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Minutes of PLL Business Meeting
July 16, 1995
Pittsburgh, PA
The meeting was called to order by Alvin Podboy, Chair, at 7:45
a.m. The minutes of the 1994 business meeting were distributed in
print form on the tables. Al recognized CONELL attendees and new SIS
members.
Pat Patterson, our outgoing AALL Executive Board member spoke about
her experiences on the Board and the important topics of the day:
technology, citation format, AALL's long-range plan, the fate of Law
Library Journal and the dues increase. She encouraged all law firm
librarians to join committees, be active, and run for office in order
to have our voice heard at the national level. Al then thanked Pat and
Tory Trotta for their representation on the AALL Board.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Bylaws Committee (Juhanna Bizub, Chair) reported that the
bylaws amendments passed this spring; there are no pending requests
for additional amendments. The new chair is Carla Evans and Al will be
on the new committee. Their goal is to revise the PLL/SIS Manual. The
revised edition will be circulated to officers and chairs for comment
before being submitted to the Board.
Education (Gayle Lynn Nelson, Chair) reported that the
co-chairs for Indianapolis, Martha Goldman and Anne Ellis, have
developed seven tentative proposals; the format next year guarantees
each SIS two program slots in addition to their internal programs.
Aimee Ruzicka, the new vice-chair, is working on increasing the
submissions for Baltimore.
Mentoring (Jane MacMahon, Chair) reported that next year
they will be establishing contacts with the AALL mentoring committee
to eliminate duplication of effort. They hope to involve members at
the chapter level, possibly proposing guidelines for local
participation. Mentors are still needed for this meeting, to take
CONELL attendees through the exhibits on Tuesday morning.
Nominations (Barbara Houston, Chair) thanked the committee
members for producing an excellent slate and the candidates for
agreeing to run for office. The new officers are:
Michael Saint-Onge - Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Joan Jarosek - Treasurer
Sabrina Pacifici - Executive Board Member
PLL Perspectives (Sabrina Pacifici, Editor) reported
another excellent year, with income from Volume 6 approximately
$19,000 and expenses as only $12,000, giving us a $7,000 profit. She
thanked this year's contributors and urged members to contribute
articles or columns on issues of interest to the profession. Al
thanked Sabrina for her hard work and praised the quality of the
newsletter.
Public Relations (Michelle Schmidt, Chair) reported on PLL's
exhibit at the Association of Legal Administrators meeting in Orlando.
Seven firm librarians staffed the exhibit and talked to many
administrators about librarians and library services. One goal for the
future is to pull committee members from the locales of the ALA
meetings.
SLA Legal Division (Connie Pine, Chair) reported that the
Division's membership is up to 534 in just two years and it is larger
than half of the other 27 divisions. They put on eight programs, a
reception, and a field trip at the Montreal conference and the
officers attended leadership training. Their first newsletter was
issued in April. Planning for the 1996 meeting in Boston is underway
as are plans for a membership directory.
Salary Survey (Claire Engel, Chair) reported on their work
on this year's AALL survey. It is finished and in the mail, is due
back to Chicago by September 1. Committee members met in Chicago in
May with Roger Parent, CCH (who is funding the survey), SLA and the
consultant who will be compiling the data and reporting the results.
They also met with focus groups of private, academic, and
state/court/county librarians to refine the questions. The important
task for all members now is to answer the survey, as its usefulness
depends on the rate of response. The geographical breakouts will only
be reported if there are sufficient responses. Al encouraged everyone
to participate.
Standards (Karl Gruben, Chair) reported that the committee's
work was stalled due to the lack of funding from AALL. Today's
committee meeting will revise the plan and he hopes to begin
collecting data on job descriptions.
GROUP REPORTS
The Corporate Group (Aimee Ruzicka, Chair) updated their
membership directory after the Seattle meeting and will issue it in
early fall with e-mail addresses added. Due to the low attendance at
last year's meeting, the group will return to the round table format
this year. She also asked for ideas for program proposals for
Baltimore.
The Records Management Group (Jeanne Reynolds, Chair)
reported that the handout from the Seattle session was requested
steadily throughout the year. This year's session will be on offsite
storage. They are also working on a listserv for the group.
The Technical Services Group (Carol Dawe, Chair) reported
that the technical services standards developed by the group and
approved by the PLL Board were sent to committee by the AALL Executive
Board and may never be seen again. The text will be put on Law-Lib and
can be used by anyone. This issue is finished for now, but may be
revisited some years down the road. The group is proposing to put up a
listserv, called Lawtech, which will be open to all (since some
academic librarians are interested) and should focus more on legal
problems than Autocat does. Michael Cassidy is doing the development
work. Sign-up information will be distributed once the Executive Board
approves and the list is actually up.
OFFICERS' REPORTS
Mary Smith Forman, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, reported that the
preliminary figures for this morning's program are good but that no
questions for the speakers were received in advance. The Executive
Board meeting is today at 5:15 p.m. and is open to the membership. The
Education Committee meeting is at 4 p.m. and welcomes program ideas.
The committee sign-up sheets are available on the table outside.
Please sign up and participate.
Cornelia Trubey, Secretary, reported that two mail ballots were
held this year, for the bylaws revision and the election. Only about
500 people voted in the election, about a third of the membrship. Each
vote counts, so exercise your right next spring. On behalf of the
Board, a letter was sent to the AALL Statistics Committee urging
geographical breakouts as this will be possible if enough of us return
the survey. All are encouraged to do so. A motion was made and passed
to destroy the election ballots.
Al delivered Johanna Bizub's report as Past President. Our presence
at the ALA meeting was superlative, both the exhibit and the law
library program at which Karl Gruben spoke. We wil try to get on the
program for New Orleans also, and try to get a discount on the
registration fee for librarians. We do need to keep sending the past
president to this meeting as a public relations activity.
Martha Goldman, Treasurer, reported that the budget is in excellent
shape. Most of our revenue derives from vendor advertisements in PLL
Perspectives. Expenses this year were $20,000 as of the end of
May, AALL's fiscal year; the balance is $25,000.
The Chair's report first thanked our representatives on the AALL
task forces and councils for their efforts. This year, we have passed
the bylaws revision, supported the national conference, represented
PLL at ALA, and drafted a resolution requesting the development of
model uniform Internet legislation that AALL has sent to a special
committee. Al thanked Disclosure for underwriting the breakfast, Alert
Publication for support for our speakers, and all our newsletter
advertisers. He then thanked his firm and his staff for allowing him
to spend so much time on PLL business.
NEW BUSINESS
Al proposed a resolution concerning the desirability of mail votes
on AALL's official positions on important topics, arguing that votes
at the annual business meetings are not represetative of the entire
organization and that some issues, like the citation format question
and stances taken by the Washington representative, are not voted on
by the membership. Several members spoke both for and against the
resolution. Al asked for a vote; the resolution failed. He then
encouraged everyone to attend the Business Meetings and express their
opinions there.
Al then turned the gavel over to Mary Smith Forman, the new Chair,
who thanked Al for his work this year and presented him with a gift in
appreciation. She encouraged the entire membership to get involved in
section and professional activities and especially to vote in section
and national elections. The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 a.m.
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