MASL Board Retreat
Tall Timbers' Camps

Present: Suzan Nelson, Nancy Grant, Audrey Conant, Donna Chale, Gretchen Asam, Tamara Blesh, Abigail Garthwait, Joyce Wheeler, Walter Taranko, Margaret McNamee

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT: was accepted.

THE TREASURER'S REPORT:

THE Treasurer's REPORT was accepted. $12,064.00 income and $3,399.39 expenses reported for the year to date. Balance in the checking account is $9,650.65; $1020.73 is in the savings account. Some expenses are outstanding. MLA has not billed us for our share of the Maine Entry costs and there is some confusion about our share of costs for the Washington, DC Legislature Day (It is the Board's understanding that our commitment is restricted to paying the expenses of our representatives). We owe Suzan and Sylvia expense coverage. $7000 has been received for Spring Conference; more may be incoming in December. This years conference made more money than other years, partly because of the location. The facilities' expenses were about the same as other years. Money has not yet been received from the scholarship auction. We have not been paying for a lobbyist ($5000/year) which has contributed to the health of the treasury. There was some discussion about the division of support between MLA and MASL for a lobbyist. Donna distributed budget prep sheets to be completed and returned as soon as possible. She would like to bring a completed budget to the next meeting.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT:

Suzan welcomed everyone to Tall Timbers cottages. She congratulated Dr. Tamara Blesh, recipient of the Walter J. Taranko School Library Media Specialist of the Year Award. News articles and photos of congratulations on the Gardiner High School sign board were shared. The Board also congratulated Dr. Abigail Garthwait on her new degree and job at the University of Maine's College of Education and Human Development. Suzan shared her excitement about her opportunity to supervise 5 ETAP students at Portland High School. The Board discussed the Maine Teacher of the Year Award and decided to look into the selection criteria with a view toward encouraging outstanding school library media specialists to apply.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT:

Nancy Grant reported that 877 people attended the Spring Conference and 133 the post conference workshops. (Sunday: 322; Monday: 422; Tuesday: 133).

A location committee has been formed to evaluate the feedback, investigate suitable facilities and make plans for next year. There was some negative reaction from The County. Some people have suggested alternating or concurrent conferences, playing to the strengths of different areas (Fort Kent and/or Madawaska for genealogy, the coast for seagoing history, etc.). Going to Canada by bus has been suggested for a real change of pace and focus.

The schedule will be about the same for next year. Sunday luncheon will be the time for the Lupine Award and other children related awards. Sunday dinner will be the time for other awards (seven as of now). Monday lunch will start at 11:00 with hospitality in the vendors' area. The buffet will start at 11:30 with opportunities for different sections to eat together. The workshops will not start until 2:00 on Monday. The committee is still looking for a major speaker for Monday evening. That session will probably be open to the public and end by 8:00. Plans are being investigated for a tour of an arboretum or hiking trail. The committee is asking for maps of trails from all over the state. The legacy of the conference will be a vertical file of trail maps. Presenters' forms were distributed.

Registration will be $40 per day or $75 for two days. Early bird registration will end April 7. Publicity was suggested to target the following groups: MEA, Maine Principals' Association, Maine Reading Association, subject area associations of all kinds. The post conference session will be similar to this year.

This year's post conference session broke even because of Karl Beiser's contribution of $1000 for the 'Nuts and Bolts' workshop.

The next conference meeting will be Friday, November 17 at MMA, following the MLA board meeting. A conference committee meeting will follow the MASL meeting in December.

SECOND VICE President's REPORT:

Scarborough High School Librarian Joyce Wheeler was welcomed and introduced as the prospective second vice president. Her name will be presented for vote at the Fall Conference.

WEB PAGE REPORT: Gail Garthwait summarized the brainstorm session from Friday night regarding the MASL web page (www.MASLibraries.org). Some of the plans for the web page are

a. to involve teachers in collaborating with librarians by showcasing Audrey's case study of the information skills work of Poland High School and the work of several satellite schools

