Board Meeting Minutes

FEBRUARY 3, 2004

LOCATION: Cooley, Godward
TIME: 9:00 AM
PRESENT: LIZ CARROLL, President; LAUREL MORAN, Vice-President; SHEILA CORMAN, Secretary; NANNA FRYE, Treasurer; TRACEY PARDO, Past-President. COMMITTEE CHAIRS: MARGARET MCDONALD, JEAN WILLIS, VALERIE RAILEY, CAROL HYNE.

The meeting was called to order at 9:13 am.

1. MINUTES
The minutes of the December meeting with corrections agreed upon via e-mail were approved.

2. TREASURER'S REPORT

As of February 2, 2004, the amount in the chapter savings account is $10,104.83. The checking account has a balance of $9573.31 which includes the advance payment from West for the joint reception at the 2004 AALL annual meeting.

Expenses since the last meeting totaled $520.12 and income including the West payment was $5025.57.

We currently have 97 members.

3. OLD BUSINESS

A. ALA Reception
The ALA Reception was a great success. Law librarians attending
ALA appreciated the chance to network with other attendees and local librarians. They also like the "happy hour" format because they all had other events to attend.

B. Pacific Chapter Reception
The reception will be on Sunday, July 11th between 6:30 and 8pm which is before the opening reception. West has already sent us the money to cover the cost of the event.

4. New Business
A. NOCALL Joint Institute Suggesion
SCALL is willing to be part of the Joint Institute as long as they agree to the location. The idea has been suggested to rotate the Joint Institute among the three chapters on an every 3-4 year basis.
The idea was turned into a motion which was passed.

B. Committee Reports (Full reports are at the end of the minutes)

1. Archives.
The chair of the committee continues to collect SANDALL letters, documents and correspondence.

2. Constitution and By-Laws
The Committee is working on the changes to the by-laws to be voted upon at the June Business meeting.

3. Employment
Ellie Slade scans regularly for jobs which may interest members.

4. Government Relations
The Committee is focusing on the AALL's request to support OPENTHEGOVERNMENT.org and seeing whether or not we wish to support this as a chapter.

The chair said SANDALL is coordinating the GRC opportunities for the other AALL chapters in California. Joan Allen-Hart asked SANDALL to make GRC a standing committee. The Board supported the idea.

The Board also approved the request for $200 to send Joan to Legislative Day in Sacramento as a SANDALL representative.

5. Grants
Jean Willis stated that in addition to the two SANDALL grants for AALL registration, we have an additional "full" grant available for a SANDALL member through AALL. This grant is rotated through chapters and this is our year to receive it.

Through the year the committee has given two grants for the Fall Workshop, 2 grants for the SCALL Institute and will be granting two grants for AALL.

6. Internet Web Page Development
Carol Hyne is doing minor changes reorganizing the home page. She suggests thinking about updating our look. The Board approved the idea and will talk with Carol about starting a development group to work with her on this project. The Board will suggest Carol send an e-mail to members who would like to assist her with the redesign.

7. Library School Liaision
Since this is a new effort, Valerie Railey asked the Board to formulate the goals and mission of this committee and how we should approach outreach. The effort expended would depend on the Board's commitment. She suggested some beginning steps such as student discounts for SANDALL events, job shadowing and public relations campaigns.

8. Membership
We now have 97 members.

9. Newletter
Amy Moberly continues to do a great job as newsletter editor. Her idea of having the newsletter professionally printed resulted in a much more attractive piece.

10. Nominations
The Nominations Committee is recruiting people to run for office for the coming year.

11. Programs
Events have been held all year. The Spring Social will be held on May 1st and include the 2nd annual silent auction to raise money for grants.

There will be 2-3 more Brown Bags, one of which will be on California legislative intent.

The Los Angeles Daily Journal will sponsor the annual business meeting on June 4th.

12. Public Relations
Pat Bermel created a flyer for the ALA Reception and Michelle Schmidt is working on a brochure. We will also use the flyer at the SCALL Institute.

C. Odds and Ends

1. AALL Centennial Celebration will kick off in Boston, continue through San Antonio and end in St. Louis. AALL would like all chapters to develop a chapter history, preferably an oral history. It was suggested we have a special committee chaired by Valerie Railey to prepare the history.

2. Andrea Torres at the Daily Journal is disappointed with the switch of printers for the directory and would like to be considered to print it again in the future.

3. Liz asked if the chapter would want to have space in the activities area in Boston during AALL. The Board decided not to participate.

The next meeting will be held on Monday, May 17th at noon at Cooley, Godward in La Jolla.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Corman
Secretary

Committee Reports:

Archives
Maggie McDonald

The Committee Chair continues to gather and organize SANDALL materials. Items added to the archives include meeting minutes, newsletter issues, handouts from the brown bag luncheons, membership directories for 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, program materials from the 2003 SANDALL fall workshop, and a letter from the Council of California County Law Librarians thanking the SANDALL Board for supporting AB1095.

