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WESTCHESTER LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
Summary of the Board of Directors Meeting
  June 11, 2009
Zanaro's Restaurant, White Plains


Present: Zahra M. Baird, Diane Batemarco, Francene Costello, Aurora Cruz, Ann-Marie Cutul, Karyn DeLuca, Ed Falcone, Dan Glauber, Harriet Huang, James Leftwich, John Monahan, Cathy Paulsen, Srivalli Rao, Sharon Rothman, and Susan Thaler

President’s Report:
·    Leftwich praised the organizers of the WLA Annual Conference May 8 and particularly thanked Karyn DeLuca for arranging the extremely successful Washington Irving author panel. All agreed that the Conference was very successful, and everyone was impressed with the caliber of the speakers.
·     Leftwich shared the online Conference survey results, courtesy Survey Monkey. Comments were generally very favorable. Highlights mentioned were the Washington Irving authors and the keynote speaker Lee Child. Suggestions for improvements included better control of the lighting, the pacing of the events, and a better vegetarian meal. Leftwich also thanked Dan Glauber for rounding up six legislators.

Treasurer’s Report:
·    Falcone reported that as of June 10, 2009, WLA had $5,603.06 in the Checking Account and $34,000.23 in the Savings Account. The Savings Account balance includes a transfer of $14,136.00 from the Checking Account. Falcone reported that  WLA out of pocket expenses for the Conference were only a couple of thousand dollars. The Washington Irving Author print materials accounted for a part of the outlay.

Membership Report:
·    Rao reported that we have 220 members for 2009. 64 persons did not renew from 2007, and these have been purged from the database. 87 persons did not renew from 2008. Rao will include these persons in the 2010 renewal mailings. As in the past, anyone joining WLA after the Annual Conference will automatically be registered as a member for 2010.

Reference Section:
·    Z.M. Baird handed out a planning sheet for the 2010 Annual Conference. She suggested we schedule our Conference to dovetail with the LIRR May 6th 2010 Conference, themed “Food for Thought.”
·    Potential speakers are:
1.    Jack Martin (NYPL) on “By Teens, for Teens: Out of the Box Programming” 
2.     Carrie Mason-Draffen on “151 Quick Ideas to Deal With Difficult People”
3.    Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
4.    A panel presentation of editors, authors and marketing reps from publishing houses on the “Multiplatform Novel from Print to Web to Social Network”
5.    A panel presentation of librarians on the topic “Can you hear me now? Exploring the untapped potential of soundbytes in the library world.”
·    Z.M. Baird further suggested Adriana Trigiani as a keynote speaker and indicated after meeting her that she would be interested in coming.

Legislation Committee:
·    Glauber reported that he had sent thank you notes to the legislators who attended the Conference. Next year he would like to plan for the legislators to say a few words which some of them did at this year’s Conference but it was not planned for.

Directory Committee:
·    Huang mentioned that next year we need to produce a new WLA directory and will need someone to do the entries for the public and school libraries.

Professional Development Committee:
·    Baird reported on behalf of Zielinski that the deadline for the Robert Trudell Scholarship is December 1 of this year. We need to spread the word. Zielinski would also be willing to set up a scholarship for learning Spanish is the Board is interested.

Potential WLA Events:
·    Glauber will explore the idea of a barbecue in September. Please forward names of potential parks or other locations to him.
·    A Jacob Burns event, such as a movie screening.

2010 WLA Annual Conference:
·    The Board voted to hold next year’s Annual Conference at the Doubletree Friday, May 7.
·    Thaler suggested a potential Conference speaker, Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide. She had heard him speak on neuroscience and was very impressed.
·    Please email your ideas to Susan Thaler.

                        Respectfully submitted by Ann-Marie Cutul

Upcoming Meetings:
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2009
Place: White Plains Public Library
Time:  10 A.M. to Noon

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 (Please note it’s a Tuesday!)
Place: White Plains Public Library
Time: 10 A.M. to Noon
Last modified on 6/23/2009 by the WLA Web Administration Committee