Women’s National Book Association National Board Meeting
June 10-12, 2005, Washington, D.C.
Minutes of Meeting
Friday, June 10, 2005, Hilton Embassy Row Hotel
President Jill Tardiff called the meeting to order at 1:12 p.m.
Attendees:
Jill Tardiff National President and New York City Chapter President
Margaret Auer National Past President, Detroit Chapter
Laurie Beckelman National Vice President/President-Elect and Boston Chapter President
Amy Barden National Treasurer, Washington DC Chapter
Michele Leber National Secretary, Washington DC Chapter
Katharine Turok Membership and WNBA Award Chair, New York City Chapter
Eileen Hanning Pannell Chair, Washington DC Chapter
Sylvia Cross Eastman Award Chair, Corresponding Member
Carolyn Wilson Long-Range Planning Chair, Nashville Chapter
Livia Kent Bookwoman Co-Editor, Washington DC Chapter
Cora Ott Boston Chapter Vice President/President-Elect
Valerie Tomaselli New York Chapter City Corresponding Secretary and Membership Co-Chair Carla Danziger Washington DC Chapter President
Claudia Baker Binghamton Chapter Vice President/President-Elect
Cindy Dooley Detroit Chapter President
Ruth Light Los Angeles Chapter President
Joan Gelfand San Francisco Chapter President
Lorrie Carter Dallas Chapter President
Alice Sanford Nashville Chapter President
Guests:
Sue Westrate Washington DC Chapter Local Arrangements Chair
Ellen Compton Washington DC Chapter At-Large Board Member
Calling herself “a double mallet president,” Jill called the meeting to order using two mallets, one given
her by past president Margaret Auer, as well as one from the New York City chapter. Jill welcomed board
members, noting 100 per cent attendance, and congratulated them on their reports, for which she received
applause. Jill said the lack of a president’s annual report was a deliberate lack; she will file it within the
next 10 days and will draw some conclusions after this meeting.
In setting the tone for the meeting, Jill explained some of her own background and philosophy, especially in serving dual roles as chapter and national president and being vision-driven. She has used the detailed notes from the last national board meeting, information from the fall meeting of the executive committee, and what she learned from talking to chapter presidents. She is vision-
driven, and having an official document, much like our own guidebook, is essential. Members of the long-range planning committee will be taking notes.
Short-Term/Long-Range Planning, Overview
Carolyn gave an overview of the long-range plan, noting that we’re kind of where we used to be. There are two critical issues that we need to address, she said: financial, particularly because of Pannell and sustaining members, and declining membership.
(Jill said that communications, finances, and membership are all items on the agenda.)
Jill said we would follow Roberts Rules of Order with Margaret as our gatekeeper; she also wanted to be sensitive to the time and of everyone’s opinion. She thanked Carla for the binders and Claudia for the idea. Jill went through the circles in the workbook, explaining how each relates to the others.
Board members and guests went around the table, each introducing herself and describing her favorite book (or books) read over the past year and her most memorable book (or books) – ever. (This booklist has been recorded separately, to be published in The Bookwoman.)
Since Sue Westrate had to leave the meeting at this point, Carla gave her a small gift bag and our thanks for her work in making the arrangements for the meeting.
Jill postponed the next item on the agenda, “I celebrate myself.”
Award/Grant Programs
WNBA Award
Katharine said she was staggered by the wisdom of the board last year in giving the WNBA Award to Nancy Pearl. The award ceremony itself in January at the Library of Congress, done in partnership with the Center for the Book with CNN covering the event, was perfect, with great publicity generated on NPR, where Nancy does programs, and in USA Today. This was followed by a reception at BEA in June. Nancy is thrilled with the award and enamored of WNBA, Katharine said, and suggested that board members contact her if they are in Seattle. Carolyn said there was a great article about Nancy in the May 2005 issue of American Libraries, which she passed around.
