CS-SIS Business Meeting Minutes 2000

Meeting Attendees, July 2000, Philadelphia

  1. Robert Jacoby - University of South Carolina
  2. Carol Bean - Taylor Porter, Baton Rouge
  3. Evy Posamentier - McGeorge School of Law
  4. Jim Milles - SUNY at Buffalo
  5. Ken Hirsh - Duke University
  6. Susan Boland - Northern Illinois University
  7. Diane Frake - Vermont Law School
  8. June Liebert - University of Texas
  9. Hadi Amjadi - Santa Clara University
  10. James Duggan - Southern Illinois University
  11. Sheri Lewis - Mercer University
  12. Jean Willis - San Diego County Public Law Library
  13. Don Arndt - University of Nebraska
  14. Kris Niedringhaus - University of Toledo
  15. David Hanson - Drake University
  16. Sean Saxon - UNLV
  17. Mark Folmsbee - Washburn University
  18. Sandy Braber - GroveVanderbilt University
  19. Robert Linz - Ave Maria School of Law
  20. Kit Kreilick - Fordham University
  21. Prano Amjadi - Santa Clara University
  22. Peter Murray - University of Connecticut
  23. Dominick Grillo - Suffolk University
  24. Liz Glankler - Saint Louis University
  25. Terry Cullen - Seattle University
  26. Vicki Szymczak - Brooklyn Law School
  27. Eric Kistler - Ohio Northern University
  28. Ruth Sumuel - Texas State Law Library
  29. Lyonette Louis-Jacques - University of Chicago

Minutes of the CS-SIS Business Meeting, July 16, 2000, Philadelphia

Lyonette Louis-Jacques called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and gave an overview of what was accomplished this past year:

CS-SIS bylaws amendments creating two new Member-at-Large offices
Four CS-SIS grants awarded to attend AALL Annual Meeting
CS-SIS Job Descriptions Database created & publicized
Survey of CS-SIS membership carried out in furtherance of Strategic Plan
CS-SIS time capsule at AALL Annual Meeting
CS-SIS educational programs & roundtables at AALL Annual Meeting
CS-SIS breakfast meeting featuring Genie Tyburski as speaker
Popular freebies and giveaways at CONELL and our display table

The minutes of the 1999 business meeting were approved as posted on the CS-SIS web page. The Treasurer's report for the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2000 was included by reference, as follows:

Beginning balance @ 10/1/99: $13,844.70
Revenues
  Contributions: 1,000.00
  Dues: 3,222.00
  Total revenues: $4,222.00
Expenses
  Food & beverage: 2,906.16
  Misc. expense*: 1,444.45
  Souvenirs/giveaways: 2,079.72
  Total expenses: $6,430.33
Excess revenues over expenses: ($2,208.33)
Balance @ 9/30/2000: $11,636.37
(*Includes grant award of $1,000)

Don Arndt announced the results of the election held in the Spring. James Duggan was elected Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, and Jean Willis was elected as our first Member-at-Large. [More details follow below in the Nominations Committee report.]

Committee Reports:

Jean Willis, Grants Committee: Jean said that 17 people applied for $1,000 in grants to attend the AALL Annual Meeting. The grants were advertised through e-mail lists, the Spectrum, and a broadcast announcement from AALL. Of the 17 applicants, 4 people received grants: Lisa Mecklenberg received $115, David Hanson received $295, Peter Murray received $295, and Kim Denicker received $295.

Liz Glankler, Recruitment/Involvement Committee: Liz said that the CS-SIS maintained a presence at tables in the activities area of the vendor hall and at CONELL Marketplace. Giveaways this year included toolkits for all CONELL attendees, mints and bubble pens. Interest was high among newer law librarians that our members spoke with. Lyonette Louis-Jacques presented Liz with a thank you gift for her great work this year.

Don Arndt, Bylaws Committee: Don described the special ballot conducted in March 2000 to vote on whether or not to amend the CS-SIS bylaws by adding two members-at-large (MALs) to the executive board. The membership voted to so amend the bylaws. Background: This amendment was needed in order to implement Strategic Directive #1 of the Strategic Plan that was adopted at our annual business meeting in 1999. The OBS-SIS bylaws were used as the model for these amendments, since they treat MALs as SIS officers with the same standing on the executive board as have the Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary/Treasurer. It was decided that the MALs should each have two-year terms, staggered annually, so that one is elected in odd-numbered years and the other in even-numbered years. The first position was filled in the election held this past April. Work that still needs to be done: The SIS should consider whether it wants to further amend the bylaws to include specific duties assigned to each of the MALs, or to leave their duties purposefully vague as they are now. The bylaws should also be amended at some point to spell out in a clearer way the succession of Vice-Chair to Chair.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques, 2000 Program Committee: Lyo outlined the programs and roundtables sponsored by the CS-SIS at this year's Annual Meeting. The CS-SIS submitted 12 programs, of which 7 were approved. Lyo talked about each, as well as which were cosponsored with other Special Interest Sections.

Sheri Lewis, 2001 Program Committee: Sheri handed out a list of program proposals under consideration. The committee was formed in February. At that time, they began soliciting ideas and discussed them at the CS-SIS breakfast meeting at CALI in June. More proposals are needed, as well as volunteers to coordinate the programs. August 14th is the deadline imposed by AALL. In order to meet this deadline, Sheri needs draft proposals by August 1st.

