Connecticut Library Association

Executive Board Meeting

February 1, 2007

New Canaan Library – New Canaan

 

I.                    The meeting was called to order at 10:05 a.m.

 

II.                 Board introductions were made. Peter Ciparelli was welcomed back after his recuperation from an accident.

 

III.               Public Comments/Notes for CLA Office: None.

 

IV.              Additions to the agenda

a)      Proposal for new Membership Dues was presented in a handout, with changes to existing salary categories and additional categories as required by the by-laws. The Board commented that there should be an increase for Institutional dues at the same time. It was suggested that the Salary Rep and Business categories be combined into one. The membership committee will review comments and publish the proposal in Connecticut Libraries before it is voted upon at the Annual Meeting in April. 

b)      It was recommended that a Conflict of interest statement be adopted.  Barbara Bailey read a proposed statement and will e-mail the text or get it on the website. No vote needed.

 

V.                 Approval of Minutes:  The minutes of January 4, 2007 were passed with the following correction under YA, the speaker’s name is Chris Crutcher.

 

VI.              President’s Report: A thank you note was received from Ruth Gaffey for the additional donation made to the Nutmeg Book Award program. Barbara Bailey received a letter from Ann Hogan of Yale New Haven Health requesting that library’s display information about the Race for the Cure fund raiser on June 2, 2007. Libraries who would like to obtain the materials can contact Barbara for details. Kirsten Kilbourn, CLA webmaster will be on vacation from February 8 – 17. If you have anything to post, please take this into consideration, alternately CLC may be able to help out if necessary. A letter was received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation describing the new round of grants for 2007.

 

VII.            Treasurer’s report: Jan Fisher distributed the report through the end of December, 2006. There was a negative number under Contributions due to ALA returning the check that was sent for the Emerging Leaders program.  They asked that the money go directly to the participant in the program. Brendan Gallagher who attended the program in Seattle will be reimbursed for his expenses up to the $500. that was pledged by the Board.

 

VIII.         Past President: No report.

 

IX.              Vice President: No report.

 

X.                 Committee/Sections/Roundtable Reports:

 

XI.              ACLB: They are preparing for their conference program, a panel discussion on coping with retiring professional staff.

 

ADA: Mary Engels reported that the committee is developing tip sheets to make searching for special formats easier. They are adding more resources to their part of the CLA web page.  Trying to get the word out about ADA resources by working with other groups. Conference program will be on adaptive technologies.

 

ALA: Alice Knapp reported that ALA President Leslie Burger has put out a national agenda for libraries which can be viewed on the ALA website. Jay Johnston has started planning for ALA Legislative Day in Washington D.C. The Mid-winter Conference had a good attendance of over 12,000 people.

 

CLC: Chris Bradley reminded everyone about the program on February 2 on retiring librarians

 

Awards: Ramona Harten reminded everyone that the form for award nominations is on the CLA website and the deadline is approaching. She hopes for many submissions.

 

Conference: Cynde Lahey distributed a copy of the Conference registration form which will be available on the CLA website. Those who are responsible for a program should provide details for the program brochure and the name of the recorder for the program to the co-chairs. They are also looking for sponsors for conference events. Please notify them if you know a vendor who they can contact to sponsor an event.

 

CSL: Ken Wiggin distributed a Fact Sheet with numbers taken from the CT Public Library Statistical Profile, 2006 which is now available on line at CT.WebJunction.org.  He talked about the legislative agenda of the CSL including the resubmission of revisions to the library statutes.

 

Friends: Mary Engels reported that the 2007 FOCL directory will be mailed soon and is on the website. Awards nominations are being sought. The Winter newsletter will be in the mail soon and the annual meeting will be June 9, 2007 at the Southbury Library featuring author Roya Hakakian. They will be mailing the information on their pre-conference program to Friends and libraries.

 

Intellectual Freedom. Peter Chase reported on a complaint in Westport regarding the book The Lovely Bones. After discussion, the problem was resolved. There will be a pre-conference program at NELA on legal rights and issues. The CT Four (John Does) have been and will continue to make appearances wherever they are asked to as they feel it is important to get the word out and they are the only ones who are allowed to speak about their experiences after receiving a National Security Letter (NSL). He also talked about the USA PATRIOT ACT and the changes of March 2006 which seemed to add back some basic civil liberties but actually did not. There is still much legislative work that needs to be done.

 

Legislative: Peter Ciparelli reported on the Legislative Links training and meeting on January 11, 2007. It was a small group but there were a number of key people there including some Senators and our lobbyist Barry William. The Legislative portion of the CLA website is now up to date.

 

Membership: The committee met with Kerry Brash, a graphic designer to begin creating a brochure. Board members had been asked a number of questions about CLA via an email questionnaire to help get things started.

 

NELA: Mary Etter reported that the NELA Conference will be in Sturbridge, Massachusetts this Fall.

 

Public Libraries: The Excellence in Public Library Service Awards will be announced soon. The Section is co-sponsoring a pre-conference on Web 2.0. They are working on some by-laws revisions.

 

Publicity: There have been lots of entries coming in for the PR awards, after having taken a year off last year.

 

Region 4: Easton Public Library has become a member of Bibliomation. The Byram Shubert Library in Greenwich is open at its temporary location during renovation. Ferguson Library is the new home of a New Deal mural painted by James Daugherty.  Westport PL is hosting its 8th annual Crossword Puzzle Contest. Cyrenius Booth in Newtown is having a Scrabble tournament and Wilton Library is beginning a 10 week Stock Market Game for teens.

 

Peter Ciparelli moved to adjourn the meeting at 11:30 a.m., Alice Knapp seconded.

 

Attendees: R. Harten, M. Etter, M. Engels, J. Toce, L Hawkes, K. Wiggin, P. Ciparelli, T. Wilmot, P. Chase, C. Cayne, S. Lee, J. Ash, C. Lahey, C. Bradley, J. Wojcik, L. McLaughlin, K Leeds, A. Knapp, J. Fisher, B. Bailey  

 

 

                                                                        Respectfully Submitted,

 

                                                                        Jan Fisher

                                                                        CLA Secretary-Treasurer