SLA 2003 Winter Meeting
New Orleans, LA
Recap of the SLA Winter Meeting in New Orleans
Dear Members of SLA:
I want to take a few minutes and give you all a summary of our recent Board of Directors meetings in New Orleans. The Board met on Wednesday, January 22nd, and again on Saturday, January 25th. The Board was asked to adopt a governance model and philosophy statement (Document A03-26), however, further definition of the model mentioned was requested to make the statement more understandable. We will revisit this issue in June. We accepted the program mission’s statements proposed for 2004 (Document A03-24). These statements identify the major areas of involvement for the Association and provide the basis upon which the 2004 budget will be developed. We heard a report from the Branding Task Force and took a couple of actions in this area. We passed a proposed bylaws amendment to officially change the name of the organization. This information will be mailed out to all members at least 30 days prior to the Annual Business Meeting to be held this June in conjunction with the annual conference. Other information about this very important issue will be forthcoming to all members throughout the spring. The motion passed is contingent upon review of our Bylaws Committee and they are conducting their review now. We passed a motion so Lynn Smith, our Acting Executive Director, can begin getting proposals for professional assistance in developing a marketing communications plan if a new name is adopted. Finally, we asked that our Public Relations committee’s charge be reviewed to expand their focus to include the strategic marketing and branding of the Association and the profession on an ongoing basis.
We began looking at a proposal to bring our “association” year (mid-June to mid-June) and fiscal year (Jan. to Dec.) more in-line (Document B03-11). This was an information item in New Orleans, and a decision will be made after review and input from the units. Our Treasurer, Richard Geiger, reported that after two deficit years, we should be in a break-even status as we close the books for fiscal 2002. This is largely due to cost cutting and tight fiscal management at headquarters and the Board is very appreciative of staff’s efforts to get our finances under control. The Board also asked Lynn Smith to investigate new office space for association staff and report to the Association Office Operations Committee in mid-April. No formal action was taken at this time regarding the sale of our current building. We also heard reports about the planning activities for the New York annual conference this June, the Nashville annual conference in June 2004, and the fifth Great Lakes Regional Conference to be held in September 2003.
We heard a report from a Task Force on International Relations, and based on that report the Board voted to dissolve the International Relations Committee. The International Information Exchange Caucus will continue its current activities helping to coordinate international issues, although the Board felt the caucus should seek to change its status from a caucus to a division as soon as possible. I will be appointing a new task force to consider the necessary strategies we need to follow to become truly international rather than a North American-based organization with members in other countries. We also reauthorized three caucuses: the Gay & Lesbian Caucus and the Professional Librarians in Non-Traditional Careers Caucus (both to January 2006) and the Retired Members Caucus until June, so they can find a new convener before their authorization is extended.
In Executive Session, the Board received a report from our Diversity Leadership Development Award Committee. Five awards winners will be recognized, but the winners have not been notified yet, so I can’t mention them here. The Awards & Honors Committee also reported to the Board and those award winners have been contacted, so I am delighted to recognize the following people: Stephen Abram to receive the John Cotton Dana Award, Bob Malinowsky to receive the Hall of Fame Award, Bob Bellanti to receive the Factiva Leadership Award, Bob Williams to receive the Rose L. Vormelker Award, Nina Platt to receive the Innovations in Technology Award, John DiGilio to receive the Member Achievement Award, and five new Fellows of the Special Libraries Association are Lynn Berard, Andrew Berner, Sylvia James, Trudy Katz, and Dottie Moon. Finally, in executive session, the Board heard a report from our Executive Director search committee about their screening interviews. That group has identified three finalists to be interviewed by the Board of Directors to become our next ED. Those are the highlights from the Board meetings. Other activities also took place during the Leadership Summit.
Best regards,
Bill Fisher, SLA President