It has been a great pleasure to be the Chair of the
Northwest Chapter during this year of great activity. The Chapter has been revitalized by the activities of new
members in Alberta and by the relocation of Ed Teague to our Chapter.
The University of Victoria has hired, for the first time, an art
librarian, and we are pleased to have Lynn Woodruff returning to our Chapter
from the University of Maryland in that position.
This has been a busy year. The Alberta branch of the Northwest Chapter, led by James Rout, Marilyn Nasserden and Kathy Zimon, hosted a mini-conference in Banff, jointly sponsored with ARLIS Canada. As previously reported, this conference was well attended by members of both chapters, as well as both the Western Regional Representative and the Canadian Representative of the ARLIS/NA Executive Board. Careful planning and hard work by the organizing committee made this a weekend filled with stimulating speakers, useful information sessions and engaging tours. As the program was so full, no business meetings were held for either of the participating chapters.
This
conference was sponsored, in part, by Special Funding from ARLIS/NA.
Finances for the event were managed by the Northwest Chapter’s able
Secretary/Treasurer, John Cull. A
silent auction of Canadian publications donated by publishers and conference
participants proved to be an effective fundraiser.
The
Northwest Chapter held its annual meeting on December 6-7 in Vancouver, B.C. The
meeting kicked off with a dinner on Friday evening.
The dinner was attended by 22 members and their guests and held at my
home. Our after dinner speaker was Don Luxton, Vancouver historian
and heritage advocate. He has
recently authored a book about the Lion’s Gate Bridge, a Vancouver landmark.
He lectured on architecture and public works projects in Vancouver during
the 1930’s.
We
re-convened the following morning at the Vancouver Public Library, where we
received a brief tour of this Moshe Safdie building (1995) before we settled
into the Library Board Room for coffee and Diana Cooper’s famous ARLIS
muffins. (recipe available on the
NW website) We had a brief
demonstration of the Library’s digital photo collection and a tour of the
Special Collections division. Next
on our schedule was our business meeting. Highlights
of that meeting included a discussion of profit sharing with ARLIS Canada.
Ed Teague made a presentation about the next regional conference that
will take place in Portland, Oregon next June.
New
officers are: Chair – Ed Teague;
Vice-Chair/Chair Elect-Vacant; Secretary/Treasure-John Cull; Past Chair and
ARLIS Canada Representative-Cheryl Siegel.
Jodee Fenton agreed to search for a Vice-Chair/Chair Elect among the
Seattle membership. ARLIS activity
in Seattle has been slow for the last little while and it was felt that having
the Chapter chair in that location might energize things there a bit.
Ed Teague and John Cull have both agreed to serve two year terms.
The
meeting was followed by lunch at nearby Rosie’s Delicatessen.
After lunch, Carole Goldsmith demonstrated Simon Fraser University’s
new virtual reference service. The
afternoon finished with a tour of the Tom Thomson exhibition at the Vancouver
Art Gallery.
It
has been very nice to have our Canadian and Western Representatives at both of
our gatherings this year. The
support and presence of the ARLIS/NA Executive Board helps to connect us to the
mother ship and keeps us on our toes. The
support of the other members of the Vancouver ‘Committee of Four’ – Carole
Goldsmith, John Cull, Diana Cooper, has been essential in making things run
smoothly. As always, the best thing
about being involved in ARLIS/NA is the contact with colleagues and the fact
that ARLIS members are almost always the nicest people!
Cheryl
Siegel
Past
Chair
December 31, 2002