Reference Round Table
Executive Board Meeting
Texas Library Association's Annual Conference, Dallas
Thursday, April 25, 2002
2:00 p.m.
Attendance: Tina Oswald, Chair; DeeDee Rogers, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect; Patricia
Stinson-Switzer, Lynne Hambric, Susan Norrisey, Carol Byrne, Karen B. Nichols,
Claudette Hagle, John C. Hepner; Jeffrey Levy, Secretary/Treasurer
I. Welcome Tina Oswald, Chair
Before the meeting began, the following person spoke about the need for program ideas
for next year's Houston Conference:
Julia Longbrake (University of Houston Downtown)
Programs: Libraries Freedom and Action:
Purpose: To learn, acquire, and impart new skills, especially skills the audience can
bring home with them. Proposed audience: new or mid-career librarians. Can RRT
come up with some topics that will be useful?
II. Officer's Reports
Pre-Conference Committee Tina Oswald, RRT Chair
Summary of Tina Oswald's report: Last year we talked about a pre-conference
committee. Jack Becker as vice-chair did all the program planning. Do we want
to have a pre-conference in 2003 in Houston? We have enough funds in our
account. Has anyone helped sponsor one of our pre-conferences? What about
genealogy? Tina said she would like for Jack Becker to be chair of the pre-
conference committee. It was agreed that we should have a committee to handle
the pre-conference, and that Jack Becker should chair it. We will have to start
now for 2003.
Program wrap up DeeDee Rogers, RRT Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Summary of DeeDee Rogers' report: All four speakers were very well experienced.
There will be a $15 gift certificate for each speaker. The program, "Reference: What's
Happening in the New Millennium," was attended by around 200 people. The RRT
Reference Source Award was presented by Patricia Stinson-Switzer to Mary Ramos,
editor for the Dallas Morning News, for the 60th edition of the Texas Alamanac,
distributed by Texas A&M Press.
Approval of Minutes Jeffrey Levy, RRT Secretary/Treasurer
The minutes of 3-29-01 were approved as distributed. The Treasurer's report was
distributed. The ending fund balance as reported by the Statement of Revenues
and Expenditures 7/1/2001 through 2/28/2002 was $7,671.37
A question came up about reserving a room for Annual Assembly: there will be a
form in the New Officer's training packet.
These need to be scheduled for Annual Assembly (July 21, 22, & 23):
Executive Board Meeting
Subcommittees meetings
Texas Reference Source Award Committee meeting
III. Committee Updates/Wrap Ups:
Centennial Committee John Hepner
The web site has been updated. The history of RRT is in a separate section. The
new logo is on the web site. Copies of all RRT minutes going back to 1963 have
been scanned in via OCR. New sections will be added. There will be more
scanning. Information to be added: more on the RRT's history and information
about the RRT booth. John Hepner attended all Centennial Celebration Ad Hoc
Committee meetings and he also attended the meetings of the Centennial
Celebration committee. The Centennial Celebration goes on all year. This is just
the start. John said that we now have a substantial historical record of the RRT.
We have begun maintaining an accessible historical record.
These problems have cropped up: There are no records in the Archives for
several years. There are also some gaps in the Bebout Award activities and in the
Texas Reference Sources Committee's activities. John stated that there is no
annual written report summarizing their activities. Lois Bebout herself sent some
records to the TLA archives. The original chair of the Texas Reference Sources
Committee submitted information to the TLA archives. However, the RRT
committees as a rule have not submitted reports detailing their activities. Many
issues were raised several years ago by standing committees but there is no record
of them. If we have committees, we also need a written record of their activities.
As a policy, we need to start having each of the committees provide an annual
report. We don't need to have these reports orally presented. They should be
submitted at Annual Assembly. The TLA office needs to get the reports from the
RRT Secretary/Treasurer. Check the current TLA list for the name of the
archivist or send the reports to the Executive Director.
We have a list of all the programs we sponsored plus the pre-conferences. We
have some of the old handouts also. All of this is going on the web. Dr. Margaret
Nichols has been the liaison between RRT and the Centennial Celebration
Committee. We want a maintainable file. If we are going to annual reports, we'll
need to have separate web pages for each of the standing committees.
