Attendees:

The autumn meeting of ARLIS/NA-NC was attended by approximately twenty-seven people, including several San José State University School of Library & Information Science students.

Dayna Holz began the meeting at 10:00 a.m. by introducing and thanking Edith Crowe for hosting the meeting at the King Library, and for arranging the afternoon tour of the San José Museum of Art. Edith welcomed all attendees.

Dayna announced the dates and theme of the next ARLIS/NA annual conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado, May 1-5, 2008. The theme will be "ARLIS/NA at Altitude." Utilizing the computer display projection, Dayna and Edith showed attendees the new ARLIS/NC-NC website and introduced the Chapter's new website administrators, Kate Roberts and Lisa Velarde.

Dayna had additional news from ARLIS/NA Headquarters that the MemberClicks service was up and running on the ARLIS/NA Web site, http://www.arlisna.org, and that the membership directory was now accessible and keyword searchable.

Treasurer's Report

    Kay Teel presented the Secretary/Treasurer's report. The Chapter currently has 62 members listed in the membership roster, including a few new members from 2007. Kay urged everyone to send in their renewal forms if they had not already done so, so that the membership roster and contact information could be corrected. As soon as renewals are finished, the Chapter will produce a printed membership directory, which is mailed to all members.  The Chapter's balance on May 31, 2007, was $838.09. Since May there have been expenditures of $157, to pay for refreshments at the May meeting, and for the museum tour at the autumn meeting. $740 in revenue was received since May: $595 in dues, and $150 in gifts to the Chapter. Kay thanked everyone who sent donations to the Chapter. Through their generosity, $55 was collected for the Ann Gilbert Travel Award, and $95 in unrestricted gifts.

    Liz Ginno moved to approve the meeting minutes from the May 2007 spring business meeting, and Barbara Rominski seconded the motion. The attendees voted. The motion passed unanimously.

Chapter History

    Dayna introduced the topic of our chapter's history. In response to a query from the Chapter's Nominating Committee, Kay had attempted to create a roster of all past officers, but found that the documents passed to the Secretary/Treasurer are not complete, and do not include the date the Chapter was founded. Liz mentioned that the Chapter existed as an independent local group before it was part of ARLIS/NA, and felt that it was when the first ARLIS/NA conference was held in San Francisco that the two groups became affiliated. Kay urged anyone wanting to help compile a Chapter history to contact her.

Chapter Budget

    Dayna next reviewed the standing of the Chapter budget. Dues were suspended in 2007, so the Chapter did not send financial contributions to the Atlanta ARLIS/NA conference. Although it had been our understanding that chapters' contributions to the Welcome Party were not mandatory, Kay reported that at the Atlanta conference, there were clearly bad feelings towards our chapter for not sending any money. Barbara noted that chapters' contributions are a sign of support to the chapter hosting the ARLIS/NA conference.

    In recent years, prior to 2007, the Chapter's major expenditures had been the Ann Gilbert Travel Award for $400, and a $250 donation to ARLIS/NA for the Welcome Party at the annual conference. Dayna pointed out that both of these amounts were supporting ARLIS/NA, because the travel award is given to a Chapter officer to attend the ARLIS/NA conference. Dayna asked if these expenditures were the best way to spend our small funds and contribute to our chapter as a whole.  Dayna mentioned some ideas she had for budget expenditures, including paying for speakers to come to a Chapter meeting, group activities such as tours, and other awards. She opened the floor with a call for ideas.  Lisa Velarde said she would like to see our funds going toward speakers, renting interesting spaces for meeting venues, evening programming, and group dinners. Kate Connell also supported the idea of evening meetings, and Liz pointed out that daytime meetings are hard for some members to attend, especially those in corporate libraries and public libraries.  Ann Armstrong asked if we would need the Ann Gilbert Travel Award for officers in 2008. The 2008 conference will be in Denver, relatively close. Kay mentioned that she will be attending the conference and receives institutional support, so does not need the travel award. Barbara and Edith replied that the travel award is an incentive for a Chapter member to become an officer. Dayna asked if there were other ideas for incentives.

    After some discussion, it was clarified that the Welcome Party donation is in addition to the proceeds from the silent auction donations, where individuals in the Chapter donate interesting items for the Chapter's silent auction contribution. Liz suggested that when members send donations to the Chapter, they should be able to designate how it should be spent. Dayna proposed that we reserve a portion of our budget for activities for our chapter. Julian Woodruff asked if our donations to ARLIS/NA and the amount of the travel award had been percentage-based until now. Dayna responded that it had not been, and we should adjust the amounts to reflect our modest income.

    Dayna Holz proposed that we set aside $200 minimum for the Ann Gilbert Travel Award, plus any gifts designated by the donor for the award. In addition, Kay Teel will add "ARLIS/NA conference Welcome Party donation" as a category on the chapter membership form. For 2008, the Chapter will send $100 to the Welcome Party. Liz Ginno moved to approve Dayna's proposal. Edith Crowe seconded. The attendees voted, and the motion passed.