Submitted by Margaret McDonald, University of San Diego Legal Research Center
Chair, SANDALL Archives Committee

Constitution and By-Laws
John Adkins

The Bylaws Committee consists of John Adkins, Chair, and members Amy Hale and Leigh Inman.

The committee was charged with fashioning a bylaw amendment to allow for electronic voting for bylaw amendments, but never for elections. The committee researched the issue, contacting AALL headquarters for guidance, and making sure the laws were clear in California. All checked out fine.

Chair John Adkins wrote an article for the SANDALL News pitching the proposal and soliciting feedback. A good deal of feedback was received. As a result, the committee altered its initial stance of having a strict email voting policy to a hybrid that allowed both email and snail mail ballot returns.

The committee crafted a written response to the feedback for dissemination to the SANDALL members via email. They also drafted the proposed amendment language. Both are in the final stages of completion and will be sent out soon. After initial email discussion, the committee will finalize the amendment proposal and send it to the Board for its approval. The vote will most likely be at the June business meeting.

The committee also proposed amending ARTICLE 5.OFFICERS, SECTION 1. OFFICERS to reflect the changes of AALL membership categories and remove the requirement that the Vice-President be a member of AALL. The Board approved the following amended language:

"The officers of the Chapter are: the President, the Vice President, the Secretary and the Treasurer. All SANDALL officers must be members in good standing of the Chapter. The president and the Vice President must be [a] individual members or designated institutional members in good standing of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). No member may hold more than one (1) office at a time."

At this time, the committee is also looking at updating the language in Article 7. Committees. Section 2. to have it include all the standing committees: Archives, Constitution and Bylaws, Employment, Government Relations, Grants, Internet Web Page Development, Library School Liaison, Membership (Treasurer chairs), Newsletter (Secretary chairs), Nominations, Programs (Vice President chairs), Public Relations.

Employment Committee
Ellie Slade

The SANDALL Employment Committee continues to list relevant library jobs to the listserv as they become known to the Chairperson, Ellie Slade. Ellie adds jobs to the SANDALL listserv from the SLA, AALL, individual employers, headhunters and/or other websites such as UCSD, USD or even Monster.com. Unfortunately, in the last few months there have very few professional librarian jobs in the San Diego area to advertise to the membership. Also the SANDALL website is slow to post the jobs on the chapter's website, so the listserv is probably the best place to find out about current employment opportunities for law librarians.

Government Relations Committee
Joan Allen-Hart

Committee members Charley Dyer, Sushila Selness and I have been discussing several topics which the committee will be focusing on during the next few months:

1. AALL'S REQUEST TO SUPPORT OPENTHEGOVERNMENT.ORG

In January, Elizabeth LeDoux, AALL GRC Chair, sent an email about a new organization, OpenTheGovernment.org. She has asked the chapter GRCs to confer with their respective Boards to determine if we want to officially support this coalition by signing the online Statement of Values. Below is the statement of values for the organization:

To protect the safety and well-being of our families, homes, and communities; to hold our government accountable; and to defend the freedoms upon which our democracy depends; we, the undersigned organizations, believe the public has a right to information held by our government.
The American way of life demands that government operate in the open to be responsive to the public, to foster trust and confidence in government, and to encourage public participation in civic and government institutions.
The public's right to know promotes equal and equitable access to government, encourages integrity in official conduct, and prevents undisclosed and undue influence from special interests. OpenTheGovernment.org seeks to advance the public's right to know and to reduce secrecy in government.
Signed,
American Association of Law Libraries
American Booksellers for Free Expression
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Center for Democracy and Technology
Common Cause
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Environmental Defense
Federation of American Scientists
Freedom of Information Center, University of Missouri School of Journalism
Fund for Constitutional Government
Human Rights First (formerly Lawyers Committee for Human Rights)
National Coalition Against Censorship
National Freedom of Information Coalition
National Security Archive
OMB Watch
People For the American Way
Project On Government Oversight
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Society of Professional Journalists
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
More information is available at www.openthegovernment.org . Charley, Sushila and I all agree that this type of issue that is pertinent to law librarians, as public access to government information is threatened by increasing government secrecy. This organization should be publicly supported by SANDALL, so it is our recommendation to the Board to sign the online statement. Please let me know if the Board decides to follow our recommendation, and I will report back to Elizabeth.

