Meeting Conant Farm, MASL Headquarters, Winslow, ME.

PRESENT: Nancy Grant, Pam Goucher, Susan Allison, Donna Chale, Sylvia Norton, Suzan Nelson, Shelly Swazey, Abigail Garthwait, Tamara Blesh, Gerry Crocker, Teri Caouette, Sue Leiter, Margaret McNamee.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT: President Nancy Grant welcomed the MASL Board to a new meeting place, a new year, and a new theme.

This year, Nancy asks Board members and all MASL members to look at our "bests;" to write them, talk them, web them, e-mail them, etc. Our database of resources will be useful to librarians new to the state, to library science students at USC and UMA, as evidence of the value of libraries to the Department of Education, and as shared celebration for ourselves. Nancy shared her "research only" passes which she uses to give priority to students who have a topic question and a signature from the subject area teacher (rather than a study hall teacher). These students get the first chances to go to the library from study halls and can come when the media center is closed to study halls. Nancy checks students' work and sends feedback to teachers about students' effective research and/or problems. She began the research passes as a management tool, but found that they are most useful as a communication tool. Each Board members is asked to bring a similar idea to the Oct. Board meeting. MASL members will be asked to bring an idea at the end of the year.

SECRETARY'S REPORT: The secretary's report was accepted as written.

TREASURER'S REPORT: The treasurer's report was approved. Donna Chale reported that MASL is in good financial shape. Because of no expenditures for Maine Entry as it changes from a printed and mailed newsletter to a possible new format, money is available for a new project, like a brochure. About $7200 has been received for the Walter Taranko Scholarship Fund. Announcement of the scholarship will be made again as many school librarians were away for the summer and may not have heard about it.

1ST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Pam Goucher gave a report from the Spring Conference committee. A Post Conference chair is really needed. The evaluation forms indicated that a strong, hands-on, school library focused program is wanted for the post conference workshops. People with ideas for presenters should contact Pam or Nancy.

Spring Conference will be dedicated to Walter with the theme, "Proud of our Heritage, Prepared for the Future." There will be a retrospective for Walt at the Sunday night dinner. Web and LIST-SERV updates on changes are needed. John Clark will do quick ME-LIBS updates. Please e-mail notices for the MASL webpage directly to Gail. (She gets ME-LIBS digest format so direct e-mails are easier for her to post to the webpage).

The cost of registration was discussed, but not changed. A decision on where meals will be served will be made at the next meeting. The business meetings will have a meal served. There will be a lunch buffet and dinner on Sunday; Monday a breakfast kiosk, a luncheon with a speaker, but no Monday night dinner. The Civic Center has to supply all alcohol because of liability issues, so wine during the vendor visits is not feasible. The committee is still looking for a keynote speaker and needs potential programs. A suggestion was made to repeat some programs from past conferences. People often have to make tough choices and would welcome another opportunity to attend programs they missed the first time around. Another suggestion was made that a poster presentation would be well supported and received. Participants exhibit posters of programs, projects, etc. somewhat like a science fair. Conference attendees view the posters and have a time to talk to the poster presenters. The posters would be wonderful to share with superintendents, principals, and school board members at their own meetings and conferences. Putting money into creating a professional tri-fold "poster" with quotes, pictures, LMS job description and evaluation tool, and Information Standards would be an excellent PR move. The next Spring Conference meeting will be Friday, (apology: no date recorded in notes) at MMA in Augusta at 12:00.

CONTINUING EDUCATION CHAIR'S REPORT: Teri Caouette will begin to identify and contact people with continuing education program offerings (Simmons, UMA, USC, ATM, Edna Comstock, Gail, Tamara, CMLD's new greater Augusta and greater Waterville school librarians support groups ). Gail will develop a course around technology. She needs 8 students and can offer 3 graduate credits. Tamara can design a program in conjunction with AICE and can offer 3 continuing ed. credits. After getting a handle on what exists, a survey can be done to find out what people want. Board members are asked to e-mail Teri with suggestions of people/organizations to contact.

ARCHIVIST'S REPORT: Sue Leiter has much of the material to be archived. She would like to have the Board work out some policies for the archives and will e-mail some ideas to start the process. Each person should be thinking about what they have and should donate. Old t-shirts, pictures, etc., may not be good archive material but would be wonderful for displays for the Conference "heritage" theme.

FACILITIES CHAIR REPORT: Shelly has distributed all of the facilities manuals that were printed and had it posted on the webpage. Because the facilities manual has been requested many times by superintendents and architects, it was decided to have more printed. A motion was made that the manuals be sold (for a small cost) to schools who are building. It should also be included in the PR tri-fold.

