RUSA Conference Program Coordinating Committee
Meeting
June 12, 2013
3 – 4 pm ET / 2 – 3 pm CT / 1 – 2 pm MT / 12 – 1 pm PT
Minutes
Attendance: Susan Beck, Denise Forro, Todd Hines, Kathleen Kern (guest), Mary Popp (guest), Donna
Scanlon, Doris Ann Sweet, Joe Thompson (chair)
1. Volunteer to take minutes: Joe took the minutes
2. Approval of minutes
o
April 8 [http://connect.ala.org/node/205047]. Minutes recorded by Denise. Donna
offered a motion to approve. Susan Beck 2nd. All in favor. The motion passed and the
minutes were approved.
o
May 24 draft minutes [pending completion by Kaite and Donna]. We will seek to
approve these when we meet at ALA Annual in Chicago.
3. Updates about number of RUSA programs
o
There have been some recent email exchanges with Susan Hornung, and some
possibilities that could still allow all 13 proposed RUSA programs for Annual 2014 to go
forward:
1. Based on the May 22 email from Susan, we continue to work under the
assumption that RUSA will have available 10 program slots, which does not
include the RUSA President’s Program. So, 11 including the President’s Program.
2. ALA Conference Services has not fully committed to a firm number of programs
for each division.
3. Susan has spoken to Kim Olsen-Clarke in the ALA Development Department,
who has offered use of her one program allotment for RUSA to use for Smart
Investing. Joe has let Susan know that we would appreciate this and thanked
her for it.
4. Susan has suggested that ASCLA could be interested in cosponsoring some of
our RUSA proposals, specifically the 2nd priority RSS proposal (Free or Low-Cost
Marketing) and 2nd priority STARS proposal (Finding Dead People), so long as
ASCLA isn’t already using its allocation of 10 program slots. Joe let Susan know
that the RUSA organizers would likely support this, especially if it means that
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these programs can go forward. Susan will follow-up with ASCLA (she is also
Executive Director of that division). ASCLA may not make a decision to cosponsor these until after they meet at ALA Annual in Chicago.
5. Susan also suggested that ASCLA could be interested in co-sponsoring Creative
Aging in America’s Libraries (RSS) and/or Code4ILL- How to Grow Your Own
Innovation for Resource Sharing (STARS) . Since we have already assumed that
these 1st priority section programs will use RUSA slots, these co-sponsorships
wouldn’t impact our number. The organizers would need to approve these cosponsorships, in addition to the LITA co-sponsorship that STARS is already
considering for this program.
4. Scoring of proposals
o
This was CPCC’s first attempt to score proposals
o
We had some difficulty scoring the speakers. Some programs don’t yet have speakers
secured. Others had speakers with credentials listed, but we couldn’t judge whether
speakers were good presenters. We each tried to maintain consistency, perhaps giving
a middle-of-the-road score if no speakers were listed. All RUSA sections have recently
organized programs, so we were uncertain how to score on this. Anticipated
attendance: Some of us tended to rate low anticipated low and high anticipated
attendance higher.
o
We also don’t have any compiled info regarding previous year’s programs. We had
requested that a program archive be created by the RUSA office for this purpose when
we submitted our RUSA Board action item (which was approved) at Midwinter 2013.
CPCC/Joe/next CPCC chair need to follow-up with RUSA office to ensure that this
program archive is created following this Annual Conference.
o
We had a tendency to score the re-occurring programs lower than the new one-time
programs. Some of us have heard rumors about some of the re-occuring programs not
working well. However, we don’t have any data to show how attendance has changed
or how the programs are being received. Denise put it well, it seems like we are taking a
shot in the dark.
o
Literary Tastes was submitted late, so some of us didn’t score it.
o
We may want to add a comments area to next year’s scoring form.
o
Those with observable and quantifiable learning objectives tended to score well. Mad
Men was a nice example of this from BRASS.
o
Since we weren’t sure we had quorum here in today’s online meeting, we made a
recommendation that the full slate of 13 proposals be approved…
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
Pending formal approval by the full committee. We discussed doing this poll
online, but instead will formally approve the slate of programs when we meet
in Chicago at ALA Annual.

Pending agreement by ASCLA to co-sponsor the 2nd priority RSS proposal (Free
or Low-Cost Marketing) and 2nd priority STARS proposal (Finding Dead People).
Unless the program slots become available, these two programs will not go
forward.
5. Budget requests
Mad Men: The Business of Advertising (BRASS)
“$ 250 - Honorarium for speaker #2 $ 50 - per diem expenses for speaker #2 (parking,
transportation, etc.) $ 50 - office supplies, photocopies $ 350 TOTAL”
Doris Ann made a motion to approve the budget request. Denise seconded the
motion. All in favor. The motion passed. Speakers are not from library community
and would not otherwise attend ALA.
Free or low-cost marketing opportunities for your library (RSS 2nd)
“It would be great to have funding for this timely and important author. (RSS Marketing
and PR has not previously requested this as long as I can remember. ) The exact amount
is unknown at this time.”
This was not a formal budget request so we can’t act on it at this time. We will give the
program organizers an opportunity before Annual to give us a formal amount of funding
requested and speaker.
Library Values: How what we believe in affects what we are worth (President’s Program)
“There is a request for funding for the RUSA President's program as part of a budget
request that will go to Budget and Finance and to RUSA Board. If we have a speaker
from a funding agency, an honorarium might be required. Less than $5000 is my hope.”
This funding is half the amount requested to support the RUSA President’s Program last
year. This current request is part of a larger RUSA Budget and Finance request. Susan
Beck made a motion to approve this request as it is currently slated to go to RUSA
Budget and Finance. Donna Scanlon seconded. All in favor. CPCC expressed its
support for the request.
How Business Librarians Support Entrepreneurs (BRASS Preconference)
“In addition to room/AV setup, we'd like to request $350: $250 for a legal expert
honorarium and $50 parking. $50 emergency photocopying.”
This is a new preconference for BRASS. Speakers are not from library community and
would not otherwise attend ALA. There was some discussion about whether registration
fees for the preconference should cover these costs. Approval in advance will help
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BRASS firm up speakers. Denise offered a motion to approve the request. Doris Ann
made a second. The motion passed and the budget request was approved.
Servant Leadership (Preconference)
“If we repeat the model of providing partial funding for RUSA leaders, there will need to
be funding. $7000 would cover 50 people paying 1/2 price. This is sort of already in a
proposal that was given to Budget and Finance (there is a set-aside requested for special
projects).”
This proposal is already part of a larger RUSA Budget and Finance request. We ran out
of time at today’s RUSA CPCC meeting to formally offer support.
6. Review Midwinter/Annual draft schedules and recommend changed to reduce conflicts
o
Joe will move some of the Saturday and Sunday proposals into their 2nd choice time slots
in order to eliminate schedule conflicts. We will discuss in Chicago.
7. Review our timeline
o
ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago, CPCC Meeting:
Monday, July 1, 8:30-10:00 a.m. CT
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
Boardroom 3
Possible agenda items:
- Approve any late changes
- Review process
- Develop recommendations for next year
- Others?
The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Joe Thompson
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