Minutes from the 2009 Business Meeting

Computing Services Special Interest Section
Business Meeting Minutes
July 28, 2009, 7:53 am
Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

The Computing Services Special Interest Section Business Meeting was called to order at approximately 7:53 am by Chair Vicki Szymcak.

Over 50 attendees including the Board were present at the meeting, which followed directly after the CS-SIS Breakfast.

Chair Szymcak’s introductory remarks included the information that some of the CS historical documents have been lost, which led the current Executive Board to restructure 

some of the Committee formats.  Chair Szymcak then introduced the CS SIS VIP, Connie Crosby, and thanked her for the informative Hot Topic program “Why Librarians Should 

Care about Emerging Technologies.”  James Duggan, CS member and current AALL President, was also introduced. 

Secretary-Treasurer Willis moved to have last year’s business meeting minutes read on the website.  Member Hirsch seconded, and all present approved.

8:00 am, Secretary-Treasurer Willis provided her report for 2008/2009.  475 members belong to the CS SIS.  As of May 31, 2009, the CS treasury has $14,698.00.  SIS dues will be deposited into our account later this summer, along with any vendor contributions. There will be charges associated with the conference, including grants and meal services that will be debited to the account this summer.   We have approximately $3000 more in our treasury than last year at the same time.  There was an online vote in September 2008 to approve ByLaws changes developed by the 2007/2008 ByLaws Committee (chaired by Dom Grillo).  Thanks to Member Hirsch who provided an electronic vote system for this effort.  Approximately 25% of our members voted in the annual online CS Board election.

8:05 am, Chair Szymcak provided highlights of this year’s conference.  CS sponsored 8 AMPC programs including our first-ever full day workshop.  Thanks very much to Member Sally Irvin and her team for a successful workshop that took much coordinatedeffort.  Member Irvin will investigate if the attendees are CS members or not.  Chair Szymcak added that the CS also sponsored two Roundtables and one Hot Topic session, which brings the total programs this year to 11.

8:08 am, Chair Szymcak introduced Francis Norton, who is the CS liaison for AMPC.  Francis will assist us in the program approval process.

8:10 am, Chair Szymcak reminded members that the Web 2.0 Challenge is being held again right after the conference.  Vice-Chair Shucha and Member-at-Large Kribble provided a program about how they created the Web 2.0 Challenge and arranged for distance learning.  There has been a lot of interest and very positive response to this program.

8:12 am, Chair Szymcak described the two RoundTables this year.  The first was a reception held for Web 2.0 Challenge takers and facilitators.  The other was entitled “Mashing Up the Whitehouse,” and included a guest, John Wonderlich.  Over 25 attended this successful Roundtable, which included good discussions about transformations in government.

8:14 am, Chair Szymcak discussed the traditional “Alphabet Soup” reception.  There is some discussion about discontinuing this event due to a drop in attendance over the past two years.  This is mainly due to the shorter conference time-frame.  This year there were less than 100 attendees, so it will be under review for next year.

8:15 am, Chair Szymcak discussed new initiatives for this past year:

1. Lawberry Camp: Jason Eiseman and Sharon Glassmeyer organized this half day unconference on Saturday.  It was well-attended, and CS plans to sponsor it again next year.

2. Streaming non-AMPC CS programs: this effort was somewhat successful due to our great video crew, and many thanks for their efforts.  It required members to be at meetings early to set up.  Several of the videos are up and streaming.  CS was particularly interested in providing this service due to the economy and lack of funding for some members to attend the conference.  Our next goal is to influence AALL to make programs more readily available to members for free.  Chair Szymcak urges the incoming Board to continue this effort.

3. New committee structure:

a. Communications:  incorporates Blogs and Publications committees.  The CS newsletter has been disbanded.  Vice-Chair Shucha chaired this committee this year, but in future, the junior Member-at-Large will be the Chair; next year that is Jason Eiseman.

b. Education Committee:  chaired this year by Dan Blackaby.

c. Grants & Awards: chaired this year by Monica Sharum.

d. Nominations: this is traditionally chaired by the Past Board Chair, so June Liebert was chair this year.

e. Recruitment & Involvement: chaired this year by Jean Willis.

f. Program Planning:  current Board Chair, Vice-Chair, and senior Memberat-Large, who handles non-AMPC program planning.

g. Ad Hoc Committees:  usually ByLaws, which meets as needed, and Strategic Planning, which meets every other year.

h. Job Description database: this needs to be reformatted, and we are grateful that Stacey Rowland has a plan as Chair next year.

4. SIS Leadership Training:  there was a big turn-out for the community projects in New Orleans, but only 8 volunteers this year in Washington, D.C.  Those involved identified a lack of promotion to AALL members.  Ron Wheeler feels that more impetus should come from SIS’s.  CS will have a sub-committee for this in future.

