Present: Pat Loghry, Sevim McCutcheon, Nathan Putnam, Amy Weiss, Kate James, Julie Huskey, Rob Freeborn, Jay Weitz, Vicki Toy-Smith, Paige Andrew (recorder)

Welcome & Introductions

Pat asked each person to introduce themselves so that we knew for sure who was included in the conference call.

Announcements

Pat announced the three meeting dates/times/places upcoming at ALA Midwinter in Boston:

Fri., Jan. 15 (5-6:30 p.m.) OLAC Executive Board Dinner - Channel Café (300 Summer St.)
Fri., Jan 15 (7-9 p.m.)  CAPC Meeting - Sheraton Boston, Republic Board Room
Sat., Jan 16 (4-5:30 p.m.) Membership Meeting -  Renaissance Boston Waterfront, Pacific F

There were no other announcements from those present.

Amend and adopt the agenda

Pat asked for any needed changes to the agenda. Paige suggested moving the agenda item “OLAC 2010 Conference” from under New Business to the last item under Old Business, and adding as a new agenda item under New Business, “MIW Grant Partnership Discussion”. All approved of the suggested changes.

Officers Reports:

1.Secretary’s Report (Paige Andrew)

Minutes to the three OLAC meetings from June and July 2009 (Executive Board Conference Call Meeting held on June 30th; CAPC and Membership meetings held at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago) were published in the September 2009 issue of the OLAC Newsletter (Vol. 29, No. 3).

A lot of work has gone into updating and adding to the OLAC Handbook in the previous six months, much based on decisions made by Board members over a longer period of time both at meetings and by email. For example, the revised Research Grant application form and new Grant Guidelines were changed/added. Numerous smaller edits such as corrections to spellings and punctuation and improving grammar were also done by the Secretary. Paige asked everyone to review the Handbook thoroughly and send him any more needed corrections as well as suggestions for additions.

The Secretary has also been working with some changes to the OLAC website with Webmaster Teressa Keenan, particularly with the Handbook and sees a great need for improvements to the navigation mechanisms and layout/arrangement of link names, etc. An idea about forming a Website Steering Committee to partner with Teressa was discussed and approved by the Board in 2009. Paige suggested finalizing this when we get to “Website Review Issues” under Old Business.

2. Treasurer’s Report (Nathan Putnam)

As of Dec. 31, 2009 we had $19,227.27 in the checking account, 356 individual members and 165 institutional members. A membership renewal email went out to members in the beginning of December and the Treasurer is currently wading through those who have sent in his/her applications. Nathan has been in contact with a few conference planners and Teressa about setting up a PayPal account for making online payments of annual dues. Teressa thinks that this will be able to work within the Drupal software. There are still a few questions that need to be answered and ultimately Executive Board and membership approval is needed since PayPal will charge a small fee of $ 0.30 for every transaction.

Discussion ensued around the PayPal capabilities and everyone agreed that this would be a positive move forward. Executive Board members will continue this discussion and come prepared to bring this matter to the Membership Meeting at ALA Annual for discussion and a possible vote.

3. CAPC Report (Robert Freeborn)

Rob sent by email a short time before this meeting a copy of the CAPC Meeting Agenda for the upcoming meeting in Boston and asked for any changes and/or additions. None were offered. He then reviewed items in the agenda relating to the status of committee/other work, including:

4. Reports and discussions:

• MARBI report (C. Gerhart)
• CC:DA report (K. McGrath)
• Subcommittee on Maintenance for CAPC Resources (D. Procházka)
• Video Language Coding Best Practices Task Force (K. McGrath)
• Moving Image Work-Level Records Task Force (K. McGrath)
• LC Genre/Form Headings for Moving Images Best Practices Task Force (B. Anderson)
• SlotMusic Best Practices Task Force (M. Barrett)
• Audiovisual Materials Glossary Update Task Force (H. Frank)
• RDA testing (K. McGrath)

5.  New Business:

• Bibliographic Standard Records (BSR) for Visual Materials (W. Walker)
• Moving Image Work Grant (K. McGrath)
• Flash memory device best practices (K. McGrath for R. Freeborn)

Rob announced that Bill Anderson will be giving the CAPC Report at the upcoming Membership Meeting, and Kelley McGrath will lead the CAPC meeting since he is unable to attend Midwinter.