Newsletter John Hepner
The postage and printing costs for the spring newsletter were not in from TLA yet
(i.e. they were not reported on the 2/28/02 RRT Statement of Revenues and
Expenditures).
Fall Newsletter: A total of $237.00 was spent. Members can specify if they want
the newsletter in printed form or in electronic form. A total of 482 members
requested email. We had an electronic version on the web long before the print
version. Some emails bounced back. If we can't come up with a new address we
will be deleting those. We know that the web version of the newsletter is being
read.
The deadlines for the next issues:
September 20, 2002 for the fall issue.
January 24, 2003 for the spring issue.
At the 2002 Annual Assembly, John Hepner will submit copies of the revised
newsletter guidelines.
We're referring more and more people to the web site. John said we will have a
web page on the RRT program. Take a look at the coverage of the 2002
Conference. John can link to the copy of the minutes and to the program.
Pat Stinson-Switzer would like to list all the RRT Award nominees in the fall
newsletter and announce the awardee in the Spring. That way, people could see
the types of books that have been nominated.
Membership/Public Relations Claudette Hagle
Claudette Hagle said she does not know how many RRT members there are now.
In July 2001, there were 522 members. Claudette would like the new list at
Annual Assembly. She would like suggestions for volunteers. It was noted that
TLA cannot deal with an electronic form for volunteers to email on their web site.
E-mail messages were sent to all new RRT members in late fall encouraging them
to continue their membership, volunteer for committees, work at the RRT booth,
and get involved in the activities of the Round Table. Claudette also said that last
summer we decided on our logo. We paid $96 for the banner. John Hepner
receives $25.00 for the logo design. Carol Byrne is assisting with a redesign of
the RRT membership flyer. The RRT flyers will be updated but we still have 200
of the old ones.
Booth: Karen Nichols
Karen said we need to get new people to work in the booth. Karen can ask in the
newsletter. 17 hours need to be covered. The message is to get involved and
meet people. If we use a booth sitter, the cost is $20 per hour.
Nominating Committee: Jack Becker (no report)
Planning Lynne Hambric
Lynne reported that she has not been getting volunteers. There used to be two
committees: a Planning Committee and an ad hoc group (Texas Reference
Sources). Several people have expressed an interest in Texas Reference Sources.
John Hepner said he would be interested in heading up the Texas Reference
Sources. These ideas were discussed: have one committee head. A person can
be a section editor or a reviewer or a contributor. We have been discussing a web
version for some time now. It was noted that our 4th edition paperbound book did
not net more than $200. It took awhile to recoup the expenses. A web version
would be easier to update. We can also link it to publishers' websites. Subject
specialists do not necessarily need to be RRT members. Server guidelines would
be needed. An additional call for volunteers can be included in the RRT
Newsletter. In addition, what about an article for the TLA journal?
Texas Reference Source Award Pat Stinson-Switzer
Pat Stinson-Switzer gave thanks for having the Reference Source Award
presentation before the program.
Pat said that in the past, copies of the book nominees were sent by the publisher
to every member of this committee. Now, Pat would like to have them sent to the
chair only, and then for the chair to send them out. We would like to investigate
using the RRT logo as a seal for the Texas Reference Source Award books. This
would require licensing permissions for the publisher. Pat requested permission
to investigate costs. Regarding publicity, Pat proposed using review copies of
nominated books in giveaways and drawings. Between 5-10 items per year could
be mailed out to the door prize winners. Some could be given to public libraries.
We need more support from our Executive Board and from our membership to
nominate titles. Pat said we tend to get scholarly books. Young adult books, if
reference, would be good too. We could get the word out to the children's and
the young adults' round tables and groups and we could put notices in their
newsletters and in their listservs.
Councilor's Report Claudette Hagle
Claudette Hagle substituted for Marion Jackson. She went over Council I
(dealing with the ballot, propositions, mission statement, and the dues increase
that passed). February 11-12 is Legislative Day. It was reported
that prior to conference, 4,790 conference registrations were received
by TLA. Council II will deal with resolutions.
Executive Board Liaison Jana Knezek: nothing to bring forward.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jeffrey Levy
RRT Secretary/Treasurer
2001-2002
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