Kathie Sullivan, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:05 a.m. In attendance were: Stephanie Paup, Anne Ellis, Glen Gustafson, Kathie Sullivan, Amy Eaton, Lee Nemcheck, Lauri Flynn, Janice Henderson, Joanne Dugan, Holly Mohler, Jan Brown, Ann Jeter, Martha Goldman, Ruth Balkin, Terry Psarras, Rachel Jones, Michael Saint-Onge, Phil Brown (Guest, Global Securities), Richard Harrison (Guest, Global Securities), and Kamla Hedges (Guest, BNA).

After a round of introductions was done, Kathie stated that this would be a casual meeting, with lots of brainstorming and sharing of ideas. She also told everyone that she plans to use e-mail heavily this year to communicate with everyone.

Kathie stated that she did not have new, marked-up copies of the budget that the Board approved of at its earlier meeting, but reported that our income was about $50,000 and our expenses were about $31,900, leaving us with around $17,700 of income over expense. She also reported that the Board approved a change in PLL’s fiscal year, and that all of this information will be included in the Treasurer’s report, which will be reprinted in the next issue of PLL Perspectives.

Glen commented that the stabilization of the budget is much improved over last year, when we were getting close to having to make some cuts. Kathie stated that this was, in part, due to Rachel Jones’ hard work on obtaining more advertising money, and also to the Global Securities donation of $10,000 to the PLL Grants Committee.

There was a brief discussion about fundraising for PLL, and what types of items or projects we might want to take on. As Public Relations Chair, Amy Eaton said that she would start to look into this with her committee. One of the issues that must be address is whether sales have to go through AALL or not. A possible solution to that was also discussed, which would involve some vendor participation or funding.

Terry Psarras, Technology Committee member, reported that they will be doing an overhaul of the PLL web site, and will be rolling it out in two phases. Phase one, which has already been started, consists of correcting and updating all the information on the web page, and the expected completion date for this is the end of the year. Phase two consists of redesigning the web site, including both the content and the layout, and the expected completion date for this is around March 2000. Terry is talking to Jason Hinkle at AALLNET to look into the possibility of adding a search engine as part of this phase as well. During the redesign period, sample pages will be loaded in a temporary location on the web for comments. Kathie added that there is a soft deadline of September 1 for any major corrections to the PLL web site.

Kathie spoke about the bylaws and what changes the Board is proposing be made. In order to decrease the costs of the election, as well as try to get an increased return rate for ballots, we are investigating what changes need to be made. The proposal is to print the ballot in our newsletter, PLL Perspectives, for now, and look into e-balloting for the future. There is a short deadline for this, because of the notification requirements for bylaws amendments. On a related note, Kathie stated that, if the AALL bylaws amendments pass, we will look at our own bylaws, to make sure that we comply with any changes.

Rachel Jones, Newsletter Advisory Committee Chair, spoke about the newsletter, first thanking Jan Brown for all the hard work she did this year. Kathie also acknowledged Rachel’s hard work this year. They had lots of full-page ads this year, including multiple ads in one issue from both Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw. Plans for the upcoming year include having regular columns from PLL Groups, a regular training corner, or a Winter issue devoted to training issues and best practices. Reading from Michelle Schmidts’ notes, some other suggestions are a best feature article, to be selected by the Newsletter Advisory Committee, or links on our web site to the advertisers that put ads in the newsletter. Kathie mentioned that AALLNET is dealing with the issue of linking to vendors from their site, and related sites, so the committee should talk to both Tory Trotta and Jason Hinkle about this before going ahead with it. There was a brief discussion about advertising rates and the possibility of giving discounts. Rachel reported that Michelle is continuing to work with Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw to see if they will carry PLL Perspectives.

Kathie reported that the Mentoring Committee, chaired by Jane McMahon, will be discussing with the Grants Committee the possibility of offering grants to 1-2 new members to attend CONELL next year.

Stephanie Paup, Grants Committee member, reported that they will work on getting a flyer or information into the preliminary materials for next year’s AALL Annual Meeting, as well as look into applying grants to PLL meetings in other cities. The idea of designing of different categories for grants (i.e. CONELL, registration, travel, regional conference) will also be considered.

Kathie reminded everyone to get any ideas for possible PLL candidates to Anne Ellis, Nominations Committee Chair.

Kathie reported that we will review the Strategic Plan, which ran from 1997-2000, and make a 2 year addendum, using our web site to gain feedback from PLL members on possible model plans. Some of the issues to be considered are whether to continue with CAPLL, and what should RIPLL be doing, or whether we even want to continue that project. We will also be looking at what our relationships with outside groups, such as ALA, will be.

Kathie urged people to subscribe to the AM2000 listserv and get involved in programming for next year by talking to either Joanne Dugan or Marlowe Griffiths. August 16 is the deadline for program proposals this year.

Since we did not get through every item on the agenda, Kathie stated that she would continue this meeting virtually, via our listserv, starting next week.