American Association of Law Libraries
Private Law Libraries
Special Interest Section
MINUTES OF PLL 2002-2003 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
July 24, 2002, Orlando, FL by Holly Riccio, PLL Vice-Chair
Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, San Francisco, CA
Janeen Heath, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:10
a.m.
In attendance: Howard Trivers, Janeen Heath, Holly Riccio,
Janet McKinney, Terry Psarras, Terri Lawrence, Martha Goldman
Chair: Janeen announced that PLL is back on track and is a
reenergized group. In an effort to build on this, Janeen thought the meeting
would be best spent discussing our Strategic Plan and brainstorming to come up
with ideas to incorporate into a reworked plan. Martha Goldman would assist us
during the discussion to help work the ideas we come up with into Strategic Plan
goals, objectives and actions.
GOALS:
1. To Promote the Value of the Law Librarians
a. Objective: Target Potential Employers Action: Increase
joint activities with Association of Legal Administrators (ALA).
Action: Get a table at American Bar Association and State
Bar Association meetings.
Janeen reported on her experience attending the ALA Annual
Meeting this year. The Vice Chair, Holly Riccio, will attend the meeting next
year in San Diego, manning the PLL booth in the Exhibit Hall. The second action
was discussed, and the Board thought it was not the best place to put our
efforts. Other ideas that were discussed were getting a column in the ABA Law
Practice Management publication (which we used to have, authored by Hazel
Johnson), getting a table/booth at the ABA Law Practice Management meetings, and
getting a program proposal in to (and accepted at) the ALA Annual Meeting.
b. Objective: Promote AALL Core Competencies Included in
the Toolkit
Janeen will check with Michael Saint-Onge on this objective
to see where the toolkit stands. She wants to see us promote the value of law
librarianship outside of the PLL community.
c. Objective: Increase Marketing Possibilities
d. Objective: Promote Law Librarians as Key Players in
Knowledge Management
Our PR Chair from last year, Lucy Curci-Gonzales, is
continuing on this year as Chair and will work on these objectives.
e. Objective: Law Librarians Publish Articles in
Publications Read by Our Employers
One of the ideas that came up to try to achieve this
objective was to have a contest to provide AALL Annual Meeting registration
costs (or travel costs to/from the meeting) to the winner of an article writing
contest. The winning article would then be submitted to non-librarian
publications for inclusion, and the other articles could be published in future
issues of PLL Perspectives.
f. Objective: Private Law Librarians Publish Articles in
AALL Spectrum
This is a new objective that was added as a result of Board
discussion. One idea on how to achieve this objective would be to contact
vendors to identify editors to interview PLL member(s) and write the article.
This was suggested because many PLL members don�t have time to write an article
but would have time to answer questions that could then be turned into an
article.
2. To Share Expertise With Other Law Librarians
a. Objective: Get Revised Toolkit on the Web and Promote It
to Members
The Toolkit is not currently on the PLL web site. Holly
Riccio will talk to Michael Saint-Onge about the status of the Toolkit and work
with Terry Psarras to get it on our web site. There was a discussion about
whether the Toolkit should be made available to everyone or to PLL members only.
Terry said that making it available for members only is a possibility, but it is
a lot of work to do, according to Reggie Swanigan. The other question was
whether the Toolkit has advertisements in it and whether that limits where we
can put it. Terry stated that we can put it up on the web with the ads, but then
it can�t go through the Washburn server. Holly Riccio will check with Michael
about whether there are ads in the Toolkit and report back to the Board.
Discussion then turned to PLL Perspectives and what the
status of that publication is and will be in the near future. The last issue was
mailed out in hard copy and also posted as a PDF e-mail attachment by Pat
Keller. The Board decided to add the following goal:
2a. Determine Format and Delivery of PLL Perspectives
b. Objective: Sponsor a Best Practices Program at the
AALL Annual Meeting for 2003
Janeen stated that there is a PLL-sponsored program in the
works for the 2003 Annual Meeting called Fun in the Stacks. The Board decided
to take off for 2003 on the objective and work on getting a program in each
year.
