Present: Carolyn Barkley, President; Sandy Heinemann, Past-President; Cy Dillon, President-Elect; Nancy Newins, Secretary; Ruth Arnold, 2nd Vice President; Jeanette Friedman, Treasurer; Linda Hahne, Executive Director; Ruth Kifer, Academic Library Section; Greta Lowe, Academic Library Section; Heather Hannan, Admin. & Mgmt. Forum; Mary Mayer-Hennelly, ALA Council; Susan Keller, Awards & Recognition Committee; Cathy Williamson, Collection Management Forum; Morel Fry, Conference Committee; Louveller Luster, Continuing Education Committee; Skip Auld, Federal Relations; Ted Hostetler, Intellectual Freedom Committee; Janis Augustine, Legislative Committee; Virginia Dunn, Local History, Genealogy Forum; Wanda Brown, Paraprofessional Forum; Clara Stanley, Paraprofessional Forum; Carol Hunter, Public Documents Forum; Dave Hayes, Public Services Forum; Barbie Selby, Publications Committee; Nancy Collins, Region I; Wilma Dotson, Region II; Keith Weimer, Region IV; Brenda Crowley, Region V; Josephine Murphy, Region V; Jennifer Davidson, Region VI; Marianne Ramsden, Scholarship Committee; Karen Dillon,
Special Library Section; Althea Aschmann, TSAT; Sharon McCaslin, TSAT; Mary Lou Carr, Trustee/Friends Forum; Mary Hansbrough, VLA Newsletter Editor; Harriett Edmunds, Volunteer Management Forum; Steve Helm, Webmaster; Rebecca Purdy, Youth Services Forum.

1) President Barkley convened the meeting at 10:00 a.m.

2) Minutes from the October, 1999 Council meeting were approved.

3) Executive Director's Report: Linda Hahne reported that membership currently stands at 778 members with 107 of these new members. To date 516 have not renewed their memberships and second notices were mailed last week. Welcome packets will be sent to both new and renewing members. Council members were reminded to renew their membership if they haven't done so.
Linda also announced that mousepads left over from Legislative Day are available for sale at $5.

4) Treasurer's Report: Treasurer Friedman distributed the 1999 Income and Expense Statements and the 2000 Income Statement and Expense Budget. (Appended to the official minutes as attachments #1 and #2). She noted that VLA now has $109,000 in the reserve fund and that VLA is beginning 2000 in a strong financial position. Barbie Selby asked if all bills had been paid from the conference and asked about conference attendance. Jeanette replied that all bills had been paid. Linda Hahne responded that she'd e-mail conference attendance figures. She also noted that VLA had realized $24,000 income on the Homestead conference. Carolyn Barkley briefly reviewed selected line item expenses in the 2000 budget and Barbie Selby delineated expenses for publications. Carolyn noted that legislative liaison funding comes from donations. Skip Auld inquired about a cost of living increase for contracted services, and Carolyn reported that the Executive Committee
had approved a new contract for Linda Hahne's services, which includes both cost of living and merit increases. It was noted that, on the income side, more than 50% of membership dues have been received.

Morel Fry moved, with Steve Helm seconding, that the 2000 budget be approved. The motion carried.

5) VLA's Draft Designated Agenda for 2000: Carolyn Barkley distributed and reviewed the VLA 2000 Draft Designated Agenda. (Appended as attachment #3). The final approved version of the designated agenda will be mailed to all Council members on February 21.

This document was developed by the Executive Committee at their December retreat, and came from task force recommendations from the former "Ad Hoc Committee on VLA Purpose, Goals and Structure;" last year's strategic plan; committee members' ideas; and recommendations from unit annual reports. Goals are not new this year, but items have been added as initiatives with specific actions, lead committees and units and a recommended timeline. Carolyn will send out specific charges to committees with action items.

Among new initiatives is an additional salary review with recommendation to the Executive Committee for a minimum entry-level salary matrix for paraprofessional level positions. Goal 2 -- "Continuing Education" -- will take on a slightly different role this year with a survey of continuing education meeting facilities and continued study of the Leadership Training and Program Planner's Workshops. A third initiative -- identification of continuing education partnerships -- will be added. Goal 3 will attempt to
streamline the VLA organization through standardization of the Awards and Recognition Program and through study and revision of the Scholarship Program, to bring together under one umbrella the variety of VLA Scholarships with representation from units which give separate awards.

