Category: Board Meeting Minutes

January 14, 2021

In attendance: Maisha + Baby Claire <3 , Meaghan, Adam, Stefani, Karen, Gregory, Brendan, Elise, Melissa, Jasmine, Jess

Financial update
PaLA will fund: the Change the Subject (Dec) event ($450) They also said they would fund the Working out Loud event to $250, but we declined the assistance.

We have a little over $1,420 in total assets after sending out honoria for fall events and PO Box renewal (processed every Dec)

Board elections
Open positions include: VP/President Elect, Secretary and Director at Large (which may be filled by a current board member currently serving in another position.)

Maisha and Stefani will work on this. Please send them information about possible candidates! We’ll also send out a call for candidates via Twitter and the listserv. Timeline for seeking candidates and an election:

• Now through February 1: develop a list of candidates
• February 1 – 15: reach out to candidates and solidify the list
• February 15 – March 1: create the ballot and solicit bios from candidates
• March 1: Open ballot
• March 15: Close ballot

Program and Planning Committee: December event: Change the Subject documentary discussion. 149 people registered and 85 attended. We sent out a follow-up survey. The event went really well. The Black LIS Workers and Student Group: has a meeting tentatively scheduled for late February on the theme of self care and renewal in the workplace. Andrea Lemoins prefers to keep this group under the ACRL DVC Chapter umbrella for now. We had agreed to make the parameters for participation clear in event marketing. Invitations will go out in early February. Jasmine and Karen will create a page for this group on our website. Two other groups have reached out to us and have created related programs! A group in California (interested in using the Emergent Design Workbook) and the Spectrum Scholars.
Spring Events: We’re moving forward with a “call for proposals” model, details to be worked out. The Programming and Planning Committee has a meeting scheduled in late January.

Community Liaisons: Jess reviewed survey results – 13 individuals (members of ACRL/DVC who are also members of other organizations) were interested in connecting and also noted what groups they were part of. Christina will reach out to them and put forth the idea of partnering in the spring to share guiding questions and other ideas. 

Maisha would like to help shape a community for resident librarians. This could be organized around professional development events or social events as opportunities to check in. The community might also start a list of interested folks in order to be aware of one another.

Local universities that have resident librarians include mostly larger libraries: Penn, Temple, UDel, Rutgers, and Villanova. When we reached out to inquire about residents, some schools responded that they have student groups.

This community could overlap with our mentoring program as it is important to connect BIPOC LIS students with BOPIC mentors.

Next steps include thinking through the ideas and considering ways to build relationships, including whether or not to broaden our scope to include other chapters.

Some institutions have unions, and Jess will be finding out more, attending the Chapter’s Council meeting. She will also tell them about our Community Liaison committee.

The Legislative Liaison position has been reinvisioned and combined with the Community Liaison position. Legislative Day was moved online this year. Melissa will attend in another capacity and report back to the chapter. She also offered to provide language for those interested in contacting PA State Representatives about library advocacy, particularly on the topic of textbook affordability.

Communications: The blog interview with Meaghan is up now and an interview with Brendan will be published soon. There is interest in writing a Guiding Questions blog post.

Social Committee: is planning an online social event in February.

Mentoring/Resume Review updates: Jasmine sent an email to 2020 participants thanking them. (~2 months ago) She has begun planning for 2021 and has made a new Google Form for mentor and mentee use. The standing list of mentors needs to be updated as some folks have retired or moved out of the area. Maisha is interested in taking on this responsibility in 2021, perhaps sharing it with another board member.

Website updates: Karen has made many updates! Additional updates under consideration include the Mission Statement (when it’s ready) and perhaps Guiding Questions.

November 19, 2020

In attendance: Stefani, Mary, Greg, Jasmine, Elise, Melissa, Karen, Brendan, Jess, Adam

Jasmine expressed appreciation to Board Members for continuing to give time and support to the chapter alongside the upheaval of everything else going on in our workplaces, institutions and lives.