After some more discussion, another idea came up that will
be added as an objective to the Strategic Plan:
c. Objective: Academic Law Librarian/Private Law Librarian
Swap
Richard Leiter had written a letter to Janeen outlining his
ideas for this last year. The Board will look into seeing how this might be
accomplished.
3. To Develop and Maintain Contacts With Other Professional
Associations
a. Objective: Have a Booth at ALA Annual Meeting Each Year
Action: Distribute Information About the Toolkit and Core Competencies
This objective has been accomplished. The Board decided
that the focus should be on the other objectives under this goal:
b. Objective: Partner with SLA Legal Division
c. Objective: Partner with ABA Law Practice Management
Section
d. Objective: Secure Table at Legal Techshow Venues
The Board came up with two actions under Objective b � the
first is to work with the PLL liaison to SLA (Ruth Balkin) and the SLA liaison
to PLL (Phil Rosenthal), and the second is to cross publish articles in each
association's newsletters. One of the ideas for cross publication was articles
about programs at the SLA and AALL annual meetings. For Objective c, Janeen will
work on finding someone to work with the ABA. The Board decided to eliminate
Objective d and focus our efforts on the others.
4. To Encourage the PLL Membership to Become More Active in
the SIS
a. Objective: Send Welcome Letter and E-Mail to New Members
With Volunteer Opportunities Information and Sign-Up Form
The first action to achieve this objective is to get the
list of new members from AALL Headquarters. Janeen also suggested following up
with a personal phone call to new members, which would be a new objective under
this goal.
b. Objective: Send Volunteer Opportunities List/Information
with Election Ballot
Holly stated that the Northern California Chapter (NOCALL)
does this as part of their membership renewal forms. Holly will get a copy of
their wording/format to Janeen and Elizabeth LeDoux (incoming PLL�SIS Secretary)
and get this done before the next ballot goes out.
c. Objective: Send Thank You Letters to All PLL Volunteers
and Their Employers Every Year
Janeen is working on composing a standard letter to use for
this, as well as collecting the names of the employers/bosses to send letters to
(Action 1). Another thing the Board thought would be useful to include would be
another letter/document outlining what PLL accomplished that year, to give the
accompanying thank you letter to the employer/boss more meaning (Action 2).
d. Objective: Monitor Active Members on the Local Level
Action: Contact Chapter Chairs for Names of Persons Who
Might Like to Get Involved at the SIS Level
Janeen stated that the PR Chair, Lucy Curci-Gonzales, would
work on this.
5. To Expand the AALL Professional Development Program
a. Objective: Offer Grants to Chapters to Bring PDC
Programs to Their Locales
The AALL Strategic Plan had an objective in it to
accomplish this as well. The PDC has gone through some changing in the past
year, and Janeen thought the goal now was to get an understanding of where PLL
fits into the picture now with the PDC and the AALL Strategic Plan. Martha
suggested that this be a new objective.
b. Objective: Have Grant Committee Reinstate Library School
Scholarships for PLL Members
The Board discussed this idea and decided that it would be
something that PLL could fund with some vendor matching/support. Holly will look
into seeing what kinds of vendor support might be available for this. Other
things that would be needed would be the development of an application form and
criteria for reviewing the applications and selecting the winners. The PLL
Grants Chair (Randy Thompson) will work on this.
6. To Increase Membership Diversity and Scope
a. Objective: Participate in Library School Career Days
b. Objective: Participate in Local Chapter Activities
Directed at Newer Librarians
c. Objective: Promote Internship Opportunities
d. Objective: Encourage Mentoring in AALL
There was a brief discussion of these objectives, and they
will be discussed among the Board during the year.
Janeen Heath adjourned the meeting at 8:30.