Committee appointments will also be studied and standardized, and the VLA Archives will be investigated along with the possibility of developing a photo archive for the association. Goal 4 looks at strengthening association finances through a program of planned giving (endowments); advertising; and a sponsorship plan to coordinate soliciting for contributions. The dues structure will also be reviewed.

Skip Auld inquired as to whether National Legislative Day needed to be added. The consensus was that this is an ongoing activity and doesn't need to be added as such. Susan Keller asked about the April deadline for Awards & Recognition, and Carolyn clarified that this was the deadline for their plan and not a change in the committee awards deadline.

Barbie Selby moved, with Keith Weimer seconding, that the proposed Designated Agenda 2000 be approved and the motion carried.

6) Future Conference Sites: Linda Hahne recommended that, after Norfolk in 2000, the conference be held in Richmond in 2001 and that a joint conference with VEMA be planned for 2002 at a place to be determined by both parties.

In discussion, Mary Mayer-Hennelly questioned whether a joint conference would be viewed favorably by the Executive Committee. Both Sandy Heinemann and Linda Hahne responded that the previous joint conference had a lot of positive outcomes and that, with the previous experience, the next joint conference could avoid some of the problems experienced in the past. Ruth Kifer asked about attendance, and Linda Hahne reported an attendance at the
VEMA/VLA joint conference of 1200. Approximately 40% of all VLA members attended. (Attendance at the Homestead was 423). Harriet Edmunds serves on the VEMA Board and mentioned that they're very positive about the joint conference idea. Linda Hahne noted that the vendors loved the joint conference, and that it was excellent financially. Roanoke might be a possible site. Linda will need to negotiate whether it would be a two or three-day conference. Harriet Edmunds noted that Saturday morning is really
important to VEMA. Linda noted that VEMA meets in May, so we won't know anything definitively until June.

Harriet Edmunds moved, with Cy Dillon seconding, the approval of the conference plan as proposed by Linda Hahne. The motion carried.

7) Reports

a) Legislation & Legislative Day: Janis Augustine reported on the VLA legislative initiatives: the State Aid budget amendment; the
Infopowering budget amendment, the Library of Virginia budget amendment and the carryover of UCITA (deferred to Skip Auld's report). The State Aid amendment seeks $7.7 million in extra funding over the two years of the biennium to achieve full funding. Phil Abraham feels like this will happen, but VLA still needs to talk with the higher education and education subcommittee members in the next week. The Governor has included $4 million for Infopowering in his budget. An additional $6 million has been asked for through a separate amendment, with $426,000 requested for the Library of Virginia staff to administer Infopowering. Phil Abraham does not expect funding beyond what is in the governor's budget.

VLA Legislative Day was held in Richmond on January 20 with 20 participants instead of the 50 attendees expected due to inclement weather. Legislators received VLA mousepads and bookmarks designed by Fairfax County Public Library. The Library of Virginia prepared stickers for legislators with a simple logon procedure to Electric Library, the first database purchased with Infopowering funds.

Del Callahan introduced a bill asking that JLARC study the State Aid Formula, particularly the population cap. Janis' complete report is appended to the minutes as attachment #4.

b) National Library Legislative Day and UCITA: Skip Auld distributed several handouts about UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act) and one handout inviting VLA members to attend National Library Legislative Day, May 1-2, 2000, in Washington D.C. (Attachment #5). In his report on
UCITA, which is now before the Virginia legislature, he noted that the library community generally feels that this legislation would undermine fair use and copyright. He distributed information on 4CITE, a group that has been organized to defeat UCITA in any state where it has been introduced. VLA is not a member of this group. VLA is a member of a coalition urging further study of UCITA and an additional handout listed coalition members.