Rob also was contacted just before Thanksgiving by the chair of the Standing Committee on Standards of PCC, Rebecca Culbertson, regarding the need to have OLAC create a new Bibliographic Standard Record (BSR) for Visual Materials. Rob asked for volunteers from CAPC and received one, Walter Walker, who also volunteered to chair a BSR for Visual Materials Committee and has since created a draft standard. However, he has been unsuccessful at garnering other CAPC volunteers and asked if he could invite any OLAC members to join in this effort. The deadline for turning in a completed standard to Rebecca is February 28, 2010.

Decision: Executive Board approved opening membership of the BSR for VM Committee to any interested OLAC member.

Action Item: Rob will send out an invitation, with explanation, to all OLAC members via OLAC-L, seeking an additional three or four individuals to complete the committee membership and craft a new standard.

6. Newsletter Editor’s Report (Amy K. Weiss and Kate James)

Amy reported that the December 2009 issue of the OLAC Newsletter was recently mailed, and is the last print version of the newsletter. Amy has a range of related office supplies that she no longer needs and felt that it would be an unnecessary expense to pack everything up and mail off to Kate, who has taken over as the Newsletter Editor. Amy asked for suggestions on what to do with the no-longer-needed supplies, Paige’s idea was to seek out a local non-profit organization or church office that could use the materials. Other Board members agreed with this idea.

Action Item: Amy will find a new home for leftover office/mailing supplies at a local non-profit organization or church.

Kate announced that both Doug King and Barbara Vaughan have agreed to retain their current positions with the newsletter, which are Book Review Editor and News/Announcements Editor respectively. She also reminded us that beginning with the March 2010 issue the newsletter will be available only in an online format. Nathan then spoke up regarding the issue of a freely-accessible online newsletter and its possible impact regarding Institutional Members (note: we currently have 165 IM’s so this would be a significant impact should we lose some or all of these members). Discussion was held on whether or not to make the newsletter password protected and only available to OLAC members, making only the current one or two year’s worth of issues password protected, etc., and how this might make IM’s decide to not renew their membership with us.

Action Item: Kate agreed to lead this discussion further by email until we can reach a decision on how best to deal with open versus members-only newsletter status.

7. Outreach/Advocacy Report (Debbie Benrubi)

Unfortunately, Debbie was unable to attend the meeting at the last minute so there was no report. Pat asked Paige to contact Debbie and see if she can provide a written report to go into the minutes and also be used at upcoming meetings at Midwinter.

Action Item: Paige will contact Debbie seeking a written report and then include in the final set of meeting minutes if available.

Old Business:

1. Website review issues

Paige followed up on the topic of a Website Steering Committee to work with Teressa and the group discussed committee size and structure.

Decision: As previously agreed-upon via email earlier in 2009, we will create a Website Steering Committee. Pat L. suggested that this committee always have one Board member so there is a direct liaison to the Executive Board and everyone agreed. Pat volunteered to be the first Board member on the Steering Committee, and the Board agreed with making this a formal duty of the Past President moving forward. The size of the Committee remains to be determined, but Pat was considering no more than 3-4 members to expedite the work of the committee.

Action Item: Pat agreed to write up an announcement about the creation of the Website Steering Committee and asking for volunteers amongst OLAC members to join. Paige volunteered to write a draft charge outlining the roles of the Committee and send it to Pat.  Pat will create a final draft to be used when ready.

2. Program sponsorships

Paige Andrew, and OLAC members Susan Moore and Mary Lynette Larsgaard, will be delivering an 1 ½-day map cataloging Preconference workshop at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Earlier in 2009 Paige had asked the Board if OLAC wished to be a co-sponsor for the Preconference, alongside MAGERT.  Pat asked the Board for final approval on co-sponsorship of this Preconference program, meaning OLAC will be named in all upcoming PR materials, online and otherwise, as a supporting co-sponsor. The Preconference is sponsored by ALCTS.

Decision: OLAC will be a co-sponsor of the Preconference map cataloging workshop at Annual.

Action Item: Paige was certain that the paperwork to make this happen has already been done on his end but will re-contact the Chair of the ALCTS Program Planning Committee to verify everything is in place.

3. ALA Annual Membership Meeting

Pat asked for confirmation on having the Membership Meeting set for Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in June. Everyone confirmed that that was the Executive Board’s preference.

Action Item: Pat will make sure to get this on the paperwork for room assignments and send in.

