All staff from all libraries that participate in VIVA are invited to the second annual VIVA Users Group Annual Meeting from 3:30 to 5:00 on Thursday, October 15. The meeting will be held as part of the VEMA/VLA Joint Conference in Virginia Beach. Come hear announcements of news about VIVA, get answers to your questions about VIVA, and share your comments on the current state and the future of VIVA. Jean Major of Old

Dominion University, chair of the VIVA User Services Committee, will preside at the meeting.

The September Council meeting was held at the Northside Branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library on Friday, September 11. This was the last regular Council meeting of 1998. The VLA and VEMA Councils will meet together over lunch at the Annual Conference.

Following introductions and welcomes to proxies and visitors, the June minutes were approved. Terry Sumey then presented the Treasurer’s report. A $16,000 deficit was planned for this year but due to the great success of the Paraprofessional Conference, almost half of that amount has already been recovered. Tom Hehman congratulated the Paraprofessional Forum on their successful conference and Terry added his thanks to the committee chairs, especially of the Publications Committee, for finding ways to keep costs down while continuing to provide excellent products.

Executive Director Linda Hahne reported that VLA currently has 1,214 members. This figure is 240 lower than last year. Membership is now closed out for 1998. Those wishing to renew or join for the first time will be encouraged to send their dues for the 1999 calendar year. Linda mentioned that the renewal notices which appear in the VLA Newsletter do not seem to be an effective source of renewals. In the future, direct mailings will be used to remind people to renew their membership. Since the dues for 1999 were increased, Linda reminded everyone to please use the new membership form when renewing, or at least the new dues structure!

Linda also reported that the VLA ballots were mailed and would be due back on September 15. The jobline on the VLA web page is being widely used. It was budgeted to accrue $4,000 and has already achieved that amount. As this revenue continues to grow through the end of 1998, it will help to reduce the budget deficit. The VLA Office is now busy working on the Annual Conference. Linda noted that over 5,000 programs were mailed to VLA and VEMA members.

Terry Sumey reported for the Finance Committee that they hope to present a balanced budget for 1999. Tom reminded Council that the charge to the Finance Committee this year was to develop a balanced budget and a reserve for next year, and commented that the Committee is certainly headed in the right direction.

At the June Council meeting, Jo Ellen Opyoke announced the Volunteer Management Roundtable’s plan to develop an award to recognize youth volunteers. The Roundtable submitted a proposal to the Executive Council before the September meeting. Tom remarked that the Executive Committee was in favor of the plan but made some suggestions and returned it to the Roundtable for revisions. The proposal will be brought to Council sometime in the future.

Janis Augustine of the Legislative Committee presented a proposal to adopt a resolution of appreciation for legislators who supported passage of the first phase of the full-funding plan for State Aid to public libraries and who sponsored the budget amendment for funding technology development in public libraries. Council voted on the proposal and the motion to adopt carried. The resolutions will be designed and printed by Diane Rosapepe of the Roanoke County Public Library and then sent to public library directors in each legislator’s district. The directors may then present the resolution to their legislator. Tom thanked the Legislative Committee for its excellent work.

Next Council discussed and voted on specific aspects of the VLA reorganization proposal. Tom began the discussion with a brief review of the development of the reorganization plan. The Finance Committee, charged with balancing the budget and creating a reserve fund, recommended that the Executive Committee appoint an ad hoc committee to study the overall organization of VLA. The ad hoc committee held a planning retreat in May to discuss the purpose, goals and structure of VLA, and presented a report for discussion at the June Council meeting. After revisions were made to the report based on the discussion at Council, it was distributed on the VLA web page and listserv. Animated discussion followed on the listserv. The Executive Committee reviewed these comments and then brought the report to Council for consideration and action. Council decided to consider each component of the report separately.

The organization of sections by type of library was the first aspect of the report addressed. The proposal called for a new Academic Library Section which would incorporate the Community College Library Forum. It also called for a Special Library Section to be formed in 1999. Other sections included Public Library and School Library. The Trustees and Friends Section was moved to Forums. The motion to accept these sections carried.

Forums and roundtables were addressed next. All roundtables were changed to forums with no change in their functions. The revised list of forums included:

Administration and Management Forum (new, incorporates Public Relations and Personnel Practices Forums, and Library Development and Cooperative Programs Committee)

Youth Services Forum (renamed, formerly CYART)

Collection Management Forum (new, includes Collection Management Roundtable, incorporates Media Roundtable)

Multicultural Forum (renamed, formerly Ethnic Librarians Forum)

New Members Forum (renamed, formerly NMRT, includes mentoring)

Public Services Forum (new, includes reference and circulation; incorporates Business Information, Library Instruction, Interlibrary Loan and Outreach Forums)

Technical Service and Technology Forum (renamed, formerly TSAR, incorporates Microcomputer Forum, includes technology,)

Trustees and Friends Forum (renamed, former section)

Volunteer Management Forum (renamed, formerly Volunteer Management Roundtable)

The motion to accept these forums carried. It was noted that transition plans will need to be developed to adjust for some of the larger forums created as well as the discontinued forums and roundtables.

