ARLIS/NW Chapter

Business Meeting Minutes

Portland State University Branford P. Miller Library

November 11, 2006

The Chair, Hollis Near, convened the meeting at 11:40am with approximately 20 members and guests in attendance.

2005 Business Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the 2005 Business Meeting were approved.

Financial Report by John Cull, Treasurer

The Chapter’s Financial Report for the period October 1, 2005 – October 31, 2006 listed receipts totaling $1,548 and expenditures totaling $1,301.21, representing an increase of $246.68 in cash. The opening cash balance as of October 1, 2005 was $3,735.44 and the closing cash balance as of October 31, 2006 was $4,l65.55 in US dollars.

ARLIS/NA Chapter Affiliation Agreement

Hollis opened the review and discussion of the ARLIS/NA Chapter Affiliation Agreement by stating that her role was to facilitate the discussion and to carry out the consensus of the membership regarding signing of the agreement. The deadline for signing the Agreement was extended to December 20, 2006.

Motion passed: To vote on the ARLIS/NA Chapter Affiliation Agreement at today’s meeting.

A discussion to clarify aspects of the Affiliation Agreement followed. Marilyn Nasserden, a member of the ARLIS/NA Executive Board, explained that the issue of affiliation was raised when ARLIS/NA was questioned by the IRS about the legal relationship between the chapters and ARLIS/NA. She pointed out that signing the Agreement meant that Chapter members must be members of the ARLIS/NA national organization. She said there was also the idea establishing a category for non-members to allow them to attend Chapter meetings.

Hollis explained that Incorporation, Insurance, and the membership fee structure were separate issues from signing the Affiliation Agreement. She stated that signing the Affiliation Agreement did not mean that ARLIS/NA assumed responsibility for Chapter liability. Marilyn added that this isn’t a change since it has always been the situation that Chapters have their own liability and ARLIS/NA is not responsible.

John Cull explained that if the Chapter did not sign the Affiliation Agreement, the Chapter would have to dissolve. He said that the Chapter’s Bylaws already includes a Dissolution clause.

Marilyn explained that if a chapter votes to dissolve, as long as there are ten people who want to sign the affiliation agreement they could establish a new chapter.

Marilyn pointed out that a possible drawback to signing the Affiliation Agreement was that only ARLIS/NA members could serve on the Chapter’s Executive Committee, thus possibly affecting the pool of eligible candidates for the positions on the Committee.

Motion passed: To sign the ARLIS/NA Chapter Affiliation Agreement

Those in attendance voted unanimously in favor of signing the Affiliation Agreement.

Chapter Liability, Insurance, Incorporation

Motion passed: To use waivers at all Chapter events.

Motion passed: To appoint a committee to research the issues of Insurance and

Incorporation.

Hollis said the charge to the committee should include an assessment of the potential risk of liability to the Chapter, cross-border status issues, and the costs of insurance and incorporation. She requested that the group report back at the Fall 2007 meeting.

Chapter Affiliates

John Cull presented the idea of establishing a category for Chapter Affiliates to allow ARLIS/NA non-members to attend Chapter meetings. He recommended that the membership categories and fee structure for Affiliates be the same as for members (Institutional, Personal, Preferred). Affiliates would not be allowed to vote nor serve on the Executive. The Chapter membership form will ask if the person is a member of the national organization or not.

Motion passed: To accept the following recommendations from the Treasurer regarding Chapter Affiliates: (a) to keep the membership types the same – Institutional, Personal, Preferred (b) to allow non-ARLIS/NA members to become “Chapter Affiliates” (c) to use the same fee structure for both members and Chapter Affiliates (d) to define rights and privileges for “Chapter Affiliates” as in the registration form (may not hold office or vote, etc.)

It was noted that the Bylaws cannot include any information on Chapter Affiliates, so that information would have to be maintained separately on the web.

Chapter grants for Affiliates

The idea of establishing three $50 bursaries to go toward payment of ARLIS/NA membership dues was discussed. Ed Teague recommended that preference should go to Chapter officers and Affiliates (to help them become full members of the Chapter).

Motion passed: To establish three $50.00 membership bursaries for 2007 to assist payment of national membership dues.

Motion passed: Preference would go to members or affiliates who do not receive institutional support.

Motion passed: Preference would also go to persons active in Chapter affairs or willing to act as a Chapter officer.

2006 Travel Awards Report by Connie Okada

In February 2006, the Chapter received four applications for a $500 travel grant to help support attendance of the ARLIS/NA Annual Conference in Banff. The Executive Committee reviewed the applications relative to the criteria for the award and ranked Lynn Brockington, Vancouver Art Gallery Library, as the strongest applicant. Lynn was awarded the travel grant and attended the Banff conference. She has submitted a written report on the Conference to the Executive Committee.

In September, Hollis Near sent out a call for a $150 travel grant to help attend the Fall Chapter meeting in Portland. No applications were received and the process was closed.

Brief discussion of the local chapter award followed. It was suggested that the reason there were no applicants for the 2006 local travel award may have been because potential applicants were limited to new members.

2007 Travel Awards

The Treasurer, John Cull, reported that funds were available for the Chapter to offer travel grants for both the national conference and the local chapter meeting in 2007.

Motion passed: To offer two $250 travel grants to attend the 2007 national conference.

Motion passed: To offer two $100 travel grants to attend the local chapter meeting.

Motion passed: To remove from the application criteria for local chapter meeting travel awards the restriction to new members.

ARLIS/NA Canadian Representative’s Report by Marilyn Nasserden

Marilyn reported that the ARLIS/NA Annual Conference held in Banff was successful, including financially successful. She thanked the Northwest Chapter for their contributions, participation, and for hosting the conference.

Marilyn said the Executive Board has been busy working on the Chapter Affiliation Agreement with the Chapters. She thanked the Executives of the Chapters for their work and participation.

ARLIS/NA membership dues are set to go up.

Listserv Report by Nicole Gjertsen

Carole Goldsmith, Listserv manager, has changed the list to a closed list to help with the spam problem.

Web Report by Hollis Near

Hollis has made two recent changes on the website: (a) the 2004 revised Bylaws have been posted, and (b) the membership list has been weeded and updated based on current membership information from John Cull.

Nominations for Executive Committee by Ed Teague

Ed Teague presented the slate of candidates for vacant positions on the 2007 Executive Committee:

Vice Chair/Chair Elect – John Burchard, Fine and Performing Arts Librarian,
Branford Price Millar Library, Portland State University

Secretary - Traci Timmons, Manager of Library Services, Seattle Art Museum

The slate was approved by acclamation. Continuing on the Executive Committee are Hollis Near, Chair, and John Cull, Treasurer.

Fall 2007 Meeting

The group favored Seattle as the site for the Fall 2007 Chapter meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 1:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Connie Okada, Secretary