Financial report

We submitted a Grant funding request for our fall events, but PaLA doesn’t like to fund past events and asked instead that we re-submit for our future programs. Yet, there is a chance they will reconsider, since everything about this year has been different. Additionally, we hope that the level of outreach we achieved and the effectiveness of the programs may help sway them their reconsideration.

We havelmost $2000 in assets

We spent ~ $1000 in honoraria for the Fall program

We’ve received a handful of new memberships, some in advance of the fall program and a few since then.

Program Planning

Oct 16th event: Working Out Loud wrap-up

There were ~300 registrations; ~175 attendees. Perhaps people register in order to receive links to recordings, perhaps zoom fatigue plays a role.

We still have not sent out the program follow-up form. We could send something to participants in all fall programs

The video of the October 16 program is up on the YouTube channel

About 5-6 people showed up to the social time at lunch

November 12th event:“Critical Connections, Emergent Organizing: Black Library Workers in Community”

There were 53 registrations which yielded 21 participants, who were not only from our chapter location and included public library workers. Slides of the event will be shared. Requests for this type of program specific to Black Library Workers will be ongoing as they nurture efforts to diversity our profession and our commitment to this end.

However, Mary raised a question about board sponsored events that are not open to everyone. We had broad discussion ranging over the following questions and points:

Can we provide support rather than sponsorship? We can provide marketing support and the support of our time, which are more valuable at this time than our financial support.

What would be the alternative? Andrea Lemoins and Jasmine discussed the possibility of  a quarterly meeting. If this plan evolves into programming rather than a meeting, it might be different. We could consider making the group a Committee or Leadership Group targeted to recruitment, networking and professional collaboration opportunities.

Organizational pride for doing this is very positive and a financial commitment speaks to our support even though naming events and groups and determining how they fit in organizational structure is a question. The board has confidence in Jasmine’s and Maisha’s leadership.

Mary suggested we include language in announcements of future events that explicitly communicates our commitment to diversifying librarianship and the positive impact a group for Black Library Workers has on achieving this goal.

Additional suggestions or ideas to explore include:

Consider creating an informal group under the DVC umbrella, if this is done, we should include and invite other underrepresented groups

The Black Caucus of the ALA may be a resource that could help with framing and other concerns

Exclusive groups have become standard practice -it shouldn’t be controversial.

Anti-racism work is really for white people and diverts funding to white people. How can our chapter structure incorporate all these things and how do we not become segregated? Jasmine mentioned an ACRL President’s Program on Generous Accountability and suggested the Program Planning Committee take a look and think about these things.

December 11th at 10am – Change the Subject discussion Participants are expected to watch the documentary first, which is freely available on the web. An announcement will go out early next week. Jasmine has a registration form ready to go. She’ll add this to the events section of the website and send out the message

Spring events: An idea to shift to a ‘call for program proposals’ model; logistics need to be worked out. Planning and work will begin in January.

Community Liaisons

The board discussed Jess the idea of sending out a possible survey for the purpose of establishing contacts (although simply emailing individuals is also a possibility.) The chapter would like to build connections with people in these groups, although depending on how this goes out, it could reach people outside our region. After discussion it was decided that Jess will send the form via the email contact list from Wild Apricot and also to all those who participated in the fall program.

Communications

Blog interviews with Stefani and Jess are up!

Live-tweeting: Brendan reported that we gained 14 followers in October surrounding our chapter event and the top tweet in November was from the event. Tweeting for events is fine – we don’t need to build more of a presence necessarily. The Communications group will discuss and make a decision about whether anything more is desirable.

Social Committee: reached a consensus that parents are stretched thin by what caring for their families during the pandemic requires and that additional events don’t fill a need. Social events are put on hold until January

Mentoring/Resume Review updates

Jasmine will send an email to 2020 participants in December to say thank you and to follow up on the experience. It will include sign-ups or a way to indicate interest for the future.

Website updates

Completed updates: moved the Resume Review Committee and Mentorship Committee to the Volunteer Positions page

Created an Archives section to include previous Board Members and previous events

Webmaster email is updated

Still to be done: the Mission Statement (in 2021)

Board members are encouraged to take a look at the content inventory sheet Karen created and to make suggestions.

