Women’s National Book Association Annual Board Meeting
June 2-4, 2007, Boston, MA
Minutes of Meeting
Saturday, June 2, 2007 , Boston Public Library
President Laurie Beckelman called the meeting to order at 12:38 p.m.
Attendees:
Laurie Beckelman National President, Boston Chapter
Joan Gefland National Vice President/President-Elect, San Francisco Chapter
Michele Leber National Secretary, Washington Chapter
Jill Tardiff Immediate Past President, New York Chapter;
UN DPI/INGO Representative
Margaret Auer National Treasurer, Detroit Chapter
Valerie Tomaselli New York City Chapter President
Mary Knippel San Francisco Chapter President
Ruth Light Los Angeles Chapter President
Elizabeth Smith Washington DC Chapter President
Sylvia Cross Eastman Award Chair, Network Membership Chair
Katherine Dibble Long Range Planning Co-Chair, Boston Chapter
Cora Ott Boston Chapter President
Andrea Lindsey Nashville Chapter President
Cindy Dooley Detroit Chapter President
Guests:
Kelly Sullivan Walden Los Angeles Chapter Vice President
Erin Brown Boston Chapter Vice President
Marie Cantlon Boston Chapter member
Susan Manning Boston Chapter member
Nancy Kelly Boston Chapter member
Board members not present are Lorrie Carter, Dallas Chapter President; Carolyn Wilson; Nancy Stewart, Long Range Planning Chair; Katherine Turock, WNBA Award Chair, and Mary Grey James, Pannell Award Chair, who will join the meeting later by phone.
Laurie explained the arrangement of the booklet provided for board members and her theme for the meeting, The Power of Possibility, based on motivational speaker Benjamin Zander. We have some hard business challenges, Laurie said, but Zander described every challenge as an opportunity.
One piece of parliamentary business is to vote to let the non-board members present speak. There was agreement to let guests speak, as long as board members speak first.
After introductions, Laurie announced that the Binghamton Chapter has closed; having network membership available made the decision to close easier for the two members who were running the chapter.
Chapter Success and Challenges
Laurie asked that each chapter report three successes and three challenges and said there will be further discussion of chapter challenges at the Monday breakfast.
New York –Valerie cited membership as a challenge, especially retaining members while program attendance drops, resulting in fewer new members. The two major reasons for lower program attendance are the amount of competition in New York and the fact that panels have become very specific; the chapter will try to have panels that appeal more broadly. They also are looking to cosponsor more panels to increase visibility. Finances are on the way to recovery despite the drop in program attendance. Successes included getting through their first full year without Jill’s leadership (Jill had been president for six years) and enhancing their Web site. Valerie noted that it’s exhausting to run such an organization, especially when people are so busy with their own lives.
San Francisco -- Mary expressed concern about burnout of her board members, who have been incredibly supportive with lots of ideas. With attendance numbers down, they did a survey to see what people wanted, and they will offer new programs to the public and ask for donations. They continued their two standard programs, the fall book preview and Meet the Agents, with a twist on the latter so attendees were able to meet all of the agents. They plan to cosponsor this program with a writers’ group. A silent auction also gets publicity and raises money. A notable success was going online with their newsletter, now the envy of other chapters. Despite the chapter’s struggling this year, the board laid the groundwork for good things. Joan added that since the chapter has no vice president, succession planning is a challenge and a big issue.
Los Angeles -- Ruth said that one of her biggest successes was asking Kelly to be chapter vice president; she also got a publicity manager, and the three of them have worked well together. The silent auction in the spring was a success and is now an annual event. The
West Hollywood Book Fair, for which books are donated, was both a success and challenge. Another challenge is the Web site; she’ll confer about this with Margaret. Staffing and succession are real issues. An online newsletter would be a big challenge; San Francisco’s newsletter, done by two people, is a model.
Margaret commented that when Jill was president she asked national officers to mentor new chapter presidents, a process that is only as successful as the chapter president makes it; she mentors Ruth and Cindy. Jill has mentored the New York and San Francisco presidents, and Laurie has been Cora’s unofficial mentor.
