ARLIS/NE Executive Board Meeting
July 12, 2006
Wellesley College

In attendance: Brooke Henderson, Rachel Beckwith, Robert Garzillo, Rachel Resnik, Linda Zieper, Anne Reid

Welcome: Rachel Beckwith thanked Brooke Henderson for hosting the Board at Wellesley.

Treasurer's Report: Robert Garzillo reported that ARLIS/NE paid $727.40 for the spring meeting with VRA at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Secretary's Report: Anne Reid reported 104 members and the receipt of 30 ballots voting 'yes' on the bylaws changes. There weren�t any 'no' votes received.

Upcoming Meetings: Rachel Beckwith reminded the board of the September 30 deadline for requesting funding for special projects from ARLIS/NA.

Rachel asked for suggestions for the fall meeting, typically held the last week of September or first week of October. It was agreed that MIT would be pursued, via Ann Whiteside, with Brandeis as an alternative. Other sites discussed included Worcester and the illustration museum in Newport. The collection and documentation of contemporary art and artists books were suggested as topics, with the possibility of having a museum bookstore manager as a speaker, or a rep from a publisher, such as DAP and Taschen. If the meeting is at MIT, a speaker from the MIT Media Lab was suggested. If possible, the meeting will be held on September 29, with September 27, October 4, and October 6 as alternate dates.

ARLIS/NE will again host a second, more informal/social meeting in the fall. Brooke Henderson is contacting the ICA about holding a cocktail event there on December 1st or 8th.

The Spring 2007 meeting will once again be a joint meeting with VRA/NE and will be held at RISD.

Committees:

Nominating Committee: the past president usually convenes the nominating committee, so Rachel Beckwith will contact Kathy Ritter about putting a call out on the listserv for committee members. The positions open will be Vice President, Secretary, and PR Officer. ARLIS/NA has not officially approved the PR officer position yet, it is expected they will. Per Carol Ann Fabian, ARLIS/NE does need to go through the formality of getting approval from NA. Carol Ann suggests that the PR officer and the chapter affiliation changes to the bylaws be handled together by NA. If it does not look like the chapter affiliation changes will be ready by the time we need the PR officer approved, NA will handle the items separately so we can move forward with the nominations and ballots.

Linda Zieper mentioned that the Board may want to consider if it is worth continuing to publish Focus, now that most of the information is available online. From a membership perspective, Rachel Resnik felt it was important to keep publishing.

Awards Committee: Since the previous year's award winners usually comprise the new year's committee, Rachel Resnik, Christina Jedniziak, and Janis Manzo would be the committee members. Rachel Resnik suggested that Janis Manzo be the chair. Rachel Beckwith will send an email to the group asking them to serve and for Janis Manzo to be the committee chair.

Chapter Affiliation Agreement: The Board discussed the new chapter affiliation agreement that was presented by Ann Whiteside at the May 22 ARLIS/NE meeting. At that meeting, the agreement was presented as a decision already finalized by NA. However, Rachel Beckwith reported that ARLIS/NA is more open to feedback now, and that per Carol Ann Fabian, ARLIS/NA is planning to use July and August to review the chapter affiliation materials.

There are two main issues with the chapter affiliation agreement: liability and membership dues. The liability aspect of the agreement is mainly legalese to protect NA and chapters from lawsuits. The membership changes, however, will have a substantial impact on chapters.

Per the new agreement, the NA membership requirement for chapter members would be enforced. The Board discussed the negative impact a forced NA membership and charging for the listserv would have on ARLIS/NE membership. Since only approximately 50% of NE members are NA members, the chapter could potentially lose 50% of our membership, including many of the students who have joined within the past year. We recognize that technically NE members are already supposed to be NA members as well. The Board agreed that chapters tend to be the heart of the organization, with NA membership currently making sense for those who attend the national meeting.

In addition, the NA membership requirement would be a financial burden for many, including students, and would discourage membership. Rachel Resnik, a member of the national membership committee, reported that national membership dues are slated to rise substantially over the next two years, probably to $100 next year and $125 the year after. Because membership is currently affordable for students ($8), students and new professionals are able to explore career paths. However, the enforcement of becoming an ARLIS/NA member and the rise in dues would make such exploration cost prohibitive, and therefore, could hurt ARLIS membership and the profession. Rachel reported she is going to recommend to the membership committee that we offer an a la carte fee structure for listserv and chapter membership, for example, lower NA student rate, drop the full time student status requirement, or offer a free trial year.

Rachel Resnik also suggested creating an affiliates category for NE, which students and other non-NA members could join. Affiliates would not be able to vote or hold office, but would be on listserv, mailing list, and listed in the NE directory. Rachel Beckwith will ask NA about this.

Charging for the listserv would reduce its use as a recruitment tool. Currently, anyone can sign up for the listserv, which allows prospective members to 'listen in' before joining. Signing up for the listserv is also a requirement in many art librarianship classes, therefore reaching many students. The Board discussed the ideas of offering a free trial period or having a public archive of the listserv available.

Although the centralized collection of all dues by NA was presented as a final decision at the May 22 meeting, NA now seems to be opening up that decision to further discussion. Robert Garzillo did not see the collection of dues by NA as a problem for him, but did foresee an impact on award donations because people may be less likely to add an additional contribution to chapter awards if they�re writing a bigger check at one time for NA membership/ NE membership/ list serv/ etc. Others raised concerns about NA�s poor track record in processing national memberships and questioned how the logistics would work. For example, how often would NA be sending chapters their dues money?

Adding an 'upon review' type clause was suggested, to build in the opportunity for future assessment and change, as necessary if central collection of dues does not work well after a period of time.

Brooke Henderson reported that the presentation to the leadership committee at Banff was confusing. The Board agreed that the membership changes would hurt chapter membership and the recruitment of students and future professionals to art librarianship.

Respectfully submitted by Anne Reid, Secretary.
July 21, 2006