Suzan Nelson's beautiful camps on Lovely Pond

Present: Michele Adams, Francie Aley, Gretchen Asam, Tarama Blesh, Donna Chale, Audrey Conant, Gail Garthwait, Nancy Grant, Linda Gustafson, Suzan Nelson, Sylvia Norton, Walter Taranko

1. Secretary's report of May 18 minutes accepted as amended (Health Education Resource website: libraries.maine.edu/orolmc/herc)

2. Treasurer's report accepted: Summer income of $770.00 and expenses of $1,122.73. Budget forms passed out with request to return quickly.

Scholarship CD now making enough to cover scholarships

3. 1st VP report: Spring Conference co-chairs met with Benita & Edna during the summer to handle location and date change possibilities and to decide theme. Presentation to Board of pros & cons for location and date strongly suggested that Augusta and early May were preferred over Memorial Day and UMO.

4. 2nd VP report: Fall Conference likely to be Nov 6 at Freeport. Focus on Learning Results assessment. Scholarship silent auction made money will repeat for Spring Conference. Applications for scholarship need to be re-advertised as next Master's program starts, and note that rectification is a valid reason to apply for funds. School Librarian's Handbook still in progress, will be on web with links and provide hardcopy of links when necessary.

5. ALA Conference report: ALA Conference in New Orleans, Sylvia and Suzan attended, noted that the Affiliate Assembly is in the restructuring process, see either for further details.

6. NEASC report: Concerns being expressed about NEASC moving libraries into support services, what happened to NEEMA's work on this change?, Leadership Conference Oct 8, Tyngsboro, MA (see www.NEEMA.org for details), Sylvia is now MASL representative to NEEMA.

7. "Professional Librarian" discussion: Past certification policies placed certified librarian over conditional, and person received conditional only if working on LMS degree. Present polices allow choice up to Superintendent (due to shortage of teachers). Conditional certification means six hours per year of college courses. Local support teams need clarification on what course allowable for LMS certification. MASL needs to support Professional image and publicize reasons for maintaining Masters as LMS certification requirement.

Recommended that MASL prepare op ed. piece with background for preventing loss of Professional Librarians (similar to Intellectual Freedom Committee piece). The plan outlines a flexible process to handle challenges and to advocate for prevention of challenges. MASL needs to address both teaching current LMSs how to do more than stamp books and teach administrators what LMSs do.

8. Funding request from Margie Soule: Request from MSBA (Maine Student Book Awards) committee for $500 per year commitment. Motion passed to increase 1999-2000 to $300 and request financial accounting prior to annual renewal.

9. Joint MASL/MLA meeting: Jay and Nancy presented proposal to switch from UMO and Memorial Day to Augusta Civic Center and May 7-9, as an interim solution for Spring Conference 2000. Walter and Melora are the site investigation committee collecting information to prepare proposal for bids in the year 2001. Both Boards accepted proposal. Program request forms are due to program chairs Nov 22. Web site for Conference is http://mainelibraries.org/2000conf.html

10. Next meeting is Oct 2, 9-12, at the Maine State Library.

Respectfully submitted

Nancy Grant, 1st VP (sub for Lori Patterson)
Wednesday, September 29, 1999 8:56 PM