October 8, 2020

In attendance: Mary, Meaghan, Melissa, Karen, Brendan, Adam, Jasmine, Elise, Maisha, Gregory

Logistics: Standing meeting time changed to the 3rd Thursday of each month at 11:00am. Maisha begins maternity leave with our best wishes!

Financial report 

PaLA CRD (PA Library Association, College and Research Division) Funding opportunities:

They fund on a rolling basis and recommend submitting applications at least a month in advance of need. Jess and Jasmine will work on applying in November or December

Wild Apricot fee paid on October 1: $1000.00 for a two year term. We continue to receive new memberships

Program + Planning Committee

October 16th: Registration filled up so fast! Wild Apricot was the wrong registration tool, so we replaced it with a Google Form. Adam will explore costs and benefits of upgrading our Wild Apricot software so that it could accommodate a larger number of registrations.

Registrations limited to 300 due to zoom limitations. 

Shall we live tweet? We will have a hashtag, but is live tweeting worth the effort? This might be a good opportunity to grow the Twitter account. Retweeting/liking would be helpful. Brendan will live tweet the morning session. Elise, Mary and Brendan will live tweet afternoon workshops

We’ll send a follow up email after the event to include: session recordings, a call for membership, link to the website and a call for spring program ideas.

November 5th: tentatively titled “Critical Connections, Emergent Organizing: Black Library Workers in Community” Jasmine will meet with Andrea Lemoins on October 9.

December 4th – We’ll hold a discussion of the documentary: Change the Subject . We need suggestions for who could lead a panel talk back session. This event remains in planning stages.

Spring events

Suggestion to shift away from a traditional ‘call for program proposals’ model and instead crowdsource ideas for speakers, formats, and other details with the Chapter providing guidance, support, and help with marketing. 

It may be difficult to get volunteers to take responsibility for events, but we could emphasize the opportunity for professional development.

We should mention it in the Chapter meeting at the October event and in the follow-up communication.

We may not be able to get funding, and the spring event is not planned as money generating. Jasmine will reach out to inquire about PaLA funds.

Should we consider either member-only events or charging registration fees for some events in order to be able to fund future speakers? Alternatively, we could balance one large, free event with some member-only events.

Are we ready for this model? Should we wait to adopt it until next year? This year, we’re trying out new programming and showing the value of membership. We can ask for money next time. 

Student stipends:  We need to be cautious with our funds. We don’t want to award a $1,000 stipend without knowing if we can afford it without draining our account. Should we make the application process more robust or perhaps provide an internship experience?

Communications

Third Interview with Karen is up on the blog. Mary will continue to reach out to board members individually for interviews and Meaghan will send out notifications when they are posted to the blog 

Communications will help with the post 10/16 event follow up with recordings, announcements of future events, membership information, etc.

Social committee 

Planning noontime social hour during Oct 16th event, keeping the volume of people in mind

Parents’ program: are there parent volunteers who will help facilitate?

Website updates

90% of site traffic comes from Google and bookmarks.Karen is restructuring the membership section and moving content with descriptions of committees (including two new committees) under volunteering opportunities. Additionally, she has added: a link to the membership directory that is more user friendly, a donation option which does not require login, and has updated the general contact email to the president’s email.

Remaining work to be done: Adding a mission statement, continuing a content audit, and exploring opportunities in Wild Apricot for profiles and the directory.

The Board should plan to review content at a future date.

September 10, 2020
Via Zoom
Attendees: Jasmine, Meaghan, Melissa, Adam, Maisha, Brendan, Gregory, Karen, Jess

Checking in:
Some folks have returned to campus. We’re all grappling with the challenges of teaching online.

“Administrivia”
Corrected and updated contact information

Google account updates – there will be dedicated email addresses for Chapter President, Program Planning, Mentor Program and the Webmaster. The email for the entire board is acrl-dvc-board@acrldvc.org

Regular board meetings to be held on the second Tuesday of the month at 11:00am

Financial report: Our balance is just under $4000

There hasn’t been much financial activity, although we have a bit more money than last month due to additional membership dues paid.

