Board of Directors

2003 Annual Meeting, Toronto

Saturday, June 21, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Metro Toronto Convention Center, Rm. 201-E/F

Minutes

Present: Pat Ensor, President; Flo Wilson, Past President; Tom Wilson, President-Elect; Barbra Higginbotham, Councilor; Susan Jacobson, Bylaws and Organization; Mary Taylor, Executive Director; Directors-at-Large Thomas Dowling, Scott Muir, Bonnie Postlethwaite, Colby Riggs

Absent: Karen Cook, Jim Kennedy, and Pat Mullin

Guests: Mark Beatty, Michelle Frisque, Joan Kuklinski, Jennie McKee, Carrie Russell, Zoë Stewart-Marshall, Rick Weingarten

Staff: Rob Carlson, Valerie Edmonds

Agenda Item #1, Call to order, announcements, introduction of guests

President Ensor called the meeting to order at 9:31 a.m. and introduced the guests. She bid a special welcome to recently-elected Directors-at-Large Beatty and McKee, and led the group in congratulating them and Colby Riggs, incoming President-Elect. The group agreed to revise the order of agenda items in order to move up an action item from the Nominating Committee (Item #5) and a report from the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) in order to leave an uninterrupted period for the Issues Discussion, Item #6. Announcements and a vote on the Consent Agenda would take place after the OITP report.

Agenda Item #2, Agenda additions and approval

Ensor invited additions to the agenda. There were none, and the agenda was approved. [Please note that there was no Item #4 on the agenda.]

Agenda Item #5, Slate for spring 2004 Election

Joan Kuklinski, chair of the 2004 Nominating Committee reported on the following slate of candidates for the spring 2004 election: Director-at-Large candidates are Donna Reed, Community Information Systems Manager, Multnomah County (OR) Library; Wei Jen Chu, Information Technology Division Head, Worcester (MA) Public Library; Andrew Pace, Head of Systems, North Carolina State University; and one other candidate to be determined. The candidate had been approached, and had agreed to give his answer before the Tuesday Board meeting. Candidates for ALA Councilor are Sherrie Schmidt, Dean of University Libraries, Arizona State University; and Karen Schneider, Director, Librarians’ Index to the Internet (Berkeley, CA). Candidates for Vice-President / President-Elect are Scott Muir, Assistant Director, DALNET (Wayne State University, Detroit, MI) and Patrick Mullin, Associate University Librarian for Access Services & Systems, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A motion from the Nominating Committee to approve the slate of candidates for the spring 2004 election was approved with 7 in favor, 3 absent, and 1 (Muir) abstaining. Councilor Higginbotham asked whether the Nominating Committee knew if Karen Schneider would resign as Councilor-at-Large if she were elected LITA Councilor, and Kuklinski agreed to find out.

Report from the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP)

Rick Weingarten and Carrie Russell began their report by asking LITA to designate two people to attend an Information Commons workshop to be held in Cerritos, CA, the first week in November 2003. They believe attendance would be supported by funds from the Rockefeller Foundation.

They announced that a decision in the CIPA case was due from the Supreme Court any day, and asked LITA to be prepared to respond to technical issues regarding the use of filters in libraries if the Court decided against ALA in the case.

Weingarten reported that cyber-security is still very much an issue to keep an eye on, with a need to balance secure systems with the privacy needs of users.

Weingarten then proposed LITA as a possible new home for the e-Books Task Force (EBTF), which has been an OITP subcommittee since it was founded two years ago. LITA member Karen Coyle is its current chair. It is OITP’s belief that much of the work of the EBTF has left the policy arena and now lies in the area of implementation. It could carry on its activities and serve ALA and the library community more broadly if it were situated in LITA. Councilor Higginbotham (who serves on the OITP advisory board) noted that the EBTF would be very different from a LITA Committee or Interest Group, and that LITA would need to understand how the group operates in order to further its work, rather than try to squeeze it into an existing LITA structure. President Ensor asked how the group wished to proceed, and it was agreed that someone from the LITA Board would attend the EBTF meeting on Monday the 24^th despite its conflicting with the LITA President’s Program. The LITA Forum in Norfolk in October was also proposed as a meeting opportunity for the two groups.

Announcements

President Ensor announced that information about the proposed Brett Butler Award had been put in Board members’ folders. The Executive Committee needed to move forward with approval of the Award before the meeting of the ALA Awards Committee, which preceded the LITA Board meeting.

Agenda Item #3, Consent agenda

The Board agreed to add approval of the Brett Butler Award to the Consent Agenda. Scott Muir moved and Flo Wilson seconded that the amended Consent Agenda be approved. The motion passed with 8 for and 3 absent. Included in the Consent Agenda were: 3.1, Confirmation of mail votes taken since the last Board meeting (Approval of the 2003 Midwinter Meeting Minutes); 3.2, acceptance of the President’s Report, the Vice President’s Report (including Commentary, FY2003 budget report, and FY2004 draft budget request), and the Executive Director’s report; and 3.3, approval of the Brett Butler Award.

