The Business meeting minutes of 10/22/98 passed with no changes.
Dal Symes (Chapter President) introduced the main item of business that was up for discussion. Driven by a mandate from ACRL National, the Chapter must decide whether to independently incorporate or become an official part of an already incorporated state association. This mandate was driven by liability concerns. The Chapter must resolve this question and act upon their decision by the end of the year 2000. Both options will be presented and discussed at this meeting, then hopefully the discussion will continue on the ACRL-NW list, and based on feedback received from the discussions the Board will propose a plan of action to the membership sometime next spring.
Gary Menges (Member-at-Large) presented the option of incorporating independently. The Chapter was established in 1980. At that time a decision was made by the founding members not to be formally associated with the Washington Library Association, but to exist as an independent organization. In contrast to some states, Gary indicated that currently, as well as at that time, very few academic librarians belong to the state association. (In 1980 only about 15% of the Washington National ACRL members were members of WLA. All National ACRL members are automatically members of the Chapter, but only 26 of the 194 current National ACRL members are also WLA members). He believes this is primarily due to the cost of dues and the impression that WLA doesn’t serve the academic community very well. National ACRL requires that the Chapter President and Vice-President be National ACRL members. Unless a large number of non-WLA ACRL members joined WLA we would be drawing our Chapter leadership from a very small group. The Chapter has been successful because of its low dues ($5 per year for members of National, $10 if you’re not a member of National), informal structure, broad membership among the state’s academic librarians, and its successful conferences. Because of this he supports incorporating independently rather than associating with WLA.
In order to incorporate as an independent organization the Chapter would need to submit an application form to the State of Washington with a $30 application fee. After the initial application and fee it would cost $10 a year to maintain incorporation. In addition to incorporating, a question about whether there is a need to acquire liability insurance has been raised. Gary presented three options in answer to this question:
Marie Zimmermann (Past-President) presented the option of becoming associated with the Washington Library Association (WLA). In order to be covered by the WLA incorporation the Chapter would have to become an interest group of WLA. In order to become an interest group 10 members of the Chapter would need to petition the WLA Executive Board to establish a WA Chapter/ACRL interest group. No petition for interest group status has ever been turned down. All WLA interest groups have their own by-laws and officers, and all interest groups must sponsor programming. Interest groups do receive money from WLA and there is an interest group representative on the Executive Board. In order to be a member of an interest group you must be a member of WLA. WLA dues range from $35 - $100 based on the annual earnings of the member. Dues are calculated at $1.50 for each $1000 of earnings.
Marie supports establishing the Washington Chapter of ACRL as an interest group of WLA. She believes strongly that academic librarians have a professional responsibility to participate in the association that supports their profession. One of the main avenues of support that WLA provides that is important is the WLA legislative lobbyist who is funded through personal dues. WLA is also a public relations tool for the profession and Marie believes it’s important as a professional to participate in the larger organization that represents the profession as a whole.
The following individuals were suggested as members of the nominating committee for this year, Lynn Kanne (Seattle Central Community College), Carol Green (University of Washington) and Margaret Fast (Western Washington University). The nominating committee was approved as proposed and the above individuals will be asked to serve.
There are two candidates for the open newsletter editor position, Kathleen Forsythe from the University of Washington (Seattle) and Brenda Philip from the University of Washington (Tacoma). The President appoints this position, and he decided to ask Kathleen to serve as the newsletter editor and Brenda to serve as the new Chapter web page developer and editor. Additionally, they will be asked to work closely together to work towards delivering the newsletter, and other Chapter information, in an electronic format.
John Backes from Shoreline Community College presented information about the Library Council of Washington. Information about the Council and their activities can be found on their web site at - http://www.statelib.wa.gov/libraries/lib_council/index.htm.
Gary Menges announced that a “School for Scanning” put on by the Northeast Document Conservation Center will be held in the Pacific Northwest, hosted (hopefully) by the University of Washington, in September of 2000. For more information on the NDCC go to - http://www.nedcc.org/.
Betsy Wilson announced the ACRL’s Institute for Information Literacy immersion program that will take place at the University of Washington August 4-9, 2000. Full information about the program can be found at - http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/initiatives.html.
Respectfully Submitted
Andrea Kueter
Secretary/Treasurer
WA Chapter/ACRL