Oregon Library Association

Support Staff Division

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Oregon State University Valley Library

February 19, 2010

 

 

In attendance: Rea Andrew, Susan Bacina, Carrol Barton, Susan Gilmont (through video), Margaret Harmon-Myers, Kristynn Johnson, Jessica Rondema

 

November Minutes: Approved

 

Action Item Review:

 

-Susan G.: -Send Melissa note expressing regret that she is unable to participate

-Susan G. sent note of regret to Melissa and received a gracious response. We all hope Melissa will rejoin our group when it works for her

 

-Margaret: -Follow up about creating something tangible with our name and web addresses for people to take with them at conferences

            -Margaret presented very nice mock ups of a postcard and a business card.     

-She will work to get us an electronic version of the business card so we can fill in our names and OLA SSD offices and use them professionally

-Brainstorming about different postcard options – may be used as a fun fund raiser sold at conferences. We decided that the blog and website can direct people to anything we might join in the future, so we will leave only those two addresses on the card and postcard. We will want to take care to use copyright free images or get permission

-Idea proposed to have collectible postcards and at least three others available for sale at conferences, kind of a collectible

-Susan G. wanted something cartoony and funny (perhaps a variation on the jackalope postcards) she will make a mock up of a Bookalope, and we could try to come up with other library-related mythical beasties. She will send this to us when she gets one ready

-Rea mentioned having different themes for each year, such as having bookmobile related postcards, library buildings, librarian hairstyles, etc. We could keep one core image “of ourselves” or “this is where we started” and other images could be rotated

-There is a lot of excitement from the group about the postcards and business cards, which would be good advertising

-Postcard contest idea and motto contest idea put forth

 

-Cathy: -Send out a reminder about SSD scholarships on Libs-Or

             -Send thank you letters/emails to 2009 conference committee members

             -Send us information about LipSup (National Support Staff Division)

-Thank you letters/emails to 2009 conference committee members have been sent

 

-Sarah: -Have SSD Facebook profile up by January meeting           

            -Post September meeting minutes on our webpage (have Jess send them)

-Facebook profile action item has been postponed

-September and November meeting minutes are on our webpage

 

-Susan B.: -Email Libs-or to remind people that Adventures in Libraryland can be from any member of SSD, not just board members

-Susan B. sent message to Libs-OR list serve advertising the blog

 

 

Officer Reports

 

Chair – Susan G.:

-Attended OLA meeting via phone that had a terrible connection and will give us a report when she gets a copy of the minutes            

-Reported that the OLA board discussed raising fees again in order to pay an association manager to take over many of the tasks now given to the OLA President, as the position can be overwhelming without accommodations from the workplace

-If fees are raised, it will take even more publicity to make people realize what OLA SSD can do for them

-Susan G. plans to write an “Adventures in Libraryland” column about how OLA and SSD enhance each other

-The OLA awards banquet will be Kell’s Irish Restaurant and Pub in Portland on March 24th.  Cost is $30.

 

Past-Chair – Cathy:  

-She plans to email her report to us

 

Treasurer – Rea: 

-Not a lot of activity to report, not much money coming in or going out except the scholarship for Christine Miller

-Have not yet received updated report from Shirley Roberts, who is doing a lot of sorting.

-When she is finished, we should be getting a very comprehensive, updated, and very readable report keeping track of what we have

 

Archivist – Margaret:

-She was digitizing the archives one year at a time, but has now decided to take one event throughout the years

-She is scanning everything directly onto her hard drive so they can eventually be put onto cds.

-Plans to talk to Diane to see what should be digitized, what is important, what to do with items that cannot be digitized (table centerpieces – could take a photo?)

 

Committee Reports

 

Continuing Education/Scholarships – Diane:

-Diane is still willing handle scholarships, but needs someone to take on continuing education (if there was to be a book mending workshop, someone else would need to coordinate it and be the contact person)

-We will try to arrange book-mending workshop for a pre-conference, which tend to be more profitable than those at our conference

-Begin thinking about OLA proposals which comes very soon after our SSD conference

-Thinking about doing a book-mending workshop, possibly advanced this time

-Carrol volunteered to help

-It would be good for Margaret as SSD conference chair to be aware of the ideas that don’t fit in to the conference, and could be thought used for CE

-Susan G. will let CE committee members know that Carrol will be the interim CE person and if she likes it, would love to have a CE chair (*Action item*)

-Rea will be in touch with Kris Kern and Carolee Harrison. (Kris may step back because very involved in preservation round table instead)

 

Scholarship – Diane:

-No new applicants

 

Membership/Outreach – All:

