Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, August 21, 2018

1:00 p.m., August 21, 2018
Video Conference

Present: Virginia Dearborn (Communications Committee chair), Mark Draper (Resource Sharing Task Force chair), Robert McInnis (secretary), Patrick Milas (treasurer), Elizabeth Miller (president), Bethany O’Shea (Research Services Interest Group chair), Myka Kennedy Stephens (past president)

Not present: Chris Schwartz (Cataloging & Metadata Interest Group chair), a Continuing Education Committee representative

Elizabeth called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.

Not all members expected were present at the time the meeting was called to order. Bob asked if we needed a quorum of the Executive Committee to be able to conduct business. The Bylaws do not state that the Executive Committee needs a quorum to meet.

Elizabeth welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Approval of the Agenda

The agenda was approved with the correction that the minutes to be approved were from the August 1, 2018 meeting.

Virginia moved that the minutes from the August 1, 2018 Executive Committee meeting be approved with no changes. Bob seconded.

Continuing Education Committee

• No one has stepped forward to volunteer as chair of the Continuing Education Committee.
• Virginia offered to confer with her supervisor about sharing the call with the PTS Library staff.
• Myka asked if the potential hire of a SEPTLA Administrative Assistant might make chairing this committee more attractive and doable for SEPTLA librarians.

Fall Meeting

• Date set for November 8 at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA.
• Elizabeth proposed that the plenary session be a continuation of our resource sharing conversation from the Spring Meeting.
• Mark agreed to reach out to the members of his task force to verify that they could help lead the plenary discussion.
• Myka asked if Lydia Putnam at Biblical could act as an interim chair or unofficial point person for Continuing Education until the Fall Meeting so that this committee has voice and representation at Executive Committee meetings. This suggestion was put on hold until after Virginia talks to her colleagues at Princeton.

Resource Sharing Task Force

• Another survey will be going out very soon to get clarity about where SEPTLA libraries are getting their resources from and who are they getting them through.
• Are SEPTLA libraries already getting consortial pricing for their resources? If so, a lot of vendors will not let libraries change consortiums.
• The conversation in November will explore if SEPTLA is viable as a consortium, and if so what it would look like.
• The revised survey will be sent out very soon and Virginia will also post a link to it on the SEPTLA website.
• Another resource sharing possibility is exploring a federated catalog.
• Elizabeth offered to follow-up with Jim Humble about what is in the archives related to any past consortial agreements that SEPTLA may have entered.
• Myka asked about resource sharing in terms of interlibrary loan, direct borrowing, and shared collection development. Are there possibilities to expand and broaden resource sharing activities that would support these things that we’re already doing? For example, a courier service. Virginia offered to find out what Princeton Seminary does for loans.

Bookmarks

• Virginia shared a mock-up of a new bookmark design based on the feedback received from the Spring Meeting survey.
• Biblical Theological Seminary is changing its name to Missio Seminary in October 2018, and they will be relocating to Philadelphia, PA in January 2019. Because of these changes, Virginia would prefer to wait until early 2019 to print the new bookmarks. They could be passed out at the Spring Meeting in 2019.
• New Brunswick Theological Seminary ran out of bookmarks and would like to print their own. Virginia offered to send them the file for the new design.
• The committee agreed that Virginia should also post the file for the current design (with Biblical as Biblical and in Hatfield) on the website.

Proposed Changes to the Bylaws

• Section 5.3 – strike confusing language about who is chair of the Executive Committee
• Section 6.1 – make additions to the President’s responsibilities so that it accurately reflects what the President does
  • 6.1.7 – add thanking host institutions and speakers
  • 6.1.8 – Executive Committee responsibilities
  • 6.1.7 – determine the need for task forces (numbering will be adjusted when the proposal is prepared for the membership meeting)
  • 6.1.9 – send a welcome packet to new directors; Virginia proposed to add “library” before directors.
• Section 6.2 – strike the responsibility to reach out to new library directors from the Secretary’s responsibilities
• Section 6.3 – revisions to the Treasurer’s responsibilities were discussed at the meeting on August 1, 2018.
• Section 6.4 – additions to Past-President’s responsibilities
  • 6.4.3 – add survey responsibilities; Virginia proposed to add “membership” before meeting
  • 6.4.5 – add responsibilities related to the ATLA conference first-time attendee scholarship
• Myka moved to bring these changes to the membership meeting; Bob seconded; the motion carried unanimously.

SEPTLA Administrative Assistant

• Elizabeth shared a drafted job description for an administrative assistant that could be hired by SEPTLA.
• A note on the job description states that the employee would be responsible for filing his/her own taxes for self-employed/consultant wages. Is this sufficient to protect SEPTLA? Elizabeth believes so because she modeled this after a similar job description for another organization like SEPTLA.
• Discussion followed that it might be helpful to clarify that the employee would work remotely and that SEPTLA would not provide office space or equipment.
• Virginia offered to look into our ability to provide an email account that could store archived emails instead of an email alias.

Other Business

• Virginia asked about updates to the officers page on the website. The Membership Task Force may be removed because they completed their charge.
• Virginia also shared a draft post of the Executive Committee minutes on the SEPTLA website. She will continue working on formatting to share posts in the new accordion widget.

Elizabeth adjourned the meeting at 2:08 p.m.

Addendum for online business:

• On August 28, Elizabeth emailed all Executive Committee members with the news that Melvin Hartwick at Princeton had volunteered to serve as interim chair of the Continuing Education Committee until the Fall Meeting.
• Six votes confirming Melvin’s interim appointment were tallied via email. No dissenting votes recorded.
• On August 29, Elizabeth emailed all Executive Committee members with the results of the vote and announced Melvin’s interim appointment. She also shared that the Resource Sharing Task Force members had confirmed to lead the plenary session for the Fall Meeting.
• Virginia emailed all the Executive Committee members that she was able to set up an email address for a potential administrative assistant (admin.assistant@septla.org) and that the current draft of the SEPTLA bookmark is now on the Member Libraries page of the SEPTLA website.