1998-99 Activity Report 

This was SANDALL's first year as an official AALL chapter.  Bylaws were written and adopted, a successful petition drive for chapterhood was conducted among San Diego area AALL members, and our name chosen.  This lead up to official approval of our petition for chapterhood at the July 1998 AALL Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California. 

After receiving this approval, an election was held with two candidates running for each office.  The new officers assumed their duties on October 8, at a formal swearing-in ceremony.  Speakers included Retired Justice Howard B. Wiener, Fourth District Appellate Court of California; Gretchen Gabbert, President of the San Diego Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA); David McFadden, President of the Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL); and Ellie Slade, former SANDALL Program Chair.  The new officers were President Brent Bernau, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; Vice-President Carmen Brigandi, California Western School of Law; Secretary Ruth Levor, USD Legal Research Center; and Nanna Frye, California Court of Appeal.  Barbara Glennan, California Western School of Law, continued on the Board as Past President. 

With only nine-month terms ahead of them because of the late start, the new Board quickly got busy.  The new SANDALL bylaws specified that the Vice-President would chair the Programs Committee, the Treasurer would chair the Membership Committee and the Secretary would chair the Newsletter Committee, so leadership was immediately provided for key functions. 

Program Chair and Vice-President Carmen Brigandi put together monthly meetings throughout the year.  These included four lunch hour brown bag meetings, participation in the AALL Satellite Video Conference, a day-long workshop on disaster preparedness, a holiday luncheon and an annual meeting. 

Brown bag presentations included Westlaw Access on the Web, sponsored by Westlaw; our first AALL chapter visit by Judy Meadows, AALL Immediate Past President; Paul Wormser, NARA (Pacific Region), discussing resources at the Laguna Niguel site; and Garth Conboy, SoftBook Press, demonstrating the concept of electronic books.  Refreshments and/or facilities were provided by California Western School of Law; Latham & Watkins; Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich; and Westlaw.  Lexis-Nexis sponsored our holiday luncheon.  The University of San Diego provided facilities, equipment and refreshments at a discount for the satellite videoconference. 

Our first workshop attracted over 50 attendees.  Its theme was Fire! Flood!! Earthquake!!! What To Do When Disaster Strikes!  Julie Page, Preservation Librarian at UC-San Diego, was the main speaker.  She educated the group on several scenarios, covered the key steps in disaster preparedness and compiling disaster plans, and explained how SILDRN (San Diego/ Imperial County Libraries Disaster Response Network) can help.  With the assistance of Lyn Olsson, Special Collections Librarian at San Diego State University, she addressed buildings and non-structural assessments, strategies to help deal with the emotional response to disasters, salvage priorities, inventory control and insurance matters, and demonstrated a wet materials response.  Thomas Jefferson School of Law provided facilities and equipment. 

Immediate Past President Barbara Glennan edited the newsletter.  She produced a bimonthly publication and greatly improved the format.  Together with Committee Chair and Secretary Ruth Levor, an editorial policy was produced and approved by the Board, and procedures were put in place for accepting advertising, next year.  Production and mailing costs were generously underwritten by California Western School of Law, USD and Thomas Jefferson School of Law. 

Membership Directory Editor Diane Garcia, Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, LLP, produced our Membership Directory in very short order.  Our membership grew from 93 at the time of attaining official chapter status, to 104 at the date of our first Annual Meeting. 

We worked out a cooperative relationship with SCALL, whose Board generously provided our fledgling group with $5,000 seed money.  While we finished the year without dipping into that fund, the cushion this provided allowed us to proceed with activities without as much financial stress hanging over our heads.  That cooperative relationship expanded to include the Northern California Association of Law Libraries (NOCALL), with the three groups putting into action joint participation in the AALL VIP Program and finalizing plans for a joint reception for all Californians at the 1999 AALL meeting.  Officers of the three associations met at the joint SCALL/NOCALL Spring Institute and agreed on a Pan-California Vision Statement and several points of cooperation.  These points of cooperation include joint institutes every few years, joint receptions at AALL meetings, joint sponsorship of Chapter VIP's, and cross mailings and member prices at our major events, e.g., Institutes and workshops. 

After receiving several sketches of ideas for our logo and conducting a vote of the membership to narrow the choices down, Linda Johnson, California Western School of Law, took on the task of refining the sketches in preparation for a final vote.  A logo was chosen by a vote of the membership in March. 

SANDALL was able to award grants for two of our members to attend our workshop and two to attend the SCALL/NOCALL Joint Workshop.  Chaired by Michelle Schmidt, Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, this committee not only had the task of choosing the recipients, but because they were our first Grants Committee, was also charged with developing policies and procedures, creating a grants application, and advertising the grants. 

Our Website Committee, chaired by Patrick Meyer, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, along with Webmaster Own Smith, USD Legal Research Center, updated our homepage (http://www.acusd.edu/sandall) and added many useful sites.  By the end of the year, they were busy revamping the entire thing.   The University of San Diego hosts the site.  Our Internet Special Interest Group, chaired by Kim Kane of the San Diego County Public Law Library, met monthly.  Each person who attended the meetings was asked to bring a URL for discussion.  Internet access was provided at each of the meetings to enable the group to view the websites. 

The Nominations Committee, chaired by Mary Garcia of California Western School of Law, had the rare opportunity of conducting two elections in less than one year.  The first was conducted in the fall of 1998 after we gained chapter status; the second was in the spring of 1999 for our 1999-2000 officers.  Both times, a full slate with two candidates per office were put before our membership.  Our new officers are President Joan Allen-Hart, San Diego County Public Law Library (Vista Branch); Vice-President John Adkins, USD Legal Research Center; Treasurer Diane Garcia, Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, LLP.  Ruth Levor was re-elected Secretary.  Brent Bernau continues on the Board as Immediate Past President. 

SANDALL also established an Archives Committee, chaired by Margaret McDonald, USD Legal Research Center; a By-Laws Committee, chaired by Carol Hyne, Qualcomm, Inc.; and an Employment Liaison, chaired by Carolyn Vega, Latham & Watkins. 

The chapter year ended with our first Annual Meeting, where the membership approved amending our by-laws to allow the organization to file for tax exempt status with the state of California, and raising our dues from $5 to $15. 

Brent Bernau 
Immediate Past President