PLL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 2006-2007

 

by Lynn Connor Merring, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, PC, Newport Beach, CA

 

The meeting was called to order at 4:05 PM

Present were: Mary Koshollek, Lynn Fogle, Kay Waelde, Terry Psarras, Christine Graesser, Riva Laughlin, Sue Johnson, Alanna White, Byron Hill, Sarah Mauldin, Phil Rosenthal (SLA Legal Division), Patricia Barbone and Martha Goldman.

There being no old business Terry turned the meeting over to Chris.

New Business:
1. Strategic Directives
Martha Goldman reviewed the PLL-SIS Strategic Directives for 2006-2009, (the title changed from ‘plan” to “directives” by acclamation). The framework is now in place; the directives need to be fleshed out in terms of time frames, resources and specific actions to be taken. Martha and her group will continue to work on this.

The Directives were used as a way to focus our discussions for the balance of the meeting. They will be reviewed annually to adjust as needed. Christine will report back to the board by May of 2007 for review, comment and analysis prior to next year’s meeting.

2.Education
Chris addressed the overall education plan, which consists of two goals: Annual Meeting Programs and Local/Regional programming. Mary Ames will be chairing the local efforts. PLL is already considerably ahead of most SIS in developing programs on this level. Mary will be investigating webcasting and podcasting to reach the greatest number of participants. We will also investigate repeating the program currently scheduled for October 18, 2006, in Washington, D.C., Law Firm Library Management Workshop: Solutions & Scenarios (http://www.aallnet.org/calendar/eventdisplay.asp?eid=107&arc=no) .

3. Partnerships
Phil Rosenthal, representative from SLA, spoke about some joint efforts, including a program at SLA about negotiating with vendors, and how AALL and SLA might share resources and whether CRIV should be involved in this effort.

Mary Koshollek will be working with the Association of Legal Administrators. Specific efforts include a survey of ALA to gauge awareness of law librarians (qualifications, needs, etc.) and a roundtable discussion and article for the ALA publication.

4. Toolkit
Kudos to LaJean Humphries and her group for completing this monumental task! It was referred to at the West MBA program and given to CONELL attendees this year.

5. Vendor Relations
Nina Platt is the current chair. There was a discussion as to whether we need a specific liason to CRIV; Terry offered to act as such if needed.

6. Recruiting
Since there is no current committee addressing this we discussed methods by which we can recruit additional members to PLL. Not all AALL members who could be part of PLL are PLL members. It was determined we should identify a way to survey those people who could be members and send letters personally inviting them to join us. One suggestion was a separate registration fee for non-members who sign up for PLL sponsored programs on the local level – the fee would be equivalent to the SIS fee and they would then be registered as members. Patricia Barbone will head the committee; Lynn Fogle will assist.

7. Mentoring
Stephanie Fox will continue with the mentoring committee. The good news is we get lots of volunteer mentors.

8. Leadership Award
Lynn Fogle reported that after surveying other organizations for criteria the committee drafted the language, publicized it by e-mail and Perspectives and the first recipient was selected: Genie Tyburski.

9. Outreach
Chris raised the issue of getting involved in the community efforts in New Orleans next year. She will co-ordinate with the other SIS. The most likely event seems to be a volunteer day similar to that held by the American Library Association this year.

Housekeeping
Election
Kaye Waelde reported on our first electronic election. While there were a few minor problems, we had more people vote electronically than had voted on paper the previous year. There were requests for inclusion of each candidate’s credentials. This information was never provided in conjunction with the paper ballot but we will look into providing a link on the electronic one next year.

Website
All board members were asked to review the new layout and provide feedback before the end of September.

Newsletter
Randy Thompson, Chair, Sarah Mauldin and Donna Fisher, Co-editors.

Providing the newsletter in an electronic format raises some issues about the ads. Ads were appearing in the PDF version but not in the archived HTML version. Including the graphical ads resulted in an increase in the requests for hard copies because of the size of the file. The newsletter committee later decided that future issues of Perspectives will be provided strictly in a PDF version, and will not contain ads.
 

New Orleans Meeting
Chris has appointed Jeanne Korman to act as our “event planner” and handle all the arrangements for the PLL lunch, breakfast and VIP reception.

Listserv
There have been growing complaints about the use of the PLL Listserv for other than PLL business, especially for reference help. There is a separate PrivateLawLib Listserv intended for reference questions and the like. All non-business traffic will be redirected there.

Bylaws
Johanna Bizub will be directing the review of our bylaws, particularly in regard to the SIS model bylaws.

Lynn Fogle moved to adjourn, Terry Psarras seconded. Meeting adjourned at 5:50.