Agenda
Public LibrariesDivision Membership Meeting Minutes
TLA Annual Assembly, Austin, Texas
Friday, July 7, 2017
Attendees:
Jennifer Schwartz – PLD Chair
Kevin Marsh – Past PLD Chair; Program Chair
Jenn Freeman – Secretary
Colleen Cunningham – Treasurer
Dianna Landes – Membership Chair
Jennifer Coffey – Scholarship Committee Chair
Linda Stevens – TLA Liaison
Allen Westrick – Webmaster
Mark Smith – Texas State Library
Lisa Loranc
Zarissa Cline
Bette McDowell
Jenny Brewer
Carmen Abrego
Margeret Neill
Laurie Mahaffey
Lori Gromet
Ashly Ferguson
Chad Hetterley
Viccy Kemp
Israel Favela
Misty Wright
Tommi Myers
Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 1:00p by Chair Jennifer Schwartz.
General Introductions
Announcement of Election Results – New Officers: Chair-elect – Diana Slavinsky; Secretary – Jenn Freeman; Councilor– Jessica Russell. Sally Miculek will be heading up the Nominating Committee for the next Election. Four positions will need to be filled including Secretary, Alternate Councilor, and Chair Elect.
Membership Committee Report: Dianna Landes - Updates on Membership committee. Dianna has been talking with others; trying to get the word out as to what the membership committee and PLD does and the benefits of being in PLD.Has completed some research on gaps within PLD. If you have thoughts on the benefits of being in PLD, please share with Dianna. The 2018 TLA Annual Conference Membership Party in Dallas– looking into Aloft as the party location; will have returning sponsors – Biblionix & Ingram; might have additional sponsorhip from McMillan
Social Media Committee Report: Travis Walvoord is the Chair this new committee. First mission is to get the Facebook group up and running. Hoping to have a Twitter account at a later date. Feels the Facebook group will offer a better format for communication versus the listserv.
Webmaster Report: —Allen Westrick is the new Webmaster. Has no new report at this time. Will be completing webmaster training later today.
Treasurer’s Report: Colleen Cunningham – Discussion on restructuring the PLD budget. Would like to look into changing from holding no more than 75% of membership allotment to a specific amount. Some discussion on setting aside more money to use for legislature, funding TALL Texans, scholarships, and Annual Conference attendance as well as using more money to co-sponsor programs with smaller divisions. Also, some discussion on increasing awareness for stipends, as well as increasing stipend amounts.
TLA Executive Board Report: Linda Stevens –PLD has a healthy balance and is spending it wisely. Co-Sponsoring a program is a minimum of $50. PLD is already talking about contributions to leadership development and legislative reserve. PLD officers have their own listserv in addition to the PLD listserv. Membership recruitment and retention are the overall organizational goal for next year. Hot Topic session tonight is Community Engagement from 5:30 – 6:45p. At the last Assembly it was discussed moving towards discussion groups and away from interest groups so as not to worry about officers, etc. Has gone through Council approval and everyone gave pretty positive feedback. Will go to vote in the Spring of 2018. Were not able to fill the position of Executive Director during the first search. The candidate withdrew. Search committee has begun a new search. Currently have 18 applicants. Goal is to conduct Skype interviews by the end of this month. Hoping to have the 2nd round of interviews by August and to make a selection by the end of August. TLA is looking at branding all of the reading list logos to look like one family. So, there might be slight adjustments as this goes on.
Councilor’s Report: Given by Jennifer Schwartz on behalf of Jessica Russell– A good portion of what Linda covered was also what was given to Jennifer by Jessica for the Councilor’s Report. Discussion on the Interest Groups changing to Discussion Groups. Jessica’s report also noted that the Reading List Coordination Task Force and Texas TopazNonFiction Task Force transitioned to standing committees. Scholarship and Research Committee has changed to the Scholarship Committee. Texas Media Awards has changed to Texas Youth Creators Awards.
Membership Committee Report and 2018 Membership Party Update: Jennifer stated she thought it was a great social event - great food and drink, but maybe a little more engagement for the 2018 party. The committee is looking at Aloft for the 2018 party location. Dianna Landes and Diana Slavinsky are looking into ways to engage participants for those that are interested in meeting new people. Possible ideas: Scavenger Hunts, possibly having a greeter at the door, literary figures matching name games. Discussion on ways to know how many people will be attending the party. Other concerns from 2017 party: Not enough seating, room size was small – not enough standing room.
Scholarships Committee Report: Jennifer Coffey – Shared a copy of the timeline for the scholarship as well as a copy of the application. Last year the Scholarship Committee has 9 committee members representing 7 different libraries. This year the Committee has 13 members from 10 different libraries, including 4 new Scholarship Committee members. Last year there were 7 applicants and 1 award for $400. Last year was a low amount of applicants. Feb. 1 is the postmark deadline for the scholarships. Applications are then sent out to the committee members who score them and the highest score is awarded the scholarship. All applicants are notified. Discussed requirements for stipend winners and mentioned some issues with the conference volunteer requirement. Jennifer mentioned that she makes it a point to be in contact with the applicants so that they know their applications are received and where the committee is in the process. Jennifer Schwartz mentioned possibly creating Policies and Procedures for future Scholarship Committee Chairs.
Legislative Liaison Report: Colleen Cunningham & Mark Smith (State Library) - Lost 5% of state fund and general revenue appropriation, the majority of which was due to a cut made before the session. The State Library did get a one-time appropriation for $1,000,000to assist public libraries in applying for eRate to bring Broadband to Texas communities. They are working on getting a contractor in place to begin working with libraries across the state to help guide them through the complicated eRate process. Overall, our agency appropriation was about 1.5% higher than the previous year. The “big ask” this time was for an additional $8,000,000 for TexShare and TexQuest to purchase eBook materials and STEM related subject matter. Did not get this, but did not expect to get it. Colleen asked if anyone had anything they would like brought to the meeting tomorrow. Members asked about Net Neutrality. It was pointed out that this was a Federal issue and ALA is following very closely.
Programming Committee Report: Kevin Marsh – Began working on programs for 2018 Annual Conference. List of possible programs already chosen, most have someone chosen as a possible convener. Tomorrow morning a few from the program committee will be meeting with the Conference Program Committee to go over the potential list and see if there is anything they would like the PLD Program Committee to revise.
Potential Programs for the 2018 Annual Conference:
-Think Outside the Building: Outdoor Spaces and Programming
-Science Fiction: Libraries of the Future and PLD Business Meeting
-Libraries as Innovative Spaces
-Saying No: Aligning Services with Priorities
-Act Out at Your Library: Engage with Community Reenactors, Cosplay, & More
-How to Succeed in Small Business Support
-Cultural Competencies: Interacting with Diverse Cultures
-Afterschool Programming in Public Libraries
-Summer Lunch Programs in Public Libraries
-Perfecting Your Tech Services Game
-Stress Management for Library Staff
Jennifer reported there were a few programs that PLD has been asked to co-sponsor, but did not have the list in front of her. Currently, no programs with authors except the Science Fiction program. As of right now, no author panels. Will have an offline programming discussion about offering the BookBuzz program or an author panel or program.
Other Business:
Mark Smith – Expressed thanks to PLD for support and involvement in the Legislative Session.
Jennifer Schwartz reported TLA is setting up Google Docs for each division to use.
Meeting Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 2:30p by Jennifer Schwartz.