INFORMATION LITERACY CHAIR: Gerry Crocker will present Audrey's senior exit project November 16 and 17 to the Maine Principal's Association. Gerry and two teachers will also present it in Seattle at the Fall Forum for the Coalition of Essential Schools and at the MASL Spring Conference. She has student videos from which a 10-15 minute MASL video can be produced. Gerry would like a committee to meet and talk about where Information Literacy efforts should go after we have examined the archives.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM REPORT: Gretchen Asam is serving as acting IF chair. MAINE ENTRY REPORT: A new committee is needed to decide whether to keep Maine Entry and in what format. LEGISLATIVE CHAIR: This position is open.

MEMBER-AT-LARGE: Gail Garthwait is presently the member at large, as well as the State Board of Education Representative. Member-at-large is a good slot for a new Board member. MEMBERSHIP CHAIR: Edna sent her report with Sylvia. Renewal notices were sent to members. Librarians new to the state were encouraged to join MASL, as were USC and UMA students. ACTEM associate membership records are up-to-date now.

NEEMA CHAIR: Sylvia Norton reported that the NEEMA Leadership Conference will be September 28, 2001 in Tyngsboro, MA with keynote speaker Wayne Free. NEEMA is working with NEASC to revamp accreditation this year and is looking for a representative to be involved, in large part by e-mail. The USC checklist for certification was distributed. PAST PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Suzan will be looking at candidates for the School Library Media Specialist of the Year Award and for past awardees who could be encouraged as potential Maine Teacher of the Year applicants. 2ND VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: This position is open.

STANDARDS CHAIR: Susan Allison and the standards committee have been collecting standards from other states and proceeding slowly. They want to make the standards realistic and motivating. The Maryland Department of Ed has a good model. TECHNOLOGY CHAIR: Tamara would like to form a committee to share the work. She is very involved with technology applications and has great ideas, but not a lot of uncommitted time.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION REPRESENTATIVE: Gail submitted a written report and requested a sub for the next State Board of Ed meeting. She showed the newly designed webpage and asked for Board members' feedback. Everyone agreed that it looks excellent! Gail recommended "GoLive" software (Adobe) for web design. Web Design for Non Designers by Robin Williams & John Tolland and Don't Make Me Think by Steven Krugg were also recommended.

NEW BUSINESS: The next meeting will be a retreat at Conant Farm on Oct. 13-14. The business meeting will be Saturday morning; goal setting will be Sat. afternoon; archive exploration on Sunday. Sat. noon will be pot luck; Sat. night will be catered. There are three bedrooms and plenty of sleeping bag room. Board members are encouraged to attend all or part of the retreat and to e-mail Nancy so potential members-at-large can be invited. The Fall Conference will be November 3 from 9-1. No lunch, but great snacks will be served. Gerry Crocker reported that due to a scheduling conflict, her school could only accommodate 60 people. Rather than limit attendance for the important topic of senior projects, another site will be investigated (possibly Lewiston). Attendees will be encouraged to invite teachers and district assessment people. The Board discussed combining the Walter Taranko Scholarship with existing MASL scholarship money (approximately $27,000). The new Audrey Conant scholarship fund would still be separate. No decision would be made without input from Walter's family. Applicants for continuing education, graduate work and conference attendance would be considered. All are invited to donate to the scholarship fund, payable to the Walter J. Taranko Scholarship Fund, mailed to the Maine State Library. It was unanimous that a plaque will be put up at the Farm, naming Conant House as MASL Headquarters. The meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Margaret McNamee, Secretary for Walt at the Saturday night dinner. Correction: Sunday night dinner

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT: A motion was passed to accept the minutes of the November 4, 2000 Fall Conference held at Scarborough High School, with the following corrections: the heading on the minutes should have said "Fall Conference," Joyce Wheeler was the second vice president at the Fall Conference. (fixed on web minutes)

THE TREASURER'S REPORT: A motion was passed to accept the treasurer's report. Income as of May, 2001 was $12,151.50; expenses were $3,366.00.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Nancy Grant reported that the move of the Spring Conference to the Augusta Civic Center has been successful. Attendance has increased two years in a row. Anne Davis will be the experienced co-chair of the conference next year. As we do not have a first vice president of MASL at this time, we need either a candidate for first vice president, or one or two MASL members who would be willing to serve as conference co-chairs.

