provide monetary support for the ACRL President's program to be held at the ALA annual conference. It also decided not to establish an award sponsored by the USBE. NASIG will receive similar requests for funding in the future. The Board discussed whether NASIG wants to consider such requests and what criteria should be used to decide whether or not to support initiatives. All agreed that seeking committees' input on possible initiatives is very useful. A&R provided excellent comments on whether to support an award sponsored by USBE. ACTION: Creating guidelines for internal and external funding will be included as part of updating the Strategic Plan. 7.2 Further requests 7.2.1 Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP) preconference for NASIG 2000 A two day train-the-trainer SCCTP workshop is being held at Carnegie Mellon on June 9-10. Jean Hirons and others handled the logistics for the workshop. SCCTP would like to have a basic serials cataloging preconference at the 2000 conference. The Board discussed whether or not CEC and PPC could handle the logistics next year. The preconference could be seen as a continuing education event. The Board discussed in general the idea of having two-day preconferences. ACTION: CEC and PPC will be asked to discuss handling the logistics for next year's SCCTP preconference. PPC will also be asked to discuss in general the idea of having two day preconferences. 7.2.2 Support for Spanish language translation of CONSER Cataloging Manual A. Ercelawn reported that Lisa Furubotten would like to create a Spanish language translation of the CONSER Cataloging Manual. J. Hirons asked if NASIG would be willing to provide support for this project. The Board thought it was an interesting proposal but wondered about the need for a translation of the manual. ACTION: The Publications Committee will investigate what the demand is for a Spanish translation of the CONSER Cataloging Manual. If there is indeed a market for this translation, an estimated budget proposal will be prepared for the proposal. 7.2.3 SPARC SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition, is an alliance of libraries which works with publishers who are developing high quality, economical alternatives to existing high-priced publications. The coalition is supported by the membership of ARL. The Board discussed whether NASIG should become a member of SPARC. ACTION: The Board decided that membership in SPARC was not in NASIG's best interest. However, the Board recognized that the membership would be interested in keeping abreast of SPARC's activities and encouraged PPC to incorporate program sessions about SPARC into the 2000 conference. 8.0 PROGRAM PLANNING C. Foster reviewed final program plans for the 1999 conference. She noted that there is still a need to fine tune communication between the registrar and PPC so that PPC can receive a current list of participants assigned to all sessions by the date noted in the master calendar (early May). This deadline is usually before the deadline for conference registration. This list is essential for assigning conveners and introducers. 8.1.1 Alternatives to future programming The Board and C. Foster, co-chair of PPC, continued their midwinter board meeting discussion on alternatives to future programming. The Board supports the idea of having sessions in future programs that provide more opportunities for audience participation. These sessions could be similar to the current nodes or have a more definite structure. It was noted that some workshops are becoming more like concurrents than workshops. Poster sessions would offer a good opportunity to experiment with programming options. The Board and C. Foster discussed some of the complex issues surrounding the conference schedule in seeking ways to introduce flexibility in programming and adequate down time for registrants. ACTION: PPC and CPC will investigate having poster sessions and other programming alternatives for next summer's conference. The Board is in favor of having poster sessions, while cautioning that PPC should consider what could be dropped for this new type of programming. 8.1.2 Commercialism in programming The Board discussed how to avoid having sessions which were basically sales pitches for products or services. Pairing a vendor and a non-vendor can help. The call for papers should also more clearly state NASIG's position on non-commercialism. 9.0 TASK FORCES 9.1 NASIG 2000 Strategic Plan Update S. Oberg will write the charge for this task force shortly. The Strategic Plan has been instrumental in guiding the Board over the past four years. S. Oberg has depended heavily on the plan during his presidency. 9.2 Electronic Archiving After the annual conference, S. Oberg will draft a charge for this task force to share with the Board. 9.3 PPC manual Although the PPC manual is still a work-in-progress, it is now a very useful document. S. Davis expressed the Board's appreciation to Sandy Gurshman, Cindy Hepfer, and Judy Luther for the many hours of work devoted to improving the manual. Copies of the manual as it currently stands will be distributed at the PPC committee meeting. ACTION: S. Davis will work with ECC to mount a version of the PPC manual on NASIGWeb. 10.0 SITE SELECTION UPDATE F. Wilkinson, the Site Selection Coordinator, hopes to receive a proposal from the University of Ottawa to host the 2002 conference, as well as a proposal from the Salt Lake City, Utah, area for 2003. ACTION: F. Wilkinson will follow up on the status of these proposals. The NASIG Conference for 2001 will be held at Trinity University in San Antonio from May 23-26. The co-chairs for CPC have yet to be selected for the conference. The Board's January 2000 meeting will be held in connection with ALA midwinter conference which will be held in San Antonio. The Board discussed the possibility of having its January Board meeting at Trinity University. ACTION: The Board will investigate having its January 2000 Board meeting at Trinity University in San Antonio. 10.1 NASIG 2000 The NASIG Conference for 2000 will be held at the University of California, San Diego from June 22-25, 2000. K. Cargille, Chair of the 2000 Conference Planning Committee, discussed the status of the conference planning and presented a preliminary budget for the conference. She expects that 700 people will attend the conference. She will be working with G. Williams to take care of prepaying some conference expenses. 11.0 WRAP-UP OF CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE ISSUES D. Novak, Chair of the 1999 Conference Planning Committee, discussed final arrangements for this year's conference. She estimated that 630 people had registered for the conference. 