Submitted by:
Peter Blank
pblank@artic.edu
(312) 443-3665
fax 312-443-0964
I. Meetings attended
A. 2000 Pittsburgh Pre-Conference Meeting, March 16-17, 2000.
B. 2000 Pittsburgh Post-Conference Meeting, March 22, 2000.
C. Executive Board Executive Session Conference Calls, March 1 and March 15, 2000.
D. Executive Board Executive Committee Conference Call, July 17, 2000.
E. Toronto Mid-Year Executive Board Meeting, Sept. 22-23, 2000.
D. [Will attend 2001 Los Angeles Pre-Conference Meeting, March 29, 2001.]
II. Support Society email lists
A. Although management of the Society's email lists (board, committee, moderator, chapter, laconference) was transferred from Adler Droz Inc. (ADI) to Clark Management Services (CMS) in May, the lists continue to be compiled by the Secretary. These lists must be completely revised every year. Prior to and following the Pittsburgh conference the necessary address information was gathered from a variety of sources, including the Regional Representatives, the Vice-Chair, ARLIS-L, and Chapter web sites, and reformatted. At this time I am in the process of revising these lists once again, and will be forwarding this information to Derek Crosley, our Web- and Listmaster. This process is incredibly time-consuming and detracts substantially from the Secretary's ability to complete other duties. Considering how little these lists are actually used I do not feel they are worth the effort to maintain. The incoming Secretary should re-examine the requirements of Society communication and investigate other means to achieve that necessary communication. We can not and should not continue to invest Board effort into activities merely because it is possible to achieve a certain end. Every effort by the Board on the behalf of the Society, listservs and otherwise, should have a well conceived and defendable rationale.
B. In addition I attempt to facilitate the Board's email discussions by regularly posting messages indicating individual Board members' time away from the office, posting messages indicating our current place in an ongoing email agenda, and so on.
III. Minutes
A. Took minutes for (see Meetings Attended above) Pittsburgh Pre-Conference (20 pages) and Post-Conference (22 pages) meetings, Executive Board Executive Session Conference Calls (4 pages), Executive Board Executive Committee Conference Call, July 17, 2000 (3 pages), Toronto Mid-Year Executive Board Meeting (20 pages), and will take minutes for the Los Angeles Pre-Conference Meeting. Circulated minutes to Executive Board for approval by motion. Posted final versions plus list of motions and action items to ARLIS/NA web site (AWS).
It is hoped that CMS will be able to commence the taking of the Board minutes as called for in the Management Services & Standards Guidelines II.A.4.
IV. Record keeping
A. Track and facilitate email motion process on Board listserv: following posting and seconding of motion on list, repost motion with appropriate motion numbering with request to Board for confirmation of receipt of motion to establish presence of quorum; report to President when quorum has responded; record President's announcement of discussion and voting period; track revisions which occur during email discussion and incorporate into motion wording as the Board develops consensus; announce end of discussion period, call for voting with final wording of motion, and announce last day for voting; count email ballots; post motion consent form for signing and return mailing; confirm to Board when final consent form received. This effort can not be scheduled with other Society or work-related duties but must be performed as required by the email motion process. A log is maintained of all email motion activity. Commencing with motion #1 of the 2000/2001 Board, which occurred at the Pittsburgh Post-Conference Meeting, 22 of the 38 motions to date considered by the Board have been email motions.
B. Updating the Policy Manual continues to be a problem, primarily due to the effort required by other duties which are given a higher priority (Board minutes, coordinating Board email motions, listserv maintenance, AWS maintenance). My goal is to have the Policy Manual revised and up to date by the Los Angeles conference.
V. Communication with Membership
A. Post monthly official management calendar to Chapter Officer, Committee Chair, DSRT Moderator, and Conference Planning lists.
B. Three Board motion reports have been submitted to Update, the first two appearing in Update #4 (2000), with motions #50-68 for the 1999/2000 Board and motions #1-11 for the 2000/2001 Board, and the third to appear in Update #1 (2001), with motions #12-33. A final motion report will be submitted for motions #34 to the Los Angeles Pre-Conference Meeting.
C. A Board Email activity report for the year 2000 for discussion not related to email motions has been submitted and will appear in Update #2 (2001). A final report will be submitted for non-motion email discussions for Jan. 2001 to the Los Angeles Pre-Conference meeting.
VI. Archives
Appropriate materials (email motion consent forms, bylaw ballots, etc.) are sent to the Society archives at Syracuse University as time permits. A final mailing will be accomplished after Los Angeles.
VII. Liaisons
A. ARLIS/NA Web Site Administrative Board (AWSAB)
This has been an extremely productive year for the AWSAB. Under Chair Roberto Ferrari's leadership the AWSAB has produced a report suggesting that the AWS begin to accept paid sponsorships for the AWS, which the Board approved, followed by an implementation plan for AWS sponsorship, which is currently under Board discussion, and a job description for the AWS Editor position, which has been filled by Jonathan Franklin. Ferrari and I co-wrote "ARLIS/NA Web Site Update" which appeared in Update #5 (2000). Next on the agenda is the redesign of the AWS, which will continue with Paula Hardin as incoming Liaison. Roberto Ferrari will continue as AWSAB Chair.
Prior to the creation of the AWS Editor position, as Secretary I revised, marked-up, and submitted to Derek Crosley, AWS Webmaster, a number of administrative files. Although these activities are not, per se, assigned duties of the Secretary, in the absence of anyone else it was necessary not only to commence this work but prioritize it over other Secretarial duties, such as updating the Policy Manual, due to the importance of the AWS to the Society. With Jonathan's appointment as AWS Editor I have been formatting and forwarding a number of files for loading onto the AWS. Due to the substantial backlog of these files I am attempting to supply Jonathan with clean, fully edited documents. While this has been and continues to be time consuming, it will insure that these files reach the AWS in as timely a manner as possible. Paula Hardin, Norine Duncan, as incoming Secretary, and Jonathan Franklin will need to refine procedures whereby administrative files reach the AWS.
B. Research Committee:
The Committee had an additional $2,560.00 to award for the Wilson award this year due to a previous winner's return of the award monies. The Committee, chaired by Linda Tompkins-Baldwin and Joan Stahl, awarded both the Wilson (two recipients) and Worldwide (three recipients) awards:
Barbara Prior and Pat Thomson are the incoming Co-Chairs.
C. Statistics Task Force:
The Task Force, chaired by Carol Graney, developed a questionnaire, performed a survey, and created a report suggesting the Society continue to investigate the possibility of regularly compiling statistics of interest to art & architecture libraries and maintain a database of these statistics. These statistics would be made available for members to access via a Society sponsored data product. At the Toronto Midyear meeting the Board decided that due to the wide range of library types, the difficulty in regularly gathering the data and maintaining such a data product, and with the higher priorities of stabilizing existing member services such as the membership database, that to proceed with such plan was not feasible at this time. The Task Force has been so advised. Prior to the Los Angeles conference I sent a message to ARLIS-L suggesting that this initiative might be better suited for success at the Section level and published as an Occasional Paper.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Blank
Secretary