A&TRT Meeting Minutes

April 13, 2000

TLA Annual Conference

1)      Call to order

a)      Welcome
Sharon Castleberry called the meeting to order in the midst of a lively discussion  among the membership about “Where was the ‘breakfast’ part of our ‘Breakfast Meeting’?”  After a few calls to the convention center staff, the food eventually arrived.  The surplus was taken after the meeting to the back of the Net Fair for the enjoyment of Net Fair attendees.

b)      Introductions
A round of introductions (sixteen people attending) ensued including Danella, a guest from Germany, brought by Jennifer Acker.  Danella was here participating in a “sister city program.”

2)      Approval of minutes from last meeting. 
Copies of the Annual Assembly minutes were available for the attendees to read.  Roy Lewis motioned to approve the minutes as written.  The motion was seconded and the motion passed. 

3)      Secretary / Treasurer’s report – Tony New
Tony reported that the only expense since Annual Assembly was the cost of mailing the newsletter.  After that expense, the funds available was only $737.32 but noted that this figure did not include income from the Pre-conference or vendor fees for the New Technology Showcase.  Those figures would not be available until after the TLA office balances their books following the conference.

Chris Petersen of the Texas State Library asked why was ATRT in such poor financial condition.  Kathy Edwards lead off the ensuing discussion .  (Secretary’s note:  this topic was also discussed at Annual Assembly.  See the minutes for 7-11-99 for more information on this topic.)  Evidently the reason for the drop in revenues stemmed primarily from a change in the way vendors were solicited to attend New Technology Showcase.  Other factors included (1) moving from a “pro bono” speaker for the ATRT sponsored Pre-conferences to a paid speaker and (2) a very generous donation(s) to Tall Texans.

4)      Councilor’s report – Nancy Buchanan

Nancy reported on the following items which took place at Council I

·        No resolutions passed at Council I

·        Informational report by Pat Smith about the “Read for Life” campaign including new ads on the sides of busses with the slogan “Follow me to the Library.”

·        Disaster relief fund had $18,000 at start of conference with a goal of $25,000 by the close of the conference.

·        The residency requirement measure failed.

·        Conference attendance down but the final numbers were not in yet at Council I.

·        Resolution passed honoring Sam Brown with 3M who was retiring. 

5)      TLA Executive Board Report 
No report -- Representative not present. 

6)      Old Business

a)      Conference Reports

i)        Preconference – Sharon Castleberry
Seventy-five people attended the Preconference.  Sharon reported that the attendees seemed pleased with the workshop.

ii)       New Technology Showcase – Connie Moss
Connie reported that all the slots were filled but one.  She also noted that the first vendor to present today (13^th) is a web-based Mexican book jobber.  She said sixty-three people attended the Athena presentation.

When asked what our expenses were for the New Technology Showcase (NTS), Connie explained that the TLA billing for conference expenses arrives so late that it difficult to say until after the conference is over.  Connie said that she would get with Judith Hiott, <sp?> who had also organized NTS,  to compare notes on their NTS experiences to try and make planning next year's NTS easier. 

iii)     Net Fair – Jennifer Acker
Brief announcement by Jennifer reminding everyone of today's Net Fair Presentations including one on Internet Filtering by Joyce Baumbach from Plano Public and one on Website Design by Tony New from Rowlett Public, both ATRT members. 

b)      Election Results
All of these officers assume office at the end of the Conference
Jennifer Acker -- Chair
Wanda Vent – Chair-Elect
John Schanot -- Secretary/Treasurer
Sharon Castleberry -- Councilor
Scott Piepenburg -- Alternate Councilor -- (note:  Scott is taking a position out of state so he will not be able to accept this position)

c)      Appreciation
Sharon expressed thanks to the following people for their work during the past year:

i)        Scott Piepenburg – MARC Authority Preconference

ii)       Jennifer Acker – Net Fair

iii)     Connie Moss – New Technology Showcase

iv)     Joyce Baumbach – newsletter

v)      Kathy Edwards – Centennial Circle

vi)     Chris Peterson & Texas State Library – Preconference and Conference programs co-sponsors

She also expressed thanks to Epixtech for funding our "virtual breakfast" which had not yet arrived at the meeting room.  The refreshments did eventually show up a few minutes later. 

d)      New Business

i)        Chris Peterson from the Texas State Library had a question for the Roundtable.  She needed a decision on how the funds were to be split from the Preconference which the State Library had co-sponsored.  Chris stated that the "standard" split in this situation would be to give ATRT the first $500 (called "sheltering") and then split the remaining profits evenly between the State Library and ATRT.     (Note…during the reading of these minutes at Annual Assembly on July 29, 2000, Chris Peterson, now with AMIGOS said that she had actually sheltered $1,000 of the pre-conference profits for ATRT instead of the usual $500) 

Discussion.

Wanda Vent motioned to "Ask Chris to prepare the forms that would shelter the first $500 for ATRT and split the remaining profits from the Preconference evenly between the State Library and ATRT.  Tony New seconded.  Motion passed.

ii)       Sharon brought up the problem of low involvement by ATRT members.  During the ensuing discussion: 

·        There are over 300 members in ATRT

·        The possibility of having two newsletters per year to the membership was suggested.

·        Roy agreed to continue being webmaster for the group.

·        Tony New volunteered to start a ListServ for the group.
 

8)      Announcements  -- no announcements 

9)      Adjournment
Scott Piepenburg motioned to adjourn.  Motion was seconded by several members.  Motion passed.  Meeting adjourned.

Send mail to ackerj@ci.farmers-branch.tx.us with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2000 Texas Library Association - Automation and Technology Round Table
Created by Roy C. Lewis.
Last modified: July 23, 2001