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Present: Lis Chabot, President; Tom Hehman, Vice President; Carolyn
Barkley, Second Vice President; Pat Howe, Secretary; Linda Hahne, Treasurer
and Interim Executive Director; Steve
Guests: Serf Guerra, Vice-Chair of State Library Board; Nelson Worley,
Director of LOV Library Development and Networking Division; Libby Lewis,
LOV Assistant Director for Library
1. With a quorum present, the meeting was called
to order at 10:13 A.M.
2. A correction was made to the February minutes.
#6. VLA Executive Director Update, line 8, was corrected to: ...the
Finance Committee had planned to make a site visit to the
3. 1997 Designated Agenda: Lis reviewed the
designated agenda exercise from Council's February meeting, with results
of top priorities being reviewed by the Executive Committee. She distributed
the agenda, then discussed which committees would be
4. Treasurer's report: Linda distributed the 1997 revenue and operating budgets. She will be transferring some of the checking account money into short term investments. Expenditures for 1997 so far total $20,010.57. She is receiving money
from the Paraprofessional Conference scheduled for May. Renewed membership
totals 615 people so far. Those who have not renewed will be receiving
postcards as reminders. Sandy
5. Annual Conference report: Linda stated that hotel booking for the 1997 Conference has gone down from 600 to 375-400 rooms. Lis said we must be aware of conference finances and VLA can receive revenue or credit for rooms if vendors use the rooms or book through VLA. She mentioned several possibilities for keynote speakers. Among them were Chuck McClure from Syracuse University, who can broaden the topic of roles for libraries and the Internet, Rex Ellis from the Smithsonian who does storytelling, and Bob Marshall, Mort Barr or Bruce Taylor for the topic of Cyberrights. Linda Hahne announced that she has Conference Proposal forms. 6. Nominating Committee report: Caroline presented the slate of candidates for next year. President:
Cy Dillon and Sandy Heinemann
Lis introduced the candidates. Carol Pfeiffer was attending the ACRL Conference. 7. Administrative Services Committee report: Carolyn
Barkley went over a draft of the membership survey that is taken every
two years, suggesting that information from parts of the survey could be
used by specific VLA groups. The survey includes questions about
8. Finance Committee report: Terry Sumey stated that
the Treasurer has reviewed the 1996 finances and books were balanced except
for a few problems with previous years. All
9a. 1997 Legislative session: Phil Abraham, VLA Legislative
Liaison, distributed handouts and discussed the history of the sales tax
legislation exempting Friends groups as defined in Section 501
(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. He spoke of his contacts with Delegate
Cranwell, Senators Early and Hawkins for support, how helpful it is for
constituents to contact local legislators for support, and for people to
speak with their representatives
Barbara Severin said we should thank the legislators who voted for the
Friends sales tax exemption bill. Phil will get a list of who helped
and Iza will begin the process of getting cover letters and certificates
of appreciation. It was suggested that Phil invite the
9b. 1997/98 Advocacy Plan: In reference to full-funding, Phil referred to p.182 of his second handout which includes the statement that "It is the objective of the Commonwealth to fully fund the state formula for state aid to local libraries." Iza will meet with Library Directors at their Association meeting in May and e-mail other libraries to discuss their needs and priorities and will report at the June meeting for Council to vote on a legislative advocacy plan for 1997/98. It was suggested that the Newsletter publish information, although the November issue will be too late. Information should be available through VLIN, but personal contact must still be maintained for support. Phil recommended VLA consider forming a Political Action Committee (PAC) and solicit contributions from members in the range of $100, $50, $25 as a way of financially supporting the opportunity for members and legislators to meet at local events. Phil and Iza will develop a strategy plan, perhaps a phase-in approach
over the biennium. They will then meet with House and Senate committees
and also obtain reactions from the two gubernatorial candidates. They recommend
that all VLA members become acquainted with their legislators and keep
constant contact with them. Nolan Yelich stated that it would be helpful
if the strategy plan is completed by August 1 because of budget.