We’ve pursued applying for a PaLa grant, which could be in place in time to support an event in December.

We want to continue to provide honorariums for event leadership speakers and our annual stipend award to a new librarian. 

While membership dues continue to provide a financial foundation, we want to seek other funding opportunities as well.

Program and Planning Committee
Guiding questions for the year:
How do systemic oppression, and racism more specifically, shape library and archives work?

What factors shape our professional values and beliefs for better and for worse?

How can our work serve as a vehicle for social change?

What are some actions we can take as individuals and as a collective, to disrupt anti-Black racism and the construction of invisible Whiteness?

Event October 16th: Eamon Tewell and another co-speaker TBD. The recordings will be available ahead of time. The event may be moderated depending on how many people participate. 

November event – Event for Black LIS workers facilitated by Andrea Lemoins. Andrea is a Community Organizer with FLP and is an expert in library organizing. We’ll advertise this event broadly and explore collaboration with other BIPOC organizations

December 4th – Change the Subject film documentary about LOC subject headings. This event would not be a screening (the film is available online at no cost) but a discussion. The format is yet to be determined, but a panel in which folks would talk about the film from different perspectives is under consideration.

Spring Event ideas:
Language: Labels that we use and wanting to be comfortable with the language that we use

A panel on the history of health & medicine

The Board discussed the idea of inviting our community to suggest programming. We can empower other people to develop programs, and we can help get the word out. 

Community Liaisons: Joined by Christina Steffy. The group has a meeting scheduled for the week of the 22nd. They have a list of academic libraries and residency programs and positions in the area. The list could also include former residents and potential mentors.

Communications: Meet the Board interviews continue. Karen Sheldon will be next. When the interview is posted, Mary will email the Board and we could send out an update to the listserv to promote it.

Social committee: Should the committee work on an event to compliment Chapter events in October and November, or is that too many events? The Board liked the idea of having something to accompany the fall program such a lunch or a happy hour. The Committee could also create an informal event for parents in order for them to connect with one another to share ideas and solutions.

Website updates:
Create volunteer opportunity pages

Committee pages need updating – not all of the information needs to be public facing, but should include a description of what committee does, committee membership, and contact information.

Remove Resume Review Committee as it no longer exists, but we could offer to give feedback on resumes by providing a Google folder to receive them, where people who have agreed to review them could take a look and respond. We could consider collapsing this service with the Mentor Program.

Past events page: Karen can look into the past events list and adding more recent events that aren’t there for some reason / changing formatting to show recent events automatically. We could move past events to the archive

Create a donation page: this may not be possible since currently our only infrastructure for this is Wild Apricot and donors need to be members in order to log in and donate. We may explore alternatives.

Bylaws and constitution will be left as is

Directory page: start a campaign to update your profile and provide instructions. Identify yourself as available for being a mentor. Adam will explore whether other fields could be incorporated.

Mission statement update: Jess did some research and shared it with Jasmine. They’ll work on a draft.

Jasmine will create a spreadsheet for things to update on the website

August 6, 2020 via zoom
Attendees: Jasmine, Stefani, Mary, Greg, Jess, Maisha, Karen, Adam, Meaghan

Checking in: How is everyone?
We discussed what the fall will look like at our respective campuses, this NYT Ethicist column, and expressed frustration with opening logistics and general states of confusion.

“Administrivia”
Included: Website updates (for accurate contact information,) new gmail account logistics, Google Groups, and Google Drive administration.

Archivist position: Greg’s ideas
How to archive chapter programs by creating a repository of presentations, videos, posters. This could help make our programs more accessible. But since WordPress does not include much storage space, we’ll need to link outward. We discussed different platform possibilities, like this one, osf, used for OpenCon 2019

Financial report (Adam)
Total assets are just under $3900.00. There has not been much activity since our last meeting and since our usual Fall Programming is different this year.

