NCCCLRA Executive Board Conference Call

December 1, 2006

1:00 p.m.

 

Attending:

 

Mike Crumpton            Wake

Myra Blue                    Pamlico

Stephanie Bowers         Pitt

Deborah Foster            Fayetteville

Calvin Craig                 Gaston

Donald Forbes             Guilford

Cathy Campbell            Craven

Gena Craig                   Central Piedmont

Lynette Finch                Nash

 

Conference Business:

 

Planning, General—Myra brought everyone up to date on the status of the conference thus far.  Minutes of the Planning Committee meetings have been posted on the NCCCLRA Web site and more conference details will be posted as they become available.  She would like to have another Planning Committee meeting in the next few weeks, tentatively on December 13.  A vendor letter and vendor registration form will soon be finalized and the form will be made available on the conference Web site.  We want to obtain as much vendor sponsorship as possible, while making sure to follow all pertinent “ethical” guidelines.

 

Planning, Program—Mike contacted Dr. Larry White, Assistant Professor of Library Science & Instructional Technology at ECU about giving our keynote presentation and he enthusiastically accepted.  Dr. White has presented worldwide at a variety of library-related conferences, most recently at the Chilean Library Association’s Conference in Santiago, Chile.  He should provide an interesting talk.

 

Mike will be sending out a “call for presentations” next week; as presenter information comes in it will be added to the conference site.

 

Conference Budget—The question was raised as to what we might want to do with the overage of funds from the 2006 conference.  Deborah noted that any leftover funds are normally moved to the scholarship account, with the understanding that this account cannot be touched until such time as the interest generated is enough to pay for scholarships.  This year we are in receipt of a larger overage than usual—the current balance is $16,454 in the operating account ($5000 is typically maintained for operating expenses).  The disposition of this overage was put to a Board vote, and it was voted to distribute these funds as follows:

 

  • The share checking account will be drawn down to $7000 (to be used for out-of-pocket conference expenses).

 

  • $287.00 will be transferred to the non-scholarship money market account so as to bring that account back up to $5000.

 

  • $9167.48 will be transferred to the scholarship money market account.

 

(Note:  These figures were confirmed with Deborah Foster, Treasurer.)

 

Mike suggested that Don and the Procedure Committee might want to consider the lack of clear-cut financial guidelines set forth in the current NCCCLRA Constitution and Bylaws, and also expressed the desire to form a new committee to help develop such guidelines more fully, perhaps with the assistance of legal counsel.  Mike, Myra, and Deborah volunteered to serve on this committee.  The goal is to develop a standard for going forward in the area of finances.  It was suggested that a past NCCCLRA president might also be invited to serve on this committee, as he/she would have knowledge of “what used to be done,” but it was decided that Deborah’s lengthy tenure as Treasurer (since 2001) would serve the same purpose.

 

Membership Dues—The question was posed as to whether we would rather have membership dues paid again in March (since they were just paid in July), have dues deferred until July, or have dues eliminated altogether for community college employees and derive operating expenses from conference registration fees.  Deborah pointed out that the current bylaws define the “membership year” as being from conference to conference, whenever those conferences may fall.  Mike noted that his thinking on the idea of eliminating dues is that it might encourage more people to join NCCCLRA, since schools will not reimburse individuals for membership dues.  However, a change of this type would need to be presented to the membership at large, at the conference business meeting.  Because we need to have a vote on this issue and perhaps other issues of this nature, we want to try to emphasize to the membership the importance of staying on for the conference business meeting.

 

Myra proposed deferring membership dues until July and coming up with a proposal to present to the membership in March, potentially requesting the elimination of dues altogether.  The Board approved this idea, and Mike said that he will write up such a proposal to put before the Executive Board at the next meeting.

 

Some questions were raised on how the operating expense account would fare if dues were eliminated, since most NCCCLRA funds are earmarked for scholarships and district meetings.  Deborah noted the need to word the conference registration form so as to make clear the various “categories” of registrants:  those who paid dues last July would now need to pay only for registration; those who did not pay dues last July would still need to pay dues along with registration; and those who are non-members would possibly have another fee structure.  So that the registration form can be created and posted on the conference Web site, the Planning Committee needs to decide on the cost of registration at its next meeting.

 

Miscellaneous Issues—The new “presentation” form should soon be posted on the conference site.

 

Mike requested that the Board come up with suggestions on who might be willing to chair the nominating committee to elect this year’s new NCCCLRA officers.  Peggy Quinn handled this last year and Mike noted that she did “a good job.”

 

Non-Conference Business:

 

Mike has been working with Dr. Bill Randall to establish a liaison with the President’s Council in an ongoing effort to advocate for community college library concerns.  Mike  suggested that we develop a brochure so as to provide information to the new state legislators on library needs, perhaps focusing on the area of electronic resources.  If the state library does something along similar lines we might want to join in their effort.  It would be more effective if something like this were to come from the whole NCCCLRA rather than an individual school; this would also promote greater “recognition” of our organization.

 

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

 

Submitted by:

Stephanie Bowers,

Secretary