Maine State Library

Present: Gretchen Asam, Edna Comstock, Sylvia Norton, Teri Caouette, Nancy Grant, Jeff Small, Francie Aley, Pam Goucher, Barbara Hammond, Mary Moore, Sue Leiter, Kelley McDaniels, Margaret McNamee.

President Gretchen Asam opened the meeting.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to accept the secretary's report.

The treasurer's report was discussed at length for planning purposes. Income and expenses were projected. Line items were defined.

Items discussed were:

• Many membership registrations and renewals were paid made at the newly scheduled October Maine Libraries Conference.
• The continuing education offerings (the support staff workshop and the class act workshop) were very successful this past year.
• A new line item labeled "Special Projects" was created for next year.
• The travel conferences line was increased to $4000, using as a baseline 1 person/1 conference = $1000. Scholarship help is available and extenuating circumstances can be adjusted (longer flight, last minute flight, etc.). Representation at the ALA, and ALA/AASL midwinter conferences is important.
• The NEEMA line was increased to $200 due to gas prices and to cover sub pay. The travel-other line was eliminated for now. If people represent the president, the expenses can be taken from the president’s travel line.
• The dues line was increased to $400 to pay ALA and AASL dues for the president and the vice president.
• The AASL director line will remain $200 if the director is from one of the other NE states. If the director is elected from Maine, the line will be increased to $2000.
• There was no retreat last summer. The line will remain.
• The November/Fall conference line was eliminated.
• The new special projects line was budgeted at $5000 to cover research projects, the literacy piece of standards work, the job description update, etc.)
• A new MASL Conferences line (separate from the Maine Library Conference) was budgeted at $1500, to cover workshops like class act and the support staff workshop.
• The standards line was eliminated. It will be covered under the new special projects line.
• The food line was changed to meeting expenses and increased to $250.
• The intellectual freedom line was budgeted at $300 for conference speakers, printing the manual, challenges, committee chair travel expenses to testify if needed, etc..
• The tax exempt line was changed to audit expenses and budgeted at $300. There was only a fee for the initial tax exempt status, but we might need to pay for auditor.
• The legislative committee representative was budgeted at $1000.
• The Legislative Day was budgeted at $200. It will be Tues./Wed. May 3 - 4 2005.
• The miscellaneous line was budgeted at $500.
• The postage line was not changed.
• The printing line was eliminated. Printing is usually included in special projects, and it is better to show it there as part of the cost of the projects instead of separating it out. Other printing may show up in Edna’s secretarial budget.
• The web page line was increased to $500.
• The sub travel line was renamed state board expenses and budgeted at $500. It covers mileage for the representatives at state board meetings
• The supplies line was eliminated. It can be covered under miscellaneous.
• PR was budgeted at $250.
• The Maine Library Foundation was budgeted at $500. It is a seed fund to support future library needs.
• The New Century Grant line was eliminated.
• The MSBA line was budgeted at $400 in budget.
• The Chickadee Award (elementary level) will be discussed as an agenda item.
• Maine Libraries Conference income is expected to be about the same as last year.
• A motion was moved, seconded, and passed to accept the treasurer’s report.
  

Gretchen announced the resignations of Suzan Nelson, past president and PR chair, and Mary Simpson, the legislative representative. Gretchen thanked them for their many years of service.
Edna Comstock announced that she is retiring from the Maine State Library as of April 1. She will continue as the MASL executive secretary.

Sue Leiter volunteered to fill the PR board position.

Suzan sent announcements of the Taranko award recipient Kathy Foss to various papers. It was also in the Camden paper and on the Village Soup website. Jeff Small put information about Gerry Massey in the Capital Weekly. Sue Leiter will ask Shirley Helfrich for more information about posting with Maine News Direct

The next conference meeting will be Dec. 4 after the MASL board meeting. MLA is still looking for a co-chair. Teri asked everyone to please come to support MASL at the next conference meeting. There will not be a snow date for the January MASL meeting.

Teri spoke about follow up for the Maine Libraries Conference. The Survey Monkey results showed high satisfaction.

