Membership Minutes

Membership Committee Minutes

• 2012 Minutes (Boston)

  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

  1. 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.
  2. Contact technical services librarians who are members of AALL, but
     not of TS-SIS, and encourage them to join the section.
  3. Review the TS-SIS brochure for any necessary revisions.
  4. Coordinate with AALL Mentorship Project.
  5. Represent TS-SIS at the CONELL Marketplace (AALL Annual Meeting
     2013).
  6. 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.

  Adjourned: 12:50PM
  Minutes submitted by: Suzanne Graham