Program and Planning Committee Report
We’re switching gears away from a major event in the fall to multiple, smaller events in order to be more accessible and because we need to continue to meet remotely. The events would be conversations with invited speakers within a distributed work environment so as not to overwhelm people with a full day event. This engages people more often but in smaller doses.

The committee would like to engage all library workers and not make these events exclusive to librarians or exclusive to chapter members. The board approved this idea.

We discussed what advocacy looks like for the chapter: organizing rather than teaching how to organize toward things that have actual impact rather than settling for performative advocacy.

Potential first event: Jasmine will be in touch with Andrea Lemoins, a key organizer for the Concerned Black Workers at the Free Library of Philadelphia that has led to major leadership changes at FLP,  to see if she will facilitate a program about how we can support the larger library community and  organize toward action in our own institutions.

We would also hold a chapter meeting then, which will share the usual information as well as emphasize our chapter’s values, direction, and what membership supports.

Possible future events include: reading and watching groups, screening the documentary film “Change the Subject,” and an event for “paraprofessional” library workers

The board discussed grant funding for programming via PaLA and came to an agreement on fees we would offer speakers for our programs: $500 fee for an hour and a half presentation / facilitation.

Community Liaisons
Community Liaison and Community Liaison Committee descriptions ready for review and to post to website. Jess will write a blog post and an invitation for participants to be posted.(Addendum: approved and posted!)

Communications Committee
The first interview with Board President Jasmine Woodson has been posted! A second interview with Vice President Maisha Carey will be next. The committee (Greg, Brendan, and Mary) met briefly to determine what to communicate and how. Meaghan agreed to join the group as well. We’d like to research what channels are most effective for what types of information.

Website Updates
The website needs current, accurate contact information for board members and committees, and membership and volunteering opportunities as well as space for archived material.

The board will also consider more information under the “About” button including creating a Mission Statement. Greg will look into the Constitution, Jess will see whether other chapters or ACRL can offer guidance and Stefani volunteered to help with writing.

Attendees: Jasmine, Mary, Brendan, Elise, Adam, Maisha, Meaghan, Melissa

Google nonprofit account status: Jasmine will do more research into the features and report back in August

Archivist update:
Greg met with former archivist Leslie to discuss the transition. He now has access to the chapter Google Drive for 2017/18, 2019/20 and this current year and so is able to answer any questions about these time periods.

Leslie will transfer the print archive to Greg once offices reopen.

Greg would like to archive chapter programs. He raised the following questions which the board answered as follows:

• Archive program recordings for accessibility using captioning
• Make the recordings available publicly for a set period of time (for example 2-3 years) and then revisit.
• Archive videos, slices, program overviews, etc. permanently
• It’s confusing to know where things live – perhaps Google nonprofit account could be helpful with this. We may consider creating a directory

DVC Google folders: remaining access issues to be addressed

Financial Report

• Membership renewals – 55 so far – about half of what we normally expect
• Another reminder will go out this week
• Total assets are at $3,800

Committee Updates:
Budget Committee:

• Maisha, Jasmine, and Adam met recently. Adam shared a spreadsheet of ongoing infrastructure expenses (e.g. domain name, PO Box, Wild Apricot)
• Current memberships should have this cost covered. If we want to do anything extra (travel/student stipends), we would need to get more funding (grant and event registrations)
• We report our membership numbers to ACRL, and they provide funding based on membership. Current numbers are a little over 100, so that’s been around $800
• The PA Library Association has a grant that we have been applying for regularly to help us pay for expenses
• Discussed a formal budget and a formal request process that can be charged to each of our committees (e.g. social committee gets some petty cash to pay for its activities, new community outreach committee could make a request for funding)
  • Budget committee would like the requests to be in writing and will put out guidelines on how to do this
• The committee will share a more robust budget after going through this process
• The committee discussed virtual meetings and suggests making them free, promoting the value of membership
  • Discussed how best to frame this recognizing the financial constraints that many people are facing The chapter wants to be accessible and welcoming. Where do we draw the line for attendance?
    • Cost is low yet may still be too much for some.
    • Don’t want to tie membership with attendance of programs. 
  • Current priority is to broaden membership by staying active right now and having the right tone

