Art Libraries Society of North America, Southeast Chapter Business Meeting

ARLIS Southeast and ARLIS Texas-Mexico Joint Conference

New Orleans, LA, 13-16 November 2003

 

The meeting of the Southeast Chapter was called to order at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday, 15 November 2003.

 

I.  WELCOME 

Chapter President Moira Steven welcomed ARLIS/SE chapter members and guests and asked that we each introduce ourselves.

 

II.  CHAPTER BUSINESS

Laura Schwartz, ARLIS/NA South Regional Representative, presented the report from the ARLIS/NA Board:

Laura said that, as the website concerning the ARLIS/NA conference in New York City 15-20 April 2004, is available to all, she would concentrate on reviewing the board’s mid-year meeting in Philadelphia, which took place 26-27 August.  The next mid-year board meeting will be in Calgary, Alberta, 26-27 July 2004.

 

Restructuring and the creation of guidelines for Round Tables—There was a discussion of the structure of ARLIS/NA.  It was agreed that the current Division, Section, Round Table structure will remain in place for the time being and that the moratorium on the establishment of new Round Tables decided at the pre-conference board meeting in Baltimore be lifted.  If  Discussion Groups want to be assured of scheduling during a conference, they should become Round Tables.  In order to submit a request to become a Round Table, the group is required to submit a statement of purpose.  The Bylaws will remain intact.  As a result of response from the membership and the success of the forum, the Diversity Committee has been reestablished.

 

Public Library Forum planned for NYC conference—There is interest in creating a Public Library Round Table, which could meet at the same time as the Division meetings.  A forum has been scheduled at the upcoming conference to explore the future of public- library librarians in the structure of ARLIS/NA.

 

Investigation of  ARLIS/NA’s legal relationship with the chapters.  Currently, there are some liability issues, and a lawsuit against a chapter would expose the entire organization. 

 

“Article VIII of the ARLIS/NA Bylaws states that the chapters are affiliates of the Society. The Chapter Bylaws are identical to the Society’s but the legal relationship is still not clear.
 ……………..
A task force of the Board will clarify the relationship of the Society to the chapters, providing guidelines for the chapters and examining a variety of models/options and obtain legal advice as necessary to define this relationship and determine liability. ”

 

Discussions regarding simplifying the dues structure—The present dues structure based on income might be a privacy issue.  There has been a proposal to have seven membership levels.   The proposal will be presented to the Membership Committee at the conference.  This committee would have to bring these proposed changes to the members.

 

Task force for review of ARLIS/NA website—A task force is reviewing the website for design, content, and effectiveness.

 

Strategic plan review—A forum is being scheduled in New York to discuss the strategic plan.

 

New Orleans Conference report—Sarah McCleskey, Vice President/President Elect and Conference Co-Chair, felt that we did not charge enough for the conference registration fee and that for future conferences, we will need to raise the fee or cut out some of the events included.  She added that rules for granting funds for regional conferences from national will be more strictly enforced, and that we will have to pay close attention to tailoring our expenditures to the guidelines.  Though that should not be a problem with our costs for this conference, it may result in our only being granted $250 in the future.

 

Secretary/Treasurer’s report—Sandra Still asked if there were any corrections or additions to the minutes from the annual conference in Baltimore.  It was noted that the names of Kim Collins, Sarah McCleskey, and Sandra Still had been omitted from the list of Members and Guests Present.  With this correction, the minutes were approved.

 

Deposits for the period from 9 June 2003 (when the chapter account was transferred to Atlanta) through 15 October 2003 were $3,246.44.  Dispersals totaled $536.45, leaving a balance of $2,709.99.  As all monies for the joint conference were handled by the Texas-Mexico chapter treasurer, Beverly Carver, and the accounts have not yet been settled, it is difficult at this time to have a clear picture of where we stand.

 

Webmaster’s report—Moira Steven reported in the absence of Natalia Lonchyna, who sent a written message. Since she began in mid-May, 2003, Natalia updated the Members Directory, added links and pages relating to the New Orleans conference, updated the Chapter Officer’s page and the Announcements section, highlighting the LoPresti Award.

She plans to update the site with the new information from the conference.

 

Artifacts report and deadline—No report, but news can be sent to ARTifacts Newsletter Editor, Cary Wilkins, Librarian/Archivist, Morris Museum of Art, 1 Tenth Street, Augusta, GA 30901, wcary@themorris.org.

 

Election of Vice President/President Elect—Rebecca Kranz, Reference Librarian-Arts, Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, graciously agreed to serve.  Our chapter conference will be in Winston-Salem next year.