4.  OLAC 2010 Conference (Julie Huskey)

Julie shared updates on specific planning activities for the 2010 OLAC Biennial National Conference, as follows:

• Opening Keynote Speaker: Robert Ellett
• Closing Keynote Speaker: Mac Elrod
• The Preconference workshop will be on NACO Funnel Training.
• The breakout sessions are going to be heavily “video-oriented”, based on feedback from a survey done in the Fall of OLAC members’ desires, and the Program Planning Committee is looking for speakers.
• The Conference website is still being developed but should be up and running soon.
• A registration fee structure for the conference has not been set yet because the new Marriott is still trying to establish their own fees for use of rooms, food, etc. Once the Committee has these numbers they will go forward with setting up a proposed fee structure and report to the Exec Board for approval.
• Julie and a couple of other Conference leaders will be doing a walkthrough of the new Marriott Conference Center on January 18th, MLK Day, and be on the lookout for how the rooms are arranged, what kinds of activities will be possible, and generally getting a feel for where things are in relation to each other so that they can pass all of this along to OLAC members via the forthcoming Conference website.

New Business:

1. Moving Image Work (MIW) Grant Partnership

Nathan lead a discussion on possible levels of OLAC involvement with this Grant based on an extensive email sent to the Executive Board from Kelley McGrath on January 4th. Basically, there are two roles that OLAC can be involved in: (1) donating money to the effort, or (2) providing time and personnel in the form of OLAC volunteers. After some discussion a unanimous decision was reached that we would like to participate by making a monetary donation. While everyone agreed it would be desirable to get people involved, it was also noted that at times it is difficult to get volunteers to serve on OLAC’s own committees and task forces, let alone asking them to do something for an effort outside of OLAC.

Action Item: Pat will inform Kelley McGrath of the Executive Board’s decision to support the grant effort through a monetary donation. The Board will communicate by email and determine a specific donation amount in the coming few days. The deadline for the grant paperwork is early February so we need to make a decision within the next two weeks.

2.  Nancy B. Olson Award Committee

Paige reported that the last email message Bobby sent out about Committee efforts indicated that we have multiple nominations for the Nancy B. Olson Award. The three members of the Committee are meeting by telephone on Friday, January 8, at noon, at which time either an individual will be selected for the Award or the Award will not be given in 2010. A status report from the Committee Chair, Bobby Bothmann, will be coming to the Executive Board and announced at the Membership Meeting at ALA Midwinter conference.

3. OLAC Conference Scholarship Committee

No report.

Action Item: Pat will contact the Committee Chair and ask for a report to be delivered.

4. OLAC Elections Committee

Vicki reported that after numerous announcements seeking nominations for election to both the position of Secretary and the position of Vice-President/President-Elect she has only been successful in garnering one self-nomination for the position of Secretary, Marcia Barrett. Vicki asked for advice and input/suggestions from the Board about how to proceed with finding at least one nominee for the VP/President-Elect position.

Sevim shared that she has had conversations with a colleague at her library for the position of VP/President-elect and is waiting for a final decision from that person. She is willing to ask one more time for a final answer. She asked if it might be better to have Vicki contact the individual directly and everyone agreed that this would be a good strategy because sometimes being asked directly by a person in charge will result in a favorable response.

Action Item: Sevim will immediately email Vicki the name of the interested individual, and Vicki will contact the individual to try and get a positive response.

Pat also shared that some time ago in having a discussion with a fellow OLAC member she passed the person’s name on to Debbie Benrubi, who shared with Pat that this person may be able to come up with some good candidates. Pat did not remember the person’s name so she will go back to Debbie to start over.

Action Item: Pat will re-contact Debbie regarding finding out who she had previously talked to, and ask that his/her name be forwarded on to Vicki for the purpose of garnering further possible nominations.

As a reminder, nominations for the two positions will also be accepted at the upcoming Membership Meeting at ALA Midwinter, so if others have ideas or names to share please get them to Vicki as soon as possible.

5. OLAC Research Grant Committee

Sevim, as Chair of this Committee, reported that she has sent out one round of announcements about the availability of the Research Grant but received no responses to date. In the meantime, she did receive a question regarding whether or not it is appropriate to use grant funds to help offset travel costs to the Biennial Conference to deliver research findings to the OLAC membership as part of the Grant guidelines. Sevim asked the Board for guidance with this question, and also asked if she could explicitly share this information when she sends out the next announcement. After some discussion that sorted out details regarding using grant money for travel to an ALA conference versus the OLAC Biennial Conference the Board reached a unanimous decision.

Decision: It is acceptable to use Research Grant funds to help offset the cost of traveling to the OLAC Biennial Conference to deliver research findings as a presentation.

Action Item: Sevim will add a sentence regarding the use of funds for travel purposes and send another announcement out to the OLAC membership.

Adjournment

There being no other business brought to the floor, Vicki moved to adjourn the meeting, Paige seconded the motion, and the meeting concluded at 4:15 p.m.