LIAISON TO THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION/WEB MASTER: Abigail Garthwait noted that news of the State Board of Education can be found in prior minutes posted on the MASL webpage. Abigail asked members to contribute articles or book-related activities for the webpage.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM REPORT: Past President Sylvia Norton recognized Abigail Garthwait's and Gretchen Asam's work regarding the censorship issues raised by a MASL member in connection with the Bangor Assessment program. The program asks school and public librarians to remove a selected list of books from their shelves to provide a "cold reading" of the material for the students to be assessed. In addition, a copy of a Jack Prelutsky poem is included in the program packet without reproduction rights. Jack Prelutsky's publisher sent an appreciative letter thanking MASL for the information.

TECHNOLOGY CHAIR: Tamara Blesh and Abigail Garthwait have been featuring "Links of the Month" and highlighting school library webpages on the MASL webpage this year. Tamara will be working on technology related webpages during the summer around issues like automation planning, networking systems (wireless and other options), and other library technology issues.

CONTINUING EDUCATION CHAIR: Teri Caouette has contacted Shirley Helfrich and will be working with other organizations to compile and publicize statewide educational opportunities for library professional and support people. Abigail Garthwait announced that there will be a Technology Institute at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast the last week in June and that she will be offering a three week telecommunications course by ATM in July. These are two examples of the type of opportunities that the Continuing Ed committee will seek to communicate to everyone.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE CHAIR: Edna Comstock reported that there are now almost 250 MASL members. She has been working with MMA to create a list of membership expiration dates. Edna also asked members to e-mail her ideas for the new direction for The Maine Entry.

SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE: The Scholarship Committee was pleased to announce that scholarships have been awarded to Vicky White and Christine Reagan who are enrolled in the UMA bachelor's degree program. Scholarship applicants must have been MASL members for one year. Assistance may be requested for undergraduate, graduate or continuing education library courses.

OLD BUSINESS: Suzan Nelson reported that she attended Legislative Day in Washington, DC. She took several library issues to our representatives in Congress who not only understand library needs, but are also willing to champion them. Suzan distributed some posters providing publicity for the Maine Student Book Awards. We are looking for individuals or corporations who are willing to underwrite printing and postage of additional posters intended to be distributed in area bookstores. Suzan encouraged all MASL members to consider becoming board members. Board meetings are usually held the first Saturday of the month during the school year, often at the Maine State Library in Augusta. Being a Board member is fulfilling and energizing because it provides an opportunity to work with colleagues with common goals and interests. Because Joyce Wheeler is unable to move up to first vice president at this time, we are looking for someone to fill that spot.

NEW BUSINESS: Suzan introduced Ralph Conant, husband of MASL's beloved Audrey Conant, to announce the creation of the Audrey Conant Scholarship Fund within the Asgard Foundation (The Asgard Foundation was created and named by Audrey and Ralph in honor of the Norse home of the gods and dedicated to help those who fight for good causes). Audrey's creative and inspiring enthusiasm reached out to everyone around her, especially to budding librarians just beginning their careers. The Audrey Conant Scholarship Fund is designed to help Maine librarians in many different ways, particularly to help others carry on the work to which Audrey was so dedicated. MASL has also accepted Ralph's generous offer to hold monthly MASL meetings and/or board retreats at Conant House, their family farm in Winslow. Audrey's papers and children's books collection will be housed at Conant House. Suzan presented Ralph with a plaque which will hold the names of future winners of the Audrey Conant Scholarship Fund. She also gave Ralph a MASL lifetime membership certificate. Ralph said he would treasure the certificate and hang it next to Audrey's Lifetime Achievement Award. He said he was honored to be a MASL member and offered to sponsor a line in MASL's budget. A Celebration of Audrey's life will be held June 3, 2001 at 11:00 o'clock at Conant House in Winslow, ME. Friends and colleague's of Audrey's are invited to bring informal stories of Audrey to share at the gathering. Directions will be posted on the webpage. Suzan introduced new MASL president Nancy Grant. Nancy thanked Suzan for her dedicated service to MASL and recognized Ralph for his contributions to MASL in Audrey's memory. Nancy encouraged all MASL members to find the things that we do well, to share the pieces of our own progress, to make a trail and to help others to follow it. We need to celebrate the things we do well: to write them, to speak them, to videotape them, to web them, ... to tell the Department of Education why we need school librarians! Nancy congratulated Pam Goucher for being recognized as the School Library Media Specialist of the Year 2001. Nancy thanked each member of the team who contributed to the Spring Conference and hoped that everyone would continue to enjoy the Conference.

NEXT MEETING: The next MASL business meeting will be at the Fall Conference. The meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Margaret McNamee, Secretary margaretmc@lamere.net

A celebration of Audrey's life will be held at Conant House on Sunday, June 3.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee margaretmc@lamere.net