The registration packet was analyzed. There were only 180 ALA members out of 380 registrants. There were 127 people from public libraries, 171 from school libraries, 22 from special libraries. Tallying the Sunday attendance is important to keep Sunday scheduled as a conference day. Jay Scherma has agreed to coordinate the vendors again next year. Teri needs a MASL program chair to solicit/help with school library programs.

MLA has voted to pursue the idea of hiring an administrative assistant for the coming conference year for suggested duties which Melora Norman listed in an e-mail. They have asked MASL to accept the proposal and to fund it with $1000.
(MMA has been doing Conference registration as part of a yearly fee that MLA pays them).
A motion to support the concept for an administrative assistant for the Maine Libraries Conference was passed unanimously. Presidents and past conference chairs will meet to discuss job descriptions and stipends/honorarium details.

The scholarship auction gained $2010.50.

A motion was made, seconded, and passed to increase the amount of the Taranko awards to the school library media programs of the Administrator of the Year and the SLMS of the year. A dollar figure was not part of the motion.
There was some discussion about returning submitted material to people who did not get the award or to the person who submitted recommendations. The matter was tabled until the application is reviewed.

Sylvia discussed the standards work. We have a final draft for the framework and for the rubrics. Evidence needs to be listed. The draft needs to be fine tuned and presented to the State Board of Education. The draft also needs to be field tested and evaluated for holes or problems. We are looking for volunteers from the board to pilot an evaluation and show what evidence should be used.

We hope to get feedback by January. A summary can then be written about the process with recommendations and commendations. We can brainstorm evidence to use and examples to show what can be done with the standards. After that, we will move to MELIB for pilot volunteers beyond the board. Sylvia will send packets to the board with the final drafts.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to hold five regional meetings to introduce the standards with a projected expense of $4750 (printing $3500, $250 food, postage $500, $100 stipends for board members who run meetings). Details still to be decided include the time of year, the time of day (half day or after school), in conjunction with other meetings like SMLD, NMLD, CMLD, or a spring MASL conference. Further discussion will also be needed to decide how to set up the training.

Sue Ballard has agreed to come back to Maine to do another workshop on using data to inform our practice. It would work very well to combine her workshop with a standards workshop.

Donna Chale has agreed to revise the job description. Nancy is working on a support staff job description. Both job descriptions could be included in the final standards packet.

An announcement will be made to MELIBS that we have moved to the gathering of documentation and to the piloting of the standards.

Kelley spoke about several IF challenges and about the Pabbis organization.

Discussion about the Conant Scholarship was tabled.

Sylvia spoke about Sagebrush’s executive decision not to attend our Maine Libraries Conference, their decision to attend the ACTEM Conference for technology coordinators, and their decision to give discounts to technology coordinators for purchasing their Pinpoint products, without offering discounts to library users of their Spectrum products. Board members were encouraged to write letters to Sagebrush executives, or to subscribe to/post to Sagebrush discussion boards. Gretchen will write a letter for the board and post it to MELIBS. If there is no response, the issue should be taken to AASL in January.

Sylvia went to the AASL executive board meeting in Chicago last week. The AASL board was urged to formulate a strategic plan to influence education policy. MASL board members were urged to join AASL and to vote! Sylvia also encouraged all to plan to attend the midwinter affiliate assembly in January in Boston.

There is an information literacy meeting called “Sowing the seeds of information literacy” Dec. 3 at the Augusta Civic Center. The registration flyer has just been sent out.

Plans are afoot to tweak the Maine Learning Results. Input is wanted regarding information literacy and technology literacy.

The Chickadee award was discussed. Gretchen will write a response asking what they need and saying that we are interested in supporting them.

Harvest was suggested as a theme for next year’s conference with the focus on the benefits of growth, etc. Potential speakers need to be approached now: Oprah Winfrey!!!! Garrison Keillor???? There is a $3000 limit including expenses. It is possible that part of the conference could be open to the public to increase income.

The remaining agenda items were tabled.
The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Margaret McNamee,
Secretary