Minutes 2023

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Friday, January 20, 2023
Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

In attendance: Alex Blend, Angela Breslin, Charlotte Buckleman, Rachel Cecchini, Kelly Filippone, Rebecca Goldstein, Stephen Ingram, Derek Ivie, Erin Kanelos, Lisa Kropp, Carisse Mitchell, Colleen Navins, Noel Reich, Bruce Seger, Lauren Strong

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 10:03am by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Angela Breslin and Charlotte Buckleman.

Announcements: Motion to approve the December 2022 meeting minutes by Carisse Mitchell without corrections.  Seconded by Angela Breslin and Colleen Navins.

Presidents Report:

Alex Blend reported.  We currently have 146 members registered as of today. 58 new members have signed up in the last 7 days. SCLA’s goal is to reach 500 by the first week of March.

To all Division Presidents: Please reach out and make sure that all of your Board Members and committee chairs are or will become current with their SCLA membership. Active membership is a requirement for all Committee Chairpersons of SCLA as stated in the General Responsibilities for all Committee Chairpersons in the SCLA Handbook of Committee Charges.

Please help spread the word to all of your committees and their members that membership dues are now in effect as of January 1st. If we all continue to spread the word at committee meetings, events, etc. we will be able to meet our goal by or before March.

Proposal for a Canva account for SCLA using the association’s Gmail address to be put to vote. Pricing for one email address is $119.99/ per year which is considered a single person or account. We are currently looking into getting a free account instead of paying for it. Updates on this will be shared as they happen.

We would like to reschedule both the September and December meeting dates. September’s meeting date will coincide with the Legislative Breakfast and will be announced when the Legislative Breakfast is finalized and publicized. A decision was made collectively to table the rescheduling for the December meeting date and the topic will be revisited during one of our upcoming meetings.

I would like to see more Divisions and their committees to increase the number of programs if possible and begin promoting them as soon as possible. This is a vital way to drive membership and increase our overall visibility which is especially crucial at this stage of SCLAs current existence. I encourage all of the Division Presidents to book programs for January 2024 in November of this year so next year’s calendar for January is full at the start of the new year and SCLA begins 2024 strong with plenty of programs to offer.

A request for a booth at this year’s LILC was submitted on the day registration opened. We will need our members to volunteer to staff the booth so it is never empty during the day of the conference. A sign up sheet will be distributed in an upcoming meeting as we get closer to the day of the conference. A Google sign up sheet will be shared with everyone so sign ups can continue up until the day of the conference.

Clarification about SCLA member benefits. There was a mistake made regarding member benefits which was that SCLA members would receive a discount for the LILC registration. Unfortunately, there is no discount for SCLA or NCLA members this year.

Treasurer’s Report:

• Rebecca Goldstein put forth two motions for voting.
  • Motion #1: In January of every year, each division shall have $500 added to their balance from SCLA’s funds. Result: Seconded by Colleen Navins. Motion carries.
  • Motion #2: Each division will receive $3 per member who registers for their division, to be added to the division’s balance on a monthly basis. Result: Motion carries.
• Financial Reporting (as of 1/19/23)
  • The balance of SCLA’s checking account is $80,214.60.
  • There are $2,236.58 in pending expenses.
  • SCLA’s portion of the bank account totals $53,841.91.
• Membership Dues
  • In December, Alex and Rebecca registered for Affinipay, which allows Wild Apricot to collect monies and deposit them into the SCLA bank account.
  • Between 1/1/23 and 1/19/23, $4,374 was deposited in the SCLA checking account. Current totals can be viewed in the SCLA Membership Deposits 2023 Spreadsheet.
  • At the close of the month, a line will be added to SCLA and each division’s running balance spreadsheet with a total for membership dues for the month
• Running Balance Spreadsheets
  • Running balances for SCLA and each division are kept in Google Sheets through the SCLA1939 gmail account.
  • SCLA & Divisions Bank Account Overview is a direct reflection of the SCLA Checking Account
  • Links to the SCLA Finances folder will be emailed to the SCLA board, the Division Presidents, and the Division Treasurers.

Division Reports-

DASL:

Bruce Seger reported.  The luncheon went extremely well.  Currently the division is working on arranging speakers for February and March.

RASD:

My name is Kelly Filippone, RASD President for 2023.  I am an adult reference and Long Island Room Librarian at The Smithtown Library. I am very happy to be working with you all this year.

• A new treasurer was appointed at our January 3rd meeting. Valerie Harrison of the Patchogue-Medford and Bayport-Blue Point libraries.
• Long Island Library Conference
  • RASD has submitted two program proposals as a division. We also have two additional programs proposed by division committees. Programs from 2020 – We may also have proposals from 2020 but we are working to confirm which are still active/moving forward.
• MOSAIC
  • Hosted a well-attended meeting on Wednesday, January 18th with a roundtable discussion of literacy, citizenship, and multicultural programs and plans for the New Year. A list of Spanish-Speaking Programmers was shared and can be available to anyone with interest.
• PR & Marketing
  • Targeting a late February event via Zoom, with the traditional agenda of a roundtable review of the 2022 SLMA winning entries. We hope to have representatives of all winning libraries participating with an overview of their programs.

CATS:

CATS had a very ambitious first meeting of the year! We welcomed 3 new members to the board of CATS, Steve Alcalde, Bob Johnson & Lilly Keil and we discussed programs for the upcoming year.

These programs are:

• Technology on a Budget
• Women in Technology, joint program with CLASC
• Technology Petting Zoo

Lastly, we voted to create a Tech Services roundtable which will be co-hosted by board members Roseann Mammina and Debbie Antolini. Dates are pending.

SSD: No report.

YASD:

YASD held its first board meeting on Thursday, January 12 at 10:00am at SCLS.  A new secretary was appointed and we discussed goals for this year. After the meeting, we held our Meet the Board meeting where we discussed upcoming events. YASD will be having its first Joint meeting with Nassau County YASD on Monday, February 13 and will be sending out an email within the next few weeks regarding the B.E.S.T Award. We have a few workshops planned with Derek that we are looking forward to. We are also looking forward to see if our workshop proposal for the Long Island Library Conference was approved. I have updated our bylaws to reflect the changes in the updated SCLA bylaws and I reached out to Steve to help us update our webpage.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner:

Michele Cayea reported.  Her goals for the year are to increase attendance for the annual dinner and to possibly switch up the venue.  She will look into other venues and present options to the Board.

Archives:

Bruce Seger reported.  Purchased an overhead scanner and is working on digitally preserving older articles.

Civil Service:

Erin Kanelos reported.  Erin spoke to Cheryl Caniano at Civil Service, as far as tests go, at the time of the conversation there were no anticipated changes to regular testing rotation. Plans for another Civil Service 101 program, as well as a pre-test program in the fall. Long term project of 101 sheets for SCLA to have available to demystify the civil service process.

Community Service:

Angela Breslin reported.  She reached out to venues to do an SCLA pop culture trivia night which would incorporate a community service drive.  Angela would be coordinating with the networking chair.  Relay for Life is coming up in the spring and more information about that is forthcoming.

Continuing Education: Charlotte Buckleman and Angela Breslin reported.  They received the files compiled by Teri Hatred regarding professional development hours.  Charlotte, Angela, and the SCLA officers will discuss the process going forward.

ELSA: No report.

Intellectual Freedom: No report.

LDA Award:

Noel Reich reported.  We have reworked the LDA Call for Nominations brochure and process. Nomination packets can now be emailed to ldalibraryaward@gmail.com, or submitted via the Google form that will be linked in both the digital and physical brochures. We anticipate sending out the Call for Nomination information by the end of the month, and all submissions must be sent by March 24^th.

Legislative:

Samantha Alberts reported.  The library is hosting Senator Dean Murray, the minority chair on Libraries is the NYS Senate.  Advocacy Day is Tuesday, February 28, 2023. The SCLA sponsored bus is a no charge one-day round-trip ride to Albany.  I respectfully submit the balance due of $2200 paperwork for the bus and request $600 for hospitality.  Motion carries.  Registration for the bus is open and was posted to the SCLA listserv this week.

There will be two Advocacy Day 101 sessions to learn more about our legislative priorities and what to expect when you get to the Capitol.

Feb. 14th at 10AM (at SCLS) or Feb. 22 at 2PM (online)

Register via the SCLS Calendar

Long Island Library Conference:

Brian Adams reported.  Registration is fully underway.  Nancy Pearl is unable to speak due to health issues.  “Roving Grammarian” Ellen Jovin will be our new keynote speaker.

