Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table Annual General Membership Meeting

ALA Annual Conference, 2005

McCormick Conference Center, Chicago, IL

Saturday, June 25, 2005
Attendees: Sally Bosken, Michelle Brosius, Carol Bursik, Bobbie Carr, Patricia Goldman, Arthalene Gordey, Margaret J. Groner, Georgette Harris, Shirley Loo, Marie L. Nelson, Fran Perros, Holly May Pickel, Linda Resler, Lucille M. Rosa, Reginald Scott, Jane Sessa, Cynthia Shipley, Joan R. Taylor, Eileen Welch

Welcome and Call to Order. Linda Resler, FAFLRT President, called the meeting to order at 9:08 a.m.
Minutes. The minutes of the previous General Membership Meeting of June 26, 2004, previously published in the
Federal Librarian, were presented in summary fashion by Marie Nelson, Secretary. The minutes were accepted as written.
President's Report. Linda Resler reported on the following items:
1. ALA News:
  1. ALA membership:
    - 66,622 members, a 2% increase since May 2004
    - 756 Library Support Staff (a new membership category adopted in 2004)
    - 13,778 Round Table members, an increase of 4.624%
      - LSSIRT has grown by 60% and has 710 members
      - SRRT is largest with 1,803 members
      - NMRT has 1,778 members
      - IFRT has 1,750 members
  2. Chicago Conference pre-registration is 13,407, as opposed to 10,127 pre-registered last year in Orlando.
  3. Hot topics:
    - USA Patriot Act: On Monday, ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano arranged for a screening of "Unconstitutional," a feature-length documentary about the USA Patriot Act by filmmaker Robert Greenwald, followed by a panel discussion.
    - SAFE Act
    - "Privacy," a presentation on protecting anonymity on the Internet
    - ALA Code of Ethics, a series of discussion forums
    - A draft statement on "Inclusiveness and Mutual Respect" is to be presented to Council for adoption. Feedback to council members is requested prior to Tuesday. It had been distributed on the FAFLRT discussion list.
2. FAFLRT News
  1. Election results: There was a very low response (not quite 18% of the membership voted). Those elected are:
    - Bobbie Carr, VP/Pres Elect
    - Carol Bursik, Treasurer
    - Cynthia Shipley, AF Director
    - Sally Bosken, Fed Director
  2. A change in by-laws will appear on the 2006 ballot, as follows: "the vice-president/president-elect
    may be responsible for chairing the Round Table Program Committee for the Annual Conference," as this reflects current practice. (Change: The former word "
    shall" would be replaced by "
    may.")
  3. Members interested in participating in FAFLRT should contact any of the Board members or Committee chairs, which are listed on the back of the
    Federal Librarian newsletter or on the FAFLRT Website.
  4. ProQuest volunteered to fund the Adelaide del Frate Conference Sponsorship Award in future years. This award is given to a library school student interested in federal librarianship. There was no nominee/awardee for 2005.
  5. Friday Night Reception. This was the first Friday reception held since the Armed Forces Librarians' Round Table (AFLRT) and the Federal Librarians' Round Table (FLRT) were separate entities. It was hosted by the Pritzker Military Library at no facility cost to us, and they generously donated the wines. ProQuest sponsored the food and setup costs.
  6. At the 2004 annual conference in Orlando, FAFLRT nominated Ross Shimon (IFLA) for ALA Honorary Member status, but ALA did not select him as one of the recipients.
3. ALA Round Tables. Margaret Groner, past-president, attended their luncheon and reported their concern about diminishing round table membership numbers. She and Linda Resler have a graph depicting membership figures. Margaret also strongly recommended that the FAFLRT President and incoming President should attend the Friday ALA Round Table Coordinating Committee meeting at future conferences.
Membership Report. Joan Taylor reported that as of June 21, 2005, ALA figures showed that FAFLRT had 299 personal members and 60 Organizational/Corporate members, for a total of 359 members. This is a decrease from last year's numbers, but ALA may still not be correctly crediting the previous two organizations' members to us, i.e. still showing that AFLRT (dissolved) has 141 members. Reggie Scott indicated that ALA has a new ALA Membership Coordinator, who will attempt to reconcile all the membership numbers by mid-July '05.
Treasurer's Report. Carol Bursik distributed FAFLRT's June 14, 2005 Financial Statement for FY 2005, based on the Performance Report of April 30, 2005, which shows:
- Beginning Net Assets (9/01/04) of ($564.07)
- Revenues of $5,815.07
- Expenses of $6,023.00
- Net Revenue (Expense) figure of ($ 207.93) (negative amount) for the year
- Ending Net Asset Balance of ($772.00) (negative amount)
However, as of June 14, 2005, there were un-posted revenues of $765 from SIRSI and $1700 from ProQuest, for a total of $2,465. Also, in the future, newsletter printing will be less costly, as Baldwin Graphics will only charge approximately $400 per newsletter, a savings of $800 per quarter. In addition, the dues increase which became effective this year will provide higher future revenues.
Newsletter (
Federal Librarian) Report. Jane Sessa reported that the newsletter needs advertisers and more article submissions. Also, she would like to relinquish the newsletter editor duties sometime in the future, and is seeking a replacement. The next newsletter deadline is August 15, 2005.
Committee Reports
1. Annual Program. Donna Ramsey coordinated the 2005 Annual Program on Outsourcing, which will be presented at 10:30 a.m., right after this meeting. Jewel Player will coordinate the 2006 Program, which will be on copyright. The 2007 Program is still seeking suggestions for a program topic and volunteer coordinator(s).
2. Awards Committee. Shirley Loo reported that Jewel Player received the FAFLRT Distinguished Service Award. There were no nominations for the FAFLRT Achievement Award, and the Adelaide del Frate Conference Sponsorship Award was not publicized. ProQuest has indicated that they will sponsor the Adelaide del Frate Award in the future.
3. Booth Coordinator. Eileen Welch reported that there are handouts available at FAFLRT's booth, and anyone is welcome to sit at the booth if they have free time.
4. FAFLRT Web page. James King continues to be our webmaster and was thanked, in absentia, for his fine work maintaining FAFLRT's ALA web page.
Liaison Reports
1. ALA Planning and Budget Assembly. Carol Bursik attended their meeting, which discussed ALA's Strategic Plan. Michael Gorman presented six goals, and discussed other issues such as recruitment and retention of young librarians, who appear to be attending other associations' meetings, rather than ALA's. ALA is also considering raising conference registration fees, as ALA's are lower than other organizations' fees.
2. Coalition for Effective Change. Jane Sessa reported that the Excellence in Government Conference, to be held in July, is seeking suggested means of promoting federal libraries. We will provide them with our FAFLRT brochure, as well as issues of the Federal Librarian, along with a handout on how to apply for federal library jobs. (FLICC already has this information prepared.)
3. Public Employees Round Table. Fran Perros' report was published recently in the
  Federal Librarian newsletter.
4. FLICC. Carol Bursik stated that there is no report.
5. IFLA. Andrea Gruhl's report was in the last
  Federal Librarian newsletter.
Other Business
1. A suggestion was made to have additional FAFLRT Board meetings in Washington, D.C., as the currently scheduled semi-annual meetings may not be frequent enough to sufficiently maintain interest and continuity of business. Another suggestion was to plan a joint meeting with another agency, such as DTIC, next spring.
2. Reggie Scott stated that ALA's new Washington office has nice meeting rooms, and our meetings/programs could be held there.
The meeting adjourned at 9:52 a.m.

Respectfully submitted, Marie L. Nelson

FAFLRT Secretary