At the
9c. Local Library Advocacy: Tom Hehman presented local library advocacy discussing the history of Bedford Regional Library's experience where they went from a $278,000 LSCA grant for 1995 to $9.5 million in capital funding over 5 years. He detailed seven keys to success: hear the community and define the problem, respond with the best possible solution, get the best possible help, formulate a plan, execute the plan, build on a foundation of good service to the community over a period of time, and make no small plans. Tom distributed a handout describing their bond referendum, showed a video and said how important it was to talk to the legislators. 9d. Federal Legislative Day: Lis attended Library Advocacy
102 at the ALA Midwinter meeting. She reviewed the materials which
discussed influencing legislators. ALA's suggestions/strategies include:
creating local press events and inviting legislators,
A. ALA Lawyers for Libraries Training
Institute: ALA and the American Bar Association in Chicago are sponsoring
a two-day training institute for lawyers on First Amendment questions as
they relate to libraries including privacy, minors' access, sexual harassment,
free speech, Internet access, etc. They would like a lawyer from each state
to attend who would be interested and willing to be on call for libraries
in their respective state. Lis and
B. VLA Election process: Lis distributed "Appointment Acceptance" forms for VLA offices other than the Executive Committee, in hopes of simplifying the current voting process. The current chair of each section will be responsible for the appointment of an incoming officer. Each section may have their own election or self- nominations. If a section wishes an election on the VLA ballot, the Executive Committee must be notified in advance. In response to Sandy Heinemann's question of how to self-nominate or inform a current chair of one's interest in serving, Carolyn Barkley stated that VLA does have membership interest forms, the Newsletter could publish a notice of interest and names to contact, and Linda Hahne has a list of each section's membership. Terms begin at the Annual Conference and end the next conference. C. ALA/PBS Video conference: A satellite
teleconference titled "Maximizing your E-rate" is scheduled for June 3,
from 1:00-2:30 P.M. which investigates the least expensive
telecommunications rates. Nelson Worley will look into the possibility
of LOV paying the teleconference fees and having 4 sites across the state.
VLA will announce the specifics.
1. SELA: Carolyn Tate was unable to
attend, but sent a report to Lis Chabot. Carolyn requested VLA Council
members to submit information about Virginia libraries, personnel and special
events to her for a SELA report; she included a message from SELA president,
Lorraine Summers, that will appear in the Southeastern Librarian informing
members of what is, what has transpired in SELA, and vision for the association.
(One copy filed with official minutes and one copy sent to Sue Trask.)
2. Region I: Lisa Bachelder announced that VLA Region I and VEMA Region I hosted a combined program on March 10 at Radford University. 3. Region II: Libbie Blanton announced
that their September 24 program is titled "Making the most of your
collection: how to use evaluation and analysis."
6. Region VI is sponsoring "Wide access on a small scale: Rockbridge Area Networking group" on May 6. 7. The Public Documents workshop is May 28th not May 29th as listed in the Newsletter. 8. The Local History and Genealogy Forum has a program planned for May 30 on the "Digitizing Process." 9. Carolyn Barkley announced that at the last Council meeting, there was a suggestion that VLA split the Legislative Committee between State and Federal legislative concerns. This will be discussed at the June meeting. Committee membership and charge will be sent out with the minutes. 10. VCOG: Linda Farynk announced their willingness to help sponsor a speaker for the Conference and that the COG would like to sponsor and organize public forums in libraries to discuss the Freedom of Information Act and what it protects. VCOG would provide coffee, etc. The host library would just have to provide the space. Let Linda know if your library is willing and she will make the arrangements. The VCOG homepage is now available through the VLA Website. 11. Library Instruction Forum: Rosemary
Green announced that the May 30 workshop "Teaching in the electronic environment"
at GMU is limited to 100 attendees and has been
12. Publications Committee: Becky Laine announced that they will be meeting later this Spring and that she is substituting for Sue Trask today. 13. Scholarship: Susanne Glass sent 50 flyers to Library Science schools and Linda Hahne sent out 20 applications. 14. Webmaster: Steve Helm has set up a "What's new" page, he is monitoring usage and the time it takes to maintain the VLA Website at the request of the Executive Committee. Lis said that the Executive Committee voted to begin charging $25 for ads on the Jobline. 15. VALL: Terry Long announced that VALL agreed to pay part of the travel costs for the ALA Training Institute and that Jim Heller, Library Director at William and Mary's Law Library was elected Vice-President/President-elect of the American Association of Law Libraries. 16. Awards and Recognition : Cy Dillon, for Karen Dillon, announced that a nomination form for a VLA award will be available through VLA's Newsletter and VLA Website. 17. Public Library: Chuck Koutnik announced
that he has received a verbal acceptance from a speaker for a VLA conference
program on team management for effective library
19. CYART: Linda Gosnell announced that their program "Internet access for children and young adults: plan for it now" will feature Carolyn Caywood as the principle speaker. There will be a panel of librarians from the state who have Internet access discussing what works, what doesn't , and Internet policies. 20. ILL Forum, the Media Roundtable Forum , and the Richmond Library Forum will be sponsoring a program on May 30 concerning the lending of non-print media, electronic resources, and copyright regulations. 21. Intellectual Freedom: Virginia Johnson announced that they are sponsoring a Banned Books Week essay contest, also in cooperation with VEMA this year, a presentation of the SIRS Intellectual Freedom Award. They will seek nominations until September 1. They are revamping the Intellectual Freedom Manual. Their March 14 program speaker, David Coffman, will make his notes available on VLA's Website. 22. Volunteer Management Roundtable: Chris Verilla reported that the VLA Volunteer of the Year Award will be presented at the Annual Conference. 23. Paraprofessional Forum: Sue McFaden announced that there were 396 people registered for the Paraprofessional Conference with more registrations arriving. They will also have a joint session with the DCLA Support Staff Group at VLA's Annual Conference.
Terry Long moved for adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 1 P.M.
Patricia Howe
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