As of this week, we have approximately 30 people registered and more each day.  We also have approximately 35 vendor tables accounted for.

We meet next week to sort out and finalize all of the program submissions.

This year the attendee price is the same for everyone.  No discount for being a member of NCLA or SCLA.  But that will resume for the 2024 conference.  The SCLA Board may want to discuss that to see if they want to make some sort of member concession.

For up-to-the minute information, please refer to the Conference’s website at libconference.org or contact Brian at adamsbster@gmail.com

More publicity items will be forthcoming.

LILPA:

Derek Ivie reported.  The Long Island Library Pride Alliance Board met on Tuesday, January 17th to plan for upcoming meetings. On Wednesday, January 25th, LILPA is holding a General Membership Meeting and Book Share. On Tuesday, February 14th they are running a Reader’s Advisory for Queer Romance program. In March they will have their first Book Club meeting in 2023 where they will be discussing A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers – a novella that won a 2022 Hugo Award. Looking to April, LILPA is currently confirming a date with Lenny Spada from Stony Brook University to present an encore of his HIV/AIDS Evidence Based Information and Community Resource workshop that he ran for SCLS’s Valerie Lewis this month. LILPA is also pairing up with CLASC to offer a workshop at the Long Island Library Conference in May.

Long Range Planning/Marketing:

Carisse Mitchell reported.  She will be sending out an email to NCLA, CLASC, SCLS and LILRC to request sending out a marketing campaign to encourage memberships.  She is also looking to procure “SCLA” swag to go out for the conference, a new table cloth, etc.  Carisse is working on a networking night.  More information about that is forthcoming.

Membership: There are currently 146 members.

Newsletter: Lauren Strong reported.  The next newsletter will come out in April.

Nominating: Colleen Navins reported.  Start thinking of prospective colleagues for board positions.

Scholarship: No report.

Student Outreach:

Colleen Navins reported.  The SCLA membership brochure has been updated.  Colleen has sent that and the SCLA mentorship brochure to library schools and was met with positive feedback.

Web Page:

Stephen Ingram reported.  Please continue to send Stephen information/flyers for your events so he can post them on the SCLA website and the Facebook page.  Stephen updated the SCLA, CATS, RASD, CARE Committee wordpress sites to the latest security updates.  He will also continue to monitor and approve the listserv posts.  SCLA purchased a subscription to Wild Apricot.  Stephen is looking into all of its features and how we can best utilize it.

Facebook insights: 1012 followers

Google Analytics Behavior overview using GA4 reporting

November 1.3K

December 1.4K

Liaisons-

CLASC: The next New Book Forum will be held on Wednesday, March 1 at 2:30pm at Islip Public Library with Zoom access; a rep from Random House publishers will be (virtually) speaking at the meeting.

CLASC is currently working on nominations for the upcoming election slate, as well as scouting locations for the 2024 Literature Conference.

The Board eagerly awaits the decision of the Long Island Library Conference committee regarding the two programs we have proposed.

LILRC:

LILRC is pleased to welcome Kenia Sanchez as our Spring Intern. Kenia was selected from a competitive pool of candidates to be the third intern in LILRC’s Diversity Internship Program, a paid internship through which undergraduate students on Long Island learn more about libraries and librarianship as a career path. Kenia is a Science, Technology, and Societies major at Farmingdale State College.

Upcoming CE Programs Highlights:

Wednesday, January 25, 2:00pm Sustainable Living Library Programs

Friday, February 3, 10:00am How to Effectively Communicate, Manage Difficult Conversations and Personalities in the Workplace

Friday, February 3, 2:00pm Driving the Green Book: A Conversation with Alvin Hall

Wednesday, February 15, 2:00pm Attack of the Black Rectangles: A Conversation on Censorship with Amy Sarig King and Jane Yolen

 Tuesday, February 21, 10:00am Basics of Encoded Archival Description

NCLA: No report.

PLDA: No report.

SCLS: No report.

NYLA:

Lisa Kropp reported.  Advocacy Day is Tuesday, February 28th.  There will be no PLDA bus the day before.  Briana McNamee, who was the Director of Government Relations,  left NYLA.  A new government relations director has been hired.  Kate Pauly, NYLA’s Institutional Events Manager, has also resigned.  NYLA is taking this opportunity to undergo some staff restructuring.

NYLA Conference proposals will open on February 1st.  The NYS civil service committee is currently reviewing its processes and examining these ideas- continuous recruitment for more exams and implementing a rule of five instead of the rule of three.

Members-at-Large: See above reports.

Old Business: None.

New Business:

Alex Blend reported.  Alex received an email from CATS Past-President, Anthony Giansante.  Anthony is proposing that the SCLA Board create a Past President’s Round Table.  It would be comprised of the previous year’s division’s past presidents (up to one year).  Alex made a motion for the creation of this round table.  Motion carries.

 Bruce Seger announced that DASL’s annual invitational will be on Monday, April 24th at the Half Hollow Hills Library.

The meeting was adjourned  at 11:36am by Colleen Navins  Seconded by Alex Blend and Carisse Mitchell.

Friday, February 17, 2023
Zoom

In attendance: Brian Adams, Alex Blend, Charlotte Buckleman, Rachel Cecchini, Kelly Filippone, Anthony Giansante, Rebecca Goldstein, Liz Hughes, Stephen Ingram, Erin Kanelos, Carisse Mitchell, Colleen Navins, Kate Regina, Brian Schwartz, Bruce Seger, Sally Stieglitz, Lauren Strong.

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 10:04am by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Carisse Mitchell and Alex Blend.

Announcements: Motion to approve the January 2023 meeting minutes by Carisse Mitchell without corrections.  Seconded by Colleen Navins.

Presidents Report:

Alex Blend reported. Regarding why the LILC committee has decided not to offer a discount to NCLA or SCLA members for this year’s Library Conference:  The committee decided not to offer discounted registration prices for the conference this year for several reasons.  When SCLA separated from NYLA, we no longer had their (NYLA’s) event registration software and had to build registration from the ground up on Eventbrite.  It being our first time using this platform, we needed to keep the pricing simple.  In addition, we have had chronic problems with registrants either lying about or not being sure of their library association membership and it is an enormous task to verify each attendee’s status.  A single registration price was the best way for the committee to bring back the conference in person.

Non-member contacts are sent login information if they register for an event, make a donation, or purchase a product from your online store. They need to be able to log in so that they can view or cancel registrations, view or pay outstanding invoices, manage recurring donations, and update their email and privacy settings.

There was a question about how division presidents will be able to access program registration lists for their programs.  Alex advised that any division presidents who need registration lists should reach out to one of the Wild Apricot administrators. 

Vice President Colleen Navins spoke about how SCLA is still in the process of rebranding itself, and divisions and committees should strive to boost their programming this year.

Treasurer’s Report:

Rebecca Goldstein reported.  The current balance of the bank account is $81,279.24. Rebecca will update with specifics for the SCLA portion of the bank account shortly.

Division Reports-

DASL:

Bruce Seger reported.  The Academic Invitational will take place on Monday, April 24th at Half-Hollow Hills Library.  The theme is Union and Employment.  The DASL sponsored program for the Long Island Library Conference was approved.  There is an upcoming meeting in March.

RASD:

Kelly Filippone reported.  Our two division sponsored proposals for the Long Island Library Conference were accepted.

• Kind, but With Spine: Constructive Confrontation, Deliberate Boundaries, and Avoiding Compassion Fatigue
• Growing a Seed Library in Your Community

One of the two proposals from an RASD committee was accepted.

• MOSAIC sponsored WOW Your Community

A few committees held recent meetings-

• Health Concerns had a general interest meeting and also discussed possible topics for this year’s guide.
• C&B hosted Robert Kratzke of BESTech Solutions at the Middle Country Public Library for an overview of Microsoft 365.
• Finally, the New Adults Committee has a new podcast ready to be recorded. I will be sure to update you all when it is available to listen to.

CATS:

Anthony Giansante reported.  There are several upcoming collaborative programs.  CATS, CLASC, and YASD are planning a maker-faire that will feature STEM resources in East-end libraries.  CATS and CLASC are planning a women in technology panel.  CATS is planning a tech services roundtable that will spotlight an introduction into realia.  There were 41 attendees at the last TIF meeting.