-It is difficult to get people excited and involved

-Some mention the cost

-Others may not know we exist, or that they are support staff

-Some view their work as a job, not a career, so may not be as dedicated

-Explain the benefits of joining

-We want to encourage broadening horizons, networking

-Having business cards made may increase our visibility and professionalism

 

Conference – Margaret:

-Difficult to get people to do their part  

-Maureen Cole from Eugene Public Library as keynote, freedom of information, privacy

-Carolee can most likely do book-mending

-Margaret will do Day in the Life highlighting the range of support staff activities

-Featuring three people talking about an average day for them (Rea interested, Jess interested, and perhaps someone who is getting certified)

-Third session should be something related to economy and budget, making it relevant to support staff

-16 ways to economize your job (Susan G. will see if OSU extension    service has any speakers or ideas)

-Sustainability ideas: everyone can do their part (which could be divided into two parts: spending less money outwardly and making better use of what you already have: recycling, turning off copiers, monitors, etc.

-Possible author talk by SSD person who writes – Marisa is handling that, Kristynn knows someone at her library who is published

 

Webmaster – Sarah:

-Sent web report to us through email, with overall dashboard report and visitor report from Google Analytics

-There was a big spike (148 visits) when we advertised on Libs-or.

-During this time frame (Nov 14, 2009-Feb 5, 2010) we had 35 unique visitors. 

-Thinks we are doing a great job with laying a good foundation, but still questions

-How do we keep traffic coming after the initial spike from publicity?

-Do we need to be reminding people about it a couple times a month on libs-or for a while or even after every new post?          

            -How much would be overkill?

-She is also trying to recruit someone to be in charge of SSD and Facebook.

-Big concern is to keep the interest up in the blog, the products, keep postings, could send something out about the RSS feed

-Registration online – will Sarah help take care of this? Template already exists, but just need to tweak it for this year, include info about accommodations, and make sure there are no previously checked boxes

 

 

Old Business

-Discussed throughout the meeting

 

 

New Business

 

  1. More outreach. SOLF? Other groups?

-Trying to contact similar groups to network; was very beneficial to speak at EOLA (great to contribute to their conference, to try to build bridges connecting support staff from the entire state)

-Susan dropped a line to current chair of SOLF and she will contact Washington support staff WALE (*Action item*)

-How can we encourage conference committee members/other members to get more involved and stay involved? Should we be doing more to recognize their service?

-Discussed the importance and methods of recognition in professional organizations:

-Putting a ribbon on name tag to show involvement, or name tag with title on it “past chair,” light switch plates with logo on it, etc.

-Margaret will check with Rea to see how many SSD bags and freebies still remain

-Idea of keeping better records of past committee members was raised, as well as the importance of recognizing them and their accomplishments

  1. Goals/Vision – continuation and building on what Jey started (all)

-A forum to problem-solve, share ideas – this could be related to social networking or be a piece of the SSD website (Could we use the blog for this? Add on to Diane’s recent contribution? “Good ideas?”)

-Jess will meet with Sarah to do first post for “Light bulb moments” to begin a feed so anyone can respond (*Action item*)

-The next “Adventures in Libraryland” column

-Susan G. will write her column about how OLA and SSD enhance each other

                        -Diversity – can we do more? Are there ways we can be more inclusive?

What obstacles are we failing to see?

-Discussed web accessibility – we want to be sure that our website is accessible for people using reading devices, etc.

-Margaret would like us to consider what we should do with regard to the bylaws stating that we have a $5 fee, which we have waived in the past 

-Rea will research what other OLA divisions have in their bylaws about the fee (*Action item*).  Susan G. will see what our options are as far as a flexible wording in the bylaws (*Action item*).  We will have to wait to vote on it until we have a full group present, usually happens at the conference.

 

 

List of Action Items

 

Susan G: -Let CE committee members know that Carrol will be the interim CE person

   -Contact WALE

               -Check if OSU extension service has any speakers/ideas

               -Talk to Janet Webster (her boss) for good ideas about bylaws and fees

 

Margaret: -Email us about business cards and postcards

                -Take Susan B’s idea to next conference committee meeting and idea of motto

                -Write a blog entry about the conference

 

Rea: -Ask other divisions how they are handling their fees  

 

Jess: -Write first “light bulb” moment and talk to Sarah to post

 

Carrol: -Will get in contact with Diane

 

All: -Consider what we should do with regard to bylaws stating that we have a $5 fee

       -Think about attending the OLA banquet

 

 

Next meeting

 

Friday, April 16th 11am-2pm

Eugene Public Library

(Perhaps meet in Newport in June)