OLAC Executive Board Meeting Minutes
October 6, 2010, 1:00 p.m.
Conference Call Hosted by OCLC

Present

Marcia Barrett, Debbie Benrubi, Robert Freeborn, Kate James, Pat Loghry, Sevim McCutcheon, Nathan Putnam, Amy Weiss, Jay Weitz

Agenda

The agenda was amended to allow Debbie Benrubi to present her reports first since she will need to leave early. The agenda was otherwise adopted as written.

Officer's Reports:

1. Outreach/Advocacy Report (Debbie Benrubi)

OLAC Brochure

Debbie has been working on revising the brochure because it is out of date. There is a copy on the Web site, if you want to take a look at it. It was last revised in 2007. She wants input from the Executive Board. The logo seems out of date. We paid a graphic artist, (someone Rebecca Lubas knows) $300 to update the logo. The Board approved up to $500 for a new logo.

Promotion at OLAC Conference

Debbie does a round-up of individuals who promote OLAC at every Midwinter and Annual Conference. Do we want her to repeat this for the OLAC Conference? Repeat every ALA conference or only once a year? The Board asked her to trust her judgment. Attendance at the OLAC conference is very different from attendance at ALA conferences. This information hasn't been given in great detail in minutes in the past. The consensus of the Board is that it's important to continue to recognize people.

2. Online Regional Task Force (Debbie Benrubi)

Bobby Bothmann, Marcia Barrett, and Debbie Benrubi volunteered to look into what sort of regional or online training would be helpful to OLAC members. The group is proposing to be called the “OLAC Online/Regional Training Task Force.”

The task force submits the following draft charge:

Assess the needs of the membership for AV/special format cataloging training beyond what the biennial conference provides. Draft a plan to meet the needs members identify that includes online delivery and/or regional in-person delivery of cataloging instruction. Recommend the tools needed to support the online component and submit a draft recommendation for implementation a pilot program to the Executive Board by January 2011 prior to the Midwinter board meeting.

So far, the task force has brainstormed questions for a survey to identify training needs. The survey will be sent to the OLAC-L list and will contain questions such as ranking in priority order what members want to learn, if they prefer face to face, online synchronous, or online asynchronous, how far they would be willing to travel, and how much they're able/willing to pay.

We're planning to have a table at the OLAC Conference during the poster sessions to let people know of the upcoming survey. It will be a good time to talk to people about whether they're willing and able to help with training/workshops. Rob Freeborn suggested the task force look at the Web site of the Education Committee of MLA; they have been doing something similar.

3. Secretary's Report (Marcia Barrett)

Calendar

Marcia has made some proposed changes to the calendar section of the handbook. These primarily relate to updating items to reflect the fact that the newsletter is no longer published in print. The items listed under “OLAC meets at Midwinter” are a combination of Executive Board business items and OLAC membership meeting items. Since we've moved to conference calls for Executive Board meetings, we need to sort these out.

I have a few questions about revisions and will send out the proposed revisions via email. If everyone will take a few minutes to review and make comments, that will be helpful.

Roster

There are a few gaps in the Executive Board roster, and I'm going to email individuals to get that information.

Stipends

I've reviewed email from the previous Executive Board that Paige forwarded to me, and there were discussions about OLAC Handbook changes for stipends that don't appear to have been made. As an ALA affiliate, we get one complimentary ALA registration for Midwinter and one for Annual. The Executive Board agreed that this should go to the current OLAC president who would then not get the ordinary OLAC stipend. The president receives the OLAC stipend when attending the OLAC conference. The handbook hasn't been updated to reflect this. Pat Loghry explained that the reason the change wasn't made in the handbook is that it can be problematic to get the complimentary ALA registration.

There was also previous discussion about the current handbook language for major conference speakers and workshop leaders. This includes $100 honorarium for each, and what was pointed out is that many institutions have issues with the word “honorarium” and some federal employees are not allowed to accept an honorarium. Another point was that expenses have gone up for travel so this section should be reviewed. There were several emails about it, but no decision was reached. It was suggested that the specific Conference set the amount based on planned income and that the handbook give a guideline of a minimum amount of $600 which would leave it open to the Conference to offer more if they have the funds to do so.

The current Executive Board is concerned about committing to a minimum because we don't know about future income. Instead, we should look at this on a conference-by-conference basis. What we offer is more generous than most. We'll revisit the issue in November.

4. Treasurer's Report (Nathan Putnam)

OLAC is up two personal memberships (358 memberships) from last year. Institutional memberships are down, and Nathan expects them to continue to drop. We're up $3000 from last year due to saving on processing costs from the newsletters. Nathan will send out renewal notices soon for those whose memberships expire at the end of the year.

Nathan has an email out to Julia about conference costs and can't report on that yet.

What if we connect regional training to institutional memberships? That may be a way to increase institutional memberships.

5. CAPC Report (Robert Freeborn)

Robert has an update from Heidi Frank about AV Glossary Project. They are hoping to have the interface up by 2011 and will report on that at Midwinter. CAPC members did not see a need to meet at OLAC Conference. There will be an informal dinner Saturday night with RDA test members.

Robert will be putting out a call among CAPC members to see who wants to continue on the committee. There is one opening on the committee, a vacancy created by Marcia's move to OLAC Secretary. Robert will put out a call for applications and will put forth any names received at the January Executive Board meeting.

6. Newsletter Editor (Kate James)

The September newsletter has gone out, and she has begun working on the December newsletter. She has a question for the Board about announcing the newsletter. Her goal is to get newsletters out mid-month of the month that they're due. The issue with not posting to the OLAC list had to do with losing institutional memberships. For December, Kate will notify members a week before posting to OLAC-L.

The book reviews editor is no longer at the St. Louis Public Library, and currently works at home. The Board agreed that she should remain as editor. The book reviews section of the newsletters has expanded to a “reviews” section.

Old Business:

1. OLAC 2010 Conference (Julie Huskey)

Julie just received a batch of registration forms; however we're only up to 117 registrants.

Break-out speakers have been rearranged after the cancellation. Pam Newberg has agreed to do a workshop on realia. Julia has arranged for a new caterer for the Friday night reception, but the cost of a bartender may be prohibitive. The board recommended that we not hire a bartender. Shuttle has requested that we consolidate our afternoon departures. Some of the meeting costs were dependent on getting a certain number of nights in the hotel. Break-out rooms can be appropriately sized for the number of attendees.

Questions Julie had for the Board:

• How was special-event insurance purchased for the last conference?
• What percentage of conference attendees will attend the reception (Friday night)? Budget for 100%

2. Web site Rewrite (Pat Loghry)

The group would like to be called a Task Force and would like the past president to be the representative to the Executive Board. The group prefers that nothing be changed without Executive Board review and would like to call for a new set of volunteers. Other specific include:

• Involving a library school intern
• Survey of the members to see what they think of the website
• Highlighting aspects of the website
• Banner on the website to highlight rule changes

Pat will put all of this down in writing and ask the Board to approve.

Nathan participated in the ALA Emerging Leaders Program and noted that it lacks technical services opportunities. That might be an opportunity for recruitment for the task force.

New Business:

1. OLAC 2010 Conference

Nathan and Kate will not be able to attend.

2. ALA Midwinter

Attendance

Kate, Robert, and Sevim will be unable to attend.

Membership Meeting

We will have a membership meeting at Midwinter. The agenda will include officer reports, the OLAC conference round-up, Web site rewrite task force report, online/regional training task force report, and suggestions from membership for both

Executive Board

Pat will plan the dinner for the Board and friends. She asked for help in determining whom to invite.