Minutes of the Computing Services SIS Business Meeting
July 15th, 2007
Hilton Riverside Hotel, New Orleans, LA

The CS Business Meeting was called to order at 5:30 by Chair Kris Niedringhaus.
Seventeen attendees including the board were present. Prior to conducting business, the group engaged in an ice breaker to encourage participation. Attendees were instructed to turn to their neighbor and ask the following questions:
1. What is your name?
2. Other than coming to the Business Meeting, name one other fun thing that you did in New Orleans?
3. What is your favorite cartoon?

Attendees engaged in a quick five minute discussion before reporting back to the room. All had fun.

At approximately 5:40, Chair Niedringhaus formally introduced the executive board and thanked them for their work. After introductions, there was a brief discussion regarding the possibility of a name change for the SIS. Attendees did not seem to express a dominant opinion one way or the other regarding a name change. A motion was made, seconded and passed, to form a group and take a formal survey of the constituents regarding name possibilities. The intended goals are to update the name and make it more user-friendly.

At approximately 5:50, Chair Niedringhaus reported that the elected Secretary/Treasurer of CS-SIS had to resign due to professional demands at a new job. Vicki Szymczak was identified as the replacement and served out the final six months of the term. Reading of the minutes was waived as the former Secretary had not submitted them, nor had he been responsive to requests to do so.

At approximately 5:55, Secretary/Treasurer Szymczak read the financials to the attendees noting that our balance at the end of the 3d quarter reported by AALL was $9,872.57. Secretary/Treasurer Szymczak noted that the SIS had incurred $781.41 since March 31st leaving a balance of $9,091.16. It was noted that AALL rarely provides year end financials in time for the annual meeting.

At approximately 6:00, Secretary/Treasurer Szymczak reported on a keen level of interest expressed by new librarians at the CONNELL marketplace.

At approximately 6:05, Member Kistler discussed publication of the CS newsletter Connecting. Due to a lack of submissions, publication of Connection will be reduced to twice a year.

At approximately 6:10, the Annual Report was made.

Discussion of committee activity began. It was noted that a new committee was formed named “Emerging Technologies” which is chaired by Member Debbie Ginsberg. The Emerging Technologies committee is charged with advancing the use and education of new technology within the membership of AALL.

New appointments to the board were announced:
o Vicki Szymczak, Chair Elect
o Jean Willis, Secretary/Treasurer
o Katie Jones, Member-At-Large Presentation of the Ken Hirsch Award by James Duggan to James Milles
o Member Milles made his acceptance speech

At approximately 6:15 reports from the following Committees were made Grants Committee: Member Gernert reported that two grants were awarded this year. The recipients were Katie Jones and Julie Jones (no relation) Strategic Planning: Incoming Chair Liebert and Chair Elect Szymczak asked to extend their charge for another year. A motion was made to extend, it was seconded and passed. Karaoke: Member Hirsch reported that the Karaoke committee was very successful and crowded.

At approximately 6:20, Chair Niedringhaus reviewed the CS event schedule for AALL and introduced the incoming board for 2007-2008. There was no old business to attend to.

Chair Liebert addressed the SIS on the following matters:

Brochures: The brochures were last updated eight years ago. AALL will help SIS’s redesign and update their “look,” and provide 1,000 printouts. Web Master: Chair Liebert can no longer serve as web master of the CS web page and would like someone to volunteer. In addition, she would like to move the web site off AALL’s server because AALL cannot support 2.0 technology. One solution would be to buy space on hosted services and use blogging software to maintain it. Members Ginsberg and Shucha agreed tp set up the software. Job Descriptions Database: The database uses SQL and PHP. We lost our host and need to find a new one plus someone to manage the content.

Archivist: Our former archivist, Don Arndt, is no longer part of CS and we are in need of an archivist. We held a brief discussion on rolling it into Secretary’s position.

By-Laws: Due to the resignation of Secretary/Treasurer Young mid-term, there is a need to address the succession issue in the by-laws. Programming for 2008 Annual Meeting:

o We do not do this by committee but by group effort which is different than other SIS’s. It is important to come to and contribute to the programming committee. This year, Darin Fox will be our liaison and we will try to take this opportunity to push forth more advanced programming that will appeal to members of our SIS.
o Discussion of new types of programming ensued in which concerns were raised on parallel programming conflicts and the fact that CS sponsored programs would not be archived by AALL. Liaison Darin Fox suggested we memorialize our concerns in a memo to AALL HQ. The two types of programs are:
AALL Educational Programs (they pay)
CS Sponsored Programs (we pay) Group discussed new continuing professional educational grants to sponsor projects outside the annual meeting. This might require a new committee. Member Milles suggested a regional podcasting project so that AALL chapters could share and communicate their ideas more effectively. An ad hoc podcasting committee was formed, steered by Member Milles. Web 2.0 Project: The Web 2.0 project was introduced in connection with the new Emerging Technologies Committee. The theme centers around learning Web 2.0 in 15 minutes per day. Encouragement to complete projects would be accomplished by rewards at different stages.
At approximately 6:40, Chair Liebert adjourned the Business Meeting.