Don Arndt, Strategic Plan Implementation Committee: One goal was accomplished by amending the bylaws to include Members-at-Large. This past spring they also carried out an online survey of our membership, designed and implemented by Kris Niedringhaus. Some general observations about the survey results include the following:

Sheri Lewis, Nominations Committee: Sheri said that her committee began their work in mid-February and communicated primarily by e-mail. Their timetable was to finalize a slate of candidates by March 15th and have them send their candidacy statements to our Secretary/Treasurer, Don Arndt, in time for a mailing of ballots during the week of March 29th. They sought two candidates for each of the two offices on the ballot this year: Vice-Chair/Chair Elect and Member-at-Large. They solicited candidates via announcement on the CS-SIS listserv and also through e-mail directly to the members of the CS-SIS executive board. One of their concerns was to try to develop a slate which would result in representation on the board beyond just academic folks. After receiving various nominations, they ranked those and began contacting potential candidates in early March. The slate was set on March 21, 2000. The candidates for each office were:

VC-CE
James Duggan (SIU)
Liz Glankler (St. Louis U)


Member-at-Large
Maureen Shepard (Sac Cty Law Lib)
Jean Willis (San Diego Cty Law Lib)

Dominic Grillo, Publications Committee: Dom said that not much happened this year, but that they hope to make some changes. The priority will be on getting the newsletter off the ground, rather than on other aspects of this committee's work. Liz Glankler talked about coordinating with Darin Fox and Jim Milles regarding web site publishing. They hope to have four issues this coming year and hold a contest to come up with a new name for the newsletter. [More discussion on this under "new business" below.]

Miscellaneous Projects:

Don Arndt talked about the CS-SIS Job Descriptions Database that Robert Linz designed and implemented. It can be found at http://www.avemarialaw.edu/aall/. The idea is that it should provide examples of job descriptions to help job posters write their own, not as a current awareness tool for job seekers. The data is currently accessible by job category or by keyword, and if one signs up for e-mail notification, they will be notified whenever a new job description is posted there. Planned future improvements include: (1) sorting by job title; (2) expanding the job categories; (3) including non-technical jobs for professional and library support staff; and (4) redoing the broadcast e-mail to include job title and a link to the job description itself.

Sean Saxon talked about the CS-SIS time capsule he put together which, along with other SIS, Chapter and Committee time capsules, will be stored at AALL headquarters for the next 25 years as part of the AALL Public Relations Committee's Time Capsule Project. Items going into the capsule include photos, giveaways, past issues of Automatome newsletters, printouts from our website, and a copy of our brochure.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques said that Terry Cullen gave her a disk with the Adaptive Technology web page to put up, but that she had not gotten to this yet.

Sheri Lewis talked about the CS-SIS breakfast meeting, featuring Genie Tyburski's talk, this Wednesday at 7:30 a.m.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques passed out more gifts for members who have done a lot for the SIS. Then, at her request, introductions were made by all of the business meeting's attendees. She then passed the torch to Sheri Lewis as the incoming Chair.

New Business:

Prano Amjadi suggested that we should liaison with publishers of e-books. Mark Folmsbee said that we would need to get clearance for this through the AALL executive board. Kris Niedringhaus mentioned Troy Johnson as someone with a strong interest in e-books. Sheri said that she would try to touch base with Troy, and that we may be able to join with ALA or SLA in such a project.

Ken Hirsh moved that we offer a $50 prize for the winner of our newsletter-naming contest as a cash incentive for coming up with ideas. The motion carried.

Sheri Lewis brought up a project on developing web-based legal research exercises. Kit Kreilick described this idea in more detail, and said that ALL-SIS has already appointed a task force to deal with this and that Kit is chairing it.

Sheri Lewis announced that she is working with AALL headquarters on auto-populating the CSSIS-L discussion list with all of our SIS membership in order to better reach them.

Sheri Lewis said that the AALL Strategic Plan for the next five years is on AALLNET and asked that any concerns about it from our membership be brought up.

Sheri Lewis talked for a bit about the Strategic Plan Implementation Committee and about professional development topic proposals, and circulated a committee volunteer form around the room.

Sheri Lewis then raised the issue of whether our newsletter should be published in print or electronic form, and opened the issue up for discussion.

Mark Folmsbee suggested that we should still publish our newsletter in print format. His main point was that we are not reaching the vast majority of our membership. He said that while everyone in the room today now knows how much good work was done this past year, the majority of our membership doesn't. And that's a shame. The only reliable way to reach them and keep them informed is through a print newsletter. Debate ensued among just about everyone in the room... The outgoing chair of TS-SIS said that they pay about $4,000 per year for four published issues. Mark Folmsbee said that he thought about 2-3 years of doing a good job with the newsletter would bring members back & increase involvement. Jean Willis thought that we should put out two issues a year as it would be less expensive. Lyonette Louis-Jacques said that four issues a year would make it easier to make timely announcements.

Sheri Lewis said that a deadline is needed for the Publications Committee.

James Duggan moved that the Publications Committee submit, by September 1st, to the Executive Board a proposal recommending the number of issues for a print newsletter; the Executive Board then has until September 15th to decide on the proposal. Sheri Lewis amended the motion by adding the requirement for the Publications Committee to propose a publication timetable for the N issues to come out during the year, where N is the number of issues recommended by the Publications Committee. [At this point there was some wisecrackery from the peanut gallery about X and Y axes in the timetable.] The motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.