SSD:

Kate Regina reported.  The safety conference has been moved back to the fall.  The East meets West meeting is currently in the works.  SSD is working on solidifying details for their accepted program for the Long Island Library Conference.

YASD:

Lauren Strong reported.  We had our joint meeting with Nassau YASD on February 13 where 4 libraries spoke about different ways to market to teens. We had 62 total people in attendance. Thank you to Comsewogue and Brentwood for being two of the libraries to share. We are working on designing our new website (thanks to Stephen for setting that up and to our webmaster Alex who is continuing to work on it). Registration is now open for the Fran Romer Memorial Booktalk Workshop. Our proposal for the Long Island Library Conference was accepted- Youth Stressors and How to Help.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner: No report.

Archives:

Bruce Seger reported.  Significant progress has been made with scanning all relevant SCLA documents.

Civil Service:

Erin Kanelos reported. 

• E-filing is back in operation; no new library tests have been announced.
• Librarian II results are out.
• Started writing the copy for the 101 sheets. Erin will share once Cheryl has looked them over.
  • Please send any civil service titles I can track I may not think of (ekanelos@smithlib.org)

Community Service:

Angela Breslin reported via email.  She would like to schedule a SCLA Blood Drive through the New York Blood Center.  There is a blood shortage, and this is one thing we can all do to help! One donation saves up to 3 lives.  After a brief discussion, the Board agreed that this was a great idea and Angela can proceed with planning.  It was suggested that since blood drives are very successful at colleges, perhaps it can be hosted at a school.  Angela will follow up with the Board once details have been finalized.

Continuing Education:

Charlotte Buckleman reported.  Charlotte and Angela are keeping track of continuing education hours for SCLA members.

There was a discussion about what constitutes continuing education units and what constitutes professional development hours.  Charlotte will draft an information sheet that explains what continuing education is and what qualifies someone to earn credit.  This sheet will be added to the SCLA website.

Brian Adams stated that this year, attendees will receive a certificate after attending the Long Island Library Conference.

Carisse Mitchell reminded the Board that all SCLA events should be marketed with “professional development hours” and not “continuing education units.”

ELSA:

Kate Regina reported.  Discussions with the committee are on-going and they are working on getting materials out by April.

Intellectual Freedom:

Brian Schwartz reported.  He would like to know if anybody is interested in taking this committee over.  The Board will inquire with colleagues to gauge interest.

LDA Award:

Noel Reich reported via email.  The LDA Call for Nominations is live, and an email with all the relevant information will be sent via the listserv. Physical brochures are being distributed as well! We were able to update the process of nomination to have several digital options including emailing the completed nomination packet to ldalibraryaward@gmail.com. All nominations are due by March 24th, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Legislative: Samantha Alberts reported.  Advocacy Day is on Tuesday, February 28th.  Get involved in any way you can!

Long Island Library Conference:

Brian Adams reported.  The Long Island Library Conference committee is hard at work making final the programing for the conference.  It is expected to be up on the website imminently. There is quite a variety.

Vendor registration continues… we have 45 so far (out of a total goal of 68).  Attendee registration also continues.. Please help spread the word to all of your colleagues.  There is just one attendance fee for all this year.  Association table requests are all in and we will be assigning tables as the date grows nearer, some sharing of tables must be involved, and tables must be manned at all times.

Brian is eagerly awaiting the new banner, which will be hung from the rafters as has been done in previous years.

For any questions please refer to the website libconference.org or contact Brian at adamsbster@gmail.com

LILPA:

Derek Ivie reported via email.  The Long Island Library Pride Alliance board met on Friday, February 10th to begin planning their presentation for SCBWI. The program is titled The Evolution of LGBTQIA+ Representation in Picture Books, and is scheduled for Saturday, March 4th at 1PM. SCBWI is welcoming outside registrants for a $25 fee. Here is a link containing more information: https://longislandny.scbwi.org/2023/02/10/3735/ On Tuesday, February 14th, LILPA held a workshop titled Queer Romance Readers Advisory. Eighteen library staff members attended the program led by co-chair Nola Thacker. In March, LILPA will have its first book club meeting of 2023. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Beck Chambers will be discussed.

Long Range Planning/Marketing:

Carisse Mitchell reported.  Carisse is working on getting a new table cloth and library swag for the Long Island Library Conference.  Rather than ordering a banner, Carisse would like to utilize the poster printers that several libraries have.  This option is more cost effective and efficient.

Carisse made a motion to approve the funds for the table cloth, banner, and swag not to exceed $2500.  Motion carries.

Carisse is working on setting up an SCLA Canva account and 4imprint account.  Divisions and executive boards should begin to think of raffles for the LILC.  It was also suggested that the SCLA table have a laptop so that our colleagues can sign up on the spot.

Membership:

Charlotte Buckleman reported.  There are currently 277 members.  Charlotte and Rebecca have been experimenting with a bulk membership option.  Wild Apricot is able to generate a spreadsheet for anyone on a specific invoice.  This is still in the works and has not been marketed as of yet.

There was a discussion about how divisions can obtain a list of their members.  It was reiterated that anyone looking for a list of current members should email the SCLA Membership Chair.

Newsletter:

Lauren Strong reported.   The next newsletter will be coming out on April 1. If all blurbs could be sent to me by Monday, March 13 that would be great.

Nominating:

Colleen Navins reported.  Please continue to reach out to your colleagues and gauge interest in open board positions.

Scholarship:  

Brian Schwartz reported.  Brian would like to digitize the scholarship process as the old system is very archaic.  This would mean using either Google Forms or Microsoft Forms in order to have participants apply as well as submit their references.

Student Outreach:

Colleen Navins reported.  SCLA membership information will get forwarded to the library science schools around March.  This coincides with admissions decisions.  There was a question from the Board about the status of the student mentorship program.  Colleen consistently reaches out to the library science schools and reminded the Board that if anyone is interested in being a mentor to reach out to her. 

Web Page:

Stephen Ingram reported.  Please continue to send Stephen information/flyers for your events so he can post them on the SCLA website and the Facebook page.  He will also continue to monitor and approve the listserv posts.  Stephen has been experimenting with Wild Apricot and added program/event information.  He also created a Google Form to use for programs.  The Zoom account has an updated password.  It will be sent out to the Executive Board and Division Presidents.  Stephen reminded the Board that we should publicly answer every question that comes in on the list-serv.

• Facebook insights: 989 followers
• Google Analytics Behavior overview using GA4 reporting
• January 1.6k
• Updated SCLA, CATS, RASD, CARE Committee wordpress sites to latest security updates.

Liaisons-

CLASC:

Lauren Scottaline reported via email.  The New Book Forum will host a meeting in-person (with option to login virtually) on March 1 at the Islip Public Library – a representative from Penguin Random House will address the attendees virtually.

Our Annual Dinner is on Wednesday, April 26 at Stonebridge Country Club; we will again be collecting non-perishable food items for Long Island Harvest. Our keynote speaker will be announced soon!

We are thrilled that our two submissions have been accepted for the Long Island Library Conference.

LILRC:

Sally Stieglitz reported.  Save the date: June 20, LILRC Annual Meeting at Half Hollow Hills Community Library.

LILRC is now offering Digitization Services to its members, through which LILRC will digitize materials for them. We cannot accept items that require conservation work. For details on item types, maximum quantities, and policies, visit our website at https://www.lilrc.org/Regional-Scan-Center or email Mona Boyd at mboyd@lilrc.org

NCLA: No report.

PLDA: No report.

SCLS: No report.

NYLA: No report.

Members-at-Large:

Liz Hughes reported for networking.  Liz will be sending a survey out on the list-serv to gauge general interest for activities.  She mentioned that networking shouldn’t be limited to solely in-person, so she is seeing if any networking opportunities can be on Discord or Slack.  Spring networking ideas are in the works.  Details will be sent out soon.

Old Business:

A board member has relevant information to relay to the former Fandom Outreach Committee.  This member wanted to know who they should contact.

 New Business:

None.

The meeting was adjourned  at 11:46am by Colleen Navins  Seconded by Carisse Mitchell and Brian Adams.