Need for Chapter Officers

    The next item of business was Chapter activities for next year, including new Chapter officers. Ann Armstrong, current Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, will be Chair in 2008, and Kay Teel will continue serving as Secretary/Treasurer in 2008. A Nominating Committee composed of Barbara Rominski, Edith Crowe, Lisa Velarde, and Kathryn Wayne was formed to find candidates for the next Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, to avoid the spontaneous election of officers that has happened in the past few years. Barbara reported on the Nominating Committee's challenges in trying to recruit a longtime member for this position. The committee wanted a longtime Chapter member to balance Ann, a newer member, and Kay, an older member of ARLIS/NA but newer member of the Chapter. Some members were very supportive but unable to serve now, and the committee hopes these members may be willing to run for office next year.  Dayna explained that if no one at the autumn meeting was elected as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, the Chapter could continue through 2008 with that position vacant. But going into 2009, we would have all 3 officer positions vacant, and with the recent challenges in filling positions, it would be unlikely that we could fill all 3. If the Chapter could not elect new officers for 2009, the Chapter would have to dissolve.

Lisa said that when the Chapter voted on affiliation with ARLIS/NA, it was a very close vote, and she would like to see our group less tied to the bureaucracy of ARLIS/NA. She admitted that she has reservations on the structure of the Chapter-ARLIS/NA relationship, but she appreciates the Chapter as a group. Having expressed her reservations, Lisa nominated herself as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. She said that if elected, she would like the Chapter to have more meetings and more discussions that are about art librarianship. Edith noted that the Chapter used to have five meetings a year, and Barbara pointed out that the Chapter officers set the agenda for the meetings.  Dayna called for other candidates. There were no challengers, and Lisa Velarde was unanimously elected as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect for 2008. Lisa added that she will attend the ARLIS/NA conference in Denver.

Meeting Sites Ideas

    Lisa called for ideas for meeting sites. Dayna said that she had spoken to Jeff Gunderson at the San Francisco Art Institute, and Jeff was willing to host the the 2008 spring meeting. Darlene Tong suggested the Museum of the African Diaspora, close to SFMOMA, as a tour possibility. Lisa mentioned the Prelinger Archive, located South of Market Street in San Francisco. The archive is an unusual image resource organization, and could be a stop as part of an evening South of Market event. Dayna suggested another online image resource, Calisphere, which is located at Berkeley. She thought their staff would be willing to speak for free.  Other Berkeley venues discussed were the Online Archive of California/California Digital Library, the Bancroft after it re-opens, and the new Music and East Asia libraries.  Julian suggested the library at the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco or the Pacific Film Archive/Berkeley Art Museum. When asked about the possibility of having a meeting of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, he said that it might be possible in a couple of years after the building expansion, but he doubted he would still be there to host it, as he is thinking of changing jobs.  Other ideas included the Haas Collection, di Rosa Preserve, and the Filoli Center. Ann observed that if the Chapter holds more events, we could arranage Saturday tours and go to places that can't offer meeting space.

Announcements

    With the Chapter business concluded, Dayna opened the floor to announcements. Dayna made the first announcement by paying homage to Edith Crowe, who is retiring from San José State University. A longtime Chapter member, Edith has served as a chapter officer three times and survived three San Francisco ARLIS/NA conferences. Edith expressed her thanks and spoke about her experiences and memories in the Chapter. She then introduced her successor, Rebecca Feind, who has been at San José State University since 2005. Previously, she was art librarian at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Beginning December 21, 2007, Rebecca will be the art and design librarian at San José State.

    Kate Connell announced the latest student exhibits at City College of San Francisco, and distributed bookmarks from the exhibits.

Ann Armstrong promoted the lecture series on archives she organized, and mentioned some opportunities for grants for small digitization projects.

    Linda Psomas, a SLIS student at San José State and a painter, announced her show opening in Sacramento November 10.

    Dayna adjourned the business meeting at 11:00 a.m.

Librarian/student Exchange

    After a brief break, the librarian/student exchange was held. The exchange was an open forum for ideas and discussion between students and librarians. Edith Crowe introduced Dr. Anne Simonson, art history professor at San José State University, and spoke about their collaboration on the Art History 291 graduate seminar. Students and new professionals asked about jobs, networking, and which (and how many) graduate degrees to earn. Seasoned librarians gave tips and insights into the organizational cultures of various institutions, and how to adjust your dream goals with the reality of the Bay Area art librarian job market.

    From 12 noon until 1:30 p.m., attendees were free to get lunch at one of the area's restaurants. An optional tour of the King Library was offered at 12:45. At 1:30, attendees gathered at San José Museum of Art for a docent tour led by Trisha Hill that covered highlights in the main spaces, and included the current Joan Miró exhibition. The tour ended at the museum's small research library, where Gloria Turk, the part-time librarian, presented the library's history, collections, and challenges.

The eventful day concluded at 3:00 p.m.

Minutes submitted by:
Kay Teel
ARLIS-NC Secretary/Treasurer