Lone Star Docs
The Newsletter of the Government Documents Round Table
of the Texas Library Association
Vol. 4, #1 Fall 1997

Minutes of the TLA GODORT Business Meeting
TLA Annual Conference, April 10, 1997

Call to order: The chair of the Government Documents Round Table, Tom Rohrig, called the meeting to order at 8:17 a.m. He thanked Jim Drummond and Congressional Information Service for sponsoring the breakfast and invited members to visit Jim at the CIS Booth in the Exhibits Room.

Minutes: The secretary-treasurer, Susan Norrisey, read the minutes from TLA Annual Assembly. The minutes were approved as presented.

Treasurers Report: Susan presented highlights from the most recent Treasurer's Report. The balance was $563.12.

Councilors Report: Cathy Hartman, TLA GODORT councilor, reported on the most recent TLA Council Meeting. Preconference registration was as high as it was in Houston. This was a good sign, since the conference in Houston established an all time record for registration. Cathy remarked that many TLA units are working on Web sites and/or list servers for officers.

Report on the Preconference: Tom asked Cathy to also report on the recent preconference that TLA GODORT co-sponsored with the TLA Reference Round Table. The preconference covered government sources on the Internet. Cathy Hartman and Melody Kelly served as instructors with Tom Rohrig presiding.

About 40 people registered for the preconference, with only two no-shows. Handouts cost about $8.00 per unit. Total cost for the handouts was approximately $350. Some copies of the handouts were left over after the preconference and are available for purchase at the TLA GODORT booth for $16.16. The most expensive item in the budget was the cost of the bus, which totaled about $500. In spite of these expenses, the preconference should bring in about $1000 profit. Several GODORT members who attended the preconference remarked that the session had been very informative. Tom thanked Cathy and Melody for their excellent work and then directed our attention to old business.

1. Lone Star Docs Newsletter: Susan Norrisey has stepped down as editor of Lone Star Docs. Bennett Ponsford from West Texas A&M in Canyon has agreed to serve as newsletter editor for the next two years.

2. Tall Texans and Legislative Day: Members discussed whether or not TLA GODORT should contribute to the Tall Texans and to Legislative Day. Most members seemed to be in favor of contributing to these programs. John Hepner made a motion that we contribute $50 to the Tall Texans and $50 to Legislative Day. The motion was seconded, voted on, and approved.

3. GODORT Web page: Susan Norrisey talked about what she had learned about setting up a TLA Web page. Units could either have members write the HTML code themselves or hire someone through TLA to write the code. It was decided that our committee would write the code ourselves. Susan, Bennett Ponsford, and "Vickie" Phillips will work on the page in the immediate future.

   Several members remarked that TLA GODORT should consider setting up a list server discussion list for either the Executive Board or for the membership. Tom Rohrig volunteered to look into this.

4. Liaison to the Telecommunications and Networked Technology Policy Committee: Melody Kelly has agreed to serve as TLA GODORT liaison to this committee.

5. Membership Publicity Committee: Charlotte Bagh has written a charge for this committee. Members discussed creating a brochure. This brochure might list what we have done in the past, such as our newsletter and preconference. John Hepner remarked that it would be good to point out that GODORT was open to non-depository librarians. Also, that members need not be documents librarians.

   Robin Gruner made the motion that we create a separate committee to create the brochure. The motion was seconded, voted on, and approved. Charlotte Bagh, "Vickie" Phillips, and Bennett Ponsford volunteered to serve on the Brochure Committee.

6. GODORT Electronic Resources Committee: The chair of this committee, Cathy Hartman, said that the committee would be considering sponsoring a program or discussion session at the next annual conference. She requested that members give her feedback on topics before Annual Assembly.

7. TLA GODORT Booth: "Vickie" Phillips and Brenda Barnes set up the TLA GODORT booth this year. Both have also volunteered to serve at the booth. Other volunteers at the booth include Charlotte Bagh, Cathy Hartman, Susan Norrisey, and Tom Rohrig. We have two boxes of GPO Access handouts to distribute this year. So far, a lot of people have stopped by to look over the handouts and book jackets on display. Next year, we will probably want to include a brochure on the North Texas Gateway as well as material on the European Union. Brenda Barnes noted that Texas Christian University is a documentation center for the European Union. In May, she will be attending a workshop in Seattle on this material.

8. Other: Melody Kelly inquired about the schedule of articles for TLA Journal. The last time the group talked about this: Melody Kelly volunteered to write documents sources for K-12; Susan Norrisey and Cathy Hartman volunteered to write about gardening sources; Diane Houston volunteered to write about vacation information; and John Wilson and Laura Heinz agreed to write about maps. Brenda Barnes volunteered to talk to someone at TLA Journal about articles on documents related topics.

1. Program suggestions for the 1998 Annual Conference: Tom asked members if they had any ideas for next year's program. One suggestion was to focus on archival or historical resources. One possible speaker might be Ted Hull from the Center for Electronic Records at the National Archives. Many of us have been impressed by his submissions to GOVDOC-L. Bennett Ponsford mentioned that we might want to have a program that ties in with the theme of the conference: "Think Globally Act Locally." The program might provide information on international resources or sources related to NAFTA. We could have a panel discussion on links to the United Nations, foreign countries, the European Union, and/or Latin America. Next year's program will be discussed in greater depth at Annual Assembly.

2. Nominating Committee Report and Elections: Tom Rohrig presented a report from the Nominating Committee and asked if there were any nominations from the floor. Ballots were distributed and later counted. New officers for the coming year are Nancy Anderson, vice-chair/chair-elect and "Vickie" Phillips, secretary-treasurer.

3. Report from the State Library: Carol Winship presented a report from the Texas State Library. She handed out a flyer for a workshop on the REIS CD-ROM that will be held two days after Assembly. Carol talked briefly about the State Publications Clearinghouse. Apparently there are new rules for the state depository program that mainly deal with electronic information. The rules take effect in March. Carol brought some copies of these rules and noted that they were available on the web. Carol also mentioned that a new copy of the depository manual would be developed in the coming year.

4. Other: Gay Carter announced that HANDI, the Houston Area Network of Documents Information, will be sponsoring a GPO Access Training Workshop on November 18-19. The workshop is tentatively scheduled at the North Harris District Office, but may be moved to the University of Houston - Clear Lake.

   Brenda Barnes invited all members to attend the TLA GODORT program entitled "Government Information in a Time of Transition," featuring speakers Charlotte E. Bagh, Brenda Barnes, Cathy Nelson Hartman, Diana Houston, and Tom Rohrig.

Closing: Tom Rohrig thanked Jim Drummond again for the refreshments. The meeting was then adjourned.

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