Joan said chapters might pay the San Francisco online newsletter editor to do newsletters for them too. The editor lives in Austin and does the San Francisco newsletter for $20 an hour, a charge the chapter pays, since Joan was unable to get a volunteer. As a non-member, the editor can’t use the listserv, as Margaret pointed out, so Joan will give her a complimentary membership.
Washington – Liddie said it’s been discouraging to have small crowds at programs, but she’s been working with her board to fix things. Finding a place for board meetings was a problem; they now use the Acela Lounge at Union Station. Program successes have been one on cookbooks, which just fell into their laps, had good publicity, and sold books, and one on taxes, which attracted one of their biggest crowds even though it had to be postponed because of snow in February and rescheduled. A future program will use area poet laureates, which the District of Columbia, Alexandria, and Montgomery County, MD have. On the whole, the chapter has ended up on the upside.
Laurie suggested that instead of programs for large groups, the chapter could plan them for small groups, such as an intimate dinner for 12 to 15 with an author, and set up reasonable expectations. Such programs could be a member benefit or open to the public.
Boston – Cora said that because membership is down from 99 to 80, they will follow up with phone calls in the future to try to retain members. The Web site and newsletter have been problems, with editors needed for both. Successes were nominating Perri Klass for the WNBA Award and the annual holiday tea with raffles, although they need to be more systematic about getting raffle donations. Erin added that programs targeted to specific audiences have been successful to attracting attendance, Jill noted the importance of having good speakers as well as good topics, and Valerie said professional enhancement programs attract audiences.
Nashville -- Andrea said that of their nine programs, the two best-attended involved local celebrities. Their holiday dinner also was a fundraiser with book sales and a performance artist who donated time, making the event a special occasion. They also charged for an evening reception at a local celebrity’s home that people were interested in seeing. (Laurie said she learned in fundraising that such a house is a draw, and Jill suggested inviting one or two people not linked to WNBA.) Other successes were getting members to run the chapter Web site, do the newsletter online, and write a humor column for the newsletter. They also started a book discussion group that meets four times a year on Saturdays in a library. Probably 20 percent of their members have joined because of the Southern Festival of Books (this year focusing on historical fiction), and some members participate only in this event. Fundraising has become more of a challenge now that the festival alternates between Nashville and Memphis. Other challenges are retaining members and attracting a diverse membership, especially young professional women, and publicity.
Many publicity ideas were suggested: targeted e-mails, using the American Book Producers list, tapping the community of women bloggers, using Myspace and Craigslist to attract younger members, checking the WNBA Web site for ideas for attracting librarian members, including public service librarians on our e-mail lists, asking for business cards at raffles to build e-mail lists, and getting bloggers to link to us.
Detroit -- Cindy said the advantage of having librarian members is gaining access to free meeting rooms. Their successes were celebrating their 40th anniversary throughout the year, including a purely social outing open to families, and creating a 40th anniversary book list on diversity; holding a workshop at the Michigan Library Association annual conference, which gave them exposure to parts of the library community they weren’t reaching; creating membership and publicity chairs and getting three new members and two former members who rejoined. Challenges are membership, finances, and publicity, with the biggest challenge being recruiting for board involvement and getting enough younger members.
Suggestions for finances included asking people to continue to support WNBA even if they can’t participate and including a place for donations on the membership form. (The Web site also has forms for donations.) Suggestions for increasing involvement were scaling back or splitting responsibilities and asking for help on specific tasks or at specific times.
Laurie said the problems of chapters will be addressed later in the meeting, and Joan distributed the list of books read and recommended by board members.
Good News
Erin distributed copies of the Howard Gardner book Changing Minds to board members.
WNBA Award – Laurie thanked Katharine Turok for her service as chair for the last two awards and noted the valuable assistance Valerie and Katherine provided on the most recent award. Laurie has asked Nancy Kelly from Boston to chair next year’s WNBA Award. Nancy is a librarian who also works in the hospitality field.
