Board Members Present:  Edna Comstock, Donna Chale, Gretchen Asam, Kelley McDaniel, Teri Caouette, Jeff Small, Sylvia Norton, Toni Buzzeo, Nancy Grant, Debbie Gahm, Peggy Becksvoort.

Absent:  Janet Patterson, Marilyn Joyce, Barbara Hammond, Eileen Broderick.
Visitors: Judy Wentzell, Lynn McCarthy, Chris Fricke, Ellen McCarty, Alison Skoezenski.

The meeting was called to order by President Jeff Small at 9:20 AM.

Opening Remarks and welcome by Jeff Small. 

Secretary's Report: The minutes of the October meeting were accepted as read with a correction to the spelling of MILTI [should be MLTI].

Treasurer's Report: Thank you from the Maine Student Book Award Committee for MASL's support.  The big budget item for November was the  conference. The total income was $3500.00, expenses were $3,875.67.  Award expenditures for November were $774.845.  The miscellaneous income was from tee shirt sales. Scholarship money was taken from registration fees, giving MASL $225.00 more than is reflected in the report. The treasurer's report was accepted as presented.

Conference:  About 60 people attended the conference.  The Administrator of the Year award presentation was viewed as very positive.  The Maine Reading Association president was there and wants to collaborate with us on a conference.  A Maine Student Book Award representative was also there and networked with attendees. 

Jeff shared that Toni's presentation went very well and thanked her.  Thirty-six conference surveys were turned in following the conference.  Jeff handed out the results of that survey, and there was discussion about some of the feedback. Many agreed that we should interact more with others outside the board at conferences.  The survey results will be discussed  at a later time. 

Permabound donated two I pods, and Toni's publisher gave several items to be given as door prizes.  Those who were drawn to receive iPods were Tina Taggert and someone else.  Annika Black, Londa Brown, and Barbara Reymeyer  received conference scholarships.  Jeff went over the survey and pointed out the feedback received.  Jeff gave out MASL M&Ms.

Special Presentation: Edna presented Sylvia Norton with a certificate for her Life Membership award.  Edna also presented her with a gift from MASL to show our concern and support during this difficult time.  Members also gave her meals to keep in her freezer.

Big Audacious Goal (BAG):  Jeff asked that we keep our goal in the foremost part of our minds.  He asked us to think about how it relates to our agenda items, what we do, and how we can use it to move forward.

MLTI High School Project: Nancy Grant discussed librarian involvement in this project.  She would like to provide mini workshops to get school librarians involved.  She would like to put on MELIBS a quick survey to HS librarians as to what they need. Toni suggested a letter to all librarians asking the questions that need to be answered regarding MLTI.  Joyce will work on a list of email addresses.  Issues can be reported to Betty Mansfield with a copy to Sylvia.  Teri feels that her being a teacher/leader has made a difference.  Flexibility helps to accommodate teachers.  Jeff suggested doing a series of workshops on various MLTI issues. 

2008 Conference:  Peggy has been in contact with Rich Boulet, president of MLA, and they are having meetings concerning a joint conference.  She gave some of the results of and comments from the MLA survey.  Some of the comments from MLA members were: they would like to have people walk out feeling refreshed about something, would like a joint conference and are pleased with desire of MASL to have a joint conference, district consultants have arranged for a  futurist to speak in October, do not like the civic center, suggested that the focus got too wide, helpful to have a show book to pass along to the next committee,  conference co-chair, more interaction when held at UMO-- suggested Sugarloaf, Sunday River, College of the Atlantic, vendors make it possible make a profit, suggestion to have vendor programs (Kelly feels that is worth looking at and would like to see what the policy is), less than a 2 day conference is not effective, length of programs needs to be longer. 

Reactions from the MASL board: Peggy would like to be at their next meeting,  agreement that people missed the vendor interaction (point was made that there are fewer vendors available now), a suggestion to shrink down the number of offerings held at one time, a suggestion to speak with other state organizations to see why they are successful, location seems to be very important, a keynote on both days, last 4-5 years the mentality has changed to “let's make money.” 