 

III.  NEW BUSINESS

Chapter donation to ARLIS/NA Welcome Party—The chapter feels that it is important to contribute to the Welcome Party and would like to make a $250 donation, but it is contingent on the outcome of the expenses for the New Orleans conference.

 

Discussion on LoPresti Committee—Allen Novak presented some suggestions regarding the handling of the LoPresti Award in light of the fact that it has become increasingly recognized by publishers and librarians.  To put the administration of the award on a more professional footing, Allen suggests that we have an Award Coordinator (What he currently does), who is responsible for requesting and receiving entries from publishers, including all necessary correspondence;  maintains publisher address list; and makes up award certificates; a Public Relations Coordinator, who coordinates promotion of the award, and is responsible for sending out press releases to home town newspapers of winning publishers.  Allen suggests that these two positions should be voluntary with an indefinite period of service.  The Award Selection Committee of at least three members, selected yearly, is responsible for writing reviews for each of the winners and for announcing the winners at the fall business meeting.

 

Discussion followed about ways to publicize the award.  Allen suggested buying ads on Amazon.com and inviting the winners to an award ceremony.  There were also suggestions about publicizing the LoPresti Award in other publications in addition to Art Documentation, such as those emphasizing the South, such as Southern Quarterly.  Ann Lindell said that she and Tom Caswell would write an article on the LoPresti Award and its history and mention that the 20th anniversary was coming up.

 

Website Design Issues—Though, for the most part, we seemed very pleased with our website, some of us felt that a few things were difficult to find.  We felt that the information about how to become a member should be prominently displayed on the home page.  A lesser problem was a bit of difficulty in finding minutes of previous meetings (though perhaps just changing the heading to “Annual Meetings and Minutes” would fix that).  Also, some sort of heading for news releases would be helpful.

 

Proposed increase in chapter dues—We discussed a proposal to raise the chapter dues to $15 in 2005.  We decided to wait until the New York conference in order to review expenses from the New Orleans conference, bank fees, and projected expenses.  We want to have a clear reason for the increase and will need to see how any change in the ARLIS/NA dues structure might impact chapter dues.

 

IV.  OTHER BUSINESS

The national conference will be in Atlanta in 2007.  Banff will be in 2006, probably in late April or early May.  There is a conference planning manual online.

 

Officers and conference chairs should remember to send the appropriate papers to be archived at Duke.  These should include items to do with decisions, contracts, money, and agendas.

 

Laura Schwartz thanked our chapter for taking the initiative in pressing for an official meeting time for chapters at the national conference. 

 

Rebecca Kranz expressed concern about needing to recruit members from unrepresented institutions in the Southeast.  We discussed having a point person in each state. The following people volunteered:  Alabama—Moira Steven, North Carolina—Rebecca Kranz, Florida—Ann Lindell, Georgia—Kim Collins, and Tennessee—Jennifer Beals. Sandra said she would contact recent members who had not yet renewed.

 

Moira Steven suggested that we offer a one-year complimentary membership to those who had helped us with the conference events in New Orleans.

 

19th  annual Mary Ellen LoPresti Awards and drawing—The following winning titles were announced:

Camera Man’s Journey: Julian Dimock’s South.  Thomas L. Johnson and Nina J. Root, eds.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2002.

Drawing in Renaissance and Baroque Siena: 16th- and 17th-Century Drawings from Sienese Collections.  Marco Ciampolini.  Athens, GA: Georgia Museum of Art, 2002.

Florida, the Making of a State: a Cartographic Adventure.  James A. Findlay, ed.  Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, Broward County Main Library, 2002.

Gee’s Bend: the Women and Their Quilts.  John Beardsley, et al.  Atlanta, GA: Tinwood Books, 2002.

Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, issue 24.  Palm Beach, FL: Wolfsonian-Florida International University, 2002.

A Portion of the People:  Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life.  Theodore Rosengarten and Dale Rosengarten.  Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2002.

 

 

The drawing for the non-winning titles was held and the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Sandra J. Still, ARLIS/SE Secretary/Treasurer

 

Members and guests present:

Jennifer Beals, Tom Caswell, Kim Collins, Roberto Ferrari, Rebecca Kranz, Sarah Legins, Ann Lindell, Kathleen List, Sarah McCleskey, Allen Novak, Gail Novak, Stephen Patrick, Phyllis Pivorun, Laura Schwartz, Moira Steven, Sandra Still, Allen Townsend