Call to Order-Introductions (Turn Off Cell Phones)

Call to Order-Introductions (Turn off cell phones)

Meeting called to order at 3:04 p.m.

Present: Stephen Sweeney, Kris Johnson, Kari May, Chris Brogan, Dinah Kress, Paula Busey, David Farnan, Shelley Harper, Seana O’Grady, Amanda Rewerts, Jesse Haynes, Robin Gard, Nicole Burchfield, Barb Thorne, Currie Meyer, Elena Rosenfeld, Gene Hainer, and Dianna Fricke; attending virtually: Roberta Bourn.

Review/Revisions of the agenda

Kari May’s report has been moved from action items to information and discussion. Membership will also be discussed under Kari Mary.

Formal Approval of Feb. 1, 2013 Board Minutes

Robin moved and David seconded to approve minutes from the February board meeting. Motion passed.

Executive Board Vote between Meetings

On February 11, the Executive Committee voted to accept a contract with MultiView, Inc. for banner ads on the new CAL website. Also, CAL now has a media kit for the purpose of selling advertising.

Lobbyist – Ruben, Amber, and Jerry were unable to join us today and will instead plan to attend the June meeting. Elena made a few comments in their absence. Thanks to everyone who spoke to their legislators. It is looking very likely that $2 million will get restored to state grants to libraries—the long bill where this money is located has passed the senate and house and is waiting for the governor’s signature. Robin added her kudos to our lobbyists, reminding us that while this looks like a big expense on our budget, they do important work.

ACTION ITEMS

1.) CAL Financial Reports – Chris Brogan

Chris reported she has received no word for the need to move money around and she hopes that is a good sign. Memberships are coming in faster than they did last year. Roberta (attending virtually) reported that we are about $1700 to the good after finishing the books for March last night. We are going along month to month and we head into April with fingers crossed and optimism that we will come through this next month as well.

David said that he was concerned with what he heard at the beginning of the year and he feels we need to be proactive, taking steps to make CAL more financially sound. He wants to find a more secure way to have the money in the bank for paying our staff and our lobbyists and to stop counting on one successful conference after another. He offered a few suggestions including asking libraries to send some of the $2 million our lobbyists have been able to secure back to CAL through institutional memberships, offering a conference only every other year, and making it a priority to clearly offer benefits with our memberships. There was further conversation with Shelley voicing her opinion, that any type of “requirement” for institutional memberships and a return on some of the money coming from the legislature will put an unfair burden on small libraries that don’t have the money to participate. Chris added that relying on state funding through institutional memberships isn’t necessarily any more sustainable than what we have been doing with the conference and memberships. Kari suggested this was a somewhat radical shift since our membership is presently probably 95% individual members. She said that we were already implementing a plan that falls somewhere between what David suggests and what we have done in the past. We are making a push for institutional memberships. Elena reminded us that this same question is being asked by organizations nationwide. David said it is important that Stephen get in front of some of these institutions and speak.Seana said perhaps at this moment, the best way to begin is by encouraging institutions to support this year’s conference. Stephen stated that this conversation needs to happen and that he would like to establish a task force to work on this problem. He proposed a task force made up of 10 people, the five who serve as the Executive Committee plus the four Association presidents and Bethany. Kari expressed concern about a group of 10 people trying to find meeting times and accomplish this charge by June. The group decided it would probably be best to meet using a remote connection.

2.) CAL Bylaws – Dianna Fricke

Stephen, Kris, and Dianna met for a thorough review of the CAL Bylaws. Dianna said there is more detail in the Bylaws than needed. Any change to bylaws must be approved by the entire membership while policies and procedures can be amended much more easily. She researched and studied the ALA bylaws before recommending the changes provided in her report in the board packet. The report included two pieces—one with strike-through edits and one that shows what the bylaws would say with the suggested changes. A Table of Contents has been added. The board needs to approve this in time for the ballot.

Kari led the group in asking some questions and there were some clarifications offered. Dianna will turn in an April newsletter article describing the changes. Here are the identified questions and changes:

ARTICLE VIII-NOMINATION OF EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS AT-LARGE AND ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVES, Section 4. Nomination by Petition-change 120 to 90 days.

ARTICLE IX – ELECTIONS, Section 1. Annual Ballot – add “and Division” after “Association” and before “positions”. Remove “Association” before the word “issues”.

ARTICLE IX – ELECTIONS, Section 2. Elections – replace the word “prior” with the words “on or before”.

ARTICLE X – FISCAL AFFAIRS, Section 5. Audit – replace the word“annually” with “at the conclusion of each Treasurer’s term in office.”

