Welcome and Introduction: Kenneth Rudolf, FCIL-SIS Chair, welcomed the attendees and called the meeting to order.

Approval of minutes: The members approved by unanimous vote the minutes of the 2002 meeting published in the October 2002 issue (volume 17, No.1) of the FCIL Newsletter (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/vol17/issue1/171busrpt.htm)

The Secretary/Treasurer Report was presented by Mirela Roznovschi. The current balance as of 05/31/ 2003 is $8,641.56. The Secretary/Treasurer pointed out that the FCIL Newsletter switched to a “primarily electronic” format in pdf and html beginning with the October 2001 issue. This format change provided significant savings to the section, which has devoted the majority of its budget in recent years to the printing and mailing of paper copies. This current balance reports the members’ dues for the years 2002 and 2003. FCIL-SIS made a donation in the amount of $250.00 to Charles University Faculty of Law from Prague (Czech Republic) for flood relief on September 2002. The Treasurer’s report was adopted unanimously.

Reports of Committees and Interests Groups:

The Nominating Committee: Jean Davis (Chair), Rhonda Gold and Wei Luo, nominated the following candidates: Mirela Roznovschi, Reference Librarian for Foreign & International Law, New York University School of Law Library for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect; and Mary Rumsey, Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian, University of Minnesota Law School Library for Secretary/Treasurer. In May 2003, the committee reported the result of the Section’s 2003 election of officers. Both candidates were elected. (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/vol17/issue3/173officers.htm).

The Education Committee: Jean Wenger, the Vice Chair/Chair Elect and the co-Chair of the Education Committee gave a brief report about last years programs. Eight programs were submitted last year for the 2003 AALL Annual Convention and four were accepted.

Schaffer Grant Committee: Chair Kenneth Rudolf reported on the Committee’s selection of Emmanuel Darkey, Librarian at the Faculty of Law Library, University of Ghana, as the 2003 recipient of the Ellen Schaffer Foreign Librarian's Grant. Northwestern University supplemented the Schaffer Grant by paying his air fare to the US and paying also for his visa. FCIL SIS also supplemented the Schaffer Grant from its funds and member donations in the amount of $200. Rhonda Gold, the Chair of the Committee, added that the Ellen Schaffer Foreign Librarian's Grant deserves better publicity and more has to be done to get more applicants from developing democracies. Funding and getting the word out are the most important tasks of the committee. Ellen Schaffer thanked FCIL SIS and members for contributing to the fund. She wants to join the Grant Committee and help with the selection of candidates and publicity.

Publications Committee: Stephanie Burke reported on the meeting and reported on the Committee’s dedication to creating and adding more content to the FCIL SIS website. She also reported on members’ willingness to offer program(s) for those not fortunate enough to work with other experienced FCIL members. She suggested for the ones new to the field a formula similar to “getting up and running as an FCIL librarian.”

Clearinghouse for Internships and International Personnel Exchanges: David McFadden, the Chair of the Clearinghouse, reported that there were no requests for exchanges or visits and no new surveys were added in 2002/2003. There was a member considering taking over as chair of the Clearinghouse. The focus of the Clearinghouse in the upcoming year will be to promote awareness through links to and from groups with similar efforts including SLA, ALA and the Oregon Library Association, a Spectrum article and listserv postings. Carole Hinchcliff drafted “Guidelines for Visits” which will be placed on the Clearinghouse page. The Clearinghouse survey will be updated. There was also a discussion of submitting a 30-minute program for Boston dealing with visits and exchanges. This seemed appropriate given the theme next year.

Mentoring Program for Attendees from Abroad: Tracy Thompson reported about the FCIL-SIS Host Program to match up visitors with experienced AALL members at the Annual Meeting . She spoke about contacting other associations and about the new Home Page for Visitors from Abroad at the AALL Home Page (http://www.aallnet.org/events/abroad.asp). She expressed concerns about publicizing, getting out the information, and about hosting foreign visitors. She will continue to be the key person for the mentoring program. She also welcomes any input about how we might get the word out to potential visitors about this opportunity.

CIS and East European Law Interest Group: Mary Strouse reported a productive discussion during the meeting. The SIS is planning to launch a web page. One of the attendees of the CIS SIS business meetings expressed concern that many people are doing a lot of projects but they do not come to the meeting to share their knowledge and experience. CIS SIS members are considering starting a working group to network and have a better profile.

Latin American Law Interest Group: Dan Wade reported on the discussion about Mexico online resources.