5. NISO standards: Mary Alice Baish asked for someone to attend a program on Saturday from the CS, so Chair Szymcak attended.  The Executive Board questioned whether NISO standards really fit in with the CS mission.  A NISO Subcommittee will be formed next year to investigate and coordinate with AALL.

8:22 am, Vice-Chair Shucha passed out forms to complete to volunteer for Committee work, and then Committee Chairs gave their reports:

• Adaptive Technologies:  Committee Chair Ryan Oberdorf had an existing adaptive technologies website, but it was outdated.  Member Oberdorf felt something of value that could be sustained was needed, and he focused on web accessibility.  His charge is to add content to high value areas of the website.  Member Oberdorf is also reviewing the CS website in terms of web accessibility issues and feels it should be upgraded.  He is currently determining the best way to accomplish this.  Member Oberdorf’s program this year on web accessibility was very informative.
• Communications:  Bonnie Shucha started in February by looking at the website.  Deborah Schander and Raizel Lieber assisted in re-organizing the website.  Susanna and Therese are blog editors, and Katie Jones updated the wiki.  Sharon Nelson has been added as a third editor.  Michael Roback updated the law library blog, and Meg Kribble started a tools and gadgets page.  All members are encouraged to add content.  Vice-Chair Shucha has started a Procedures Manual, which is available for all to review.  This committee also developed a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a new brochure.
• Education: Dan Blackaby is Chair.  Two programs have been streaming live, and 2 more programs will be uploaded later.  Next year the goal is to stream directly to the CS webpage and Facebook, rather than a separate account.  AALL doesn’t support us with equipment, so Member Blackaby requests members to contact him if they can volunteer with video equipment.
• Emerging Technologies Subcommittee:  Meg Kribble is the Chair.  This committee mainly focused on the Web 2.0 Challenges.  Member Kribble acknowledged Sally and Tom for this year’s challenges.  There is another challenge starting on August 3rd, and they hope to launch another one later this year.
• Grants:  Monica Sharum is Chair.  The CS received several grant applications.  Joe Cera and Carolyn Young received grants as newer librarians, and Carmen Melendez and Wei Fang received grants as more experienced librarians.  Grant awardees were introduced.
• Awards:  this year the Executive Board handled the Ken Hirsch Memorial Award, which was awarded to Sheri Lewis.  Sheri couldn’t attend, so Judith accepted the award on her behalf.  The Board expressed gratitude for all of Sheri’s hard work and efforts over the years on behalf of the CS SIS.
• Nominations: Past Chair June Liebert was Chair.  June expressed thanks to her committee of Susan Bowland and Mike Harmon.  There was a great slate of candidates this year; many thanks to all who ran.  
• Program Planning:  Chair Szymcak and Vice-Chair Shucha stated that they had tremendous success this year with programs.  It will be interesting to explore distance program planning in the future, and they are looking forward to extend learning opportunities to members.
• Recruitment & Involvement:  Secretary-Treasurer Willis is Chair.  An email was sent to the listserv asking for committee volunteers.  Chair Willis worked with Bonnie Shucha and Vicki Szymcak to assign members to committees.  Also emails were sent to all Web 2.0 Challenge attendees either encouraging them to join the CS SIS (if not already a member) and/or AALL (ditto).  All Web 2.0 Challenge attendees and facilitators were sent an email invitation, including a CS program handout, to attend the Web 2.0 Challenge Roundtable Reception.  

8:40 am:  annual reports concluded.

Comments from the floor:  Ken Hirsch discussed the Tenth anniversary of the Karaoke night, which was held this year at Café Japone.  There was a record turnout of well over 50 people, and many sang or danced.  Stay tuned for next year!

8:42 am: Chair Szymcak introduced the outgoing Board members and thanked all for their help this year, including Member-at-Large, Katie Jones, who could not attend.   Chair Szymcak graciously gave thank you gifts to Board members.

8:45 am: Outgoing Chair Szymcak introduced the incoming Board, including a shout-out to incoming Vice-Chair/Chair Elect Debbie Ginsberg, who could not attend.

8:46 am: Outgoing Chair Szymcak provided incoming Chair Shucha with the fabled propeller beanie (originated some years ago by prior Chair Don Arndt), which then invested Bonnie in office.

8:47 am: Incoming Chair Shucha thanked Vicki Szymcak and provided concluding remarks, including reminding members to sign up for committees.  Also program proposals are welcome. There was a good program planning meeting on Monday at the Conference, and over 30 ideas are floating around (they will be listed on the wiki).  All proposals must be submitted to Chair Shucha no later than August 16.

8:50 am:  Chair Shucha adjourned the meeting.