Friday, March 17, 2023

In attendance: Brian Adams, Samantha Alberts, Alex Blend, Angela Breslin, Charlotte Buckleman, Rachel Cecchini, Aileen Clark, Kelly Filippone, Anthony Giansante, Rebecca Goldstein, Liz Hughes, Stephen Ingram, Derek Ivie, Erin Kanelos, Ally Mercado, Carisse Mitchell, Colleen Navins, Noel Reich, Kenia Sanchez, Shauna Scholl, Bruce Seger, Sally Stieglitz.

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 10:03am by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Carisse Mitchell and Alex Blend.

Announcements: Motion to approve the February 2023 meeting minutes by Carisse Mitchell without corrections.  Seconded by Alex Blend and Angela Breslin.

Presidents Report:

Alex Blend reported. I will be stepping down effective immediately as SCLA President. Carisse Mitchell will be taking over as President immediately following today’s meeting.  Carisse, Colleen, and the Executive Board members will be meeting sometime during the week of March 19th to figure things out. We ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as we figure out the best way to move forward to allow Carisse to get reacquainted with the position.

Due to overwhelming interest, the LILC Committee contacted SCLA to inform us that they will only be able to accommodate SCLA and our divisions with 5 tables at this year’s conference and could not supply tables for all 6 divisions that applied for a table.

The SCLA Executive Board will decide how to divide the allocated table space amongst the committees and divisions that expressed interest.

The committees/divisions that expressed interest:

• SCLA
• Division of Academic and Special Libraries (DASL)
• YASD
• Suffolk County Support Staff Division
• Computers and Technical Services (CATS)
• Reference and Adult Services Division of SCLA

During the meeting it was proposed that SSD & DASL should share a table the day of the Library Conference. Bruce Seger, DASL President, agreed to share a table with SSD. There was no SSD representation at the meeting but we plan on moving forward with this decision.

Carisse Mitchell reminded division presidents that they should start to get a list of people from their division to staff their tables.

Treasurer’s Report:

Rebecca Goldstein reported.  The current balance of the bank account is $82,961.10 as of March 17, 2023.The SCLA portion of the bank account as of March 7 was $60,585.99.

Rebecca noted that there is a minor issue with event registration in Wild Apricot.  For our colleagues who want to be invoiced when they sign up for SCLA, they’re not able to see the SCLA member price right away when they go to sign up for events.  If you’re aware of this happening, please email Rebecca, Charlotte, and Angela.  They will reach out to that person and rectify the issue.

Please send all relevant treasurer materials to Rebecca at Sachem Public Library.

Rebecca made a motion to approve funds in the amount of $2500 to be paid to the Long Island Library Conference Committee for the former speaker.  Motion carries.

Division Reports-

DASL:

Bruce Seger reported.  The Academic Invitational will take place on Monday, April 24th at Half-Hollow Hills Library.  The theme is Union and Employment.  Reminder that DASL will be sponsoring a program at the Long Island Library Conference- Reuniting the Vanderbilts: A Case Study in the Rescue and Transfer of Archives From Dowling College to the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.

RASD:

Kelly Filippone reported. Long Island Reads- The 2023 pick is…A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue by John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski! Check out the Reader’s Guide here.

 2023 Author Event will be a dual in-person and online program hosted by Half Hollow Hills Community Library on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 2 p.m.  Free tickets to the in-person event will be available to the public beginning Saturday, April 1, at 9:30 a.m. Half Hollow Hills Community Library will also host the event as an online program.

The Career and Business References Services and the Outreach Committees will be hosting a joint committee meeting at the Long Island Cares facilities on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 2:30 pm.

The tour of the Center for Community Engagement and the Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank begins promptly at 2:30pm where we will learn about all of the resources and programs they provide to those in need. The tour should last approximately 45 minutes. There will be committee meetings following the tour in the Center for Community Engagements meeting rooms.

Readers’ Advisory Committee will host their next meeting on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 10:00 am at SCLS with a Zoom option if needed. Next meeting’s topic: Biography.

PR & Marketing: 2022 Winners Roundtable Discussion on Thursday, March 23, from 3-4:30 pm via Zoom. We have participation commitments from representatives of the Amityville, Brentwood, Northport-East Northport, and Sachem libraries.

CATS:

Anthony Giansante reported.  Our February TIFF meeting had 28 attendees and I’m excited to introduce a new round table and a new committee CATS is starting! We have the Tech Services Round Table that will have its first meeting on April 11^th at 10 am, and registration is now open.  We hope this will become a forum where those in technical services can meet and discuss ideas and practices!

Next, we have the East End Tech Coalition which focuses on uniting the technology library personnel of the East End! Registration is not required to attend meetings, but you must be a member of CATS. Meetings will be the first Tuesday of the month with the first one being Tuesday, April 4th, at 10:00am on Zoom.

CATS will also host a mixer on Friday, April 28^th at 7 pmatBlue Point Brewery in Patchogue! We are asking people to register, but only so we know how many to expect!

SSD:

Aileen Clark reported.  The safety conference has been moved back to the fall.  The East meets West meeting is currently in the works.  SSD is working on solidifying details for their accepted program for the Long Island Library Conference.

YASD:

Lauren Strong reported.  We had our joint Battle of the Books Meeting with SCLS-YS on March 7. Thank you to all of the panelists for their helpful tips and tricks for Battle of the Books. YASD has been in the process of planning our Fran Romer Memorial Workshop. We have 24 people registered and are looking forward to the event. We are going to be at Author’s Unlimited in the morning to do activities from 8:30-10:30am. We are still looking for people to be on the B.E.S.T. Award Committee. We also have not received any nominations so far, so please let your Teen Departments know we’re looking for submissions. In May we have a joint workshop with SCLS-YS that is on Understanding Teen Dating Violence at 10:00am. Registration is through SCLS.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner: No report.

Archives:

Bruce Seger reported.  He will continue to scan and add to the archives.

Civil Service:

Erin Kanelos reported. Thanks to Alex and Stephen for posting the Civil Service information on facebook and the website. Still working on 101 sheets.

Community Service:

Angela Breslin reported.  I have a few dates for April and May for the SCLA Blood Drive.  I will send out a poll next week and the date that the most can attend will be it.  I have reached out to Bruce a few times, he never responded, so we can host it at a library or at NY Blood centers.

Continuing Education:

Angela Breslin/Charlotte Buckleman reported.  Angela brought up the fact that Wild Apricot does not have an attendance list for past events.  It was recommended that Angela and Charlotte reach out to a colleague at LILRC who uses Wild Apricot regularly and may offer a solution.

Stephen Ingram stated that only some of the programs offered by divisions this year have gone through Wild Apricot.  If divisions create their own registration form and if registration is not done through Wild Apricot, there is no record of attendance through SCLA.  The overall goal is to consolidate the registration process which is currently in the works with the SCLA Executive Board/Wild Apricot admins.  Stephen did mention that Wild Apricot admins can back-end registration into Wild Apricot and that all division presidents should be emailing Angela and Charlotte their event registration lists.  Alex Blend and Charlotte will draw up a procedure until Wild Apricot is fully utilized by all divisions of SCLA.

Charlotte Buckleman made a flyer explaining the difference between CEUs and professional development hours.  It’s now on the SCLA website.  Carisse Mitchell stated that going forward, professional development opportunities should be labeled as “professional development hours” and not CEUs.  Carisse wrote a letter to Kevin Verbesey at SCLS asking for written documentation that SCLS is permitted to pre-approve the professional development hours that SCLA offers.  Kevin sent a letter to New York State and is waiting for confirmation, but there will be a document stating that SCLA has the backing to distribute professional development hours.

ELSA: No report.

Intellectual Freedom: No report.

LDA Award:

Noel Reich reported.  They are still accepting nomination packets until March 24th.  Noel is working on a confirmation notice for when people submit their form online.

Legislative: Samantha Alberts reported. Thank you to the SCLA board for all their support for Advocacy Day.  We did cancel the one day bus but our efforts were still fruitful.

Both the State Senate and Assembly released their “one-house” budget bills yesterday and both were positive for libraries

Both restored all of the Governor’s proposed cuts to library funding and both called for additional funding for libraries in both general aid and construction aid.  The Senate called for a $3.5M increase in general aid and the Assembly a $5M increase. The Senate called for a $5M increase in construction aid the Assembly for a $20M increase.  Both also included a distribution of “Love Your Library” aid to public library systems to be used on cooperative systemwide projects.