ARTICLE XII – ASSOCIATIONS, Section 7. Dissolution – Add a second sentence, “If the Association does not submit an annual report to the Executive Board for two consecutive years, the Executive Board may dissolve the Association.

ARTICLE XIII – DIVISIONS, Section 2. Establishment –Change “twenty-five” to “seventy-five”.

ARTICLE XIV – INTEREST GROUPS, Section 4. Dissolution – Fix the typo “my dissolve” to “may dissolve”.

Kari made a motion to approve the revised bylaws, as amended today, in principle. Shelley seconded. Motion carried.

3.) CATS Bylaws – Nicole Burchfield

Nicole presented the CATS Bylaws to the CAL Board and referred to these bylaws as presented in the Board packet. Nicole will take the changes suggested below back to her group for their final revision and bring it back to CAL Board in June.

Capitalize Association and Division, throughout.

ARTICLE V – MEETINGS OF MEMBERS, Section 4 -Remove the words “selecting officers or”.

ARTICLE VI – OFFICERS, Section 4 Chair – At the end of the last sentence, add the words, “as a voting member”.

ARTICLE VI – OFFICERS, Section 9 Vacancies – At the end, add this sentence, “If it is the Chair, the Chair Elect shall become Chair.”

ARTICLE VI – OFFICERS, Section 10 Removal from Office – Remove the last sentence, “Written notice shall be provided to the officer in question.”

ARTICLE VII – THE CATS DIVISION EXECUTIVE BOARD, Section 1 – Move the “member at large” section to the bylaw about Officers.

ARTICLE IX – NOMINATION AND ELECTIONS, Section 1 -Add the word “CATS” before Nominating Committee. In both places, change the words “Executive Secretary” to “Nominating Committee”.

ARTICLE XIII – PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY -Change the words “Sturgis Standard” to “American” like in Article 18 of the CAL Bylaws.

The Board also discussed the need for all Bylaws, by every group, to move toward header and formatting consistency so that a person can tell which bylaws they are looking at and where they are within the document.

4.) CAL Awards Committee – Currie Meyer

Currie brought a request for the board to add an award which had been brought to the Awards Committee by Robin Gard. Included in the board packet is a description of the award as well as background explaining what the committee has done to vet the validity of this particular award. The Awards Committee wants to release on May 1 as nominations for awards will close on June 15. Kari questioned why this went to Awards Committee instead of staying with the Trustees as the Para Librarian Award and Legislative Committee awards do. Robin explained that the nominations for this award will come from CAL membership.

Currie’s motion: The Awards Committee moves to add the “Outstanding Library Trustee Award” to the slate of annual CAL Awards to be selected by the Awards Committee in 2013 and henceforth. The motion did not require a second as it comes from a committee. Motion carried.

5.) CoALA – Shelley Harper

Shelley brought forward a request for an approval to change or add to their budget because they do not have line items for all expenditures. They would like to pay for a Go to Meeting subscription for their May online workshop. Chris suggested that the amount come from Supplies, but Shelley explained there wasn’t enough in the Supplies line item because payment for Go to Meeting will actually come from workshop registrations. Elena offered to check if her library’s subscription for Go to Meeting could be used to host the workshop. Chris said that there as not a need for revising the budget at this point and that it could just be handled between the bookkeepers. No action needed. Shelley passed out flyers for the CoALA Spring Workshop scheduled for April 26 at Western State Colorado University. She is excited about the offerings and would like the Board to encourage others and consider attending. In particular, she mentioned the segment about dealing with difficult students and conflict offered by counselors from Pikes Peak Community College.

6.) CLEF Budget – Linda Conway

Kari presented the CLEF Budget as provided by Linda Conway. CLEF is charged to spend the money they make each year so this is basically a proposal of what they expect to make and how they plan to disperse it. CAL Executive Board also serves as the CLEF Board so we are the voters. Gene asked for clarification about the silent auction expectations and whether there would be adjustments if things didn’t go as expected. Kari moved to approve the CLEF 2013 Budget as amended. Shelley seconded. Motion carried.

INFORMATION & DISCUSSION

6.) Kari May- President Elect and Membership

As Chair of the Nominating Committee, Kari will have a piece in the next newsletter and will be contacting Division and Association Chairs to find which positions are opening up. We want to have all vacancies listed, as well as changes to the bylaws, etc.