Programming Committee:
Yearly programs
Rather than having a theme, having a set of guiding questions that we return to through every event

• Want to be responsive to what’s happening the world but still be intentional thinking about growth (individual and organizational growth)
• What is 2020? Rapid change, Covid-19, virtual work, the next normal, social change. We need a space for critical reflection. 
• Potential small events: Change the Subject screening/discussion/talk; reading/video discussion; local issues focus

Fall event
Tentative *new* date: Friday,October 16th (pushed this a bit because adjusting in the early fall)

• Theme will be along the lines of “Working out loud: The New Normal”
• Keeping elements of the spring program but rolling in all the rapid changes
• The Next Normal? 
• Need to talk about how to hold this virtual event
• Send suggestions based on our own experiences based on virtual conferences we’ve experienced so far
• Programming committee will be reshaping the call but also reach out to spring presenters to see if they’re still interested in presenting
• New call will then go out

Social Committee: no new updates

Community Liaison:
Community Liaison and Community Liaison Committee descriptions ready for review and to post to website

• Reviewing the responsibilities and will be making a call for folks who might want to get involved
• Keeping contacts updated
• Updating the board about LIS programs and events
• Seeking collaborations 
• Sharing info about events
• Program planning committee

Jess attended the ACRL Chapter Council meeting – will be submitting our Black Lives Matter statement to Chapter Council newsletter for publication in summer edition

Adam and Jess have begun exploring what institutions within our community have diversity resident/liaison librarians.  Here is the spreadsheet with our findings so far for your review (and collaboration!)Adam is still working on the spreadsheet and adding residents as he finds them

Communications Committee:

• Beefing up the blog by introducing members on the board, starting with Jasmine and using a standard set of questions.
  • We’ll post one per month for now 
  • Could eventually consider interviews with ACRL/DVC community members

Administrivia:

• Website Contact Information is still incorrect
  • Meaghan >> University of Rochester
    • mmoody@rochester.edu
• Discussed better way to email board members, perhaps through Wild Apricot, but for now, Maisha will create a spreadsheet
• Next meeting: August 6, 2020 @ 11:00am via zoom

Introductions

Financial Report

Logistics

• New & Rotating Off board members!
  • Thank you for your service!
  • Share appropriate information with those who are succeeding you
• Board Google Drive
  • Needs some reorganization and for the permissions to be updated
  • Should we explore a Nonprofit or Business Gmail account? Jasmine will look into advantages and disadvantages

2020 Board Changes Proposal

• Black Lives Matter statement (written by Maisha, Jess, Stefani, and Jasmine)
  • We would like to post this to the blog, social media, and send to our list-serv.
  • Please feel free to share any additional resources you would like to be included
  • 2020 ACRL President’s Program – Shifting the Center: Transforming Academic Libraries through Generous Accountability (Presented as part of Together Wherever Virtual Event)
• Programs
  • Existing: Fall & Spring Events
    • Should we start planning for a virtual fall event?
  • Existing: Mentorship program
    • Add Community-building program for library residents/fellows
  • Proposed: Anti Racism event similar to the Covid event
  • Proposed: Continual Discussion Group
  • Proposed: Community-engaged project/Service day(s)
• Awards
  • Student Stipends: We decided to make these explicitly for LIS students from underrepresented groups
  • Travel Grants: These may or may not be relevant due to travel restrictions and events going online
• Committees – Every Board member should serve on a committee & open the committees to participation from the entire membership
  • Existing: Social Committee
    • Names: Elise Ferer, Abby Cengel, Rachel Paige King
  • Existing: Program Planning Committee
    • Names: 
  • Proposed: Community Liaison Group
    • Community Liaison Position Description
    • Names: Jess, Adam
  • Proposed: Communications Group
    • Names: Mary, Brendan, Greg
• Roles
  • New: Community Liaison (Jess)
  • In Revision: Archivist (Greg)
• Budget
  • Proposed: Clear yearly budget
    •  Committee and Program Allocations