NYLA has launched a new “take action” campaign thanking our legislators for proposing to increase funding for libraries and asking that the final budget include these proposed increases.  The campaign can be found at the following link:

https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=19892

Long Island Library Conference:

Brian Adams reported.  The full program itinerary is on the Long Island Library conference website (www.libconference.org).  54 tables out of an ideal 68 have been sold as of 3/17/2023.  As of today, 126 attendees have signed up.  We are expected to get more as the conference gets closer and libraries have their board meetings.  Printed flyers have been sent to Suffolk County libraries.

LILPA:

Derek Ivie reported. The Long Island Library Pride Alliance board met on Friday, March 3rd to speak about upcoming programming as well as run through their presentation for SCBWI. The presentation, titled The Evolution of LGBTQIA+ Representation in Picture Books, took place on Saturday March 4th. Twenty people attended the webinar that was presented by co-chairs Derek Ivie, Jody Ruggiero, and Nola Thacker. The presentation focused on queercoding, past representation, current trends, and book challenges and banning. It was well received by those who attended. On Thursday, March 16th the group held another session of the LILPA Book Club. Nine attendees discussed the novella A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. On Friday, March 17th LILPA shared a flyer with members to collect LGBTQIA+ programs and programmers. The goal is to create a living database that can be used all year long to aid libraries in offering queer programming. Last month LILPA welcomed Noel Reich onto the Board as the Marketing and Communications Chair!

Stephen Ingram asked Derek if LILPA would be interested in having a website.  Derek said there would be interest and Stephen will work with him and LILPA to create a website.

Long Range Planning/Marketing:

Carisse Mitchell reported.  She will be ordering the materials for the LILC very soon.

Membership:

Charlotte Buckleman reported.  As of 3/17/2023, there were 301 non-pending members and 329 with non-pending and pending members combined.

Newsletter:

Lauren Strong reported.  Newsletter submissions are due by Friday, 3/17/2023.  Please get those in ASAP.

Nominating:

Colleen Navins reported.  She is still looking to fill the Intellectual Freedom Committee chair position.  Colleen will be reaching out to divisions later in the spring for their 2024 board nominations.  Carisse Mitchell said that SCLA should devise a concrete timeline for election slates.  Colleen should aim to have the election slates in by the end of May for the elections in June.

Scholarship:  

Brian Schwartz reported.  He has begun the digitization of our scholarship process.

Student Outreach:

Colleen Navins reported.  She forwarded Charlotte’s Professional Development/CEU flier to Library School contacts and they have posted those on their ListServs.  LIU was very pleased and thankful for the flyer.

Web Page:

Stephen Ingram reported.

Basic website/facebook maintenance and posting of events.

Facebook insights: 998 followers

Google Analytics Behavior
February 1.4k page views

Updated SCLA, CATS, RASD, CARE Committee wordpress sites to latest security updates.

Monitor and approve listserv posts

Experimenting with Wild Apricot and added program and event information

Worked on SCLA program submission form for Wild Apricot calendar.

Rebecca Goldstein stated that if anyone is having an event and using Wild Apricot, please let her know in addition to filling out the SCLA Google Form.

Liaisons-

CLASC:

Erin Kanelos reported.  CLASC is in the middle of their elections.  A new president will be starting in May.  The CLASC dinner will be held on April 26th at the Stonebridge Country Club in Smithtown.

LILRC:

Sally Stieglitz reported.  LILRC is excited to share two upcoming in person spring events for the Long Island library community.

On April 24 (10:00AM – 2:00PM), the 9th Annual Herbert Biblo Academic Libraries Conference, co-presented by LILRC, NCLA ASLD, and SCLA DASL, welcomes all library workers to I Can’t get No [Job] Satisfaction: Trends and Strategies to Support Yourself and Other Library Workers.

Held at Half Hollow Hills Community Library, the program includes Keynote Emily Drabinski, Critical Pedagogy Librarian, CUNY; President Elect, ALA,  on Collective Action, Collective Good: Organizing for Change at Work and  Lisa Hamilton  Director, Campus Activities & Student Leadership Development, at Suffolk County Community College  on Workplace Barriers and How to Conquer Them: How to Navigate the Workplace Rollercoaster without Screaming.

The LILRC Annual Membership Meeting will take place on June 20, 2023, 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM at Half Hollow Hills Community Library, Keynote Presentation by Arlene Laverde, current president of NYLA  Arlene will be talking about the role of NYLA in advocacy and intellectual freedom and how they work together.

NCLA: No report.

PLDA: Shauna Scholl reported.  PLDA is planning a spring wine or cider hour tour.  More information is forthcoming.

SCLS: Welcome, Alex!  The Electronic Resources librarian is leaving.  Please take a look at that posting, as well as other postings, that are posted on the list-serv.  Reach out to SCLS if you have any questions.

NYLA: No report.

Members-at-Large:

Liz Hughes reported.  She started a SLACK account and is encouraging everyone to take a look at it and get back to her with feedback.  The long term goal is that each division president will have access to their division’s channel.  Liz is still working on organizing a networking event after the Long Island Library Conference.  Details are forthcoming.

Old Business:

Rachel Cecchini reminded the Board that if anyone’s contact information changes, please email her directly at rcecchini@smithlib.org. 

New Business:

The next meeting is in-person at SCLS on Friday, April 21st at 10:00am.

The meeting was adjourned  at 11:26am by Colleen Navins  Seconded by Brian Adams and Anthony Giansante.

Friday, June 6, 2023
Zoom

In attendance: Charlotte Buckleman, Rachel Cecchini, Rebecca Goldstein, Stephen Ingram, Colleen Navins, Katherine Regina, Bruce Seger, Sally Stieglitz, Lauren Strong, Julia Sukhu.

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 10:10am by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Kate Regina and Lauren Strong.

 Announcements: Motion to approve the April 2023 meeting minutes by Colleen Navins without corrections.  Seconded by Bruce Seger and Kate Regina.

Presidents Report:

Colleen Navins reported.  Carisse was unable to attend this meeting, however, she reports that she will be going over the SCLA election results with Colleen.

Treasurer’s Report:

Rebecca Goldstein reported.  The current balance of the bank account is $88,146.73 as of June 16, 2023.The SCLA portion of the bank account as of April 20 was $61,795.78. (Rebecca will update shortly as of June). Division spreadsheets have been updated as of June 1; Rebecca will have them updated further within the next week.

Division Reports-

DASL:

Bruce Seger reported.  The presentation at the Long Island Library Conference was very well received.  DASL is working on upcoming projects.

RASD:

No report.

CATS: Julia Sukhu reported.  Bob Johnson of Emma Clark Memorial Library is our new Vice President.  The East End Coalition is gaining traction.  There will be a Tech Services Roundtable meeting on Tuesday, July 18th from 10:00am-12:00pm.

SSD:

Katherine Regina reported.  SSD’s meet and greet is scheduled for Friday, June 16th.  Members will be discussing what they’re looking to get out of SSD and their ideas for future programs.

YASD:

Lauren Strong reported. Our webmaster Alex has finished creating our website, and we are ready to launch it on the SCLA page. A special thank you to Steve for all of his assistance along the way. We held the East End STEAM Faire yesterday, June 15 at Riverhead Library in conjunction with CLASC and CATS. It was nice to see libraries come together with their Makerspace equipment.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner: No report.

Archives: Bruce Seger reported.  He will be working on photo scanning.

Civil Service: Erin Kanelos reported. No updates. Files for civil service info sheets were shared with my new email address, and will be created shortly. Apologies for the delay getting these up and running.

Community Service: No report.

Continuing Education: Charlotte Buckleman reported.   Please keep sending program attendance lists to Charlotte. 

ELSA: Katherine Regina reported.  This is the last month for ELSA nominations.  A reminder will go out in the upcoming SCLA newsletter.

Intellectual Freedom: No report.

LDA Award: No report.

Legislative: Samantha Alberts reported.  The State budget was finalized in early April and it was not very positive for libraries.  Library Aid ($99.6M) and Library Construction Aid ($34M) were both maintained at last year’s levels. 

ALA has a thank you action campaign for the Biden Whitehouse.  The form thanks the administration for the new appointed position within the Department of Education for combatting book bans. Visit : bit.ly/3oKGAVu if you are interested in completing the form.

PLDA is still developing their action plan for localized breakfasts. 

Long Island Library Conference: No report.

