ONLINE AUDIOVISUAL CATALOGERS
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
ALA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Washington, D.C.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m. Board members present: Bobby Bothmann, Jain Fletcher, Kelley McGrath, Steven Miller (President), Kathy Rankin, Vicki Toy Smith. OLAC appointees present: Jay Weitz, Debbie Benrubi. Visitors present: Kate James, Amy Weiss.
- Welcome, Introductions, Announcements
President Steve Miller welcomed Kate James, who was elected to be the next OLAC Treasurer, and Amy Weiss, who will be taking over the position of Editor-in-Chief of the OLAC Newsletter in January 2008.
- Secretary’s Report (K. Rankin)
Kathy stated that the minutes of the OLAC Executive Board meeting held at Midwinter in Seattle were published in the March 2007 issue of the OLAC Newsletter <http://www.olacinc/newsletters/mar07/board.html>. She passed around rosters for people to make corrections to their contact information.
- Treasurer’s Report (B. Bothmann)
OLAC has 573 members, of which 178 are institutional members and 395 are personal members. Renewals have slowed down somewhat. The income from renewals for the current (fourth) quarter is $466. The latest newsletter expenses have been paid. The closing balance is $13,237.66.
Please see the full Treasurer’s Report elsewhere in this issue.
- Newsletter Editor’s Report (J. Fletcher)
Both the March and June Newsletters are posted online. Amy Weiss has agreed to take over the Newsletter Editor position. Jain has already prepared folders of information to give her and will probably go to Santa Barbara at least twice to help in training and transition planning.
Jain wondered if the "ALA Meetings of Interest to OLAC" is still needed now that the ALA Events Planner is reliably functional. The Board discussed the idea of discontinuing it, but remained convinced that people do still skim it. So, everyone agreed that the Editor should continue compiling it. Jain also announced that there had been a slight change this time with the "Meetings of Interest": Sue posted it on the Website as a Word document, rather than an HTML document. The Word document prints more compactly and, better yet, if edits are needed, they can be done by the editor for re-posting, rather than having to report them to Sue for her to make, then mark up for re-posting. Someone also mentioned that it could probably also be posted on the wiki after that is implemented.
The Newsletter now costs at least twice as much to mail because of the recent increase in postage costs. Surprisingly, the kind of bulk mailing that OLAC does was one of the highest increases of the "business mailing" costs. So now there is less incentive to use the bulk mailing option. One alternative is to use the media rate option, if the Newsletter meets the qualifications for that rate. Even better, if a survey were taken and OLAC found that the majority of people would be willing to take the online version only, the rest could even be sent 1st class without much change in overall costs. Avoiding bulk mailing would be easier on the Editor. If, however, OLAC must continue to send the Newsletter via bulk rate, Amy will have to take the three-hour class on bulk mailing.
Steve thanked Jain for her service as Editor-in-Chief of the Newsletter. Jain will continue for two more issues, then turn the job over to Amy Weiss in January 2008.
- CAPC Report (K. McGrath)
There was a good turnout for the genre/form discussion. It went well, and Janis Young, the representative from LC, did seem interested in CAPC's input. They are considering eliminating the distinction between film and video. Music has more genres to deal with than moving images do. LC was not planning to subdivide genre headings geographically.
The Streaming Media Best Practices document is really coming along. The Task Force hopes to have it out for review later this Summer and up on the Website in the Fall.
The Playaways Task Force has a new Chair, Heidi Frank, and they are meeting while here at the Conference.
See the full CAPC meeting minutes elsewhere in this issue.
- Update on OLAC-MOUG 2008 Biennial Conference (K. Furniss and V. Toy Smith)
The contract has been signed with the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. The Preconference will take place on September 25, 2008, and the Conference itself will be held from September 26th to 28th. Lynn Howarth and Janet Swan Hill will be the opening and closing speakers. Librarians from NOTSL (Northern Ohio Technical Services Librarians) are planning the Conference. They are: Sevim McCutcheon and Kevin Furniss, Co-Chairs; Christopher Thornton, Barbara Strauss, Georgianne Doyle, Suzette Burlingame, Alice Essinger, Jill Williams, Kathy Schnell, and Sarajean Petite, and Peter Lisius. Kathy Schnell is their Webmaster. The MOUG representatives on the planning committee are: Mary Huismann and Bruce Evans. The OLAC members on the Committee are Julia Dunlap and Rebecca Lubas. Lori Thorrat is also on the Committee and served on the committee that selected the hotel for the Conference site. Cathy Gerhart has been helping the Committee.