Agenda Item #6 Issues Discussion – LITA Vision Statement

Tom Wilson and Scott Muir led the group through an exercise and discussion that they hope will contribute to a new LITA vision statement. Their purpose was to begin the process, not to draft a new statement at this meeting. Discussion centered on terms and concepts that represent both LITA’s core strengths and its appeal to members. It was decided that the Executive Committee and two volunteers from the Board would carry the work forward, and draft a statement for the full Board’s consideration at the 2004 Midwinter Meeting in San Diego.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Rob Carlson

The meeting reconvened on Tuesday, June 24, 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Metro Toronto Convention Center, Rm. 206-D

Absent: Karen Cook, Jim Kennedy, and Pat Mullin

Guests: Mark Beatty, Colleen Cuddy, Jennie McKee, Deb Shapiro, Zoë Stewart-Marshall

Staff: Valerie Edmonds

The meeting continued with the introduction of guests and the addition of a Membership Development report by Flo Wilson to the agenda.

Heard report from Deb Shapiro, 2003 National Forum Planning Committee chair. Discussion included planning, sponsors, programs, what is working well and what isn’t. Ensor clarified that the LITA Executive Committee is the National Forums’ Steering Committee and suggested that the Forum Committee chair(s) submit topics to the Executive Committee to consider at the Fall Meeting and/or plan to meet with the Executive Committee at Midwinter.

Heard report from Pat Ensor about OLITA. The Ontario Library and Information Technology Association is a division of the Ontario Library Association. The OLITA Board invited available LITA Board Members to join them for an informal meeting. A good discussion resulted and the programming area seemed to offer the most useful possibilities for continued interaction.

Completed the slate with announcement from Tom Wilson that David Dorman agreed to be a candidate for director-at-large in the spring election. Motion to accept by Tom Wilson, seconded by Colby Riggs. Motion passed.

Heard plans for follow up to Saturday’s visioning exercise from Tom Wilson who intends to get the flip charts transcribed and distributed as soon as possible, continue with email discussion, present to the Executive Committee at the fall meeting and then bring to the full board by Midwinter.

Heard Bylaws and Organization Committee report from Susan Jacobson (document assigned number 2003AC-8). Discussed and passed the following Committee submitted motions: revised Regional Institutes Committee charge, retention of the Legislation and Regulation Committee, retention of the Technology and Access Committee, a revised charge statement for each Award committee, a revised charge statement for each Scholarship committee, renewal of the Technical Services Workstations IG, renewal of the Technology and the Arts IG, renewal of the Microcomputer Users IG with a name change to Personal Computing IG and a revised function statement.

Heard report from Colby Riggs on the LITA Online Manual Task Force Status Report and Recommendations. Written report assigned number 2003AC-9.

Heard Program Planning Committee report from Colby Riggs (document assigned number 2003AC-10). Seven of the nine proposals are from seasoned planners; more proposals are expected at Midwinter. Riggs and John Forys, PPC chair, will work together to clarify PPC procedures and develop a narrative page addressing responsibilities to help new planners.

Heard report from Flo Wilson on the Membership Development Committee. Board input is requested regarding support staff memberships. Discussion ensued and resulted in Flo stating that there is need to continue to think about this. She asked whether the Board would appoint a Task Force or should a subcommittee of the Membership Development Committee work on this. Referred to Karen Cook, Board liaison to the Membership Development Committee.

Heard and discussed Council report from Barbra Higginbotham. Items included Conference registration numbers, CIPA legislation set back, ALA’s budget picture, ALA policy re open meetings, ALA Web Site, ALA/APA director position, virtual members policy, new health insurance coverage available in the fall, Core Values TF document due to Council by Annual Conference 2004, Iraq resolution withdrawn.

Discussed Carla Hayden’s memo re Equity of Access Presidential Initiative (document assigned number 2003AC-11) and the Technology and Access Committee response (document assigned 2003AC-12). Commended TAC for their response and for the timely way they created and submitted it at this meeting.

Heard report from Tom Wilson about his plans to work with the International Relations Committee on plans for his President’s Program. Discussed LITA representation to IFLA. Heard call for volunteers to be Board liaisons to several LITA committees. The news function discussion was tabled.

Received written report from Flo Wilson, “Planning and Budgeting Assembly and Division Leadership Meetings, Report to the LITA Board.” Document assigned number 2003AC-13.

Selected Executive Committee director-at-large member. Moved by Tom Wilson, seconded by Barbra Higginbotham, to elect Pat Mullin as the Executive Committee director-at-large member. Motion passed.

Recognized Thomas Dowling and Scott Muir with certificates and tokens of appreciation for their service to LITA as members of the Board of Directors. Recognized Susan Jacobson with a certificate and token of appreciation for her service as Parliamentarian. Recognized Flo Wilson with a gift from President-Elect Tom Wilson, a certificate, and other tokens for her service as President-Elect, President and Past-President.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00.

LITA Deputy Executive Director