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Present: Aurora Cruz, Ann-Marie Cutul, Ed Falcone, Maxine Grandison, James Leftwich, Cathy Paulsen, Carolyn Reznick, Sharon Rothman, and Judith Rovenger

Excused: Tim Baird, Zahra M. Baird, Diane Batemarco, Francene Costello, Karyn DeLuca, Rebecca Eller, Jodie Hopkins, Harriet Huang, Opal B. Lindsay, John Monahan, Srivalli Rao, and Karen Zielinski

The meeting was called to order at 10:15. Motion (Falcone/Rovenger) to accept the Minutes from June 5, passed.

President’s Report:

• James Leftwich, new president for the 2008- 2009 season, welcomed the Board members present and encouraged ideas and input from everyone. He announced that Patrick Callahan has resigned from the board. Leftwich will check if there are any further resignations.

Treasurer’s Report:

• Ed Falcone, who has succeeded Sara Rodgers as Treasurer, distributed reports from the WLA Checking and Savings account. As of August 29, 2008, the Checking Account had $18,423.25 and the Savings Account $19,851.70. Falcone proposed to open a short term CD for better interest. The Board voted to allocate $25,000 for a 3-month CD and agreed to have Falcone investigate rates and open the CD.

Membership Report:

• Leftwich read the membership report by Rao who was excused.
• WLA has 245 members for 2008. 84 members from 2007 have not renewed. Rao will include these individuals when she sends the renewal notices for 2009 membership.
• All 2006 members who did not renew have been deleted from the membership database.
• 225 members from 2008 and 59 members from 2007 have given their e-mail ids on the membership form.
• Rao intends to send the first renewal notices to all 2007 and 2008 members via e-mail in late November 2008. Only individuals without e-mails will receive renewal notices via US Mail. Membership forms will be attached to the renewal e-mails and can be printed out and mailed back to Rao with attached checks.
• Rao will send out a second renewal notice during the holiday break in December via US Mail to all 2008 and 2007 members who have not renewed yet.
• Leftwich offered to investigate using Paypal for membership renewals.
• Rovenger suggested working toward a certain membership goal, particularly since there are fewer members in 2008 than in 2007.

Web Administration Committee:

• Leftwich will ask Tim Baird for results of the online Conference survey.
• Leftwich will provide Tim Baird with an updated listing of the WLA Board of Directors.

Youth Services Section:

• Rovenger reported that she is looking for two individuals to co-chair the Youth Services Committee and is open for suggestions from the Board. It is urgent that the positions be filled soon since plans need to be commenced for the Performers’ Showcase which is co-sponsored with WLS and usually takes place in March.
• Rovenger also mentioned that she has been approached by Betsy Bover Polivy and Kerri McPhail from the Once Upon A Time bookstore to co-sponsor an author program or author panel, possibly as part of the Annual Conference. She will investigate further.

Support Staff Section:

• Grandison reported that the Support Staff program at the Annual Conference was well attended and very successful.

2008 Annual Conference:

• The feedback from the May 9 Annual Conference at Doubletree has been very positive, and WLA made a small profit. Some general comments and suggestions were made as follows:
• Staggering the sessions did not seem to be effective.
• Consider having the keynote speaker have a session in the afternoon instead of the morning.
• We need to do something more for our vendors, may be a vendor scavenger hunt for the conference attendees?
• We need feedback from the vendors through a vendor survey. Leftwich will check with Hopkins for this year’s vendor comments.
• It is confusing having both a paper survey and an online survey for the conference attendees. It would be better to just have an online survey with an e-mail reminder right after the conference. Also consider surveying the WLA members who did not attend the conference to find the reason(s) why.
• Encourage the directors to encourage their staff to attend the conference.
• Consider charging ½ price for attending either morning or afternoon workshops. This would be useful since the number of tables in the lunch room is limited.

2009 Annual Conference:

• Preliminary date for the 2009 Annual Conference will be a Friday between 4/24 and 5/15. Aurora will contact Doubletree and get back to the Board for a decision.

WLA Program suggestion:

• Leftwich suggested co-sponsoring an author program with Barnes & Noble which he will look into further. This could be good for a December event. Rothman suggested a “Two for One” with one free admission if a member brought a non-member. B&N also has a program with community organizations that gives them rebates if members purchase items at B&N on a particular day.
• Leftwich will also contact Purchase College for the possibility of co-sponsoring an event.

The meeting was adjourned (Rothman/Grandison) at 11:50.

                                        Respectfully submitted by Ann-Marie Cutul

Upcoming WLA meetings:

October 2 at Yonkers Will Library
November 13 at Yonkers Will Library
December 4 at Yonkers Will Library
December 5 (event) (tentative date)