12.0 COMMITTEE CHAIR ORIENTATION S. Oberg report that the second annual Committee Chair Orientation will be held on June 12 during the lunch hour. Last year's meeting was very well received. Board members will attend this year's meeting. 13.0 COMMITTEE REPORTS (continued) 13.1 Electronic Communications The move to Bee.Net as NASIG's new Internet services provider has been completed. On April 5, NASIGNet, using the new service provider, became available to the public. Continuing projects include completing the conversion of the gopher text files. A critical need exists to implement searchable archiving capabilities for NASIG-L and the other discussion lists. This project could possibly be contracted out to a service provider other than Bee.Net. 13.1.1 Overall NASIGWeb priorities The Board and S. Schmitt, Co-Chair of ECC, developed the following priorities for NASIGWeb. NASIG's public presence on the Web could benefit from enhancements. 13.1.2 Implementation of NASIGWeb enhancements The Board and S. Schmitt discussed the implementation of NASIGWeb enhancements. ECC will be responsible for the redesign. The Board will review all proposed enhancements and provide guidance for organizational issues. Some issues will need to become Board issues. For example, implementing online credit card transactions would be a Board issue. Through messages on NASIG-L, the membership will be kept informed of all changes to NASIGWeb. ACTION: ECC will investigate with Bee.Net the price for ongoing NASIGWeb maintenance. 13.1.3. Affinity discussion lists The Board and S. Schmitt discussed whether or not nodes could have discussion lists. The Public Libraries Node recently started a discussion list. They believe the list will be helpful in keeping communication going among members throughout the year. They hope that the list will encourage other serial public librarians to join the node. ACTION: The Board affirmed that nodes can have discussion lists, if requested. 13.1.4 Ramping up Web liaison program with committees The Board and S. Schmitt discussed the importance of having Web coding expertise on each of the committees. ECC is willing to assist committees in getting started with the encoding of documents. For most committees encoding can be done easily with the aid of a HTML editor. 13.2 Newsletter 13.2.1 Application for bulk mailing permit Most of the paperwork for the bulk mailing permit application has been completed and is ready to be submitted. In order to have a permit, the Newsletter's masthead had to be revised and moved to within the first five pages of the Newsletter. The April issue of the Newsletter reflects these changes. 13.2.2 Conversion of gopher issues Converting a single gopher Newsletter issue takes ten to fifteen hours. While most of the Newsletter staff has volunteered to work on the conversion, Steve Savage, Newsletter Editor, is concerned about juggling this project along with producing current Newsletter issues. He would like to propose contracting out the conversion of the gopher Newsletter issues. ACTION: The Board will ask S. Savage to submit a proposal to contract out the conversion of gopher Newsletter issues. 13.2.3 Dynamic calendar Recently the Newsletter calendar has included a lot of non-NASIG and non-serial related events, such as state conferences. S. Savage recommends that the calendar be limited to NASIG and serial-related events. He would prefer that the Newsletter not duplicate the ALA's online calendar or significant portions of it. ACTION: The Newsletter's calendar will be limited to NASIG and serial-related events. The online version of the calendar will provide links to the ALA's online calendar. 13.2.4 Profiles Starting with the June 1999 issue, the Newsletter will include profiles of committees and Board members and long term members of NASIG. Naomi Young and S. Savage will develop guidelines for content and a cycle for committee profiles. 13.2.5 Frequency of Issues At the Fall Board meeting, S. Savage would like to explore with the Board the possibility of changing the frequency of the Newsletter from five to four issues yearly. ACTION: The Board will ask S. Savage to write a proposal identifying the pros and cons for changing the frequency of the Newsletter. 13.3 Proceedings A. Ercelawn reported that Haworth will be provided with a copy the Proceedings Editor's manual. The 1999 Proceedings Editors hope to create an online version of the manual. ACTION: The Board thanks the 1998 Proceedings Editors, Jeff Bullington, Bea Caraway, and Beverley Geer, for their work. 13.4 Publications 13.4.1 Survey Results The Publications Committee conducted the first membership survey of their publication needs. The Committee also surveyed the current committee chairs on how the Publications Committee might be of benefit to them. The results of the survey were shared with the Board. The Committee has yet to make any specific recommendations. They will be ranking and prioritizing the results of the two surveys. 13.4.2 Serial Publications Web Page The Publications Committee has created a Web resource page for NASIG members who are looking for places to publish papers, articles, and book reviews. The resource page includes links to the Web sites of publications, brief descriptions of ideas and formats of content accepted by the publications, and links to editorial guidelines, calls for papers, and other useful information for potential authors. ACTION: The Board approved having the Publications Committee make an announcement on NASIG-L about the new resource for potential authors. 13.5 Regional Councils & Membership A. Ercelawn reported that adding the state representatives to the Regional Councils & Membership discussion list has proven helpful. 13.5.1 New members list on Web The Board discussed having D&D introduce new NASIG members on NASIG-L. ACTION: D&D will work with ECC to implement the introduction of new NASIG members on NASIG-L. These introductions will be made on a monthly basis. 14.0 MASTER CALENDAR Any updates to the master calendar should be sent to S. Davis by July 9. She will send a revised master to S. Oberg for distribution to the appropriate people. ECC should particularly review the sections relating to the Internet service provider. Board liaisons should gather committee chair input, and chairs will be reminded to send in corrections at the committee chair orientation. 15.0 OTHER The Board discussed key items for the Secretary's report at the business meeting. D. Tonkery announced that the Fall Board meeting will be held on October 22-23, 1999 at the University of California, San Diego. S. Oberg thanked the Board members for their service and support over the past year. The meeting adjourned at 5: |
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