RIPS-SIS Annual Breakfast and Business Meeting
Monday, July 23, 2012
1. Welcome by Kris Helge
- Sympathy cards passed for Jason Sowards – everyone encouraged to sign
- RIPS All committee meeting – scheduled Monday, 7/23 at 5:45 – everyone encouraged to attend
- Thanks to Melissa for arranging the giveaways for the RIPS table and Uwe for the candy
2. Board Projects
- Penguin donation – adopted three penguins at the New England Aquarium [$105.00]
- Donation to the SR-SIS Book Drive [$100.00]
- History Project – Hein will be digitizing the old RIPS Newsletters and adding them to the AALL materials in the Spinelli’s Law Library Reference Shelf collection
3. RIPS-SIS Sponsored Programs Medical Marijuana - highly successful
- Connect with Patrons by Creating Strong Research Guides – 7/23 at 10:45am
- Diversify Your Teaching Portfolio with Tutorials! – 7/23 at 1:15pm
- Riding Solo: Legal Research Competencies for the Solo Practitioner – 7/24 at 8:30am
- What Were They Thinking and Where Do I Find It?: Strategies for Starting Legislative History Research – 7/24 at 10:15am
- Thanks to the Program Committee for their hard work in selecting the programs
4. Treasurer’s Report
- Current balance (as of 6/30/2012) – $24,537.65
- Expenditures – $11,012.35 (prior to AALL annual meeting expenses
- Revenue – $9,626.00
5. Grants
- Six grants were given
- Committee noticed that applications for the law firm grant were low and they want to look for ways to encourage applications
- Recommendations
- Assign grant winners to a committee to get them involved
- Drop the requirement of a letter of recommendation for grant applications
- Have the grants cover all expenses, not just the conference registration fee
6. Blog
- Out-going blog editor, Jenny, thanked the bloggers from the past year
- New Blog editor – Jennifer Prilliman
- New Bloggers – Meg Butler, Michele Thomas, Shawn Friend
- Everyone is encouraged to blog
- There were 21,650 visits to the Blog
7. Nominations
- Thanks to all the nominees who ran for Vice Chair/Chair Elect and Board member
- Thanks to the Committee for their hard work
- If anyone is interested in being on the Committee, please contact the committee chair, Beth Given
8. Patron Services
- Chair, Jessica Randall, is trying to get the committee more active
9. Public Relations
- RIPS table at CONELL and in the Exhibit Hall
- Present at the CONELL Marketplace and there are four CONELL attendees at the Breakfast
- New RIPS brochure
10. Research Instruction
- Reviews of Legal Research texts
- Marc Silverman is working on a list of newly published texts for new reviews
- If interested in writing a review, contact Marc
11. Webpage
- AALL still working on the migration to AALL-NET
- Maribel will keep the Board updated as to the progress of migration
12. Distance Education
- New distance education committee created
- Specific charge of the group is being finalized
- Jennifer Wondracek is chair of this group
13. Incoming Vice-Chair
- Uwe Beltz spoke (since Jason, incoming Chair, was not able to attend)
- Plans for coming year – Strategic Plan and Distance Education
- Thanked Kris for his work over the past year
14. Passing of Puron
- Kris ceremonially passed Puron to Jason (via a colleague of Jason’s)
Board Meeting (held immediately after Breakfast)
- Since Jason was not present, short meeting to touch base
- Jason’s two projects – Strategic Plan and Distance Education
- Karin asked that any receipts for annual meeting expenditures be emailed to her