Minutes April 2nd, 2009

Excused: Tim Baird, Zahra M. Baird, Kate Colquitt, James Leftwich, Michelle Meltzer, John Monahan, and Srivalli Rao

The meeting came to order at 10:15 A.M. Vice President Rothman presided as Leftwich was excused. Rothman welcomed Ginny Stromberg who will be joining the Support Staff Section. Motion (Reznick/Glauber) to accept the Minutes from March 5 passed with one correction. 

Treasurer’s Report:
·    Falcone reported that as of March 31, 2009, the WLA Checking Account had $19,388.04 and the Savings Account $19,862.64.
·    Cutul mentioned to Falcone that he needs to write up the annual Treasurer’s Report to be included in the Conference packets.

Reference Section:
·    Paulsen reported that the Bowling Soiree March 6 was very successful with 15 people attending. Paulsen suggested we have another social event in either June or September. The Board favored September.  Glauber suggested a barbecue in a Westchester park and will follow up.

College Section:
·    Batemarco has been in touch with Acampora for appropriate information to be included in her introductory remarks before Acampora’s presentation.
·    Batemarco also raised a membership question on behalf of Jennifer Ransom.  Ransom has suggested an organizational category of WLA membership with 2-3 people to be eligible members. The Board asked Batemarco to have Ransom clarify her proposition.

Support Staff Section:
·    Grandison reported that speaker Wendt has requested an easel or flow chart for her presentation. Ms. Wendt’s picture will be added to the Conference speaker information sheet which will be resent via email by Rao.

Legislation Committee:
·    Glauber reported that Lobby Day 10 was well attended.  The group included WLS Executive Director Terry Kirchner and many public library directors. Glauber met with Suzi Oppenheimer, Andrea Stewart Cousins, and Mike Spano, as well as some assistants. He expressed hopes that the lobby effort in addition to efforts by library advocate Amy Paulin would reduce the proposed 18% cut in state library aid.
·    Glauber has issued 13 invitations to the Annual Conference to state representatives, as well County Executive Andy Spano. He has requested a response by April 15 and will follow up after that date.

Washington Irving Committee:
·    DeLuca praised the hard work of the Committee, and the Board expressed its profound thanks to the following Committee members: Leslie Dickinson, Christine Utchel, Martha Alcott, and Zahra M. Baird.
·    DeLuca reported that the Committee has sent out packages to the public libraries with posters, booklets, stickers, and a letter suggesting book displays of award winners. She will also send out publicity material to Barnes & Noble in White Plains, Sunnyside, the Westchester Arts Council, and the Hudson Valley Writers Center. The Committee will do a press release, as well. De Luca also asked that the WLA website be altered to create greater visibility for the Washington Irving Award Winners.
·    Ten authors have confirmed their attendance so far for the Washington Irving Program at the Conference. There will be a Power Point presentation which will be uploaded to the WLA website. DeLuca also displayed the big banner that will be exhibited at the Conference and showed the pens that will be distributed.

Raffle Committee:
·    Cutul reported that she has received a very attractive gold bracelet from Bellizzi Jewelers and a book from the local Scarsdale bookstore as the first raffle prizes. Cutul suggested we incorporate pictures of the raffle prizes in the poster board that Meltzer will make up. She will take the pictures and forward them to Meltzer
·    The Board unanimously agreed that we raffle off two WLA memberships.
·    Cutul asks that any raffle prizes that other Board members have accumulated be given to her at the April 30 Board Meeting.

WLA Slate 2009-2010:
·    The Board was concerned that there is no candidate for Vice President/President Elect for next year. Batemarco was encouraged to run for Vice President/President elect but was seriously concerned about the time commitment. It was noted that the Bylaws do not state that candidates should be from an academic library one year and a public library the next, as has been the practice up till now. The Board unanimously agreed to abolish this practice since most WLA members are from public libraries, and this would widen the pool of candidates. There was also discussion of increasing the terms of office for the Vice President/President Elect and the President, but no consensus was reached.According to the Bylaws, the deadline for emailing the ballot to WLA members is one month before the Conference which is April 8.

Annual Conference:
·    Rothman reported that 72 people have signed up so far. She would like to see more attendees from the administrative sector. The early bird April 1 registration deadline will be strictly enforced. 

Registration Volunteers:
·    Cutul, Batemarco, Paulsen and Zielinski have volunteered.

Conference Follow up Survey:
·    Leftwich will be advised to contact Tim Baird and Jennifer Ransom since they helped last year. Some Board members questioned the usefulness of a survey if the results were not investigated.

Phone contact list:
·    Board members in charge of registration, programs, etc need to give their home and cell phone contact numbers to Aurora. A sheet was passed out at the meeting, and appropriate Board members provided their telephone numbers.

June Meeting:
·    Leftwich will need to set the luncheon date and decide on the restaurant for the follow up Conference discussion.

The meeting was adjourned (Cruz/DeLuca) at 12 noon.

                        Respectfully submitted by Ann-Marie Cutul

Upcoming meeting:
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009
Place: White Plains Public Library, 2nd floor
Time: 10 A.M. – Noon

Note:  The library opens at 10 A.M. If you are early, please let Security know that you are going to a meeting, and they will let you go upstairs.