Membership Committee
2012 Annual Meeting Minutes
July 23, 2012 — Boston, Massachusetts

Called: 12 noon
Attendance: Carol Collins (past-chair), Jennifer Creevy, Tara Summus and Suzanne Graham.

1. Welcome

Suzanne welcomed the committee members.

Carol Collins reported that she drafted a new letter of welcome last year and sent to 26 new TS members. The new members list only goes to the SIS chairs, so our committee must be proactive in requesting new member information from the TS chair, Miriam Childs, so that the welcome can be made in a timely fashion.

Carol organized and Ismael Gullon (2011-2012 TS chair) tended to the TS-SIS table at CONELL. The CONELL attendees visited the tables during two forty-minute sessions Saturday morning. In addition to TSLL information, the table had the TS brochure, bowl of chocolates, and cards/pens/bowl for $25 Amazon gift card drawing.

Carol also reported that the committee arranges for the TS-SIS tables/chairs in the exhibit hall. These reservations are made in March. While we are thrilled to see so much activity at the tables, we need to communicate very clearly with the other TS committees and the Executive Board as the deadline to request tables/chairs for exhibit hall approaches. We had to commandeer an additional table this year to accommodate all the special activities at the table.

This year the Preservation Committee had additional handouts, games & prizes at the table in addition to the silent auction, TSLL index, general TS brochure, and bowl/cards for $25 Amazon card drawing. All this activity is excellent, but we would like to plan better for it. Last year, the Professional Development Committee setup a laptop and an "Ask an Expert" service at the table.

Our table volunteers should have a cheat-sheet of FYIs about the activities at the table (when to pick up auction prizes, how to join committees, schedule of programming and meetings). We decided to add this to our list to assignments for the year.

2. Collect a pool of positive first-day experiences

Tara commented on our experiences at the TS table during the weekend.

We also decided to have two members at the table whenever possible to meet with the demand more effectively. We feel that being able to greet people and give them all individual attention as they browse our table is very important, as is a general FAQ cheat-sheet.

Jen shared an unsatisfying experience with the mentoring program. We decided to focus on mentor education for the year by promoting (or compiling if AALL mentoring program does have already) among the TS mentors a list of best practices and minimum expectations for mentors. TS simply cannot fail people who come to us looking for support.

Suzanne shared a similar story about her negative experience with CONELL (and AALL) at her first AALL conference. Due to some paperwork error, she wasn't registered, and she was offered no alternative or help. While she appreciated that staff was busy tending to the legitimate CONELL folks, she felt dispatched too officiously and with too little professional courtesy. In contrast, she found Innovative Users' Group and TS meetings very open and easy to attend.

3. Collect pool of success-in-TS-SIS stories

We will solicit stories from membership and from the larger committee when we can all get together for a teleconference in August. It would be nice to have some of these to share with new members.

Suzanne suggested that the group carefully read through the comments to the recent membership survey. Some negative comments include:

being hard to get involved - find out when committee, roundtable, working group memberships are set (and chairs are unable to take on new members). We would like to see open enrollment at least until August (after Annual Meeting) and rolling enrollment for first-year TS members as "interns" rather than full members (if they join after August).

4. Review of other TS committees and their major projects and responsibilities

Suzanne highlighted the RDA best practices groups (starting to form on the Cataloging-side) and the praised the exchange of serials program as a smart use of networking and, judging by its revenues for the year, a much-needed one.

Sara suggested that we see if our committees (programs) could promote themselves for in TSLL. Each committee does publish its annual report, but the publication is so long that it's easy to miss important content. Also, rather than a report, each group could post an advertisement-type blurb on TS community site "bragging" about a major activity.

The committee will discuss additional projects/programs at the August meeting. Be looking for the real good that TS does.

Carol suggested that membership on this committee should be for longer than one year, especially for the chair. We would do better promoting TS with greater continuity. Suzanne would also like to see the chair be invited to the Executive Board meetings to help communication (get greater participation from other TS groups in Membership initiatives and keep Membership informed of the activities of the full group).

5. Review regular, on-going duties of the Membership Committee

Track new memberships and assign committee members to send welcome materials by post and/or email. Each new TS-SIS member should receive a personalized welcome letter, a TS-SIS brochure, and a volunteer form-Due to her close work proximity with new TS chair Miriam Childs, Jennfier Creevy will coordinate. Others are encouraged to help Jennifer.
Contact technical services librarians who are members of AALL, but not of TS-SIS, and encourage them to join the section.
Review the TS-SIS brochure for any necessary revisions.
Coordinate with AALL Mentorship Project.
Represent TS-SIS at the CONELL Marketplace (AALL Annual Meeting 2013).
Coordinate activities at the TS-SIS table in the exhibit hall at the AALL annual meeting and recruits TS-SIS members to sit at the table (AALL Annual Meeting 2013). Includes collaboration with the First Year Member-at-Large to secure space at the TS-SIS table for the Silent Auction.