In attendance were Russ Monika, Cindy Fedders, Kathy Ray, Betsy Mueth, Barbara Halbrook, Carol Iglauer, Donna Locke, Ashley Ray, Monica Shieh, Cheryle Cann, Kathy Mullen, Linda Hulbert, Maria Minowitz
Meeting was called to order at approximately 2:15 by President Monika.
Those in attendance introduced themselves and identified their position on the board.
First order of business was the call from President Monika for reports from Committee Chairpeople.
Advocacy, Archives, Cooperative Collection Development, Electronic Access, Governance, Recognition & Awards Committees had no new developments to report.
Continuing Education Committee gave an extended report that sparked much discussion among the board. Carol Iglauer said that last year, enrollment for continuing education courses was difficult -- each time they were not sure if enough people would sign up to hold the class. The bottom line is that the C.E. offerings lost money. Carol said the committee had questions about what people in SLML wanted as far as courses, and expressed that there appeared to be some discrepancies between what surveys have shown the membership wants, and what they actually participate in. Barbara Halbrook confirmed the loss of money on the C.E. workshops and posed a question to the board that the trend of the past few years has been to subsidize C.E. courses for the membership, with the knowledge that there would be funds used for the purpose. She asked that the board consider at what point the underwriting should stop, though there was no formal action on this. Discussion returned to this topic at several times during the course of the board meeting.
MCMLA 97 Committee reported that as of Aug. 28, 82 people were registered for the meeting, and there were 13 exhibitors. The committee is looking for volunteers for the hosted dinners. There is a need for someone to organize these people and put together a list of restaurants. There is also need for volunteers for the hospitality desk during the meeting. There is no change for exhibits on Monday.
Membership Committee welcomed four new members to SLML. Membership registration form is available on the Web page, and several had used it to submit their memberships. The board agreed the form was quite legible and had useful information. There was some discussion about the time period for annual memberships, which, it was explained, runs from July 1 through June 30 each year. Renewals will be sent out.
Newsletter Committee brought to the attention of the board that there is no editor. One will be sought. In the meantime President Monika will put out an edition of the newsletter. Deadline for submissions of stories, primarliy about the MCMLA meeting, is Oct. 15.
Program Committee reported that they have put together a tentative schedule of meetings for the year: September meeting will be MCMLA, October luncheon meeting at St. Mary’s consumer health library, December evening holiday gala at Cupples House at St. Louis University, February telemedicine meeting at the Telecommunity Center, April Awards & Recognition, and June the Annual Business Meeting.
Union List Committee reported $600 profit from sales of the list for this year and the prior year combined. Kathy Ray asked the board if there was a need to continue offering the Union List in print form since sales were so light. There was general agreement that there is value for the paper format, and it will continue to be offered. Both paper and microfiche formats will be available for purchase without a price change.
Web Committee reported that SLML web page has been designed and is up and running. Board members were encouraged to look at the page, if they have not done so already, and offer any suggestions. Besides the membership form that was discussed during Membership Committee report, information on MCMLA 97, member directory, and procedure manual are also available on the page. President Monika would also like to know about the existence of any members’ individual web pages.
Old Business was called for, and there was none.
New business began with the Strategic Plan for 1997-98. First discussion focused on a Vision Statement for SLML. A draft from a previous meeting was produced and read, but the consensus of the board was that it was quite similar to the Mission Statement. A motion was made by Barbara Halbrook that SLML not have a vision statement. The motion was seconded and carried.
Attention then turned to the specific goals and objectives from the 1996-97 Strategic Plan that President Monika had supplied for the board.
The first goal for SLML for 1997/98 is "To facilitate the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and resources, which support easy access, and prompt delivery of health care information".
Objectives agreed upon to achieve this goal were as follows:
- Objective I.1 In March 1998 a Union List will be offered.
- Objective I.2 Content for the SLML web page will be evaluated and changes/additions made.
- Objective I.3 Cooperative Collection Development Committee will continue to identify analytical tools to help librarians evaluate purchases.
- Objective I.4 It was determined that a strategic planning committee should be formed in the year 2000-2001.
The second goal is to "promote the professional development of SLML members".
Objectives agreed upon were as follows:
- Objective II.1 The Advocacy Committee will identify and disseminate information about relevant education opportunities offered by various groups and institutions throughout the area.
- Objective II.2 By the end of October 1997 the CE Committee, with the aid of Strategic Planning, will identify and plan for CE offerings for the 1997/98 program year.
- Objective II.3 The Program Committee will finalize program activities for the 1997/98 program year, as was detailed in the committee’s report.
- Objective II.4 MCMLA will be held in September 1997
Generic strategies for SLML were then discussed. It was decided that formal objectives would be developed for the generic areas. Committee members will set the objectives and forward to President Monika, who will finalize them into the Strategic Plan. (President Monika strongly encouraged all board members to submit all written reports electronically.)
Detailed discussions on the following generic strategies were as follows:
- For Finance, Treasurer Halbrook presented the board with her written report and the SLML budget for 1996-1997.
- Human Resources is to be broken into two committees, Membership and Nominating. There had been no Membership Committee last year. Cindy Fedders will work to develop goals for these committees. Some duties for Membership presumably will include membership renewals and dues collection, directory updates and nametags.
- Communication strategies will include fostering listserv use as discussed in the committee reports. The newsletter will also be published four times per year. The SLML web page will be used to disseminate information.
- Linda Hulbert motioned to accept the Strategic Plan for 1997/98 as discussed. The motion was seconded and carried. President Monika will gather objectives from the various committees for generic strategies and finalize the plan. He will submit it electronically to the board.
- Final New Business focused on a general discussion on how to get the membership to come to meetings, which once again turned to include the CE situation. It was generally agreed that the membership is very busy and overworked. There is also scrutiny by organizations of participation in events and money spent on courses, etc.
- There was a suggestion for half-day CE courses, rather than full days, as this may make it easier for members to attend.
- It was also pointed out that there are between 60-80 active members. Last year an average of 15-20 attended programs, which is not bad percentage-wise, it was pointed out.
- There was also a suggestion of looking into NLM Regional Library Network and other organizations, plus any local or SLML expertise, for free or lower-cost programs and educational offerings.
President Monika set the next board meeting for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23.
It was motioned that the meeting be adjourned. Motion was seconded and carried.