• to rotate something new every month or every other month
• to find pertinent articles from Maine Entry to post
• to show some of what Dot Gregory has accomplished by highlighting her annual reports
• to report on Spring Conference 2000
• to show some web evaluation activities submitted by Tamara Blesh
• to offer interactive ideas linked to the Maine Student Book Award books a to post activities for Lupine books which had been published in Maine Entry
• to find helpful links on: straight facts on copyright standards for per pupil expenditures automation help strong library programs reading programs teacher education curriculum models
• to highlight Maine author/librarians (Lyn Sudlow, Marilyn Joyce, Toni Buzzeo)
• to give links to web activities for students and teachers, such as how to use search engines
• to give tips on how to use the EBSCO databases
• to highlight the scholarship auction remind potential applicants that they have to have been a MASL or MLA member for a year set up collection points
• to post information about OZ Innovations in Education (Sheila Wilenski) as a resource
• to post a job description for Dot Gregory's job

"Blackboard" a free, easy to use program (used at UM) was discussed. A decision to post the names of MASL members was tabled. Gail highly recommended Tim Berners-Lee's book, Weaving the Web.

INFORMATION SKILLS COMMITTEE:

Audrey Conant reported that Pam Fisher is no longer at UM's CISE (Center of Inquiry on Secondary Education). The editor of the CISE newsletter Pursuing Promising Futures has also left, so despite much effort on the part of Audrey and Gail Garthwait, our article has been tabled.

Audrey's committee did extensive ground work trying to set up a Fall Conference on a weekday designed to include teams of teachers, librarians and technology people. Availability of sites and expense created major obstacles. It was decided to postpone the planned program to either a smaller workshop/preview at Spring Conference 2001 or a full program at Fall Conference 2001, possibly to be held at a school in the County (Milo or Presque Isle?) Which closes for harvest, thereby making labs available. Audrey spoke with great enthusiasm of the senior celebration work she has been doing in conjunction with Poland Springs High School and several other schools with similar projects. All the projects involve planning backwards from senior exit requirements documenting librarian/teacher collaboration in teaching research skills. Next year the Maine Principal's Association will mandate exit requirements to be met by the freshman class before their graduation. Audrey's planned video will model the process at Poland Springs as well as compare and contrast the projects at the other schools. It is hoped that the video will be available for purchase at a members and a non-members price (possibly 100 copies produced, between $5 - $15 apiece). The video and the accompanying packaging will stress the documentation of collaboration between teachers and librarians, and the documentation of how each piece of the research process meets the learning results. The video will address the choice of what skills to assess, how to assess with concrete rubrics set up with specific criteria. The difference between research skills and presentation skills will also be demonstrated.

The board is very excited about the video and about the project as a basis for Spring and Fall Conference 2001 programming. Audrey also mentioned some work being done involving research process activities for ELM in its last year of funding.

OLD BUSINESS

The October EBSCO training for the new Maine databases was discussed. A decision was made to center on EBSCO training for this years Fall Conference, either involving the EBSCO trainers or board members who could do follow ups to the training. Suzan distributed a calendar of MASL meetings for the year.

The October meeting was changed from Columbus Day weekend to October 14.

An updated list of board members was also distributed and discussed. Attendance at board meetings is crucial. The following positions are open: archivist, certification co-chair, continuing education chair, standards chair, support staff chair. Invoices for membership renewals can be obtained from Edna Comstock.

Spring Conference meetings will follow MASL meetings on Dec. 2, Feb. 3 and April 7. The opening for Dot Gregory's position was discussed. Board members were encouraged to seek out qualified school librarians to apply.

Suzan called attention to the "Toolkit for Expert Websearchers" from ALA Cognotes.

NEW BUSINESS

Walter discussed the Clinton administration's opportunity to celebrate American schools through a book giveaway. Maine will target five elementary schools in North New Portland, Emden, and Anson. Schools are encouraged to have a Community Reading Day as part of the event. Susan Allison has agreed to serve on the Library Technology Task force to determine the use of remaining MSLN funds. Two more people are needed; Suzan will contact recommended people.

Tamara Blesh announced the CMLD's "Cool Libraries" workshop to be held Oct. 25 at the Augusta Civic Center. Suzan distributed "Between the Lions" packets, 2001 ICPrize for Collaboration though Technology" packets, selected links to Intellectual Freedom web sites, AASL/ABC-CLIO leadership grant information, and AASL awards, grants and scholarship information. Commitment to Maine Entry was discussed.

Suzan received an e-mail regarding Safe Zone, a national project to promote awareness and non-judgmental treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, and questioning people. A decision was made not to set a precedent of endorsing this or any other project or to share our mailing list. We can post information about it as we would for any worthwhile project.

NEXT MEETING: The next MASL board meeting will be Oct. 14 at the Maine State Library. If a different location is chosen, board members will be notified.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee margaretmc@lamer.net