Business Meeting Minutes
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Seattle, Washington

The 2003 Business Meeting of the Research Instruction and Patron Services Special Interest Section was called to order at 5:40 p.m. by SIS Chair D.R. Jones (Case Western Reserve University Law School). The Minutes from the 2002 Business Meeting, as printed in the Fall 2002 issue of the RIPS Law Librarian, were approved by voice vote. The Treasurer, Pamela Melton, reported that RIPS had incurred expenses in the amount of $399.90 for the publication of the newsletter and $50 for honoraria and had made a donation of $500.00. The section also had $180.00 of revenue from the sale of Teach-In kits. As of May 31, 2003, the balance on hand was $3,886.75.

Annual Report to Membership

D.R. Jones, outgoing Chair, made her report to the members. She congratulated the Web Committee Chair, Melissa Serfass, on the redesign of the RIPS web page, a project which had been a high priority for the past several years. The new look is wonderful and it just needs to be filled with solid content. RIPS is preparing to take the Patron Services Committee ADA policy to the AALL Executive Board. The SIS made a contribution of $500.00 to the George Strait Minority Scholarship Fund. Newsletter expenses are by far the largest item in our budget. An electronic newsletter will allow us to use our resources more creatively. RIPS continues to submit lots of wonderful program proposals. Boston will open more opportunities. Some changes to our bylaws have been approved by the AALL Bylaws committee, but not in time for this meeting, so they will be taken up next year.

Committee Reports:

The following Committees submitted reports:

Patron Services: The committee hopes to quickly prepare the supporting documents for the ADA policies. Reference and ILL Roundtable discussions will be focused on support of law reviews. Lisa Peters has organized a 30 minute program on that topic.

Web Page: The revamped web page is up. Looking for volunteers for new content and for updating. Coming soon - a PURON page with pictures and PURON’s life story.

Research Instruction: The committee is still working on publication of the Core Competencies document. Possible collaboration with the CS-SIS on the technologies used in practice has been discussed. RIPS may want to partner with ALL-SIS on a problem bank for legal research instructors. Further discussions in that area are needed. There are no RIPS Research Instruction roundtables this year due to lack of interest. If you miss them, let the committee know.

Nominations: Judith Kaul thanked all those who agreed to run for office. The elections were very close. One interesting situation this year resulted from the fact that the Secretary, who is normally charged with receiving and counting the ballots, was a candidate for office. The nominating committee chair counted the ballots to avoid any conflict of interest. The bylaws need to be amended to cover such a situation in the future. The SIS may want to consider electronic balloting. AALL is looking into that possibility and the SISs may want to follow its lead.

Programs: RIPS forwarded six proposals for this year’s annual meeting, which was the maximum allowed, and five of them were accepted. Under the new format, RIPS provided three longer programs, one 30 minute program and one workshop. The Program Committee will convene at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 15, in the Pike Street Café (Sheraton) for a breakfast meeting. Everyone is encouraged to attend to help brainstorm program ideas.

Public Relations: Last year the P.R. Committee contacted all CONELL attendees. This year about 30 people expressed an interest in joining the section. The RIPS table needs more volunteers during this meeting. Everyone is invited to the committee meeting at 7:45 a.m., Monday, July 14, to discuss ideas, including outreach to non-academics.

Teach-In: This was the 11th year of the Teach-In and it’s still going strong. RIPS members’ contributions are the core of the teaching material. All contributions are welcome. Lots of visitors to the RIPS table expressed excitement about the Teach-In kit. West prints it up and Lexis provides marketing materials. They provide 22,000 notepads, which are usually gone in 3 days.

Briefs in Law Librarianship: The Briefs in Law Librarianship series is aimed at providing information on particular subjects. Two Briefs were completed this year, one on electronic reference and one on library reorganization. Three more Briefs are in progress, on circulation, licensing issues, and document delivery. Proceeds from Briefs sales are donated to the RIPS treasury.

Introduction of New Officers and Board Members:

D.R. Jones introduced the new officers and board members for 2003-2004. They are:

Melissa Serfass (UALR William. H. Bowen School of Law), Chair
Pamela Melton (University of South Carolina School of Law), Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
Lee Ryan (University of San Francisco School of Law), Secretary/Treasurer
Lynne Hartke (St. Louis University School of Law), Newsletter Editor
Sheri Lewis (University of Chicago D’Angelo Law Library), Member-At-Large.

The committee chairs for 2003-2004 are:

Gary Hill (Brigham Young University), Patron Services
Yan Hong (U. Conn. School of Law), Web Page
Ann Marie Berti (University of North Carolina School of Law), Research Instruction
Kelly Browne(University of Connecticut), Nominations
Jessie Cranford (UALR Wm. H. Bowen School of Law), Programs
Peggy McDermott (St. Louis University Lw School), Public Relations
Coral Henning (Sacramento County Public Law Library), Listserv
Gail Partin (Dickenson School of Law Library of the Pennsylvania State University), Teach-In.

New Business:

There was no new business.

Closing Statement:

Incoming Chair, Melissa Serfass, presented outgoing Chair, D.R. Jones, with a clock as a token of appreciation from the SIS. D.R. ceremonially passed Puron, the penguin, to Melissa, 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. Melissa thanked everyone for their hard work, asked for volunteers for the various committees, encouraged people to write Briefs or articles for the newsletter and to contribute web content.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Pamela Rogers Melton
Secretary

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