See a fuller Conference planning report elsewhere in this issue.
- Outreach Coordinator’s Report (D. Benrubi)
Debbie has fielded a lot of requests for information about OLAC. She will start putting summaries of her outreach activities in the OLAC Newsletter. She had 300 OLAC brochures printed up and has been sending them out to some cataloging professors but needs to get an overall list of professors. Debbie had her student make a Spanish translation of the brochure, but it should probably be checked by someone who does a lot of translations. Jennifer Anderson, who is the OLAC Liaison to the New Members Round Table, has been working with Debbie.
- Online Newsletter (B. Bothmann)
Bobby sent a message to Highwire to see if it would include the OLAC Newsletter in its online offerings, but the response was negative because the Newsletter is not a scholarly journal. Another option is that OLAC could do IP recognition from the IP ranges sent by Ebsco. The problem with this idea is that each person would have to figure out his or her IP address. Alternatively, OLAC could use passwords and move the domain. Having it on the Web server would cost $80. for two years. Another idea is that the print Newsletter could be done as a PDF. The membership database could be sent out as an attachment and have a password. This is what NASIG does; it sends its members a new password every year. OLAC could survey its membership to see how many people want the Newsletter in print and how many would be satisfied with an online version only. For those who still want print, it is possible that it would need to be sent out in a different form than the current booklet-style; instead it could perhaps be sent out in 8 1/2 x 11 sheets with a staple in the corner. The bottom line is that if everyone still wants print, OLAC would have to raise dues. Bobby noted that most people are paying for memberships year by year; fewer people are paying for three years at a time.
Jain suggested an idea for an incentive for people to renew early in the year: OLAC could have a drawing at the end of February each year, with the pool being those who had renewed by that time. The prize would be to give one free membership for the next year. The Board also started talking about ways to target paraprofessionals, although there probably would not be any special dues rate for them. There could be outreach to them through electronic discussion groups, journals, and state groups.
Perhaps the Website Revision Group should also look at the Newsletter and at the wiki. One of the CAPC groups is using the PB wiki. Maybe documentation could be put up as a wiki.
- Stipends Review (B. Bothmann)
The Board reviewed the current list of stipend recipients in the OLAC Handbook and decided to eliminate those whose incumbents are not required to attend Board meetings regularly or those jobs which are no longer applicable. This includes the NACO AV Funnel Coordinator, who does not usually come to the meetings and is not required to do so. The OLAC Newsletter index producer should be stricken from the list since, with the search capability of the Web version, there is no longer a need for an index. The person who does the OLAC membership directory should also be stricken from the list since it is no longer separate from the person doing the membership subscriptions--the Treasurer has been doing both jobs now for years. The Newsletter Editor and the Production Editor are listed as two separate positions, even though both jobs have been performed by the same person for most of the time the Newsletter has been produced. Still, it was decided that this breakdown in roles could continue to be left separate in order to keep options open, but this decision should be reviewed periodically. The question also arose about whether or not the Outreach Coordinator should be a member of the Board. Up to this point, the Coordinator has not been included in closed sessions. This possibility will be discussed during the closed session today.
- Website Revision Working Group (S. Miller)
This group is looking for a new Webmaster and will work with Sue on the transition. The members of the group are: Sue, Bobby, Debbie, Teressa Keenan, and Karen Plummer.
- Interpreter Services (S. Miller)
Since OLAC has a member of CAPC who is deaf, it is obligated to provide interpreters for the CAPC and Membership meetings both at ALA and at the Biennial Conference. The typical current ALA rate is $65 per hour per interpreter, there is a two-hour minimum, and a two-hour meeting is supposed to have two interpreters. The rate goes up to $75 an hour after 6 p.m., and both OLAC meetings start after 6 p.m. OLAC may have to raise dues to cover this expense. Even though OLAC is reluctant to raise dues, doing so would allow OLAC to start giving grants again. The goal would be to be able to give one grant every year, which could help with outreach.
- ALA affiliate Status (S. Miller)
The rate for becoming an ALA affiliate is $110 a year. The benefits of affiliate status include: having meetings during regular meeting times, receiving eleven issues of American Libraries, free conference registration for the official representatives, block room privileges, ALA's rate for interpreters, and a booth in the ALA groups area of the exhibit hall at Conference. OLAC will pursue the possibility of becoming affiliated.
- Closed Session to Discuss Appointments
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Katherine L. Rankin
OLAC Secretary
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Last updated: November 12, 2007
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