Submitted by Linda Tompkins-Baldwin, co-chair, ltompkins@artbma.org, & Joan Stahl, co-chair, jstahl@nmaa.si.edu

In Attendance:
Dana Beth, Outgoing Chair
Peter Blank, Board Liaison
Barbara Prior
Thomas Riedel
Lee Sorensen
Joan Stahl, Incoming Co-Chair
Patricia Thompson
Linda Tompkins-Baldwin, Incoming Co-Chair
 

The Research Committee met on March 18, 2000. Dana Beth updated the committee on the status of last years awards, check status, and awards presentation at the convocation. All the preparations had be made for the Pittsburgh award ceremony although Worldwide's check had not yet been received. Dana has contact them twice so no further follow up is needed. H.W. Wilson has made a three year commitment that runs through 2003. It was recommended that efforts be made to get a similar commitment from Worldwide.

The John Benjamins Award has been suspended. Due to a lack of applications, the company has decided to support ARLIS in other ways. The web site will be edited to show it is no longer active, but will honor them for their generosity and list past award winners. It was decided that no efforts would or should be made to revive the award, but they should be thanked for their past support.

The Research Committee needs to prepare three columns per year for Update. The August 2000 column, which publicizes the past years awards, will be edited by Barbara Prior. Pat Thompson will edit the December column of member publications and non-ARLIS awards. The April 2001 column, announcing the 2001 award winners, will be submitted by Thomas Riedel. The deadline for the columns are June 10 for the August column, October 10 for the December column and February 10 for the April issue.

As a means of promoting the award to ARLIS members, it was decided that committee members would perform outreach to the local chapters. Each chapter was assigned to a member who would then contact the local officers and work with them to help identify member publications and publicize and promote the awards.

Peter went over procedures for the new co-chairs. He recommended reviewing the Vancouver Report and writing a procedures manual. Duties include submitting dates for the management calendar and updating the award sites on the Internet. He also reviewed the procedures for accepting the award monies and presenting them at the convocation.

The suggestion was made to incorporate the Gerd Muehsam Award into the Research Committee since the charge of both committees is similar. Combining committees would simplify procedures for applicants and cut down on administrative duties. Members were concerned about the amount of reading that would entail. One suggestion was that the committees be combined, but that a subgroup be assigned to the Gerd Muehsam Award. It was agreed to initiate conversation with the chair of that award, Paula Gabbard, to discuss the feasibility of this idea.

The mission of the Research Committee was reviewed as it relates to the strategic plan. The committee is fulfilling its goals and looks forward to working with ARLIS' new strategic plan.