Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:30 a.m.
Westin Waterfront Hotel - Hale room
(Meeting notes provided by Sally Bosken, FAFLRT Secretary 2008-2010)
Attending: Richard Huffine, Sally Bosken, Lynne McDonald, Jessica McGilvray, Angelique Simmons, Jessica O’Toole, Helen Sherman, Jane Killian, Rose Marie Krauss, Karl Dubus-Lopez, Lucille Rosa, Diane Chen.
Call to order
Richard opened the meeting at1030 at the Westin Waterfront Hotel, Hale room.
Introductions were made. Richard stated that with four Board Members present, we did not have enough board members for the quorum so no board decisions would be made.
Brief Remarks from ALA Executive Board Liaison – Diane Chen
Diane spoke of a resolution before council to oppose the war, which she opposed because she would rather support the troops. She has two sons in the war.
Presidents report
Meeting ended at 12:00.
Westin Waterfront Hotel - Hale room
(Meeting notes provided by Sally Bosken, FAFLRT Secretary 2008-2010)
Attending: Richard Huffine, Sally Bosken, Lynne McDonald, Jessica McGilvray, Angelique Simmons, Jessica O’Toole, Helen Sherman, Jane Killian, Rose Marie Krauss, Karl Dubus-Lopez, Lucille Rosa, Diane Chen.
Call to order
Richard opened the meeting at1030 at the Westin Waterfront Hotel, Hale room.
Introductions were made. Richard stated that with four Board Members present, we did not have enough board members for the quorum so no board decisions would be made.
Brief Remarks from ALA Executive Board Liaison – Diane Chen
Diane spoke of a resolution before council to oppose the war, which she opposed because she would rather support the troops. She has two sons in the war.
- ALA membership is going up. As of Nov 2009, there were 62,865 members. Midwinter registrants are 10,013; that is better than last year in Denver.
- Advocacy is the major thrust; go to ala .org to see advocacy tool kits: advocating in a tough economy; coalition building.
- ALA will continue with Capwiz process. It is a way to contact your legislatures. We should use this at a federal level – connects librarians and supporters.
- For job seekers at midwinter – ALA is here to help.
- Money: ALA is doing better than expected; the recession affected advertising; ALA took steps and eliminated positions but did not cut program or services.
- Council is working on the Strategic plan and they welcome comments.
- Advocacy day is Tuesday June 29.
- Library support staff certification will be on the ALA website; get your people certified.
- Spectrum mission needs donations for scholarships.
- Lucille asked about resolutions made by ALA to support health care. ALA thinks they can speak for all members on non-library matters. Should not waste our time and money on these things. We should put our weight on library issues. Diane will pass this on.
- Lynne said she would send Diane information about getting books to troops. Booksforsoldiers.com – can send books directly.
Presidents report
- Most round tables showed decline but FLAFRT went up 32%. Many thanks to the “Careers in Federal Libraries”. Nancy Faget has done amazing programs. Thank you to Nancy! We need to take advantage for this; we are a growing population. Vendors need to know what federal and armed forces libraries are doing. Lucile asked if the growth mainly from student membership? Richard will find out. Our members are almost always members of other divisions. Have a foot in many camps: ACRL, MAGERT, GODORT .
- We are in the red by $1,700 as of Nov 2009. We want to do many things this summer so we need money. Jane Sessa has gotten more ads so the newsletter is paying for itself. Jane K. said she has received no invoices or payments. Pat May is our liaison at ALA; ask Pat and Carol Bursick about how the money was handled before.
- Shirley Loo and Maria Pisa will continue in the role. We must be sure we have a scholarship donor.
- There are 622 members as of November 2009
- Jane Sessa is doing the newsletter; Angelique is doing the on-line version. Alba Scott is our webmaster. Richard still wants the paper version. ALA does the mailing; we pay postage. Why not use ALA Connect? The push is to go to ALA connect.
- We have a group within FAFLRT because we want to make sure that legislation is part of our focus. ALA supports a resolution commending the government on the following: open gov, transparency, declassification and opening a new FOI ombusdsman office at the National Archives. Jessica M. read the resolution on open access, which says American libraries stand ready to support their government to continue to let the public access their information. Lucille said that the government does things behind closed doors so for ALA to say that they want the government to be transparent is wrong.
- Print and online newsletter: All issues are now in paper. Richard will send Lucille copies of those that were only online for her to include in the archives.
- Institutional group membership - Fran Perros would like us to pay for membership in the Public Employees Roundtable - costs $100. Could someone within Faflrt make a donation to pay for this? yes, FLFART is tax deductible so you can give a donation and have it as a tax deduction.
- Beacher Wiggins would like to be the FAFRLT rep to IFLA. He has been our rep in the past; he always attends IFLA. He was not able to do it in the last few years because of a job conflict.
- This spring we need to nominate a new secretary, vice president/president elect, federal director, and armed forces director. We need a nominating committee; it can be done by slat or competitive selection. People on the executive board should not be on the nominating committee. Jessica suggested we have someone who could step in for one of the four directors so we can have a quorum at the midwinter meeting. Alternatively, we could have a first year director shadow the incoming. We would need to look at this as a bylaw change at this summer.
- Possible 2010 summer conference sessions in DC:
- Kathy Roth-Douquet, the writer of AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country (2006) will be our speaker at conference; she co-founded with Michelle Obama - Blue Star Families. She will talk about this and her books
- Sally Bosken has offered the USNO for a tour; we need to decide date; anyone from ALA can join the tour. There will be a charge for transportation to and from the convention center.
- Nancy Faget will do the “Careers in Federal Libraries” all day Friday at the Library of Congress (pending confirmation). She already has vendor supporter. FLICC will co-sponsor. FLICC is planning their award ceremony in the afternoon.
- The FAFLRT awards ceremony will be Friday night with a reception at the DOJ main library.
- Other ideas: Carla Southers - DOD coordinator for schools
- Green Initiatives in federal libraries
- Meet your federal chief knowledge officers
- Using social media in government
- Karl says that LC is setting up electronic submissions for the Copyright Office. This would be a good way to highlight the three national libraries and their national repositories. Carl will talk to Jewel Player, head of the copyright office at LC. She is a former army librarian.
Meeting ended at 12:00.