Business Meeting Minutes
Sunday, July 21, 2002
Peabody Hotel, Orlando, Florida

The 2002 Business Meeting of the Research Instruction and Patron Services Special Interest Section was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by SIS Chair Marc Silverman (Barco Law Library, University of Pittsburgh). The Minutes from the 2001 Business Meeting were approved as printed in the Fall 2001 issue of the RIPS Law Librarian, by voice vote. The Treasurer, Pamela Melton, reported that RIPS had incurred expenses in the amount of $1,734.15 for the publication of the newsletter. As of May 31, 2002, the balance on hand was $3,454.09.

Annual Report to Membership

Marc Silverman, outgoing Chair, made his report to the members. He enumerated the accomplishments of the section, notably a continued strong contribution to the annual meeting programing, the drafting of an ADA policy for possible adoption by AALL and the hugely successful Legal Research Teach-In. The new SIS Strategic Plan, which was one of the first projects tackled by the Board last year, called for efforts to reinvigorate the membership, provide more guidance to the committees and rework our communications vehicles - the Newsletter, the website and our brochure. We have made progress toward all of those goals this year.

One issue which we hoped to have resolved this year was whether to publish the SIS newsletter only in electronic format and eliminate the print version. Printing and postage for the newsletter account for the majority of the SIS expenses. The Executive Board had decided to table the discussion, deferring any decision, until a forthcoming report from a committee of the SIS Council (addressing SIS newsletters) was made available. As the report has yet to be issued, the Board has not proceeded any further towards a decision.

Marc thanked the members for their involvement, saying "RIPS is very lucky to have a core of dedicated members that accomplish truly incredible things."

Committee Reports:

The following Committees submitted reports:

Patron Services: Six people volunteered for the committee. The committee drafted an ADA policy, which the Executive Board has approved and will forward to the AALL Executive Board for further consideration.

Web Page: Melissa Serfass has started revamping the web page. Several pages with the new look are already up.

Research Instruction: The committee is still looking at the Core Competencies document, although there has been no real progress on getting it published. Sheri Lewis announced that there would be no committee meeting and reminded people to come to the Roundtables.

Nominations: Lee Ryan was congratulated for providing such a strong slate of candidates. She thanked Kristin Gerdy and Gail Partin, and all those who agreed to run for office.

Programs: RIPS forwarded six proposals for this year's annual meeting, which was the maximum allowed, and three of them were accepted. The Program Committee will be meeting at 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23. Everyone is encouraged to attend to help brainstorm program ideas.

Public Relations: There will be a meeting tomorrow morning, Monday, July 22, at 7:00 a.m. to discuss the new RIPS brochure. There are still times available at the RIPS table and we need volunteers to fill them.

Teach-In: Gail Partin & Kristen Gerdy were not present. This year's Teach-In was a great success. Thousands of notepads were mailed out and over 600 Teach-In kits were ordered. There are still a few available at the RIPS table.

Briefs in Law Librarianship: Bobbie Studwell encouraged everyone to become an author. She awarded pens to the most recently published Briefs authors. Several surveys are circulating at the time and a number of briefs are in the works. She encouraged the members to buy them, since revenue from the sales goes to the SIS.

AELIC/Standards of Excellence for Internet Legal Information Services - AELIC is charged with developing criteria for evaluating legal web pages.

Introduction of New Officers and Board Members:

Marc Silverman introduced the new officers and board members for 2002-2003. They are

D.R. Jones (Case Western Reserve University School of Law), Chair;

Melissa Serfass (UALR Wm. H. Bowen School of Law), Vice Chair/Chair-Elect;

Pamela Melton (University of South Carolina School of Law), Secretary/Treasurer;

Lynne Hartke (St. Louis University School of Law), Newsletter Editor; and

Bill Draper (University of Pennsylvania Law School), Member-At-Large.

The new committee chairs are

Gary Hill (Brigham Young University), Patron Services;

Melissa Serfass (UALR Wm. H. Bowen School of Law), Web Page;

Sheri Lewis (University of Chicago School of Law), Research Instruction;

Lee Ryan (University of San Francisco School of Law), Nominations;

Jessie Cranford (UALR Wm. H. Bowen School of Law) and D.R. Jones, Programs;

Rachel Jones (Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky LLP), Volunteerism;

Peggy McDermott (St. Louis University Lw School), Public Relations;

Coral Henning (Sacramento county Public Law Library), Listserv; and

Gail Partin (Dickenson School of Law Library of the Pennsylvania State University) and Kristen Gerdy (Brigham Young University School of Law), Teach-In.

New Business:

There was no new business.

Closing Statement:

Incoming Chair, D.R. Jones presented outgoing Chair, Marc Silverman, with a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble as a token of appreciation from the SIS. Marc ceremonially passed Puron, the penguin, to D.R., charging her to record Puron's adventures this year. Photographs of Puron, taken at various locations throughout last year, were passed around at the meeting.

D.R. stated that she looked forward to continued good work from all the committees. The ADA policies, the core competencies, the Teach-In were all evidence of the vitality of the SIS. She hopes to make the web page the big project of the year. It needs to be revamped, which should be more than just a redesign. What is the web site's purpose? What does it mean to the members? These are questions that must be answered. Other SIS's are going through the same thing. We should communicate more with other SIS's. AALL can provide us with information about the overlap in membership with other SIS's, which should help with the effort to improve communication. She closed by thanking the members for all their support.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Pamela Rogers Melton
Secretary

Return to RIPS Home