Conant Farmhouse

Present: Nancy B. Grant, Pamela Goucher, Teri Caouette, Suzan Nelson, Sylvia Norton, Susan Allison, Donna Chale, Edna Comstock, Gretchen Asam, Tamara Blesh, Sue Leiter.

Thank you and wishes for a peaceful holiday to Nancy Grant who played Santa and left us each a seasonally appropriate gift. We will all think of you as we make our cookies and eat our party dip, Nancy.

The next MASL meeting will be Saturday, February 2, 2002. We will met at Maine General Medical Center for a tour of the library. Directions will follow later. Please submit reports via e-mail or hard copy to Nancy before the date.

There will be no January meeting. Nancy did encourage attendance at the FREE MEA Prof. Practices conference, "The Joy of Teaching and Learning" which will be held Saturday, Jan 12, 2002 at the Civil Center. MEA will provide a table for MASL free if we wish to staff one. The idea was enthusiastically greeted. Ideas: Milk crate of give-away books (Scholastic?) ; questionnaire w/ drawing for $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate. We'll plan for this by e-mail. Deadline for registration is December 14th.

There was a brief Fall Conference update. Other notes: Nancy informed us that Margaret McNamee's mother passed away. We all send our condolences. Donna will send flowers or a donation.

Treasurer's report. Donna expressed concern that our assets are approaching a taxable level. It’s time to think about making some purchases. A motion was made to look into copy machine purchase/ leasing. Pam Goucher accepted and Teri Caouette seconded. Motion passed. Tamara will check out costs, options, styles etc.

1st Vice President's report: The Board supported the idea of booking the main conference speaker a year in advance. A request was made to get a few more school library programs into the conference. Sue Leiter asked whether non-planning committee members could attend meetings. Great question -- any and all MASL / MLA members and their input welcome!

Archivist's report. Sue Leiter handed out the revised guidelines for MASL archives for review. Policy will be formally adopted at our Feb meeting. After a discussion of file cabinet needs, Nancy Grant requested a motion that a 3 drawer file cabinet be purchased. Pam Goucher accepted and Edna Comstock seconded. Motion passed.

Continuing Education. Teri reminded up of the list of opportunities she e-mailed to us; she will send them to Gail for posting on the MASL web page. There was discussion about the survey she is working on about continuing education needs. Tamara offered to help with specifics

Technology. Tamara handed out a list of the official MASL Technology Committee. Looks good. She told us about a neat survey-making program, with both free and pay options, available on zoomerang.com. Tamara said she would present “On-line Literacy Skills” - her course for 9th grades students, at Conference.

IFC. Gretchen expressed concern about the impact of the Patriot Act on IF issues. This generated an idea to have a panel discussion at Conference on IF issues, w/ audience participation. Gretchen & Melora will look into this.

Membership. Edna reported a membership of 175 with 5-10 dribbling in each week. After the holidays she will go to a first class mailing to non-responders.

There was unanimous acclaim for Edna's purchase of chairs and tables for the farm house meeting room. It was decided that she should purchase 6 more chairs and 2 more tables, as well as 2 floor lamps.

NEEMA. Sylvia reported that there will be a virtual meeting on Saturday planning for next year’s October conference. We need the date to avoid conflict w/ fall Conference. The date for the orientation meeting for new school librarians has already been set for next August. This will go on the agenda for our March or April meeting.

Past president. Suzan will have information on nominations for Teacher-of-the-Year at the February meeting.

Standards. Susan Allison is looking at state standards available on web sites. She reported on her attendance at the State Board of Education, where they are currently addressing the language and organization of Ch.125 and 127. Sylvia discussed the details of this later under New Business.

Old Business was reviewed as follows: Ideas for the plaque for MASL headquarters were looked at, ideas and comments added. Sylvia brought up again the idea of offering overnight accommodations at the Farm to long distance travelers. Sue Leiter reported on her attendance at the MLA scholarship committee meeting.

New Business:

Donna Chale read a letter from Margy Soule requesting that MASL’s contribution to Maine State Book Award go from $300 to $500. After discussion it was moved by Teri and seconded by Sylvia to donate $500 this year. Passed unanimously.

Members should come to the February meeting with ideas for spending money; e.g. should we consider web master pay for Gail?

January 12th MEA conference participation will be planned via e-mail.

Sylvia reported on the DOE rule change hearings and need for librarians to attend and testify Dec. 4th, or comment via e-mail before Dec. 19th. Nancy will put a call out on ME_LIBS.

The meeting adjourned at noon for lunch and the Maine Libraries Conference Committtee meeting.