Automation & Technology Round Table (A&TRT)

Meeting Minutes • July 21, 2002
TLA Annual Assembly – Austin

In attendance were:  Chair Christine Peterson, Past Chair Jennifer Acker, Chair-elect Weber Baker, Vaughn Branom, Vickie Phillips, Alternate Councilor Jeanette Mosey, Kathleen Goldfarb, Jill Emory, Jeanne Martinez, Judith Hiott, Naomi Dominguez, Prisscilla Wilson, Linda Shaw, Ellen Perlow, Connie Matheny, and Secretary/Treasurer Christy Milliot.

Meeting was called to order by Chair Christine Peterson at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Alternate Councilor, Jeanette Mosey gave the following report:

Conference Planning Liaison Jill Emory gave an update on the planning for the TLA conference.  She mentioned the following events:

Secretary/Treasurer Christy Milliot asked everyone to review the minutes from the last meeting.  Judith Hiott made a motion to approve the minutes as written.  Jennifer Acker seconded the motion.  The minutes were approved with no changes.

Secretary/Treasurer Christy Milliot gave the following Treasurer’s report:  There is currently $8,194.89 in our account.  We expect another $1,500 to be added with a few expenses coming out.  Alternative Councilor Jeanette Mosey moved to accept the report.  Chair-Elect Weber Baker seconded it.  The treasurer report was approved.

Alternate Councilor Jeanette Mosey gave a brief Councilor report about upcoming council meetings.  Judith Hiott moved to approve the report.  Jennifer Acker seconded the motion.  The report was approved.

Chris Peterson gave an update on last year’s conference events.  The Z39.50 preconference made $1,200 (the A/V, which includes the data projector, was provided for by Texas State Library and Amigos).  We won’t be able to do a preconference using multi-rooms setup again.  The wireless preconference made $700.  Both preconferences received good reviews. 

Chris went on to discuss NetFair.  As expected, NetFair lost money.  We spent $2,200 which included A/V costs.  The NetFair evaluations, which only include the people who came to the event, were very good.  Participants said that they loved the event, but we needed to do something to reduce the noise.

Chris asked TLA to put a room next year in exhibits so that anyone with just exhibit card could come.  However, there is no space next year.  Chris also talked to Kathy Pustejovsky at TLA to see if we can have portable walls.

Jennifer Acker gave a report on the Technology Showcase.  The Technology Showcase had 19 vendors over 2 days.  Three vendors have not paid.  Vendors paid $250 for a slot.  The $250 included A/V and telephone use.  Three slots were not filled.  The group discussed several issues relating to the Technology Showcase including, pros and cons of asking vendors to pre-pay (this has been done in the past and we stopped to keep up good vendor relations), ways to help get vendors to pay and deal with the vendors that don’t pay.

The session (during the conference) on wireless technology by Robert Williams went well and received a very good evaluation, but it was not well attended.  The group thought that it was probably not a good idea to present a session if we were also doing NetFair.

Chris introduced the topic of providing future stipends.  We did not provide stipends last year.  After discussing the topic, Christy Milliot agreed to investigate the following:  who got one in the past, were they a member of TLA and/or A&TRT, is he/she still involved with TLA and/or ATRT (if the person left the state stop investigating), see how long we have been funding stipends.  Weber Baker agreed to handle the process of providing stipends next year.

Chris next discussed the possibility of A&TRT co-sponsoring two sessions:  Internet Protocol Television with the Special Libraries Division and one on Bowker databases with the Texas State Library during the 2003 TLA conference.

The Internet Protocol Television session would last approximately 2 hours and the presenter will be Mike Guddell.  The Special Libraries Division is requesting $350.  The session will aim at an audience with a more technical side.  They are working on the title of the session.  We agreed to co-sponsor this event.

Staff at the Texas State Library are only asking to use our name to sponsor this one hour Bowker database training event.  The group agreed to co-sponsor the event with the following conditions:  1) Chris will check with Pat Smith to see if their would be any conflict with us doing this and 2) Tell TSL staff that they might wind up with complaints because this is a single vendor and to suggest to TSL staff that they put the session in the Technology Showcase. 

The group next discussed the need for any changes to future NetFairs.  After some discussion the group decided to the following:

We next looked at the future of the Technology Showcase.  Jennifer mentioned that vendors are complaining about the noise from both rooms.  We could put the Technology Showcase on both sides of the Internet room and charge $250 per slot.  We will also check into getting Internet connection for the showcase.  Someone suggested that since we help sponsor the Internet room we might be able to get Internet connections.  Further discussion will take place and the final arrangements will affect cost and number of rooms. 

Chris will save us a pre-conference slot and we can then decide what, if any, pre-conference we would like to have.  A few possibilities were discussed, including technologies for small libraries.

After some discussion, the group decided to change the A&TRT business meeting at the conference to Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

The A&TRT needs to create a formal web master position.  Jennifer Acker has been doing it informally for two years.  After some discussion, an ad hoc web master committee was created to handle the web page.  Jeannette Mosey will chair the committee and Judith Hiott and Vicki Phillips will be members.  We will revisit how this worked out at the next Annual Assembly meeting.  We agreed that the page should be kept up to date and it may need to be redesigned. 

Under announcements, Chris Peterson said that she will be looking at our bylaws to see if we need any revisions and bring them up before the group at a future date. 

Judith Hiott moved to give $250 to the Tall Texans and to give $500 to the Legislative Reserve Fund.  Vickie Phillips seconded the motion and the motion passed. 

After some discussion about A&TRT members, Christy Milliot moved to have Chris Peterson spend up to $40 to pay to e-mail every A&TRT member who is not on A&TRT listserv.  Jennifer Acker seconded the motion and the motion passed.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 3:30 p.m.

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