Executive Committee Meeting, Fall 2004

Chicago

Friday, October 22, 8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Saturday, October 23, 8:30 am – 4 pm

Minutes

Colby Mariva Riggs, President and Executive Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:50 am. Committee members present: Pat Mullin, President Elect, Tom Wilson, Past President, Bonnie Postlethwaite, Director-at-large, Karen Schneider, Councilor, Mary Taylor, LITA Executive Director and Ex-Officio member.

Changed the order of the agenda by moving the FY04 Budget report to follow the Forum discussions.

Reviewed the June 2004 Executive Committee Minutes (2004FallEC-1) and confirmed the email vote to approve them by unanimous consent.

Received Forum 2004 update from Tom Wilson.

Approximate attendance of 350 was equal to attendance at the previous two Forums.
The donated bag provided good incentive to participants to complete evaluation forms.
People seemed to stay to the end of the program and the poster sessions continue to be popular.
Students were a great asset in making sure every thing was in place and in distributing/collecting evaluation forms.
It was great to have the restaurants in the area; it would have been good to have other things. Shuttle bus to downtown was misrepresented; the hotel did not keep this obligation.
The audio recording of Clifford Lynch’s keynote will be checked for recording quality. If acceptable, digitization, editing and sectionalizing will be explored. By Midwinter, the tape will be available through the LITA Web site.
Sponsors were much appreciated.

Received Forum 2005 update from Colby Riggs.

The theme is set: The Ubiquitous Web: Personalization, Portability, and On-line Collaboration
The Committee has a list of 30 keynote speakers identified; plans are to contact speakers before Thanksgiving and finalize commitments by the end of January.
Plans are to establish a task force of former Forum Committees’ Chairs to codify appropriate parts of the Committee’s work.

The 2006 Forum Committee will be chaired by Dale Poulter who has worked with Pat Mullin on Sirsi superconferences and who is local to Nashville. Discussed Forum 2007 possible sites.

Received the FY2004 closing budget report (2004FallEC-4) from Tom Wilson.

FY04 is closing with approximately $18,000 in the black. It is a pleasure to see this added to our reserve and to realize that we have a six month reserve and can now consider establishing an endowment for new things. It was not too many years ago that we were deeply in the red.
Generally, the dollars generated by memberships doesn’t cover the member activities. The difference is offset by programming (Forum, preconferences, workshops, and Regional Institutes). The revenues from the Forum are a big factor and, on the expense side, we have been capitalizing on efficiencies in the Office.
Membership promotion costs will rise in FY05.
Based on submitted reports, the Committees’ and IGs’ are looking to offer new products and services. The energy of these groups, working with the Board liaisons to smooth communications, hold promise.

The LITA agenda item, ALAhead to 2010 Planning, was subsumed into the Joint Planning Process Review Session prepared and offered by Tecker Consultants on Friday morning. The Friday afternoon joint session of the ALA Executive Board and all Divisions' Executive Committees as well as ALA Department Heads took the ALAhead to 2010 Planning that started with the September retreat to the next level.

On Saturday, Colby Riggs call the LITA Executive Committee meeting to order at 7:40 with a discussion about the 2004 LITA Town Meeting (2004FallEC-2) and draft strategic plan (2004FallEC-3).

A fundamental issue with best practices was identified: best practices come after you’ve been doing something for a while—not while on the leading edge. The Executive Committee recommends that the Best Practices Task Force be advised to consider pointing to existing best practices for established technologies and/or practical tips for using new technologies.
The need for LITA involvement with Standards questions was discussed. Many problems with a committee charged with this activity were identified including the amount of work involved, difficulty in finding volunteers to serve, and level of technical understanding needed to serve. The current IG devoted to standards does not seem an appropriate unit to respond to ALA requests for LITA input reviewing NISO standards for a vote within certain time constraints. Another way of addressing the standards reviews is needed.

Michelle Frisque, LITA Web Manager, LITA Web Coordinating Committee (WCC) Chair and Chair of the ALA Web Advisory Committee(WAC), joined the Executive Committee to discuss the LITA Web site. Michelle distributed the LITA Executive Board Report dated October 23, 2004. The following items were approved:

Open up access to a small group of Committee and IG chairs and let them update their own topic—train them via ALA phone sessions.
Replace the Roster of LITA leaders with a Membership directory generated from iMIS and provided to members only.
Generate the Committee Rosters from iMIS.
Conduct the LITA web survey in November.

Michelle continued discussion with an update from the WAC. Six search engines will be tested (starting next week) for the ALA Web site. The Online Community Software provider has been chosen and the WAC and WCC will be testing these capabilities. The ALA Web Site Style Manual final draft will be ready for WAC review in November.

Prior to this meeting, Michelle had provided the LITA Executive Committee members with a copy of the Draft LITA Web Policy Task Force Work Plan/Progress Notes, July 11, 2004. The Committee reviewed the draft with Michelle.

Colby shared a draft charge (2004FallEC-9) for the LITA 40^th Anniversary Task Force and requested suggestions for Task Force membership. Past presidents and/or members with extensive LITA experience were suggested for membership.

Received Mary Taylor’s Executive Director’s report on membership. LITA currently has 3776 personal members and 638 organization members for a total of 4,414. In addition, the Committee reviewed the membership recruitment and retention plan for the 2004/5 program year.

Karen Schneider provided an ALA Council Update including wire tap legislation (she will send further information to LITA-L), e-rate, and Rick Weingarten’s presentation at the Forum. Karen reviewed her draft Suggested Guidelines for LITA Councilor (2004FallEC-8) with the Committee. A few edits were recommended prior to submitting the document to the Bylaws and Organization Committee to include in the LITA Manual.

The Committee discussed the 2005 Town Meeting plans. Colby Riggs plans to rewrite the second objective of the Strategic Plan, send it out for comment prior to Midwinter, include the Plan on the Saturday Board meeting agenda, and further discuss it at the Town Meeting.

Colby Riggs explored her thinking about the President’s Program. She is leaning toward inviting an author and would appreciate suggestions. Plans to provide video of the Top Tech Trends and/or President's Program

at Annual Conference via the web are continuing to develop.

The Committees’ reports (2004FallEC-6) and IGs’ reports (2004FallEC-7) were considered.

The Midwinter Skeleton schedule was reviewed and the Board will be asked to consider moving the Tuesday, 1-4:30 Board Meeting to the morning at future Midwinters and Annual Conferences.

Due to the absence of two Committee members, the Spring Meeting dates will be determined via email.