Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting
July 9, 2006, in St. Louis, Missouri
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1. Call to order — Michael Slinger
Michael called the meeting to order at 7:20 and welcomed attendees. He thanked the members who served on committees, especially the committee chairs, and he welcomed special guests. He specially welcomed ALL-SIS VIP Hulett "Bucky" Askew, Incoming ABA Consultant on Legal Education.
Michael also noted that handouts of the agenda, Treasurer's report and other information were available at each table.
2. Approval of 2005 minutes — Susan Lewis-Somers
Susan called for approval of the minutes of the 2005 annual business meeting, which she mentioned were available at each table and posted on the ALL-SIS website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/annualmeeting/2005/2005minutes.html. The minutes were approved unanimously.
3. Treasurer's report — Susan Lewis-Somers
Susan noted that copies of the ALL-SIS financial statement from May 31, 2006 were available on each table. It shows a balance of $56,076.01 and does not include any St. Louis meeting expenses.
4. Election report — Susan Lewis-Somers
Susan reported on the use of an online ballot for the 2006 election. 265 members voted (24%), which was a lower turnout than the 28% vote for the 2005 online election. We again received many positive comments from members about the online ballot.
She offered congratulations to the 2006 winners: Michelle Wu of Hofstra University was elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Linda Ryan of St. John's University was elected Secretary-Treasurer. She also thanked all of the candidates who ran in the 2006 election and the Nominations Committee, chaired by James Milles.
Continuing as 2006–2007 officers are Suzanne Thorpe, Chair; Michael Slinger, Immediate Past Chair; and Carol Bredemeyer, Board Member.
5. Committee reports — Michael Slinger
Michael asked selected committee chairs to give brief reports.
Program Committee — Lee Peoples
Lee announced that ten ALL-SIS-sponsored programs submitted by the Program Committee had been accepted by the AALL Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC) for the 2006 AALL Annual Meeting. In addition, he reminded attendees of two additional ALL-SIS-produced programs.
CONALL/Mentoring Committee — Patricia Kidd
Patricia announced that the annual Conference of Newer Academic Law Librarians (CONALL) would be held on Tuesday evening immediately before the ALL-SIS reception at Washington University. Other initiatives of the committee included brief profiles of newer ALL-SIS members published in the Newsletter and a mentoring project to match mentors with newer mentees.
The committee is also considering changing the CONALL name, to lessen confusion with the Council on Newer Law Librarians (CONELL).
Website Committee — Diane Murley
Diane talked about the new banner and new colors now featured at the ALL-SIS website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/. In addition, she has added a feed for updates, to which members may subscribe.
Membership Committee — Marjorie Crawford
Marjorie described the membership kit the committee developed to send to each new ALL-SIS member. The committee also conducted another biennial membership survey; the results are posted on the ALL-SIS website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/surveys/index.asp. In the survey, members expressed interest in future ALL-SIS programs on emerging technologies and other programs to hone their professional skills.
Faculty Services Committee — Sara Sampson
The committee hosted four online roundtable discussions, each held over several days. Topics were (1) new faculty orientations, (2) services to non-law faculty, (3) electronic publishing, posting and storing of faculty scholarship, and (4) managing research assistants. Archives of each discussion are available on AALLNet at http://share.aallnet.org/read/?forum=all-fsr&max=100&skip=0&orderby=CreatStamp_+DESC.
The committee will host a roundtable in St. Louis to discuss best practices in faculty services.
Centennial Committee — Rosalie Sanderson
To commemorate AALL's Centennial, the committee surveyed members to determine significant academic library firsts, which they compiled and published. In addition, they wrote articles to profile significant academic members of AALL, who were also identified by the member survey.
6. Bylaws amendments — Tom Hanley
Bylaws Committee Chair Tom Hanley summarized the proposed amendments to the ALL-SIS Bylaws and noted that copies of the proposed changes were available on each table, and on the ALL-SIS website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/bylaws/proposedbylaws2006.asp. Members who were present at the meeting approved the proposed bylaws amendments by a voice vote.
7. Vice Chair/Chair Elect's report — Suzanne Thorpe
Suzanne thanked Michael for his leadership as outgoing Chair. She also thanked outgoing Immediate Past President Carole Hinchcliff and outgoing Secretary-Treasurer Susan Lewis-Somers. In addition, Suzanne said she looks forward to working with incoming Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect Michelle Wu and incoming Secretary-Treasurer Linda Ryan.
Suzanne thanked all members who volunteered to serve on 2006–2007 committees and as committee chairs.
Suzanne announced that AALL has hired a new Educational Coordinator, Celeste Smith, and that there are new funds to assist SISs in developing continuing education programs. Suzanne would like to create professional development programming for ALL-SIS members, to be distributed regionally, in order to reach those members who cannot always attend the annual AALL meetings. She asked that members send any comments and ideas about such programming to her at s-thor@tc.umn.edu.
Suzanne also plans to establish a Strategic Directions Task Force to review the role of the ALL-SIS and to update the ALL-SIS Strategic Plan.
8. Passing of the gavel — Michael Slinger
Michael passed the gavel to new Chair Suzanne Thorpe. Suzanne accepted the gavel and thanked Michael.
9. Adjournment — Suzanne Thorpe
The meeting adjourned at 8:15, after which ALL-SIS VIP Hulett "Bucky" Askew spoke to the membership.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Lewis-Somers, Secretary-Treasurer