Maine Association of School Libraries
Board Meeting Minutes
April 5, 2003

Present: Pam Goucher, Nancy Grant, Sylvia Norton, Suzan Nelson, Gretchen Asam, Teri Caouette.

The November AASL meeting will be the kickoff for @ your library for Schools. At the moment, the focus seems to be primarily on public libraries.

It was reported on LM Net that there were instances of districts trying to cut librarians, but there was sufficient outcry that the plans were scrapped.

Sylvia is our official representative to the Vermont Library Association Conference (moved by Pam, seconded by Teri), so MASL will pay Sylvia’s registration.

MEA has asked us to attend the MEA fall conference (October 4th at Samoset). We should offer to do a panel for them, as they will be spotlighting Multiple Intelligences, Special Needs, and Mentoring New Teachers. This is a free conference, presenters get paid, but it is only open to MEA members. As part of our display, we should have sample new teacher toolkits, introducing them to the really important people in the building. This will be our October board meeting, where we will do a display table, present a panel, and attend workshops.

Elizabeth Miller from USC wants to attend MASL’s fall conference [not in Presque Isle this year, huh? G.]. Initial ideas for the fall conference include collaboration, and working with support staff. We might want to consider an outside facilitator. David Sanderson is interested [does anybody have contact information for these two people? G.] He is good at dealing with anger and turning it into positive issues. We need a support staff job description and evaluation form, defining needs for all ed. techs.

NCLB—with Title I ed techs, quality school funding is available, but ed tech IIs don’t qualify. This is all totally locally controlled, but actually having a job description to point to gives us something with which to educate the administrations. If we have both the description and the evaluation piece which goes along with it, we can use that as a training piece for administrators. This can be presented through the Maine Principal’s association, having had input from the MEA in October.

Sylvia: Ross Todd has a power point on the NEEMA page describing his proposed research. He is working on evidenced-based practice, celebrating the understood rather than the found. He has worked with Carol Kuhlthau, and would like to come to Maine. The importance here is to have the local piece to point to showing the impact of school libraries on Maine students. This would be in the form of a face-to-face initiation with a long term follow up. The results will be data-driven (circulation won’t show what he needs)—he will be looking at comprehension and skills.

Some discussion followed about the possible times for meeting with Ross. A summer retreat brainstorming session was suggested, and the ATM system, as well as the MASL Fall Conference, moving Support Staff to the next postconference session.

Pam asked that MASL sponsor the French-Canadian group at the Saturday evening buffet. We need something festive in among the budget cuts and rumors of war and pestilence. Gretchen seconded, and the vote was unanimous. It’s a great conference coming up, but access is needed to the various membership lists, as some people haven’t gotten their mailings. People are asked to do any PR possible. Cindy Bufuthis will be overseeing the hosts. Elizabeth Miller is looking for people to host interns. Please respond to Pam Goucher if any board member does NOT wish an intern. There are 24 ibooks for Jim Moulton’s postconference session. If you’re feeling insecure about the laptops, there IS technology staff development money available. Farmington @ USC—Wants to talk to High School Librarians—what are we up against? We need to get this message across to teacher training programs.

There is nothing in the Board Handbook against having an Executive Secretary, and there are people who want to do it. First put the suggestion to the board, then to MeLibs, then take it to the conference. We are under no particular obligation to offer it to MeLibs, and it is unlikely that a non-board member will be selected. Why put it on MeLibs if we already have a candidate that meets the criteria? We can put it to the board and the conference committee, and putting it out on MeLibs is a public notice so it doesn’t look like a done deal in the back room. If we change the criteria to “direct experience in planning a joint Maine conference,: it will tighten up the language. The secretary will be paid an honorarium, be a non-voting board member, but will have to be a member of MASL. This will be a 1 year pilot, and we already have a candidate. A letter of interest and a resume should be sent to Nancy Grant. The selection committee is Nancy, Pam Goucher and Suzan Nelson. MLA is very interested in this program. It is important that this be solely MASL because we need that advocacy [especially when the conference webmaster continues to name the URL “mlaconf”—G.]

We will not be able to participate in the Maine Mall program, because we are not a 501 C-3. Our tax status is 501 C-6, which means we have memberships rather than charitable
contributions. Unfortunately, this precludes us from what looked like a good program.

Margaret still wants to be secretary. The committee will ask Donna about 1st VP. Mary, Martha, Eileen and Sue L. are other possibilities.

Scholarships:
Ann Farley, Nick Taranko, Susan Trott (is she a member?), Kristin McIntyre
recommend these candidates pending existing (previous) membership. Expand the money for grad courses--$500.00 doesn’t cut it. $1000 is basic. Cover the price of the course up to 1000 dollars. The form we have does not indicate the cost of the course, and this is recommended for the future. Sylvia suggested that we reimburse expenses for a graduate course and books for up to 1000 dollars, Suzan moved we accept Sylvia’s suggestion and Pam seconded. Professionals receiving continuing ed money do so on the condition that they do a workshop at the next spring conference. Tamara ($129.00) & Gina ($135.00) for registration. Pam moved, Teri seconded, OK to all.

We have 1 nomination each for School Library Media Specialist and Administrator of the year.

ALA is in Toronto, Fri-Sun June 19th-21st. Affiliate Assembly is Friday night and Sunday morning. Any takers?

Respectfully submitted

Gretchen Asam, Interim secretary