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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 24th.
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.
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