Board Meeting Minutes

THURSDAY MAY 22, 2003
12:00 PM
COOLEY GODWARD, UNIVERISTY CITY

PRESENT: Tracey Pardo, President; Sushila Selness, Vice-President, Sheila Corman, Secretary; Owen Smith, Treasurer; Mary Garcia, Past-President; Liz Carroll, President-Elect; Laurel Moran, Vice-President Elect.

The meeting was called to order at 12:07 pm.

The minutes were approved as presented.

Welcome
Tracey welcomed the new officers-elect, Liz Carroll, Laurel Moran, Nanna Frye and Sheila Corman and wished them a good term of office. Nanna was out-of-town and, therefore, not able to attend. She also thanked the current Board for their hard work.

Treasurer's Report:

Owen announced that the Chapter's total funds were $14,807.33. All the funds for the Joint Institute have been distributed. The US Bank checking account has been closed. We now have 93 members.

He also said the membership directory should be ready in about 3-4 weeks and that 115 copies were ordered. Unless the directories are ready by the June Business meeting, they will need to be mailed out. Sushila suggested ChoicePoint should be contacted. They were interested in inserting a survey in the directory and would be willing to pay the postage.

Mary said that since the Daily Journal began printing the directories last year they looked a lot more professional than our in-house ones, but it has also extended the time before they were able to be distributed to members. We might want to rethink the entire process, if the Board considers that to be a problem.

Sushila said that Metropolitan News might be interested in printing the directories. In previous communications with them, they indicated an interest in sponsoring something for the chapter.

Annual Business Meeting

Sushila said the meeting would be in the Board Room at Sheppard Mullin on June 6th. Lexis has verbally stated they would pay for the lunch although it's been difficult to finalize the details with them. It would be a box lunch since it's simple and fast. Bettina's will do the catering with the choices being vegetarian, turkey or tuna fish. The lunch will include a sandwich, drink, chips and fruit.

By-Laws Votes

A discussion of the upcoming By-Laws vote centered upon how it will be handled. Liz stated she thought the vote should be delayed to further ascertain the wishes of the members. She felt some of the wording would continue to cause problems.

The Board decided that since the members had been told that the vote would be held, we should follow through.

The incoming Board should ask the Constitution and By-Laws Committee to review the by-laws as a whole and update them.

One of the by-laws which should be modified is the voting procedure to change by-laws. It was felt that mail-in ballots would be the best solution to retain the anonymity and include more members in the decision process rather than having the vote be limited to members present at a meeting.

Joint Institute

An accounting of the Joint Institute funds is attached to this document.

Old Business -

Participation at AALL:
Tracey said that Joan Allen-Hart is trying to get SANDALL representation at the legislative advocacy workshop. In checking, Pat Lopez, Jane Bentley and Joan will be attending the sessions.
Tracey also asked if Liz would be attending and if so mentioned she should plan on attending the leadership meetings. She will also ask Larry Meyer to add Liz to the Presidents listserv.
We are also sponsoring a VIP with SCALL and NOCALL. Ellen Platt of NOCALL is handling the details. Scott Horne, President of National Association of Law Personnel and a career development director at Santa Clara University will be sponsored. The chapters just need to pay for airfare and food which is estimated to be about $135 per chapter.
SANDALL is also participating in the Joint Reception for the West Coast librarians. Ellen is again handling this and was able to get $4000 from West Group to help fund the reception. About 125-150 people are expected to attend on Saturday night, July 12th. The AALL executive board will also be invited.

New Business
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Tracey said that Joan Allen-Hart sent her an e-mail asking the Board's support for AB 1095 which would set up a committee to look into the funding of county law libraries. Sheila made the motion to send a letter of support. Sushila seconded it and the motion passed. Tracey said she would write a letter and send it out.

Joan also said that Mary Alice Baish would like us to send a letter in support of Senate Constitutional Amendment #1 to specify that the state should support access to public records from government meetings in California. The Board decided there should be more research into the language of the amendment before taking a position. The suggestion was tabled.

Sushila suggested that the incoming Board consider creating some public relations materials such as t-shirts, pens and brochures for the chapter. The other California chapters have things to display at professional gatherings and SANDALL does not. It is something to think about now that we've been in existence longer and have more members.

The idea of distributing our mailing list to vendors was brought up. SCALL allows it but charges for it. The idea of charging for our labels was brought up. While it could generate revenues, members might not wish to be flooded with advertising from vendors. It was decided to table the idea.

The meeting was adjourned at 1pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Corman
Secretary