LILPA: Derek Ivie reported. The Long Island Library Pride Alliance board met on Monday, June 12th to discuss programming for the fall and to put the final touches on their June 13th presentation. Derek Ivie, Nola Thacker, and Jody Ruggiero presented The Evolution of LGBTQIA+ Representation in Picture Books to 17 library staff members from both Nassau and Suffolk. They also shared a resource list and the list of books they presented with the attendees. One hour of professional development will be awarded. They will not be running any meetings in July and August in order to let library staff members concentrate on Summer Reading.

Long Range Planning/Marketing: No report.

Membership: Charlotte Buckleman reported.  We have 494 members to date.

Newsletter: Lauren Strong reported.  I will need all divisions/committees to submit their newsletter blurbs by Wednesday, June 21.

Nominating: No report.

Scholarship: No report.

Student Outreach: Colleen Navins reported.  She will start reaching out to schools at the end of the summer.

 Web Page:

Stephen Ingram reported.
June  2023

Basic website/facebook maintenance and posting of events.
Facebook insights: 1032 followers
Google Analytics Behavior overview using GA4 reporting
March 1787 page views
April 1472 page views
May 1479 page views
Updated SCLA, CATS, RASD, CARE Committee wordpress sites to latest security updates.
Monitor and approve listserv posts
Upgraded Listserv to members only.
Added new members
Added programs to wild apricot

Stephen reminded the Board that emails sent through the list-serv must be sent through the email that corresponds to that person’s SCLA membership.

Liaisons-

CLASC: Lauren Scottaline reported. CLASC is excited to announce that a new board position: Robyne Pinkerton of the East Islip Public Library has been appointed the first Diversity and Inclusion Member at Large.

CLASC is excited to partner with both CATS and YASD of SCLA on the June 15, 2023 East End Steam Faire. CLASC looks forward to partnering with SCLA on more events this Fall!

The New Book Seminar was held on June 6^th at the Islip Public Library with an option to Zoom in. Instead of speaking about one book and discussing it along with a guest speaker, attendees shared books based on the summer reading club theme, as well as what our libraries would be doing over the summer in terms of the reading program.

The next new book seminar will be held on Wednesday, September 20^th from 2:30-4:30 pm at the Islip Public Library (attendees may also join via Zoom). We will be reading the graphic novel Parachute Kids and the author Betty Tang will be joining us on Zoom.

CLASC is working with NCLA’s Youth Services Division to finalize plans for our co-sponsored meeting on September 28; the meeting will feature a panel of librarians who specialize in library services for children with disabilities, and will be part of the SCLA-NCLA-CLASC virtual professional development series. CLASC members Samantha Cribbin and Joyce Thompson-Haas will speak on behalf of CLASC.

CLASC will soon be working on details for the Annual Meeting to be held in December.

LILRC: Sally Stieglitz reported.  The LILRC Annual Meeting will be held at Half Hollow Hills Library on Tuesday, June 20th.  The new logo and brand colors will be revealed.  Registration is still on-going.  Registration is open for the 32nd Annual Conference on Libraries and the Future.  The subject is AI in libraries and it will be held at the Heritage Club in Bethpage.  There is a grant session on July 20th, where we will show library staff how to apply for grants.

NCLA: No report.

PLDA: Shauna Scholl reported.  STAAC website has been updated with a News and Updates section and the golf/banquet fundraiser is October 23rd.

SCLS: No report.

NYLA: No report.

Members-at-Large: No report.

Old Business: None.

 New Business: Colleen Navins said that her and Carisse will be going over the election results and that they will be set soon.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:33am by Colleen Navins  Seconded by Lauren Strong and Bruce Seger.

Friday, July 21, 2023
Zoom

In attendance: Charlotte Buckleman, Rachel Cecchini, Mary McNulty, Carisse Mitchell, Colleen Navins, Kate Regina.

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 3:03pm by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Charlotte Buckleman.

Vote to appoint new officers:

Carisse Mitchell made a motion to approve the appointment of the following candidates to their respective offices, effective immediately:

Vicky Urbelis- Membership Chair

Carole Lingg- Newsletter

Wonda Miller- Treasurer

Motion carried unanimously.  Congratulations to our new officers!

Old Business: None.

New Business: Carisse Mitchell said that there will be an upcoming meeting to update the bylaws.  Once a date has been determined, an email will be sent out to the voting members of the Board.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:05pm by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Rachel Cecchini.

Suffolk County Library Association Minutes
Friday, September 29, 2023
Zoom

 In attendance:

Call to order: The meeting was called to order by Colleen Navins.  Seconded by Wonda at 10:03am.

Announcements: Motion to approve the June and July 2023 meeting minutes by Carisse Mitchell with/ without corrections.

Presidents Report: Carisse Mitchell reported.

The SCLA Annual Dinner is open to everyone.  Please buy tickets.  We will announce the  newly elected board members. Board presidents will announce newly elected board presidents.  Colleen will be bringing SCLA swag.

The Long Island Library Conference will be coming up next spring.

Incoming board members need to come to November board meetings so they know what to do before they come onto the board.

Art Friedman – print directory of library information, Motion to approve SCLA purchasing the Long Island directory from Art for maximum of $250 to purchase reference copies

Colleen approved – enough motion to vote

Program Contract – Kelly came up with an idea about creating a program contract. Would still be used if the programmer was working for free.

PLDA – mentorship program – Library Directors are pairing up with librarians who are interested in administrator roles. Have to be a member of SCLA/CLASC if you want to join. Will begin in January.

Venmo- if we can’t set up venmo for our SCLA vendor we can take out cash prior

Finalize updating passwords, so going into 2024 that’s all working out

Vice Presidents Report:

Successful professional development Series

• 100 participants attended the SCLA sponsored sessions,
• 22 participants attended
• 2 or more sessions
• 5 students attended

All CEU certificates were emailed out

Thank you to Rachel, Stephen, Charlotte and the Division presidents for helping this run so smoothly. NCLA asked about how we ran our events and planning process because of how organized it all was so thank you all for that

The Civil Service Basics Program is coming up on October 19 with Cheryl from Suffolk County Civil Service. 

Mindfulness and communication program being planned for November, keep an eye out for that.  We will also be hosting a collection for LI Cares at that event

Treasurer’s Report:

Wonda Miller reported. The SCLA operating account, including the totals, for all divisions began with a starting balance on August 1st of $89,485.21.

August income was $326.00 which was primarily membership deposits that were dispersed across SCLA and the various divisions.

August expenses were $6,333.71. This included the payments for multiple programs and the expenses for the Long Island Library Conference custom printing and promotional materials.

The closing balance for August was $83,477.50.

The SCLA portion of the account had a starting balance on 8/1/23 of $68,458.73 and an ending balance of $64,412.21.

I started to investigate what is needed for our application to the State for a Tax exempt certificate. Based on the recommendation of an accountant, I began with a couple of discussions with the IRS, as we need paperwork from the IRS to complete our State application. I was informed that SCLA hadn’t filed taxes since 2020, the representative was great, and put a note into our account for 2021 that we were active, and helped me file for 2022 for free through the website. Our taxes and EIN are current and up to date. The 990N e-postcard is an online form that can be used to file in the future as long as our income is under $50,000 per year. A lapse of 3 years in filing will result in the deactivation of our EIN and our status as a 501(c)3 organization.

I recently received the letter from the IRS that I need for our NYS application for our Tax exempt certificate. I’ll be able to complete the paperwork for that soon, there are a couple of questions that we are researching and I’m not sure what the turn-around-time is from the State.

Division Reports-

DASL: Bruce Seger reported.

Sally and LILRC – are getting a speaker at the end of October – for NYLA

RASD: Kelly Filippone reported.

RASD sponsored two programs for the Professional Development Series:

Coping with Vicarious Trauma and Stress in the Workplace, co-sponsored with NCLA Library Staff of Color – 40 registered, 22 attended

The Action of Inaction: Library Neutrality in the Wake of Social Justice 24 registered, 12 attended.

he RASD has the following positions open for the 2024 Board:

• Member-at-Large (2)
• Programs
• Nomination
• Health Concerns Chair (there is a current co-chair)

If you know someone who may be interested in getting involved, please contact me at kfilippone@smithlib.org and I’d be happy to share more information.

Local History Committee: The Local History Committee hosted its annual Programmers Showcase on Thursday, September 21st at SCLS. We had 35 attendees from over 20 libraries and institutions.

PR & Marketing Committee: The committee had a great group of applicants for the 2023 Suffolk Library Marketing Award (SLMA). Judging will begin shortly and the winner will be acknowledged at the SCLA Annual Dinner on October 26th.