Carla recommended that the team that worked on this event prepare a notebook of information needed in planning the award ceremony so it isn’t necessary to “reinvent the wheel” for the 2006 award. Margaret said there is a section in the national manual on the Web site that includes award ceremony information, noting that one of our deficiencies is the passing on of documentation. She added that this kind of material should go into the national manual so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Ann Heidbreder Eastman Grant
Sylvia Cross explained the background of the Eastman Award, noting that there have been only two applications for it for each of the last two years. Frances Yates, the 2004 grant recipient, just got a check for her course. The course that the 2003 grant recipient planned to take was cancelled, so that money has not yet been claimed.
Don Chatham at ALA sent Sylvia a copy of an ad for the grant that will run in 14 different ALA publications. The ad says that applications must be received by Nov. 7; Sylvia had asked for a Nov. 1 deadline. It was agreed that the WNBA posted Web site deadline for Eastman applications would be changed to Nov. 7 for this year only. Katharine said the WNBA Award is given every other year in even years; it has a March 1 deadline and had five nominees last year.
Lucile Micheels Pannell Award
Eileen said the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award is given to spotlight excellence in children’s bookselling, one to a general bookstore and one to a children’s bookstore. The awards are presented at the children’s book and author breakfast at the annual BEA conference. There were 32,000 attendees at BEA this year in New York, and the children’s book and author breakfast is the biggest event at BEA. Eileen described this year’s winners, BookPeople of Austin, Texas and Reading Reptile of Kansas City, Missouri. She also keeps lists of ideas from Pannell winners. Laurie suggested having links to artists who have done art for Pannell and posting some art on our Web site, an idea she said was mentioned in last year’s minutes. Jill said photos from BEA might be available to be posted; Livia also asked for a photo for The Bookwoman.
Finances, Relative to Award/Grant Program
Eastman
Amy pointed out sections in the treasurer’s report related to the Eastman Award, showing the 2004 award winner recently receiving $610. Sylvia expressed concern about the award eroding the endowment, noting that interest ($500 at best) is far from covering the cost of the award and its administration, currently about $1300. Sylvia said she would check the wording of the original agreement, then see what approaches we might take.
Pannell
Amy said we have about $3100 left in the Pannell account. In earlier years we received from the trust fund a check that covered two $1,000 awards plus the expenses. This year we received $230 in interest from the trust. Through the terms of the will, we’re locked in a trust with Bremmer as the administrator of the trust. There is a provision in the will that if the interest doesn’t cover the annual expenses, then we can petition to receive funds from the principal. We have talked at these meetings about fundraising, but the onus is on Bremmer.
There was discussion – but no vote at this time – of how to fund the Pannell Awards next year, with Eileen noting that the cost will be less because BEA will be in Washington so she won’t have to travel. Margaret, opposed to using money from the trust, said we need to consider having the general fund provide funds next year to buy a little time; we can borrow and pay it back, like a bridge loan. Amy noted that we’ve already borrowed from the general fund a couple of times because the Pannell fund has gone down so rapidly. Sylvia suggested getting somebody to donate $2500 for children’s books, Lorrie suggested having a Web site for Pannell with advertising, and Jill said publishers would rather just write a check than advertise. Eileen argued against using WNBA funds for Pannell, with the Bremmer option available, based on feelings of members including those in her chapter. Margaret suggested a onetime loan, one year earmarking of the first $3500 of sustaining membership dues for Pannell.
Valerie and Cora asked for some background on the Pannell Award, which Amy and Eileen gave.
Communications, Part One
Traditional
Livia passed around copies of The Bookwoman report, since there were errors in the one she e-mailed, but ironically also errors in this one, she said. She is new to WNBA and to The Bookwoman, as is their whole team, and they have a difficult task for a national newsletter: to cover everything in three issues a year. Their biggest challenge is working in three different parts of the country and never having met.