Electronic Issues Interest Group: Marylin Raisch explained that the focus of the meeting was on the FCIL website. Members considered that it has to contain database reviews, feedback from members, descriptions of collections, collection expertise, and articles on the balance between print and electronic collections.

Teaching Foreign and International Legal Research Interest Group: Bill McCloy, although he is not the coordinator, attended and reported on the meeting. Bill reported on a generic discussion on this subject.

Special Committee on Bylaws: The Chair brought into discussion the issues that were on the agenda of the committee chaired by Jonathan Franklin:

1. Succession when the Chair, Vice-Chair, or Secretary/Treasurer is unable to take their elected position or must step down mid-term;

2. The timing of the election due to changes in the Newsletter publication cycle and transition to electronic format;

3. The ongoing leadership of the FCIL interest groups.

These proposals were published in the May 2003 issue of the FCIL SIS Newsletter (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/vol17/issue3/173bylaws.htm).

David McFadden asked about an unclear formulation related to the timing of the vacancies. The Chair proposes a motion to accept the bylaws as printed with the acceptability of an inversion of words.

The printed version: "Interest Groups leaders shall have two-year terms. The Executive Committee will publicly announce, via the list and the newsletter, which terms are ending by April 1, and request volunteers for the position to submit their names to the Committee by May 1."

The modified and approved version: Interest Groups leaders shall have two-year terms. The Executive Committee will publicly announce which terms are ending by April 1, via the list and the newsletter, and request volunteers for the position to submit their names to the Committee by May 1.”

The bylaws were adopted unanimously.

Special Committee for Strategic Planning: Jean Wenger, the Committee Chair, discussed the FCIL SIS three year Strategic Plan 2003-2006 (http://www.law.uga.edu/fcil/strategicplan2003.html). She thanked Jean Davis, Jolande Goldberg, Mary Rumsey, and Dan Wade for being involved in this process. She explained the three important goals of the strategic plan: to promote education in Foreign, Comparative, and International Law; to increase active and broad participation of FCIL SIS members; to enhance the position of SCIL SIS within AALL. The Chair commented on the necessity to know each other better, in promoting new members, and invited the attendees to submit new ideas. The Strategic Planning Committee will be a standing committee that will look at the activities of the FCIL SIS.

The members of the 2003-2004 FCIL Education Committee are: Ralph Gaebler - Indiana University School of Law Library (Bloomington); Xinh T. Luu - University of Virginia Law Library; Mirela Roznovschi - New York University Law Library (co-chair); Dennis Sears - Brigham Young University Howard W. Hunter Law Library (co-chair); Beatrice Tice - University of Michigan Law Library; Dan Wade - Yale University Law Library.

Recognition of Volunteers: The Chair thanked members that helped him during his tenure. He gave special recognition to Rhonda Gold, and Tracy Thompson. Special appreciation awards were given to Rhonda Gold, Stephanie Burke, and Jonathan Franklin. The 2003 recipient of the “Spirit of FCIL SIS” award is Mila Rush for her admirable work as FCIL SIS listserv owner and for her activity over the years behind scenes on behalf of the FCIL SIS and also for being list owner of INT-LAW.

Election results: Members approved by a majority the election results. Chair Kenneth Rudolf announced that Mirela Roznovschi has been elected as Vice Chair/Chair-elect and Mary Rumsey as Secretary/ Treasurer.

Installation of New Officers: Chair Kenneth Rudolf officially turned over the FCIL SIS leadership to Jean Wenger, the incoming Chair 2003-2004. Jean Wenger presented a gift of appreciation to Ken on behalf of the Executive Committee. She thanked him for his activity on behalf of FCIL SIS.

Jean Wenger feels privileged to work for the FCIL SIS together with Mirela Roznovschi as Vice Chair/Chair elect and with Mary Rumsey, the Secretary Treasurer. Jean will be a member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC) and Marci Hoffman a liaison to AMPC. She reminds that Dennis Sears and Mirela Roznovschi are co-Chairs of the FCIL SIS Education Committee and all program proposals for 2004 AALL Annual Meeting have to go first to both of them. She calls for program proposals for the next year Annual Convention in Boston and asks members to look at the Program Planner handbook, a very useful source for drafting programs. She discloses a few proposals already drafted as well as the proposal for a one day workshop in Boston. The draft proposals have to be sent to the Education Committee by August 4th. The deadline for submitting them to AALL is August 15th.

Adjournment: Jean Wenger declares the meeting adjourned.