Kari reported that she, Stephen, and Jesse had been working with Bethany on Membership. The “we want you back” drive approved at the February meeting didn’t prove to be as valuable as hoped because the specifications only fit 18 individuals. Part two of that plan was an institutional membership drive. Any institution with an expired membership received a letter. A letter is now going out to libraries across Colorado, inviting them to become new institutional members. Bethany has asked for stories, comments and reasons why. She’d like to use these sound bites and quotes for the membership drive. Everyone is encouraged to send in those stories and comments. The list of things to update on the new website includes institutional membership. The special task force organized earlier in the meeting has one main purpose—to identify the level and types of benefits for membership.

7.) MPLA – Tiffanie Wick

See report in Board Packet.

8.) International Cultural Exchange Interest Group - Suzanne LaRue & Nancy Bolt

Barb Thorne, from the International Library Cultural Exchange Interest Group, shared two things. First, the group is considering creating an award and they have begun conversations with Currie. Second, the Bulgarian interest group had monies which are going to be spent this summer on an exchange and a conference in Bulgaria. Barb said they need to know where to put money for the current fundraising. Chris will talk with Roberta and they will set up a restricted account and get back in touch with Nancy or Barb.

ATTACHED REPORTS

1.) Treasurer – Chris Brogan– See report.

2.) CoPLA – David Farnan – See report.

3.) CoALA – Shelley Harper– Shelley requested that she be able to edit the CoALA page of the new CAL website in order to post current photos and keep things up to date. Jesse said they have requested role based editors to give permissions and access to pages as needed.

4.) Trustees & Friends – Robin Gard – See report.

5.) ALA Councilor – Elena Rosenfeld – Elena is working on the chapter report and also wanted to remind everyone that the ALA Conference is coming in June and as our representative, she wants to take our opinions and concerns to the conference.

6.) Legislative Committee – Elena Rosenfeld & Dave Sanger– Elena reported that they are continuing forward with the success of Lobby Day. They were able to get kids on the floor and there were some good stories about what libraries have done for people. National Library Legislative Day is coming in May and there are at least three people who will be asking for funding. She encouraged all to donate to Colorado Libraries Political Committee (PAC). It helps fund Lobby Day.

7.) CALLI – Elizabeth Kelsen Huber – See report.

8.) Awards Committee – Currie Myer– Currie thanked the group for approving the new award and said we would begin seeing emails for award nominations around April 15.

9.) CAL Bylaws - Dianna Fricke– Dianna said there are now three people on the committee which will mean more help for working on policies and procedures!

10.) CAL Planning Conference Committee - Seana O’Grady–Seana reported that the Conference Thursday morning programming submissions closed today. The selection committee will review and discuss these. She shared a teaser on some of the possible keynote speakers which are firming up: the owner of Kazoo and Company (a local toy company) will be part of the second community segment on Saturday morning and representatives from the Belgian Brewery are also coming.

11.) SPIIG Report – Laura Baldassari‐Hackstaff & Tiffany Curtin– See report.

12.) CATS Report – Nicole Burchfield – Nicole said they are working on their bylaws and they do have officers: Chair, Chair Elect, and Secretary. April 19, CATS will meet to talk about grants. They are waiting to hear back from CALLI about the intern project they proposed.

13.) MPLA Report – Tiffanie Wicks – See report.

14.) International Cultural Exchange Interest Group - Suzanne LaRue & Nancy Bolt – See report.

CAL Website Update – CALStaff

Amanda gave a presentation of the new website focusing on how things look from the member side. She encouraged everyone to go in and update their profile and explained that we are now able to go into account history and print our own receipts or invoices. Jesse will be improving the membership directory. Kris suggested there be a page for sharing technical specifications and known issues. Gene questioned the restrictive level of password protection and the location of the page of information about Julie for the Julie Boucher fund. There were other questions and Jesse and Amanda took down questions and areas to check. Shelley asked about the publications page, noting there was no link to Colorado Libraries. Stephen referred back to the budget and the decision we had made about not having a stipend position for the journal. Nina and Tabatha have decided they are no longer interested in editing Colorado Libraries. We do need to have discussion about managing the domain and the guest editing piece. At the moment, we don’t have a communications committee that is active, so this is an area for growth. Jesse noted that she had just received the last issue from Tabatha. Jesse will add a link to the website with a call for interest in the communications committee and the journal as well as an email to go out with the last journal issue and a note in the newsletter.

Jesse said she had one last item to discuss. Recently there were several cancellations on the day of a workshop. She wondered if the board would like to discuss a cancellation policy.Kari pointed out that there is already a cancellation policy in Policies and Procedures. Jesse said they would post it from now on with all workshops or events which are posted.

ADJOURN

At 5:55 p.m., Robin moved to adjourn and Nicole seconded. Motion carried.