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July, 2002, Annual Assembly
Hyatt, Austin, Texas
The
meeting was called to order by substitute presiding officer Janis Test at
1:33 p.m. In attendance: Hollis McCright, Charles Harrell, Peggy
Mueller, Joe Specht, Carol Johnson, Melody Specht, Liz Philippi, Program
committee liaison.
Janis
conveyed regrets from committee chair John Slate, who was unable to attend
Annual Assembly at the last moment. Introductions were made. It was
agreed that all committee members and interested parties should be
encouraged to subscribe to the listserv, and that Gloria Meraz would be
asked to include such a reminder (likely generic) in a future issue of
TLACast.
Centennial
activities were reviewed, and generally agreed to have been successful, in
the main. However, no budget figures were available for the committee,
nor do we know how sales have gone on the “Handbook of Texas Libraries.”
Janis agreed to find out how many have been sold, what $$ has been taken
in, and how many are left of the original printing run. Charles discussed
the $10 thousand dollars the committee received (?) from the Sherrill fund
in 2000- and whether or not the proceeds from the book were to come back
to the committee. . . the consensus of longer term members was that they
were. Janis will try to check minutes of the December ’99 exec board
meeting to find out about this.
Charles
Harrell proposed that he and Don Davis approach Eakin Press about buying
the remainder of the volumes. Committee discussed the financial loss, but
decided that the likelihood of profit is small, and it would be better
from a distribution standpoint, and by getting out from under the
inventory. After Janis has communicated the available sales figures to
the committee via the listserv, and some further discussion, Charles and
Don will be deputized if that is the committee’s wish.
Charles
brought us up to date on the Chronology and Bibliography of Texas
Libraries publication project, which will be on the streets in August,
published by Eakin Press. The books will be dedicated to the memory of Ed
Eakin. Charles is proofing the galleys at this time.
The War
Stories program at Annual Conference was judged a success, because of its
location and that more people stopped in to listen. It was noisy, but
that didn’t seem to affect the quality of the taping, though no one has
seen the tape yet. The more open, accessible space was lauded and will be
incorporated, if possible, to the presentations at Annual Conference in
Houston next April.
As far as our
program in Houston, Charles made the suggestion that we change it from a
War Stories type program featuring past TLA presidents to a “How Tall
Texans has affected my life, career, etc” featuring Institute participants
from the first year. Committee agreed that this would be a good thing
since this year was the 10th year for the Institute. It was
also agreed that we ask the Tall Texans Roundtable to co-sponsor this
program with us. Janis was delegated to set up the program with the
planning folks (she did, immediately following the business meeting-
Wednesday, April 2 from 12-2)
The
suggestion came from Melody Specht that we make it a BYOLunch type meeting
as an alternative to some of the more big ticket luncheons. This was
agreed to as well. (Janis has talked to KathyP about having this program
in an open area at the Houston Convention center, and KathyP had some good
ideas about where it could be, pending input from John Slate)
Janis had an
old copy of the lists of Oral Histories completed and still needed to be
recorded by the committee. We did find out that Carol Johnson has
completed an interview with Carol Bartz, James Stewart has completed an
interview with Pat Smith and June Berry has completed an interview with
Elizabeth Polk. This led to a discussion about where the committee’s
recording equipment currently is. Janis agreed to find out (later
discovering through Haven of the TLA office that one unit formerly used by
Erma Jean Loveland is in the office, and the other is nowhere to be
found). The committee authorized Janis, after consulting with John, to
set rules for the use of the equipment, including sign out procedures and
tracking rules. Committee also wants to seek once again for the equipment
via TLACast, and via e-mail messages to present and former committee
members.
This segued
into a discussion of where the actual tapes/videos are, and how up-to-date
the list of interviews is. Committee agreed that John Slate should
contact Lorraine Roy about turning the tapes she has over to the TLA
office or the TLA Archives at the State Library. Then, Hollis McCright
suggested that volunteers be used to transcribe any tapes not yet done.
Some discussion about volunteer vs. professional transcription being
desirable, as well as noting that cost of professional transcription is
usually $150 per tape. Committee agreed that the focus this year should
be on:
1.
Identify and
verify what tapes/interviews we actually have.
2.
Locate and
transfer to the TLA office or Archives.
3.
Transcribe
all current tapes (videos too)
4.
Begin seeking
volunteers for needed interviews
5.
Begin
considering future preservation needs, media, costs involved, etc. and
making copies so these invaluable resources are not all housed in one
place.
Committee
wants to place a notice in TLACast about unit chairs compiling
their historical materials and getting them to Gloria Meraz for inclusion
in the Archives. Janis was delegated to find out what Gloria wants, how
recent, in what format, and any time frames/deadlines involved.
Meeting
adjourned at 2:36 p.m.
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