Carolyn Barkley reiterated that VLA's position on UCITA is to
support the statewide coalition that is proposing a carry-over of this
legislation for further study. A reluctant second choice would be to
support an amended bill. VLA has two other legislative initiatives before the legislature and will rely on other national library associations who are working on UCITAon the national level. Skip noted the importance of the study resolution, and suggested that it might be helpful to contact senators/delegates to support this legislation (SJ 239 and HJ 277). A decision will be made in the coming week as to whether this legislation will pass or will be carried over for future study. Update: the carry over legislation has been moved into amendments to the actual UCITA bill calling
for study within JCOTS and a report due by December 2000.

c) Conference 2000: Morel Fry reported that the 2000 annual
conference will be held at the Clarion Hotel and Norfolk Scope October 19-20, 2000. The theme is "Celebrate Virginia's Libraries." A Wednesday pre-conference will include the Council Luncheon and the Program Planners Workshop. Meetings will be Thursday and Friday. Thursday lunch will be provided for attendees in the exhibit area. Dale Henry will speak at the Wednesday pre-conference and at the Thursday night social. The Entertainment Committee is working on additional plans for the Thursday
night social. Linda Hahne announced that registration will also be in the exhibit area to encourage better attendance for vendors. Concurrent session proposals are in the February and March VLA Newsletter. (Morel's full report is appended as attachment #6).

d) ALA Thank You Day: Carolyn Barkley reported that April 11, 2000 has been designated accordingly, and suggested that libraries could do something to celebrate this day. Each library director should have received information from the ALA Washington Office and they can be contacted for further information.

e) ALA Councilor: Mary Mayer-Hennelly reported on her attendance as ALA Chapter Councilor at ALA Midwinter in San Antonio, January 14-19, 2000. (Her full report is appended as attachment #7). She mentioned that the ALA Scholarship Committee is asking for contributions to a silent auction at the ALA annual conference and suggested a basket of Virginia products might be appropriate. Barbie Selby suggested books by Virginia
authors. Sandy Heinemann moved, with Morel Fry seconding, that "VLA should support the ALA initiative to develop a Virginia basket for the ALA Scholarship Fund at a cost not to exceed $125." The motion carried.

8) Partnership Opportunity with Catholic University: Carolyn Barkley announced that she had been in communication with the Dean of the Library School at Catholic University, Peter Liebscher, who is investigating ways to strengthen their off-campus program outside D.C. The focus for next year is on the Richmond program. Carolyn suggested that Catholic might offer VLA members some special benefit(s) -- in-state rates for tuition, scholarships
for VLA members, for example. The Dean is also soliciting suggestions for courses and possible adjunct faculty members. Completion of the off-campus program will be guaranteed. Discussion ensued and a variety of suggestions for courses were offered including: school librarianship/adult services; cataloging; customer service/marketing; building maintenance/facilities
management; budgeting/grant writing; technology management and planning; technology management and planning; teaching skills/information literacy; selection of online resources and copyright. Several names of potential adjuncts were also suggested. Carolyn will pass this information along to Catholic.

9) Announcements:

Carolyn Barkley announced that future agenda items should be e-mailed to her.

Technical Services and Technology (Althea Aschmann) announced two upcoming "Basic Serials Cataloging Workshops," in Richmond, April 14 and Blacksburg, May 5. Separate member and non-member costs are given, and Carolyn reminded Council members that programs and workshops should provide both a
member and non-member price.

Region V (Brenda Crowley) announced a September program on e-publishing. The Intellectual Freedom Committee (Ted Hostetler) announced that five associations including ALA and ACLU were following the case of the Virginia high school teacher in Rockingham County who had a banned books poster removed from his office door. The IFC will
monitor this situation.

Webmaster (Steve Helm) announced that SWING and VLA will now share a server. Steve has listserv software and any unit who wants to set up a listserv should let him know. The timeframe for listservs is within the next two months. Also, units that want to assist him in creating/updating web content should get in touch.

Public Documents Forum (Carol Hunter) announced that a "Documents Sampler Workshop" will be held at Virginia Tech Friday, March 17, 2000. They will take their "show on the
road" and there were several requests for other locations. The Forum has a great web presence and also publishes a newsletter -- the Shipping List.

Federal Relations (Skip Auld) announced that ALA is sponsoring a Copyright Education Program tutorial via e-mail. This is free to ALA members and lasts for 10 weeks. Contact him for subscription information.

Nominating Committee (Sandy Heinemann) announced that the committee will meet next week, and they need suggestions for nominations for Vice President/President Elect and Secretary. Self-nominations are accepted as well. Administrative Services Committee (Ruth Arnold) announced that committee appointments have been sent out and she hopes to fill gaps in the near future. She requests that committee chairs send rosters to her and give her specific regional representation needs.

The meeting adjourned at 12:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted
Nancy Newins, Secretary