New York Library Association - Public Library Section Board Meeting

Minutes

March 22, 2013

Present: Kathy Naftaly, Shawn McConnell, Lisa Paulo, Brian Hildreth, Sara Dallas (Susan Currie, Alyssa Maynard excused)

I. Call to Order,  President K. Naftaly called the meeting to order 10:02am.

II. Approval of Minutes.  B. Hildreth motioned to approve minutes of the January 25, 2013 PLS meeting, L. Paulo seconded. Approved.

III. Treasurer’s Report.  L. Paulo reported o Unspent revenue $22,233.29 o Expenses $41,500 o Ending balance $13,181.71 o Final conference $17,999.62 o Income $2,030  S. McConnell motioned to approve the treasurer’s report, S. Dallas seconded; the report was approved.

 K. Naftaly reported that NYLA is moving the cost of 2 building awards ($2,000) from conference to program and initiative expenses as designated on our budget.

IV. President’s Report  President K. Naftaly discussed the last NYLA Council meeting: o The library portion of the state budget was approved but we don’t know about the education portion. o Current NYLA membership is above 4,000 people. o Jeremy Johannesen noted the passing of eva efron, a longtime member. o The council discussed advocacy of school librarians. Members trained council members to speak up for school libraries in our areas. The issue is impacted by the state’s new common core standards. o Jeremy asked everyone to look at the NYLA website for development and education trainings. o Disaster Relief for Hurricane Sandy impacted libraries has moved forward —Better World Books is committed to giving books and funding for libraries. Jeremy thanked everyone for help in the process. o NYLA finally sold the old office building in Albany. The money went to the mortgage of the current office and for investments in the current office. o The council discussed the NYSHEI (New York State Higher Education Initiatives—NYLA for academic libraries). Their money ebbs and flows depending on funding for SUNY libraries. They and NYLA decided to remain separate entities rather than provide one voice for all libraries, but they will continue to talk about working together. o The Council looked at the election timeline for 2014 and would like to have one vote at one time for all sections and the NYLA council. o ALA representative, Rocco Staino, discussed the ALA Emerging Leader program—the NYLA council will sponsor up to $1,000 for a member who would like to participate in the program.

V. Vice-President’s Report  VP S. Dallas reported on conference and CE planning o David Bendekovic will provide his CE called “Discovering Your Inner Leader.” o Buffalo-Erie Library System will provide a workshop on their taxing district with Libby Post. o Representatives from the Toronto Public Library will talk about their Human Resource Library—patrons can “check out” a person and use their expertise. We will pay them $300 for mileage and will provide hotel rooms for two staff members. o Libby Post will provide her “Turning the Page” workshop—an advocacy program. We will pay her $300 plus hotel. o Bob and Ellen are lawyers presenting legal issues libraries face. We will give them $300 plus hotel. . S. Dallas will ask Ellen to discuss the responsibilities of libraries when pedophiles walk in, and because the library is a public forum, what are its responsibilities to young people? o S. Dallas is still working on Table Talk topics. She asked the board, “How much time is usually left for discussion?” B. Hildreth said about 45 minutes. . The Southern Adirondack Lib System is working to develop on-line tools for library trustees. S. Dallas hopes to get volunteers to discuss their efforts. . B. Hildreth recommended privacy and security policies as a topic. o K. Naftaly announced that the Author, Author, presenter will be Harold Schechter, professor at CUNY, and will be held at the Top of Falls restaurant. We are working out the menu right now with the restaurant. o S. Dallas said everything has been submitted for conference and she’s waiting for the schedule to be approved.

VI. Past President’s Report  S. Considine was absent. K. Naftaly reported for her: o Please send names and suggestions for NYLA Council elections to S. Considine. o S. Considine commended everyone for conference planning. o K. Naftaly asked about upcoming PLS elections. B Hildreth said the 2nd VP, Secretary, and VP are open this year. VII. Committee Reports  B. Hildreth reported on the activities of the membership committee: o We have over 4,000 NYLA members as of February. That’s up compared to last year by 40 members. o PLS has 1,211 members which is down 100 members compared to last year. But this is likely because Lois weeded expired members a month early this year. B. Hildreth is confident that PLS membership will be up in the next few months. o Membership Committee is scheduling a meeting on the week of April 8th. We will meet with the NYLA Council and Jeremy Johannesen to discuss restructuring the institutional NYLA dues. According to the new plan, many libraries will pay less, so hopefully they will be more inclined to want an institutional membership. However, the fees will significantly increase for larger urban libraries. Jeremy thinks most urban libraries will retain their membership because the restructuring will provide them with more benefits—several individual memberships will be included in the institutional membership (rather than just one as it is now). Even if a few larger libraries pull out, we will likely still see income increase to NYLA. S. Dallas asked if a library with a $12,000 yearly budget joined, what benefits would they see? B. Hildreth said he needs to examine the proposal further. But he knows Jeremy would like small libraries like that, who could not afford to join NYLA, finally be able to join and enjoy benefits like going to conference.  Spring Conference Report o A. Maynard was absent but e-mailed her report: . As of 3/21/13 we have 26 paid registrations (plus five librarian presenters who will be attending for free). Registration is due by April 16th and most people usually register at the last minute so I'm not worried. But please continue to advertise anywhere appropriate! (Posting it to the Facebook page once a week until the 16th would be great.) . So far the two most popular workshops are the Mental Health and the Full Frontal Shelving topics. . FYI, two people registered using a credit voucher from the 2012 NYLA Conference. Those vouchers were only supposed to be valid for the annual conference or a NYLA institute but I contacted Jeremy and he said he'll honor it for our conference as well. NYLA will deposit the registration fee for those people directly into the PLS account. . This morning I was contacted by a Patricia Fuchs of Arcari + Iovino Architects in Little Ferry, NJ. She wants to know if there are any advertising opportunities available for the Spring Conference. I have not yet replied to her email as I have no idea if that is something we are interested in doing. I'm happy to coordinate something with her or tell her no, depending on what the rest of the Board decides. o K. Naftaly asked if there is any comment on the architects’ advertising. Brian asked that we find out what their intentions are and ask that they send us a proposal. All agreed.  B. Hildreth reported on activities of the awards committee o He hopes to send out updated award info to NYLA e-mail lists this week. o The awards are: Library Manager Award, 2 building awards, and 2 NYLA conference scholarships. o Good to go for advertising. o Conference is earlier this year, but we should still try to hold to a June deadline for applications—that will give us enough time to have everything ready for conference. Motion to approve the awards as presented by S. McConnell, S. Dallas seconded. All approved.  Motion to adjourn by L. Paulo at 10:40am, B. Hildreth seconded. All approved.

Respectfully submitted, Shawn McConnell, Secretary