MLA Executive Board Meeting
Friday, February 13, 2015
10:00 am-12:00 pm
Conference Call
AGENDA
Present: Maureen Ambrosino, President, Deborah Conrad, Secretary, Bernadette Rivard,
Treasurer, Elizabeth Marcus, Past President, Erin Daly, Michelle Filleul, Esme Green, Sarah
Hagan, Ellen Keane, Susan McAlister , Pamela McCuen, Krista McLeod, Dinah O'Brien,
Jacqueline Rafferty, Ellen Rainville, Nancy Sheehan, Jocelyn Tavares, Ruth Urell, Danielle
Savin, Gerry Deyermond,
1. Welcome and Call to Order
Call to order 10:07 a.m.
2. Approval of December minutes
Vote to approve the minutes postponed until next Executive Board Meeting
3. President's report
Sarah has submitted her resignation as she has accepted a position at the Boston Public Library.
Maureen will be posting the position and developing a transition plan. Maureen noted that Sarah
has done a wonderful job helping MLA get back on track to which everyone agreed. The
Administrative Board has held some extraordinary meetings after Sarah submitted her
resignation. The immediate plan is to hire someone to coordinate conference as Maureen feels
that expecting a new hire to take on the Association and conference in a very short period of time
would be asking too much.
4. Past President’s Report
Nanci Milone Hill is vice-president/president elect starting 7/1/2015. Jennifer Pike has been
elected treasurer starting 7/1/2015. 79 votes submitted
5. Treasurer's report
It has been discovered that the Fidelity account was indeed set up properly. Maureen, Deb
Abraham, and Bernadette just need to go to Fidelity to sign paperwork. The Digital
Commonwealth bank account is closed. $5000 was transferred from reserves to checking.
Bernadette will be working with Maureen and Sarah to develop a procedures manual for finance.
Membership dues are coming in.
6. Association Manager's report
Sarah has accepted a position at the Boston Public Library and will be leaving MLA on 2/28/15.
Committee reports
Conference
The Conference Committee has been dealing with loss of Sarah and the change of the conference
dates to May 4 – May 6. Luckily the majority of programs and keynotes were able to shift.
Right now firming up final schedule and preparing publicity. A rough draft of the SAVE THE
DATE brochure has been done and the hope is to send that out the week of Feb. 17. There are
great programs, new activities, and a lot of authors. Allison Sloan has agreed to take on role of
coordinating sponsorships. Debby Conrad has agreed to coordinate the grand opening of the
exhibit area. Ruth will invite ALA President. Betsy is willing to work with the vendors on site.
Debby will provide Betsy with backup if necessary. Diane Young will continue as backup
helper for registration.
Intellectual Freedom
The committee was unable to meet due to snow. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/17.
Jordan Miller
Kara Reitman from NERTCL talked to Pam reporting that attendance at Jordan Miller event at
NELA has been decreasing. They suggest that a there might be a better use of Jordan Miller
bequest. Several options were discussed about how the funds could be used more effectively.
Motion – made by Pam McCuen that starting in 2015, Jordan Miller funds be used
to set up an schedule where one year it would fund storytellers to perform in a
Massachusetts library or during MLA annual conference and in the alternate year
be used for a NELA conference program or as an award to an New England public
library outside of Massachusetts to support a storyteller program. Libraries would
have to apply for the grant and the Jordan Miller committee will make the decision.
Second – Erin Daly. Motion approved.
Legislative
Susan will help Maureen draft letters to Governor, Senate, and House. Next meeting will be the
final planning for the April 1st Legislative Day in Boston and it will be held on March 13 at
Minuteman at 1 p.m.
Massachusetts Center for the Book – no report
Membership – no report
Personnel/Education
They have started receiving applications for people interested in being 2015 NELS mentors.
Will be making recommendations to NELS committee. Kristen Underwood will be stepping
down as chair of Personnel/Education after this year.
Public Relations
Applications for the 2015 PR Awards have been posted and advertised. Applications due at the
end of the month. Judges will be selected in March. Award banquet will be a formal event
again. Maureen will talk to Jocelyn about Better World Books.
