Lone Star Docs
The Newsletter of the Government Documents Round Table
of the Texas Library Association
Vol. 5, #1 Fall 1998

Minutes

Government Documents Round Table
1998 Annual Assembly
Austin, Texas
July 11, 1998

Present: Evelyn Brass, Carol Roberts, Patricia Strebeck, Diana Houston, Tom Rohrig, Laura Heinz, Michael Golden, Susan Norrisey, Brad Meyer, Cathy Hartman, Vickie Phillips, Bennett Ponsford, Laura Baker, Brenda Barnes, Melody Kelly, and Jack Becker.

Susan Norrisey called the meeting to order at 9:03 and welcomed everyone. Susan announced that the next Annual Conference in 1999 will be held in Dallas starting on Wednesday March 21st. The GODORT business, program, and Electronic Products Committee meetings will all be held on Thursday the 22nd.

Old Business:

Cathy Hartman solicited conference program ideas for the 1999 Annual Conference and possible preconference. She also read several ideas for programs and preconferences she received via e-mail.

A preconference for 1999 was agreed upon concerning Internet resources. The preconference will tie in to the book Uncle Sam's Net of Knowledge for Schools written by Melody Kelly. GODORT will try to get the Dallas Public Library's auditorium for the planned half-day preconference. To keep costs down, a disc may be given to each participant instead of paper handouts. Projected price of the preconference, $40-45.

Cathy and Melody led the discussion on a proposed preconference for 2000. A preconference on the new GIS mapping system or the new Census was suggested. Cathy and Melody will also look into the possibility of combining these two topics into one preconference.

Vickie Phillips, the past Secretary, read the minutes of the past meeting and Jack Becker read the budget report. Both reports were approved as read.

Diana Houston gave the Councilor's report. She stated that Council enacted the following:

• A resolution dropping the Texas residency requirement for officers of TLA. A change in the bylaws will have to be passed and an increase of dues for non-Texans equaling that of residents is expected.
• Doo Woppers suggestion that getting money from the New Members RT proved to be a hoax.

Elizabeth Snapp gave the Liaison's report. She addressed the following points:

• She stated she would take any concern of any TLA member to the Executive Board.
• The Centennial Celebration Committee was formed to help organize the celebration of TLA's centennial in 2002.
• The Centennial Celebration Committee needs two people from each unit to liaise between the board and the unit.
• Executive Board wants a history of each unit written for the Centennial Celebration.
• The TLA office has hired a part time archivist to help with the archiving of material.

Someone asked the treasurer if CIS had paid for last year's breakfast at Annual Conference. The Treasurer said he would look into it.

Committee Reports:

Members talked about limiting the ListServ to GODORT members. It was decided to keep the ListServ open to everyone interested in government documents. The Web Page Committee will also work on placing the directory on the GODORT web page.

Bennett Ponsford wants to step down as chair of the Membership committee. Anyone interested in joining the committee, please contact Susan Norrisey.

Bennett also reported that two issues of Lone Star Docs were distributed last year. So far there has been no trouble obtaining information to include in the newsletter. However, now that the membership ListServ is available, there may be less need for a newsletter.

The activities of the Booth Committee was reported on by Brenda Barnes. She talked about ways to attract more people to the booth. We decided to give away pencils and candy, the cost of both not to exceed $50. The possibility of a raffle was also discussed.

Cathy Hartman stated that the Texas MARC Records Task Force sent out a survey to all Texas depository libraries. She stated that the surveys were beginning to come back and that the committee will soon tabulate them.

Tom Rohrig reported that the Electronic Products Committee will meet later that day at 1:30 and plan a program for Annual Conference.

Melody Kelly reported on TLA's Telecommunications Committee. She stated that TLA was very concerned that the state legislature might do away with funding for the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) which will limit access to the Internet.

New Business:

A new Nominations Committee was elected consisting of Brad Meyer, Vickie Phillips, and Gay Carter. The Nominations Committee members can no longer be appointed and must be elected according to TLA bylaws.

A committee was formed to honor the outstanding librarian or paraprofessional in the field of government documents librarianship working within the state of Texas. Committee members included Laura Heinz, Laura Baker, and Jack Becker.

Cathy Hartman proposed that GODORT form a task force, to be called the State Plan for Texas Documents Task Force. The Task Force will work with the Texas State Library to begin clarifying issues and to draft a State Plan. Bonnie Grobar and Melody Kelly will co-chair the Task Force.

Susan Hidalgo, Melody Kelly, Brenda Barnes, Karen Lockart, Jack Becker, and Susan Norrisey will help write a history of TLA GODORT for the Centennial Celebration.

The meeting ended at 10:35.

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