April 21, 2020. Attendees: Stefani, Adam, Jasmine, Elise, Mary, Jessica, Elise, Meaghan, Stefanie
Next meeting: June 11, 2020 at 11am

• The meeting began with a general check-in to talk about how people are doing and what work has been like since everything has changed due to the pandemic.
• The minutes from the March meeting were approved and posted to the Blog

Chapter Elections

• At the time of the March Board meeting, 72 ballots had been cast.
• In the meanwhile, Chapters Council Representative and Director at Large Jessica Brangiel was appointed to the position of Director at Large for the ACRL. Congratulations to Jessica!
• Jessica’s appointment results in an additional open position on the DVC Board
• Deadline for ballots is April 27 with the expectation to:
  • Notify winners
  • Communicate results via the Blog, Twitter, listserv and the website

Financial Report: There was not much financial activity this month. Our balance is $2800 and we made 19 cents in interest. There is one outstanding refund remaining from the delayed Spring Program.  New memberships are coming due soon. Adam is preparing the accounts and creating procedures to hand off to the next Treasurer.

COVID-19 Library Response Virtual Meeting: The resources (slides and notes) from this meeting are now available.

Original Spring Meeting postponed until September 25: To be held at the Charles Library, Temple University with Eamon Tewell as the keynote speaker. All other presenters have agreed to present in the fall. The Chapter will put out a new call for participants in case new topics, perhaps COVID-19 related are desired.

Legislative Liaison will become Community Liaison: Jasmine and Stefani will work together on a job description for this position and the Board discussed options for appointing someone to this role.

Mentoring Program: Partnerships last for one year. We will revisit participants in January

Social Event Update: The planning group is exploring dates and options for an online meet-up.

Blog: Stefani will try to write a “Goodbye” post or consider doing a COVID-19 dialog with Jasmine instead. Acknowledging that the Blog does not get much traffic, the board discussed options for making it more compelling. Ideas include:

• Introductory posts for each board member
• “Interview” posts with any member to answer consistent sets of questions, modeled on the NYTimes “By the Book” weekly interviews
• LIS Student reflections about the mentorship program
• More brainstorming to happen at the May meeting

Recruitment of new members will be tied to the fall program

Website: Karen solved the SEO issue by adjusting a setting within WordPress, adding an SEO plugin and appropriate keywords.

