2013 Business Meeting Minutes

Monday, July 15, 2013

Welcome by Jason Sowards

  • Welcomed first-time attendees and non-RIPS members who are at breakfast and encouraged them to join RIPS
  • Mentioned that there will be a call for volunteers to RIPS committees during the summer
  • Thanked Melissa Serfass for getting the pens and styluses for giveaways and arranging coverage for the RIPS table in the Exhibit Hall and for CONELL

I. RIPS Board Projects

  • Completed an inventory of the RIPS Strategic Plan to determine what had been accomplished and what still needed to be done
    • Uwe and the new Board are tasked with developing the new strategic plan
  • Donation of $100 to SR-SIS Book Drive
  • Donation of $100 to the Woodland Park Zoo to adopt a penguin as is our tradition

II. Treasurer’s Report (Karin Johnsrud)

  • Balance as of 5/31/2013 – 25,793.88
    • Revenue – 10,380.00
    • Expenses – 9,484.57
    • None of the Annual Conference expenses and most of the grant reimbursement are not factored into this balance
  • More detailed Report is available on the RIPS Blog

III. Programming (Uwe Beltz)

  • New process for programming this year – SISs did not get to review and rank program proposals as in past years
  • Only able to sponsor one program
  • Chosen by a Program Sub-Committee (since Uwe had proposed a program) – iCame, iSaw, iConquered: Our Year with the iPad – Tuesday, July 16 at 2:30
  • Three Roundtables
    • Distance Education – held Sunday, July 14th
    • Patron Services – held Sunday, July 14th
    • Research Instruction – will be held Monday, July 15th at 11:45
  • Any RIPS members with programs they want to mention
    • Jenny Wondracek – Emerging Technologies and Teaching for the 21st Century Librarian [Tuesday, July 16th at 2:30]
    • Jason Sowards – Success in the Classroom: Measuring Student and Teacher Performance [Tuesday, July 16th at 2:30]
  • Question about timing conflicts in scheduling roundtables
    • RIPS Research Instruction Roundtable was held at same time as ALL-SIS Legal Research Skill Roundtable
    • Jason responded that  there are very few timeslots to choose from and not all information is known when timing decisions have to be made
      • Suggested that this be brought up at the AALL AMPC Open Forum

IV. Distance Education (Jenny Wondracek)

  • Founding year of the committee
  • Roundtable was very successful with good turnout and lively discussion
  • Projects
    • Survey of current distance education opportunities at law schools
    • Bibliography of distance education resources and articles
    • Repository of distance education materials
  • New Chair is Shawn Friend
  • Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Shawn

V. Grants (Lynn Murray)

  • Grants this year were raised to $850 and could be used to cover any AALL expenses, not just registration
  • Application were again low for law firm librarian grant
  • Winners of the six grants
    • Academic—public services – Donna S. Williams
    • Academic—technical services – Edward T. Hart
    • State/court/county – Jenny. R. F. Fujinaka
    • Law firm – Abby Walters
    • New Librarian – Ashley Ames Ahlbrand
    • Student – Avery Le
    • Thanks given to the members of the grants committee

VI. Legal Research Teach-In (Laura Ax-Fultz)

  • 21st National Teach-In Kit released –
    • Include 13 submissions
    • Organized into new categories – Presentations and course materials, Handouts and guides and Games
  • Encouraged members to be ready for the next call for submissions in the spring
  • Considering changing the call for submissions to be more of a rolling deadline because no longer producing the kit in print
  • Thanks given to committee and special thanks to Maribel as Webmaster

VII. Nominations (Maureen Cahill)

  • Thanks to the committee for their work in gathering nominations
  • Full slate of qualified candidates
  • Wants to work on having a higher percentage of members vote

VIII. Patron Services (Jessica Randall)

  • Roundtable was successful and had good discussion
    • Topics included security, non-traditional circulation services and how to keep statistics
  • Encouraged members to volunteer for the committee and to suggest project ideas

IX. Patron Services and Recruitment (Melissa Serfass)

  • CONELL Marketplace – 50 people stopped by the RIPS table – great turnout
  • Giveaways this year highly successful, especially the penguin pen
  • Thanks for Jessie and Kelly for their work on committee

X. Research Instruction (Marc Silverman)

  • Legal research textbooks book reviews were done again this year (done every other year to allow for plenty of books to be available for review)
    • Added specialized and topical research texts, not just general texts
    • 12 new texts to review
    • 8 completed and posted
    • 4 more will be posted soon
  • Roundtable is scheduled for the afternoon – hoping for a good turnout

XI. RIPS-Blog (Jennifer Prilliman)

  • Blog readership has been steady over the past year
  • Recognized and thanked the bloggers for the past year
  • New Blog editor – Michele Thomas
  • New bloggers – Jamie Baker and Susan David deMaine
  • Returning bloggers – Thomas Sneed, Shawn Friend and Catherine Deane
  • Projects for coming year include a review blog policies and the succession guidelines

XII. Web Page (Maribel Nash)

  • Completed the migration to the new CMS
  • Requested suggestions for new organization of material on website
  • Thanked Liz Johnson for her help with the webpage

XIII. Open Floor

  • Jason Sowards is the incoming chair of AALL Council of SISs
    • Serves as liaison between SISs and the AALL Executive Board
    • Mentions that if RIPS has any concerns we want brought up to Board, we can contact Jason
  • Raffling of stuffed penguin
    • For donation to Woodland Park Zoo, we received a stuffed penguin
    • Winner – Robert Ey of Pepper Hamilton

XIV. Passing of Puron

  • Jason passed Puron to Uwe
  • Uwe thanked Jason for his work over the past year
  • Uwe welcomed the new Board members
    • Jenny Wondracek, Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
    • Austin Williams, Secretary/Treasurer
    • Sarah Glassmaker, Member-at-Large
    • Uwe is looking forward to a busy and productive year