Maine State Library

Present: Teri Caouette, Gretchen Asam, Edna Comstock, Sylvia Norton, Nancy Grant, Jeff Small, Barbara Hammond, Toni Buzzeo, Francie Aley, Pam Goucher, Susan Allison, Margaret McNamee.

WELCOME: President Elect Teri Caouette welcomed everyone.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Pam Goucher led the discussion of the budget line by line.   Highlights included:

• An increase in the amount of awards for Administrator of the Year and School Library Specialist of the Year will be put into a projected budget and tabled for later discussion and vote.
• Continuing Education has been budgeted but not used for a long time.  It will be put into the projected budget and tabled for later for discussion and vote.
• President's travel expenses for official business was discussed.  Pam will research the current rate.
• The Conferences/Board line should show travel/expenses for representatives to affiliate assembly, and for travel/expenses to San Antonio and New Orleans.
• The NEEMA Representative line will show $1000 in the projected budget and will be tabled for later discussion and vote.
• MASL pays for ALA, AASL, and MASL dues for the President, and VP. MASL also pays MASL dues for our executive secretary.  A discussion of paying ACTEM dues was tabled. 
• If an AASL director is elected from Maine, MASL will budget $2200 for expenses.
• The recent retreat expenses were substantially reduced by a generous donation. $500 will be put in the projected budget for retreat.
• The MASL Conference line will show $1500 in the projected budget.
• The Special Project line will be projected at $0 for now.  A discussion and vote will be held at a later time.  The Peter Milbury workshop was put under this special project line. 
• Funds for printing the Standards work will be put into the projected budget and tabled for a later discussion and vote.
• The Meeting Expense line needs to be increased. 
• The Tax Exempt Status line needs to be increased.
• The Legislative Day line will be put into the projected budget and tabled for a later discussion and vote.
• The Miscellaneous line will be decreased to $100. 
• The Postage line will be increased to $400.
• The Bulk mailing permit will be put into the projected budget at $150.
• The Webpage line will be increased to $750.
• Mileage for the State Board representative may have to be increased as meetings are being scheduled at locations around the state.
• The PR line will be increased to $1000.
• The Maine Library Fund line will be retained.
• The MSBA line will be increased to $500.
• The Chickadee Award line will be $500.
• The Executive Secretary expenses and travel lines will be retained.
• The Lucinda pin sales should be put in Miscellaneous. 
• A motion was made seconded, and passed to accept the Treasures Report.

SECRETARY'S REPORT

A motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the minutes for the September meeting as distributed by email.

CONFERENCE UPDATE

Teri thanked all the people who helped with the 2005 conference.

Jay Sherma worked hard to please the vendors. They were very satisfied.  The strolling lunch was difficult because of the type of food.  Hopefully, that can be tweaked for another try.

Attendance at the 2005 conference was greatly aided by the MASL sponsorship of the popular post conference workshop on web design.

Next year's Maine Libraries Conference will be held September 17, 18, 19^th.  The committee had some discussion about not having the conference start on Sunday, but many public librarians can only come on Sunday.  School librarians also may have trouble getting multiple professional days so early in September.  Scheduling for the Civic Center and avoiding other professional conferences were important deciding factors.

Next year's registration fee will be based on the current membership in August 2006.

The next conference meeting will be in Waterville, November 18^th.  They will be looking for more people to work on children’s programming for next year's conference. 

AWARDS

Congratulations to award winners Jan Breton, Administrator of the Year and Kelley McDaniel, School Library Media Specialist of the Year.

GRANTS

Kelley McDaniel would like to have another person/s to review grants.  Nancy Grant and Gretchen Asam volunteered.

A motion was moved, seconded and passed to fund the adapter grants submitted to and recommended by Kelley. 

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

A book challenge was discussed. 

PR

Sue Leiter submitted substantial press releases about the award winners to the media.  

Kelley will submit additional PR on the grants. 

The MASL brochure needs to be updated for publication and should include links.  Teri and Gretchen volunteered to work on it.

SMLD MEETING

Teri was invited to speak about MASL at the business meeting of the SMLD Fall Council meeting. 

Nominating Committee

A motion was made, seconded and passed to follow the current bylaw procedures as outlined by Edna to submit the nominated slate of executive board members to the membership through email.  As no secretary was nominated, there will be a space for write-ins.  If there is no write-in vote for secretary, the president will appoint someone until the next election. 

BOARD POSITIONS

A motion was made, seconded and passed to remove the Continuing Education position from the listing of appointed positions. 

A motion was made, seconded and passed to add the position of Reading Literacy Chair to the list of appointed positions.

A motion was made seconded and passed to change the title of Technology Chair to Technology Literacy Chair.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to eliminate the Journal Editor position.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to change the MASL1 position to Member- at-Large, and to appoint the present MASL1 representative as a Member-at-Large.

Nancy Grant volunteered to be the new NEEMA representative.

Open appointed positions are: Standards Chair, State Board Representative, Support Staff Chair, and one "At Large" position.

A suggestion was made to break the position of Facilities Chair into three representatives one from the high school, middle, and elementary levels.

A discussion of mileage reimbursement or alternatives was tabled.   

Another suggestion was made that every board member seek one new person for the Executive Board.

SYLVIA'S CORNER

Resolutions to the affiliate assembly have to be decided at the December meeting.

Upcoming School Administrative reviews by the DOE were discussed. 

For information regarding certification, please see Sylvia's recent email on the subject. 

MASL needs a Certification Chair to be involved in proposed changes to School Library Media Specialist certification.  Many suggestions and issues were discussed.  There may not be much Augusta time involved for a Certification Chair until the end of the process.  Jeff Small is willing to help on a committee.  Gretchen Asam will encourage a candidate for the position.   

Sylvia is going to be nominated as ALA Division Councilor for the Executive Council.  ALA members make your vote count!

The MASL board expressed an interest in sponsoring a research project on "well staffed media centers" (a Keith Curry Lance type study for Maine) that Sylvia is undertaking.  Sylvia will send some survey questions to the board members for feedback. 

ALA MIDWINTER

The ALA Midwinter meeting will be held in San Antonio, January 20 – 23^rd.  It is the duty of the MASL representative to be present at the Friday evening meeting starting at 7pm and at the Sunday morning meeting.

President Teri Caouette is going; VP Jeff Small is interested, but will have to confirm later.

ALA

The next ALA meeting will be June 23 – 27^th in New Orleans. 

Teri may not be able to go, and VP Jeff Small has another commitment.

An agenda item for the next meeting will be to select representatives for the ALA meeting.

MASL 2006

Also on the next meeting’s agenda will be a discussion of Standards Work and the direction that MASL will take in 2006.  

CALENDAR UPDATE

The meeting schedule will be posted on the website:

December 3: Maine State Library followed by a conference committee meeting.

January 7:

February 4: with a snow date of February 11

March 4: with a snow date of March 11

April 1: followed by a conference committee meeting

May 6:  Spring Conference and business meeting 

June 3: followed by conference committee meeting

Retreat: (to be scheduled for July or August), especially important because of the September Fall Conference.

MISCELLANEOUS

Because the executive secretary will be more involved with the membership activities, a review of the executive secretary salary will be an agenda item for the February meeting. 

MMA will not be doing conference registration next year. 

Edna offered to obtain an email address for MASL.  The consensus was that that would be an excellent idea. 

The list of MASL executive board members needs to be updated.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee, Secretary protem