Outreach Committee: Applications for the Suffolk Library Excellence in Outreach Award (SLEOA) will be available soon.

The Health Concerns Committee: The committee’s annual Fall Breakfast will be on Tuesday, November 15th at 9:30 am at the Sayville Library. A representative from Parker Jewish Institute will provide a presentation on their “Willing Hearts, Helpful Hands” program and other resources and services they provide to libraries and the community for people caring for those with Alzheimer’s Disease or other types of dementia.

MOSAIC’s next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 11th at 10am at SCLS. They will be joined by the Hispanic Advisory Committee for the Town of Brookhaven.

RASD’s Annual Luncheon is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, December 5th from 2-4pm. We are planning on keeping our post-2020 model of hosting at a library with a boxed lunch and professional development opportunity. Details will be made available as they are finalized.

CATS: Julia Sukhu reported.

CATS had a few programs over the summer!

he second meeting of the Tech Services Roundtable was on July 18th. Roseann and Debbie of the CATS board moderated it. We had 34 attendees and are currently planning to have another one before the year ends. 

On August 4th, we had the Story Maps in Your Library Program at Northport-East Northport Library where Peter Ward of Brentwood explained the Story Maps program and how he is using it at Brentwood. We had 27 attendees.

CATS did the Teaching Tech to Non-Tech Teachers program for the September Professional Development series. 21 people registered and 10 people came.  We’re hoping to refine the program and do it again. 

Upcoming:

We have the 2nd Annual Women and Tech Program presented by CATS and CLASC, on October 12th from 6:30-8:30 at Sachem Public Library.

SSD: Katherine Regina reported.

Hosted tour of SCLS – Picking dates for November to do another tour at 11 am in the middle of the week.

Planning the return of the Safety Conference – Tuesday December 5, 9:30 am coffee – 10:00 – 12:30 pm – sessions.

YASD: Lauren Strong reported.

YASD sponsored one program for the professional development series- Cognitive Behavioral Techniques for Working with Children, Adolescents, & Young Adults with Behavioral Issues in the Library. 44 people attended.

Our Treasurer Kyle has resigned. He will be moving out of state.

The Tween Makerfaire will be on Thursday,  November 9 at the Middle Country Public Library from 10:00am-12:00pm. We are still looking for libraries to host a table.

Our Annual Luncheon will be on December 7 at Toast Coffeehouse in Patchogue. Ryan La Sala will be our guest speaker. We will be looking for nominations for our Teen Librarian Awards for Most Creative Program, Most Successful Program, and Best Community Service Program.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner: Michele Cayea reported.

Thursday, October 26 WEst Sayville Country Club, Discount this year. Menu choices have been sent. Raffle baskets. We can receive checks, and online options. Brian did trivia last and would be able to do it again. 20 minutes to facilitate that.

Excerpts from the 1930s/1950s board reports!

Drive for Toys for Tots – still on for this year

Wonda- checkbook for caterers/DJ and $200 for tip for staff.

Encourage new librarians, trainees, pages to come – spouses/significant others.

Archives: Bruce Seger reported.

Some older reports got deleted

Side note: SCLS is our address – we can store our archives, as long as it’s labeled. Committees as well as Divisions

Civil Service: Erin Kanelos reported. Civil service exam reminder facebook posts have been created. Will send files to Stephen. Entry level/Librarian I 101 sheets being reviewed – will upload and attach to upcoming reminder posts. Upper level exam 101 sheets still in draft phase and will proceed the same way with future reminder posts.

• Ready to Post – Upcoming Exam Applications Open

Will send with 101 sheets linked ASAP

• 10/4/23 – Entry Level/Librarian I exams – 1 week left to apply
• 10/9/23 – Final Days to apply for Entry Level/Librarian I exams
• 11/1/23 – Upper Level Exams Reminder
• 12/6/23 – Upper Level Exams Reminder
• 12/20/23 – Upper Level Exams – 1 week left to apply
• 12/27/23 – Final Day to apply for exams

Community Service: No report.

Continuing Education: Vicky Urbelis/ Charlotte Buckleman reported.

We are currently working on entering all our professional development CEUs to our database!

ELSA: Katherine Regina reported.

The 2023 winner has been picked and announced by them and their library. Award will be given out at the Annual Dinner.
Intellectual Freedom: Bruce volunteered to pick up this committee. He will work on events going forward.

LDA Award: Noel Reich reported.

No report at this time.

Legislative: Samantha Alberts reported.  This year, the Suffolk Library directors asked the LILRC Leg committee to rethink how the Legislative Breakfast was run in Suffolk.  They decided to have small meetings for each legislator.   PLDA organized the meetings and thanked SCLA for the support, but currently, they do not have a money ask for the breakfasts.  They asked us to put our legislative efforts into supporting the bus(es) for Advocacy Day. Save the date for Advocacy Day, February 7, 2024.  This year PLDA’s sponsored 2023 Golf Outing & Banquet Dinner will be held on October 23rd.

Long Island Library Conference: Brian Adams reported.

LILC Report to SCLA

Planning for the 2024 Long Island Library Conference is well underway! The date is Thursday, May 9^th 2024 at the Melville Marriott.

Members of both SCLA and NCLA get membership discounts and their membership number will be required as part of the registration form.

Program submission is now open so committees and divisions should plan ahead. We are looking for new voices this year.  Please consider engaging speakers from outside – there is always funds available in your budgets for this.

We have a keynote speaker hired and publicity materials and save the dates will be going out soon.

I would respectfully request a spot on the agenda for the upcoming annual dinner meeting. I have a very brief presentation planned.

LILPA: Noel Reich reported.

LILPA has done some Board restructuring, I took over Derek Ivie’s seat and will be reporting for LILPA. We also are excited to welcome Kaye Spurrell from Nassau as a new chair. Next Tuesday we are having an in person membership meeting at Lindenhurst Library to discuss future programming and goals for LILPA. We will be taking our LGBTQIA+ Picture Book presentation to NYLA this year and we are still planning on holding our book club in October, possibly an informational program in November, and the mock Stonewall Awards in December.

Long Range Planning/Marketing: Carisse Mitchell reported.

• Carisse will work on swag / branded SCLA
• Will contact PLDA about marketing at their Golf Outing in addition to supporting legislation and advocacy aside from the Bus

Membership: Vicky Urbelis/ Charlotte Buckleman reported.

All membership questions should now go to our membership email.

Forward it to the membership email and then reply from the membership email.

SCLAmembershipli@gmail.com

Can we revisit getting whole institution memberships?

We are currently at 480 members!

Newsletter: Carole Lingg reported.

October is ready to go out next week.

 Nominating: Colleen Navins reported.  We will be looking to fill the Community Service Committee position as well as Student Outreach for 2024.

Scholarship: Brian Schwartz reported.  The Scholarship Committee has been busy selecting a winner, which will be announced by early next week.  We will not be issuing a winner for the Continuing Education award due to the applicants not having the right qualifications (they applied for the wrong scholarship). 

Student Outreach: Colleen Navins reported.  I presented at the LIU Palmer’s School Orientation on August 29, 2023 through Zoom.  I spoke to over 40 library students about joining professional organizations, the benefits of student membership and networking.  We had 5 library students participate in the SCLA portion of the Professional Development Series.

 Web Page: Stephen Ingram reported.
Basic website/facebook maintenance and posting of events. If you have a program that you want on our Facebook or on Wild Apricot, contact Stephen so he can post it. New registration form to make a Wild Apricot event. Stephen will get a notification and then shoot Stephen an email so he can get it up. Associations do not need to do their own Google Forms. All divisions need to do Wild Apricot so we can get a registration list and the SCLA zoom account needs to be used so we can get a usage report.  On the website or Facebook we are only going to advertise SCLA programs. Only job postings or something relevant should be posted by non-members. Try not to spam the listserv with your programs.

Facebook insights: 1032 followers
Google Analytics Behavior overview using GA4 reporting
June 1786 page views
July 1410 page views
August 1460 page views

Updated SCLA, CATS, RASD, CARE Committee wordpress sites to latest security updates.
Monitor and approve listserv posts

Created Professional Development Series Website

Created Wild Apricot Events for the PDS 2023.

Liaisons-

CLASC: Kim Zettwoch Manise reported.