The question was raised, “Do we have a joint conference?”  Discussed the possibility of MLA and MASL coming together.  We need to collect and synthesize the information collected and get help from a facilitator.  Nancy made a motion to investigate a conference soon with MRA and continue to explore the possibility of a joint conference with MLA.  Deb seconded the motion.  Sylvia suggested we aim for 2009 to give us time.  The motion carried.  Peggy asked for help from anyone interested.

Public Relations:  Deb was thanked for her work, she asked for suggestions.  She has drafted a letter for possible contacts.  She would like to put the high school MLTI lesson plans out on the web when they are produced.  Jeff requested we take photographs of our libraries.  Deb will put something on MELIBS.  There was a reminder to use caution when using student faces.  The compilation of a school librarians handbook is needed.

LMS of the year plaques and tote bags:  Jeff would like to see it put in the budget for next year that we buy the tote bags for LMS of the Year.  Discussed having totes available for sale by order.  People can have their MASL position on it as well.  He feels we did a great job on PR for LMS of year and administrator of the year.  Janet Patterson asked that we consider offering a Support Staff of the Year award.  We need to define clearly what the award is about. It was agreed to go forward with this new award.

Membership:  There are currently about 180 members.  Jeff emphasized that we need a membership chairperson.  The responsibilities would be to contact new people and those that are not members of MASL and discuss with them the importance of belonging to MASL.  Jeff would like to see us talking to our neighbors and making efforts to bring them in.  They need to continue hearing that we are looking out for them.  Peggy suggested a mentor-ship committee and that we put our names out there as such.  Teri offered herself as a contact for mentoring.  There was a suggestion for a letter to all school principals encouraging them to support their librarians by paying for memberships. 

There was a suggestion to send out a job description list and with it ask more people if they are interested in serving on these committees.  Jeff would like to send emails out, with a list of chairs, asking for people to join.  Joyce will work on getting email addresses of non-members.

Intellectual Freedom (Kelly McDaniel)

• Lisbon Falls Public Library is dealing with a challenge to It's Perfectly Normal.  The borrower is following proper procedure and filling out a complaint form.
• Kelly read a statement describing an intellectual freedom issue regarding Indian in the Cupboard at a Portland elementary school giving the history of what took place, her steps in dealing with the issue, and her plan to report it to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (IF).  She clarified that because the book was removed from the library for its bias toward Native Americans, it is considered censorship by the ALA Office for IF.  She asked the board if they were in support of her decision to move forward in reporting it, and if not, she will report it as a private citizen. 

Jeff explained that he asked Kelly to wait until this meeting before reporting the incident in order to find out what MASL's role is and allow MASL to move forward in the correct fashion.  He asked that she report the incident as IF Chairperson and that, in speaking with the ALA office, she did what she was expected to do in this case.

Portland librarians spoke about the district selection/collection policy and stated that they followed procedure in removing the book.  Sources were given that listed this book for its stereotype of native peoples.

The board discussed the need for a clearly articulated MASL procedure/policy which could be followed when an IF issue arises within the IF Chair's own school district.  It was recommended that we solicit people to serve on the IF committee with Kelley. 

Kelley stated that she will proceed with the report as the IF Chair and that the book will be placed on Maine's list of books that have been challenged or banned. There will be no names listed.  The board will discuss this further at a later time.    

Maine Libraries Week (January 13 - 19 2008): Ceremony in the Hall of Flags with a press conference.  

Goals:  Jeff asked that we keep the MASL goals in mind and work through the necessary processes to make them work.

AASL:  Discussed the need for an outline of expectations for Affiliate Assembly. 

Information Literacy committee:  Toni was added to this committee.

Professional Development Conference on March 7 and 8 at the Hilton Hotel in NYC.  PBS is making a national focus by reaching out to state associations.  They would like a link on our web page and for this will give us 2 free registrations.

Other:

• Sue Leiter will continue to do archiving but will not be on the board. 
• Edna shared information on  workshops for board members on subjects such as job descriptions that would improve on the effectiveness of our organizations.

Meeting adjourned 1:20.  The next meeting will be on January 5   at the Maine State Library in Augusta.  Locations for later meetings will be discussed at that time.

Respectfully Submitted, 
Joyce Lucas, Secretary