Section reports Paralibrarian
The section changed the way applications are being submitted for their awards to get better
information about applicants. 2015 Book Truck drill team applications are almost ready for
advertising.
Technical services – no report
Youth Services
The Section needs people to serve as secretary or member at large. By-laws require a
nominating committee and Ellen Rainville recommended that a nominating committee of one be
appointed to keep in the spirit of the by-laws. . Registration is open for the Hands on
Technology Workshop to be held on March 19th program in Palmer. Awesome awards – asking
people to submit their applications. Esme suggested that this be publicized on all libraries list
because directors might want their staff to submit an application. FY 2016 YSS will be
sponsoring an unconference style retreat. Erin will be attending March 6 meeting of NERTCL.
Liaison reports
ALA Councilor
Massachusetts is the only state not a member of the Freedom to Read foundation. This is the
legal arm for intellectual freedom issues.
Ruth Urell made a motion that MLA pay the $100 to become a member of the
Freedom to Read foundation. Seconded by Jackie Rafferty. Approved.
Ruth recommends that we follow the ALA Strategic Plan and align ourselves with national
priorities.
MBLC – no report
MLS – no report
MSLA – no report
NELA
The Emerson Greenaway award nomination process is coming up this spring. The
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is picking up the Massachusetts contribution to NELS
through LSTA and it is going to award a grant to MLA in support of the 2015 NELS program.
This means there will be at least 6 Massachusetts candidates and possibly 2 mentors.
Applications for NELS attendees and mentors are posted on MLA website. NELA has posted t
application for attendees. Applications due in March.
Old business
FY16 budgets
Budget requests were due week of Feb. 1. Only 4 budgets have been submitted so far. Budgets
need to be submitted to Bernadette. She wants to finalize the budget by February 20. The final
budget must be ready for approval at the May annual meeting.
Reference and Information Services Section
Maureen met with Laura Bernheim to discuss the formation of this new section. The organizers
will be emailing a request to MLA members asking support for a petition to approve formation
of the new section. 25 signatures must be received to have the proposal go to the Executive
Board. The Executive Board must then vote to approve the proposal. The vote has to take place
60 days before Annual Conference. That vote will be taken via email and must be completed by
March 7. The final vote on approving the formation of this new section will take place during
business meeting at annual meeting.
By-laws
Dinah, Maureen and Ellen are cleaning up language regarding nominations and voting. They are
combining the sections for Personnel and Education which were originally 2 sections and now
are 1 section. The by-laws need to be modified to define voting privileges for institutional
memberships.
Several section chairs mentioned they would be making by-law changes. Ellen stated that those
changes do not need to be approved by the Executive Board. Maureen recommended that
section changes be made in time per by-laws so that vote can take place during annual meeting.
Homework
Paralibrarians – have been working with New Hampshire because they want to start their own
paralibrarian awards.
TSS – nothing to report
YSS –will be sending representation to NERTSL meeting in March.
Conference – sent out a message but no responses
Intellectual Freedom – communicating with former chair of IFC and new chair. Hoping they can
identify standalone program that can be done if resources are pooled.
Legislative – Dinah sent email and heard from Maine, New Hampshire and CT. None of the
states do anything on the same scale as we do. Connecticut does lobby at the state house. Krista
said Connecticut is hiring someone to develop an advocacy packet for local libraries to use. Beth
Crowley is incoming president of the Connecticut Library Association and Dinah will contact
her.
PR – reached out to Rhode Island and Connecticut. They offer programs on PR and do awards.
Open to working with MLA. Some discussion about working on PR toolkit.
Maureen has emailed presidents of the other associations. Other states do offer reciprocity on
conference registration allowing in-state conference rates if the attendee is a member of their
own state association. Steve Spohn is talking about setting up email list for board members from
NE state library associations to facilitate communication.
New business
Dinah – saw Ryan at mid-winter and he said hello.
5. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn – Gerry Deyermond. Approved. 11:37 a.m.