Livia went over the types of articles on the first page of her report, asking that members send in more book reviews. Suggestions for best practices articles include how to prepare and disseminate a press release and how to prepare a budget, and it is suggested that these articles be put in the Members Only section on the Web site. Livia noted design changes in The Bookwoman, and said they are working on a bulletin board system. For future issues, Jay wants to do a feature about how hard it is to get fiction published.
Livia asked that chapters try to collect all of their submission for The Bookwoman and send them at one time.
Internet
Margaret said that passwords for the Members Only section of the Web site used to be changed on June 1; now they are changed on the first day of the national board meeting. She distributed new passwords to chapter presidents, as well as a report of hits to the Web site from Nov. 1-Dec. 31, 2004 and handouts about the national directory, showing examples of two searches. Chapters should send Margaret records/information for their members who wish to be included in the national directory; Detroit, for instance, gave her their membership directory with asterisks marking those to be included in the national directory.
Americana, Constance Lindsay Skinner, and one other book have been scanned, and two of the books have been indexed and will be on the Web site under Celebrating Women and Books.
Margaret contacted Bernard Crystal at Columbia University, who asked that chapter presidents send him material at the end of their presidential terms. Margaret passed out a Q and A list and said there is more information in the Members Only section of the Web site.
There was a suggestion to consider a different name for the Celebrating Women and Books tab on the Web site.
Another discussion item is the timing of the WNBA Award/date of award, since the 2004 award was actually presented in 2005, as raised by Katharine Turok.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Attendees:
Jill Tardiff
Margaret Auer
Laurie Beckelman
Amy Barden
Michele Leber
Katharine Turok
Eileen Hanning
Sylvia Cross
Carolyn Wilson
Livia Kent
Cora Ott
Valerie Tomaselli
Carla Danziger
Claudia Baker
Cindy Dooley
Ruth Light
Joan Gelfand
Lorrie Carter
Alice Sanford
Guests:
Diane Ullius National Past President, Washington DC Chapter
Claire Emory Washington DC Chapter Treasurer
Erin Brown Boston and New York City Chapters Member
Carolinda Hales Washington DC Chapter Newsletter Managing Editor
Jill said dinner last night was great, and she was glad the board and guests were able to meet Kate Weber from UNICEF, who had honored each chapter with a certificate expressing gratitude for support of UNICEF. Jill then outlined plans for the morning, finishing agenda items from Friday.
UN DPI/NGO Report; U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Jill has been the WNBA UN representative since 2000. Claire Friedland initially took on the responsibility, and Jill could not overemphasize the importance of Claire’s involvement in WNBA and UNICEF. Jill stressed that active involvement in promoting UNICEF is imperative; 100 NGOs (out of 8,000) have been cut in an effort to reduce costs. Jill has a list of commemorative dates that she encourages us to use in our programs, publications, etc. UNICEF boxes will be available in August; UNICEF is very generous with materials, as long as we share them with members.
As an affiliate of DPI, we disseminate information about the UN to our members.
Regarding UNA, which Lorrie had asked Jill about and she had researched, it is a coalition that costs $350 to join, and we’re not ready to join that coalition yet. But we can have a private tour of the UN, and Laurie mentioned that field trips had come up in the chapter discussion at breakfast that morning.
In answer to Ruth’s question about what other chapter UN representatives do, Jill said that Claire had a group of nine or 10 people she conferred with; Jill hasn’t used such a group, but she would like a contact person in each chapter for such things as distributing the UN boxes.
When she was invited to a meeting on Afghanistan last year, Jill put together the Afghanistan Education Alliance of about seven small to medium NGOs, with WNBA also listed as a major donor. So when chapters get the UN boxes, try to create some sort of program around them, and funds can be dedicated to the Afghan Education Alliance. Lorrie said she’s aligned herself with the UNA, although their meetings are pricey, and put the boxes there. Alice said Nancy Stewart did a wonderful program and raised about $260-280 for Afghanistan. Ruth distributed boxes at a book festival, and Cora put boxes out at one of Boston’s Sunday salons.