Valerie reported that there was a nice feeling of people coming together to honor the very accomplished Perri Klass at the December 3 award ceremony, held at the elegant and spacious New York Historical Society Library. She complimented Laurie and Perri for their remarks and noted that Margaret and Joan also attended the event.
Joan suggested that we somehow subtly express that we’d like some payback from WNBA Award winners, and Jill suggested that this is a matter of making specific requests of them; others said it would be inappropriate to make advocacy a condition of the award. Margaret suggested returning to the practice of presenting award winners with a large framed calligraphy of the award, suggesting that they display this prominently.
Laurie said an issue that has come up is whether the WNBA Award chair should attend all national board meetings, at a cost of about $500 per meeting; she raised it again because there will be a new chair. Margaret said there was resistance at last year’s board meeting to her suggestion to fund this committee chair every other year, when the WNBA Award winners are selected. Others suggested that this chair could communicate with the board by e-mail or participate in the board meeting by teleconference, and that alternate year attendance would not seem as penalizing because of people’s busy schedules.
Sylvia moved that the association fund the WNBA Award committee chair to attend the national board meeting in even-numbered years, consistent with travel policy . Margaret seconded. Passed with one abstention .
Laurie said we also need a policy regarding the year in which the award is given; the Klass award presentation was delayed because of the difficulty in finding a place for the ceremony in New York. It was noted that the year of the award is confusing if the ceremony is held in the year following the selection. Margaret suggested going over information on the Web site, including a month-by-month account of what is to be done, with the new chair.
Margaret moved that except under very exceptional circumstances, the WNBA Award ceremony will be held in the year of selection ; that is, the even-numbered year . Katherine seconded. Passed with one opposing vote.
One more WNBA Award piece of business, Laurie said, regards whether the winner should be given a personal gift; this year a donation was made to Reach Out to Read rather than a gift. Gifts have traditionally been small and probably given at the discretion of the participating chapter. There was agreement in being consistent; making a contribution in the winner’s name as a symbolic gift is a financial issue, since the award ceremony generally goes over budget. Laurie suggested that we don’t need to do more than the event and calligraphy.
Valerie moved , with an amendment from Margaret, that the manual concerning the WNBA Award be amended a nd the words “personal gift” deleted . Andrea seconded. Unanimously passed.
Eastman G rant
Sylvia went over her report, noting the changes (mostly procedural) made in 2004. Margaret found the original document establishing the grant, which is included in the report with changes. The only additional change to be made in the document is to section IX: the WNBA contact should be the current WNBA president, rather than Sandra Paul. Sylvia included in her report Margaret’s suggestions and her own recommendations, with pros and cons for an alternative plan.
After discussion of whether to change the direction of the award, the following motions were made, not needing seconds because they were made by a committee chair:
Sylvia moved that the existing purpose of the Eastman grant be retained. Unanimously passed.
Sylvia moved that the original grant proposal be amended to reflect the clarifications and change in procedures approved in 2004. Unanimously approved.
Sylvia moved that we change the name of the grant from the Ann Heidbreder Eastman grant to the WNBA Eastman Grant. Unanimously approved.
Sylvia moved that we instruct ALA to delete “or to provide reimbursement for such completed in the last year” wherever it appears. Unanimously approved.
Sylvia moved that we also instruct ALA to delete the following wording from bullet three under procedures “or a list of courses that the applicant has already taken for which he/she is requesting funds toward reimbursement.” Unanimously approved.
Sylvia noted that we will have to notify ALA of these actions so changes can be made on their Web site, as well as on ours. Margaret asked if the original Eastman policy, which is on our Web site, should be archived, and it was agreed that it should be. Laurie thanked Sylvia for her work.
UN Report
Jill distributed bags of UN materials, noting that it’s our obligation to distribute these materials to our constituents. She attended two significant conferences last year, including the UN’s annual conference for its NGO affiliates. WNBA is allowed five attendees at the NGO conference; Nancy Stewart, WNBA’s alternate UN representative, and a New York chapter member will attend the 2007 conference along with Jill, so she will put out a call for two more people to attend. The conference themes for the last several years stem from the UN’s millennial goals.