The next issue addressed involved the voting status of committee chairs. The motion on the floor from the restructuring plan called for committee chairs to serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of Council. Neil Wyatt, chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee, pointed out that three committees in particular, Intellectual Freedom, Legislative and Continuing Education, have direct bearing on VLA’s mission. She suggested a friendly amendment to the motion such that these committees’ chairs would retain their voting status. Scottie Cochrane, ALA Councilor, mentioned that Council members were more likely to attend meetings if their ideas could be represented through the vote. After further discussion of several issues related to voting status, the motion was amended to state that all committee chairs would retain their voting status. This motion carried. The committees remained as they were with the exception of Library Development and Cooperative Programs which was incorporated into the Administration and Management Forum.

A motion was carried that retained the ALA Councilor as the sole voting organizational representative to Council. The SELA representative will not be a voting member of Council. The voting status of VLA publication editors was considered next. The motion stated that the Virginia Libraries editor, the VLA Newsletter editor and the Webmaster would serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of Council. In the discussion it was mentioned that editors differ from chairs in that they do not represent a constituency. However, it was also noted that the editors have a sense of continuity and information about the organization and if they attend Council meetings, should have the opportunity to vote. Opinions were divided on this issue, but the motion carried by a narrow margin.

The final motion from the restructuring plan stated that region chairs would serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of Council. In discussion, members from central and southwest Virginia expressed concern that their regions were underrepresented in continuing education events and wanted to retain regional representation to help stay involved. Jean Tolbert suggested that if Continuing Education Committee members served as chairs of the regions it would help pull the regions together. The VLA Manual stipulates that many committees have full regional representation, but this can be very difficult to achieve. After much discussion, the motion to make region chairs non-voting members of Council failed.

After Council voted on the individual parts of the restructuring plan, a motion was carried to accept the whole report as amended. Discussion then turned to the issue of quorum. One reason for looking at voting status was the continuing problem of reaching a quorum at Council meetings. Many at Council felt that this problem should be solved by changing the requirements for quorum, rather than adjusting voting status. After the restructuring plan was accepted as amended, the number of voting members on Council became 38. A motion was put on the table to change the quorum from two thirds to fifty percent plus one. This motion carried, making quorum 20 members; however, this involves a change to the by-laws and must be brought before the VLA membership for approval.

Following the discussion of the restructuring plan, Linda Hahne reported on the upcoming Annual Conference. She reminded everyone that rooms should always be booked through the VLA Housing Bureau so that VLA will receive credit for rooms it places on reserve. Booking rooms directly with hotels loses money for VLA. One hundred and one exhibitor booths have been sold so far, although a final count of 115 to 120 is anticipated. Linda remarked that plans to engage a trolley service from the convention center to the reception at the Marine Science Museum are underway.

Unit announcements followed. Scottie Cochrane reported that ALA is soliciting endorsements from ALA Chapters and Divisions of its intellectual freedom document "Libraries: An American Value". Neal Wyatt reported that the Intellectual Freedom Committee nominated five people to be honored at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Bill Goodrich said that the Region 1 program Reference on the Web was sold out. Barbie Selby reported that the Publications Committee met with Jon Marken of Lamp-Post Publicity and Dan Dwyer of Farmville Printing about their work on VLA publications. Tom Hehman commended the committee’s work on the new Membership Directory.

Upcoming programs include the Region V program On Track for the 21st Century on September 24; the Virginia Association of Law Librarians’ program Professional Ethics in a Changing Environment on October 15; the Paraprofessional Forum’s mini conference on time management on November 6; the Continuing Education Committee’s October 29 workshop on how to plan a program; and the TSAR forum on electronic resources at the Annual Conference.

Council was adjourned with the reminder that annual reports are due from all sections two weeks prior to the Annual Conference.

If you’ve done an outstanding job of making your community more aware of your library, the John Cotton Dana Public Relations Awards Contest can tell the world about your efforts. Sponsored by the H.W. Wilson Company and the Public Relations Section of the Library Administration and Management Association of ALA, the award recognizes and honors outstanding achievement in library promotion through advocacy, fundraising and programming. The deadline for entries is January 12, 1999 and awards will be presented at the 1999 ALA Annual Conference. For more information, please write to the John Cotton Dana Public Relations Awards Contest, American Library Association/LAMA, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611 or visit the Web site at www.ala.org/LAMA/awards/JCD.

Maureen E. Hady is the new serials librarian/assistant head of acquisitions at Virginia Commonwealth University

The next VLA Council meeting will be held at the VLA/VEMA Annual Conference.

VLA/VEMA Annual Conference, Virginia Beach

Sponsor: College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland

Place: College Park, Richmond

Contact: Robin Albert

(301) 405-2057

ra67@umail.umd.edu

Sponsor: VLA Paraprofessional Forum

Place: Chesterfield County Public Library (Central Branch)

Contact: Lydia Williams

(804) 395-2432

lwilliam@longwood.lwc.edu

Sponsor: College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland

Place: Richmond, College Park

Contact: Robin Albert

(301) 405-2057

ra67@umail.umd.edu

Sponsor: College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland

Place: College Park, Richmond

Contact: Robin Albert

(301) 405-2057

ra67@umail.umd.edu