Next meeting: May 19, 2020 at 10am*

*postponed until June 11, 2020 at 11:00am

Attendees: Elise, Sarah, Stefani, Adam, Mary, Meaghan, Jessica, Jasmine

• The world has changed since our February meeting. The March meeting opened with board members sharing stories of how they coping and how their libraries are responding to the pandemic. Members shared ideas for staying occupied, engaged and in touch via text groups, virtual story times for kids and access to free online content from museums, artists and educational organizations.
• The board reviewed and approved the minutes of the January meeting despite all the changes that happened in the interim.
• Financial Report:
  • Adam processed refunds for the spring meeting and some partial refunds as fees included a membership fee for some who chose to attend and also join the chapter.
  • Since we needed to postpone the spring program until the fall, we are in good shape financially
  • The chapter is now officially recognized as a legal entity with the IRS, thanks to Adam, who has been working on this for a long time!
• Spring Program:
  • Postponed until September 25 at the Charles Library, Temple University
  • Eamon Tewell will be the keynote speaker
  • All of the other presenters agreed to presenting at the fall meeting instead.
  • We may be able to open the event up to additional presenters
• Planning for a Virtual Spring Meeting: COVID-19 Library Response
  • Professional Development virtual meetup
  • Possible Title: Convening Librarians: Creating community and supporting students during COVID-19
    • Shared understanding for what is happening regionally in our academic libraries
    • How do all the closings affect our students?
    • Brainstorm strategies to create community and support students
    • Crowdsource resources – Google doc
  • Large meeting with breakout sessions on Zoom
  • Hosted by University of Delaware – Aimee is coordinating
  • Crowdsource resources on Google spreadsheet
  • Registration via Zoom or Apricot
  • Description and call for registration to go out very soon, Stefani is drafting language for the announcement
  • Volunteers Sarah, Jasmine, Elise, Stefani and Meaghan will meet on March 23 to plan
  • Added note April 21: Resources from this meeting are publicly available
• Elections
  • Director-at-Large: Maisha Carey, Melissa Corell, Brendan Johnson
  • Vice President: Sam Kirk
  • Ballots to go out in April via Google forms and election to remain open for two weeks
  • Winners to be announced
• Legislative Liaison will become Community Liaison
  • Jasmine and Stefani are working on a job description
  • The position is appointed. Greg Laynor of Thomas Jefferson University was suggested
  • Hope to fill the position by Fall
  • The position could include Chapter’s Council responsibilities and perhaps reconnecting with the Maryland Chapter. Stefani, Jasmine and Jessica will discuss
• Mentoring Program
  • Jasmine has reached out to all who had signed up. Some people remain unpaired and more mentors are needed. We discussed whether location or type of library matters, but decided that any connection would be helpful.
• Social Event
  • on hold for now – we may consider holding something online
  • New Social Committee Members: Rachel King, Abby Cengel. Abby suggested setting something up to follow the spring meeting at Temple. The team will consider having something after the fall program
  • An in person meeting to be considered at a later date. Elise will report back
• Blog posted about the Virtual Spring Program
• Recruitment of new members will be tied to the Fall Program
• Website:
  • Karen investigated and corrected a problem with the mentoring form not forwarding to email and also took steps to improve SEO for the site
• OER Community of Practice
  • Jasmine created a list of resources and events
  • Karen will post to the website
• ACRL Update
  • We’re waiting to receive the form from National in order to submit our annual update.

Attendees: Jessica, Jasmine, Stefani, Sarah, Elise, Adam, Karen, Stephanie

November meeting minutes were reviewed and modified slightly.  

• Motion to approve the minutes.  Mary will post to the blog. 

Meeting time has been changed or the remainder of the year to the third Tuesday at 10:00a.m. 

• Next meeting is March 17th at 10am

Financial Report (Adam)

• New membership fees have increased assets by $15
• We discussed the spring program and catering estimates
  • Stefani and Adam to coordinate further off line
  • We will add a registration option to join as a member with an extended membership term in addition to registering for the spring program 

Spring Program Update

• Will be April 3rd at Charles Library, Temple University
• Eamon Tewell is our Keynote Speaker
• 9 proposals have come in so far
• Adam and Stefani working on getting registration set up

Mentoring Program & Stipend

• Not giving out a travel grant this year maybe next year
• Jasmine emailed all former mentors 6 are still interested in participating
• Jasmine contacted library schools in the area to solicit for mentees and had a response of 5 interested students
• Discussion ensued about the contact form, Google Drive access etc.  

Elections held in March

• Jess working on the slate of candidates
• Two positions open for Director-at-large and VP/P
• Adam and Meaghan have confirmed they will stay on the board as treasurer and secretary respectively

We discussed the legislative liaison role how it could be changed in the future

• Legislative day does not get much interest from members
• Perhaps this position could be focused on fundraising, increasing membership, community outreach – a more detailed discussion will occur at a later date

Social Event Update

• Issues with the venue Elise had been working with, time tight to get out the word on the program
• Board agreed to table a social event until after the spring program
• New social committee member Rachel King – welcome
  • Elise will work more with Rachel to plan a social event for late spring

Transition Meeting May/June

• Usually held in person – Stefani will look for a spot halfway between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Area – Doylestown proposed – seems like a good fit
• Doodle poll for dates to be sent out after elections to include new board members 

Blog Update

• Dialogue regarding the fall program was posted
• Aimee Gee to write something pre-spring program

Recruitment

• Option to join membership tied into spring program registration 
• More promotion will be done at spring Philly event