2. COORDINATING CAL CHAPTER GRC ACTIVITIES:

SANDALL's GRC will be coordinating state GRC efforts with NOCALL's and SCALL's GRCs (Michele Finnerty is NOCALL GRC chair and David McFadden is SCALL's GRC chair). All the GRC members have formed an informal listserv to communicate with each other as issues arise. As I have always done, I will bring issues to the Board for your approval before the committee acts in any public way.
Right now, the only major issue is the upcoming CCCLL Legislative Day, which is scheduled for March 23rd in Sacramento. It would be great if we could involve other law librarians than those from the county law libraries. Since this would be a one day trip, I would like to request that the Board consider funding air fare for one librarian to represent SANDALL at Leg Day. Charley will be attending, but he will be there in his capacity as a CCCLL member. I have not yet discussed this with Sushila, but if she were willing and able to go, I think she should represent SANDALL, if this is approved by the Board as something we should actively support and participate in. I would be willing to go, but I think it is important that our legislators know that other law librarians are supportive of CCCLL.

3. RECOMMENDATION TO MAKE THE GRC A STANDING COMMITTEE UNDER SANDALL'S BYLAWS

Finally, the committee would like to make a recommendation to the Board that SANDALL's by-laws be amended to make the GRC a standing committee. If the Board approves this recommendation, there is plenty of time to have the members vote on this at the annual meeting. The AALL leadership has been encouraging us to do this for several years. We have a small, but growing numbers of members who have attended the legislative advocacy training that has been offered at the AALL annual meeting for the past several years. The committee believes that our membership will support this new committee.

Internet Committee Report
Carol J. Hyne

The committee consists of two parts; the Web Page Development Group and the Internet Resources Group. The latter is currently suspended.

Website

1. The SANDALL home page has been reorganized into a logical rather than alphabetical arrangement. Direct links to Board meeting minutes and annual reports have been added.

2. The directory is currently up to date.

3. The jobs page is a little behind. (largely due to current workload).

4. Currently using the freeware XENU to identify broken links to external pages. The SANDALL site currently consists of 123 web pages plus additional image files.

5. As mentioned in both the 2003 Internet Committee annual report and recent board meeting minutes, we should consider updating the look of the website. This should be done in conjunction with direction from and final approval of the board as to what kind of look is desired.

Mail List

We are still getting a number of message bounces apparently due to spam catcher software. These are being dealt with on an individual basis.

Library School Liaison
Valerie Railey

The Library School Liaison Committee was formed under the presidential leadership of Liz Carroll. The committee consists of Priscilla Day & Valerie A. Railey. Valerie is the current chair. The goals of the committee are:

o Generate interest in law librarianship to library school students enrolled at San Jose State.
o Promote SANDALL as a continuing education organization for those interest in pursing a career law librarianship.
o Invite San Jose State library school students to SANDALL events.
o Encourage library school students to review the placement vacancy announcements available on the AALL website.
o Recruitment to the profession & SANDALL.
o Draft correspondence to be posted on the San Jose State library school list.
o Assist with locating clinical work environments amongst the SANDALL organizations for library school students who seek practical experience in law libraries.

Committee Progress Report

o Committee members determined mission & goals.
o Committee examined what other local librarian organizations are doing for outreach to San Jose State students.
o Committee chair initiates contact with student coordinator Scharlee Phillips.
o Committee chair generates dialogue with Director Blanche Woolls & seeks permission to post communication to the student body.
o Committee chair receives provisional approval to post messages to the student body list.
o Committee chair receives an invitation to meet with Blanche Woolls director of the library school to develop the library school liaison committee initiatives.
o Committee receives SANDALL board approval for student discount admission fee to attend the fall workshop.
o Propose to the board consideration of a special section on the SANDALL website for student oriented content.

Nominations
Loren Stamper

The members of the 2003-2004 SANDALL Nominations Committee are Linda Weathers, California Western School of Law Library; Robert Fortin Richards, Luce Forward Hamilton and Scripps; and chair, Harry Loren Stamper, University of San Diego Legal Research Center.

The Nominations Committee has begun work on recruiting a slate of candidates for this spring's election. We have compiled a list of potential candidates, and are currently discussing their qualifications and considering which office each might be most suitable for.

In the next few days, we will begin calling the members on our list and asking them to run for office. We will also send a message out to the SANDALL list to notify members that the slate is being formed and that they may also nominate someone for office, within the parameters of the by-laws. We also have yet to set deadlines for each stage of the process, which we will need to do to comply with the time limitations prescribed by the by-laws.

We anticipate presenting the SANDALL Board with a qualified slate of candidates later this month. This should meet the requirement that the list of candidates be submitted no fewer than 90 days before the annual business meeting, as prescribed by the by-laws.

Public Relations Committee

The Public Relations Committee (Pat) under the direction of the President
produced a flyer for the SANDALL/ALA Midwinter reception. The basic format of
the flyer can now be used for other events. Michelle is working on a brochure. Committee members are: Pat Bermel, Michelle Schmidt and Brian Williams