During the August Executive Board Meeting the CLASC Board motioned and approved the appointment of Nicole Basil as the new Corresponding Secretary, after our previous Corresponding Secretary had to step down. Nicole is a Children’s Librarian at the  Half Hollow Hills Library. Nicole has been an active member of CLASC and SCLA, serving on the board of its Fandom Outreach Committee. We are so happy to have her on the board!

The CLASC General Membership Meeting and Mock Caldecott Book Discussion will be held on Tuesday, December 5th at the SCLC auditorium. 9:30-11:30am will be the  Mock Caldecott discussion and then from 11:30am-12:30pm will be the Membership Meeting and Lunch.

LILRC: Sally Stieglitz reported as follows:

LILRC has two in-person conferences this October; registration is still open:

32nd Annual Conference on Libraries and The Future: AI in Libraries Friday, October 06, 2023, 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM  The Heritage Club – Bethpage

28th Annual Long Island Archives Conference: Transcending Barriers: Opening Archives, Opening Minds Monday, October 23, 2023 , 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM, SUNY Old Westbury

Thanks to a grant from WETA/PBS Books, LILRC is offering a free in person program on the Statue of Liberty at SCLS, which includes lunch, a screening of the PBS Documentary series Iconic America episode on the Statue of Liberty, and a speaker (on zoom), Matthew Housch, National Park Service, who was involved in the creation of the documentary. Details and registration:

Wednesday, October 18, 11:30am The Statue of Liberty: Iconic America Screening and Lunch In person at SCLS/Auditorium

Applications are open for LILRC’s Spring 2024 Diversity Internship program. This is a paid part-time internship for undergraduate students on Long Island in any course of study. More details and a link to the application are at https://www.lilrc.org/diversityintern

NCLA: Stacey Mencher. No report.

PLDA: Shauna Scholl reported.  PLDA is monitoring the new legislator’s visits to see if they are a better option than the traditional Legislative Breakfast. PLDA and the PLDA Executive Board are excited to be working with SCLA to put together a mentoring program for library workers who want to advance in their careers.  PLDA will be giving a recognition award to Darla and Derek for their work on the library tour this summer. The Golf Outing is coming up on October 23rd – even if you are not a golfer, everyone is welcome to attend the dinner and it is a lot of fun. Tickets are available through the PLDA website.

SCLS: Kevin Verbesey reported.

NYLA: Lisa Kropp reported.

Members-at-Large: Liz Hughes reported:

• Hosting a networking event in Patchogue tonight – 9/28 at 7 pm
• Working on setting up an SCLA meet up at NYLA in November 2023
• Set up an SCLA google number
  • This will be tested out at Comic-con and other conferences
  • A way for librarians to meet up when they are at their first conference without giving out their personal information

Old Business:

New Business:

Presentation on Apricot in December for new members – Stephen Ingram

The meeting was adjourned at 11:34am by Carisse Mitchell.  Seconded by Colleen Navins and Bruce Seger.

Suffolk County Library Association Minutes
Thursday, October 26, 2023
SCLA Annual Dinner- West Sayville Country Club

1.Welcome: Michele Cayea

2. Call to Order & Approval of Minutes: Colleen Navins– meeting called to order at 6:52pm.
3. President’s Report: Carisse Mitchell
4. Treasurer’s Report: Wonda Miller– closing September balance is $84,672.84

The SCLA operating account, including all divisions, began with a starting balance on September 1st of $83,477.50.

September income was $1,204.00 which was primarily membership dues and SCLA annual dinner fees.

September expenses were $8.66 for banking fees with WildApricot/Affinipay. We had $1,203.86 of checks pending for professional development workshop disbursements.

The closing balance for September was $84,672.84.

5. 2024 Incoming Executive Board Members: Colleen Navins
6. Announcements of the Divisions: Colleen Navins

CATS: Julia Suhku

DASL: Bruce Seger

RASD: Kelly Fillipone

SSD: Kate Regina

YASD: Ashley Sabatino filling in for Lauren Strong

7. Suffolk Library Marketing Award: James Garvey & Christine Lyons

Winners:

Honorable Mention: Smithtown Library

3rd Place: Longwood Public Library

2nd Place: Sachem Public Library

1st Place: Brentwood Public Library

8. Excellence in Library Service Award: Kate Regina

Winners:

Runner-up: Steven Spataro

1st Place: Chance Sevigny

9. SCLA Scholarship Award: Brian Schwartz- Recipient Daniel McCoy
10. Long Island Library Conference: Brian Adams
11. Adjournment: Colleen Navins- meeting adjourned at 7:33pm. Seconded by Carisse Mitchell.
12. Dinner

Suffolk County Library Association Minutes
Friday, November 17, 2023
Zoom

In attendance:

Call to order: The meeting was called to order by Colleen Navins at

Announcements: Motion to approve the September 2023 and October 2023 meeting minutes by

Presidents Report: Carisse Mitchell reported.

Treasurer’s Report:

Wonda Miller reported:
SCLA began with a starting balance on October 1st of $84,672.84.

October income was $20,202 which includes $14,250.00 from NCLA for the LILC, membership dues and event fees.

October expenses were $6443.20, including fees for the SCLA annual dinner, several reimbursements to divisions, and the SCLA scholarship. We had $1,554.64 of checks pending for disbursements on October 31st.

The closing balance for October was $98,931.85.

SCLA Annual Dinner:

The dinner expenses (not including raffles, scholarships, award plaques) are: $4949.81

Dinner ticket income is: $5560.00 with 1 ticket payments outstanding (updated 12/11).

The sales for the raffle tickets on the baskets earned $487.00. Each division will receive $69.57 per basket, since CATS had 2 baskets they will get $139.14.

Division Reports-

DASL: Bruce Seger reported.

RASD: Kelly Filippone reported.

CATS:Julia Sukhu reported.

Hi all!

First, there has been a change to the CATS board, Lilly Kiel has resigned. We are currently looking into filling her seat. She was a co-chair of the EETC, and Anthony Giansante has been voted in to take her place.

As for programs, CATS partnered with CLASC for the second annual Women and Tech program on October 12^th at Sachem Public Library. 29 people attended. 

The EETC had its meeting on October 3rd at Rogers Memorial Library with 15 attendees.

TIFF had its meeting on October 12th with 25 attendees. Topics included: AI in the library (including uses for chatbots and services like Chat GPT), heat presses, website creation tools, and podcast hosting.

SSD: Katherine Regina reported.

YASD:Lauren Strong reported. We held our 2nd annual Tween Makerfaire at Middle Country Library on November 9 in partnership with CATS and CLASC. Thank you to all of the libraries that had a table to showcase the technology you have at your libraries. Our YASD Annual Luncheon with guest speaker and author Ryan LaSala will be at Toast Coffeehouse in Patchogue on Thursday, December 7. We look forward to seeing all of those that are attending.

Committee Reports-

Annual Dinner: Michele Cayea reported.

rchives: Bruce Seger reported.

Civil Service: Erin Kanelos reported.

Community Service: No report.

Continuing Education: Vicky Urbelis/ Charlotte Buckleman reported.

ELSA: Katherine Regina reported.
Intellectual Freedom: Bruce Seger reported.

LDA Award: Noel Reich reported.

Legislative: Samantha Alberts reported.

Long Island Library Conference: Brian Adams reported.

LILC Report to SCLA

LILPA: Noel Reich reported.

Long Range Planning/Marketing: Carisse Mitchell reported.

Membership: Vicky Urbelis/ Charlotte Buckleman reported.

Newsletter: Carole Lingg reported.

 Nominating: Colleen Navins reported.

Scholarship: Brian Schwartz reported.

Student Outreach: Colleen Navins reported.

Web Page: Stephen Ingram reported.

Liaisons-

CLASC: Kim Zettwoch Manise reported.

LILRC: Sally Stieglitz reported as follows:

LILRC’s upcoming programs for November are:

 Wednesday, November 29, 10:30am Virtual Tour of the Nassau County Supreme Court Library and Court Information Center

 Thursday, November 30, 2:00pm Library Branding 101: Thinking Beyond Logos and Trademarks

 Registration for all programs is at www.lilrc.org/events

NCLA: Stacey Mencher.

PLDA: Shauna Scholl reported.

SCLS: Kevin Verbesey reported.

NYLA: Lisa Kropp reported.

Members-at-Large: Liz Hughes reported:

Old Business:

 New Business:

The meeting was adjourned at by Carisse Mitchell at