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From the President posted 13 January 2010 Dear Members, I hope that you all had wonderful restful holidays and are now coping with whatever winter happens to bring your way--in the northeast that happens to be lots of COLD air. But thoughts of the upcoming baseball season (the countdown for pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training has begun) and our annual conference to be held in Boston in April will help us make it through. I hope that you have all had a chance to peruse the preliminary program for the Boston conference. There seems to be something for everyone--thought-provoking sessions, timely workshops, and tours galore. Boston is a top-rate city, offering a huge variety of restaurants, bars, museums, and an easy to navigate public transportation system. I truly believe this is going to be one of our best events yet! When making your plans for Boston, please do your best to arrange to stay in the conference hotel. You will benefit--the conference events will all be at your doorstep, you'll have lots of opportunities to network and meet up with new and old friends, and it's a really lovely hotel. And ARLIS/NA will benefit; as you may know, ARLIS conference contracts are signed with hotels years in advance. These contracts include a specified number of "room nights" which we have to fill. If we fall short, we pay a significant amount of money in penalty. Given the current economy our organization, like many others, is suffering short-falls. It is possible that ARLIS/NA may not be able to afford to do annual conferences if we end up too far in the red. So please, do what you can. Our hotel contract also holds us to spending a certain amount in food and beverages. Because of this, we will be offering several meals and lots of coffee breaks at the conference location, and all included in the price of conference registration! And in that vein, RENEW! Yes, it's membership renewal time again. If you have any questions or problems renewing online, contact the Society's management firm, Technology Enterprises, Inc., (TEI). Many of you may be wondering what has been going on with our new management company, TEI. They have accomplished much on our behalf. First, as you will see when you renew your membership, we are no longer in the grips of MemberClicks. All of our membership data has been migrated to the TEI membership system. It is offering a greater ease of use and easy access to important information. Second, the ARLIS/NA web site, along with several chapter web sites, has also been migrated over to TEI. This means that the maintenance of these sites is now centrally managed. Our conference web site is also being hosted by TEI. Another new feature we now have is our first ever prospects database. This allows the hard-working development committee to better manage the process of looking for sponsors. And finally, due to the diligence of Don McMurray, our Art Documentation ad revenues are way up! Finally, please let me or any other board members know of any questions or concerns you have regarding ARLIS/NA. We are your board, and we are working for you. Amy Lucker President, ARLIS/NA Top of Page