LAUC-LA Executive Board Meeting, 07-11 (Transitional Meeting)
August 28, 2007
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
YRL West Electronic Classroom

Present: Melissa Beck (recorder), Keri Botello, Cathy Brown, Debe Costa, Miki Goral, Julie Kwan, Toshie Marra, Michael Oppenheim, Maureen Russell (chair), Heidi Sandstrom (incoming chair), Gary Strong (guest), Deborah Whiteman

1. Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 1:10 p.m.

2. Secretary's report

   The July 17, 2007 Executive Board meeting minutes were approved as submitted.

3. Chair's report (Russell)

Maureen read a letter from Gary Strong containing two proposals regarding the composition of CAPA:

• Limit membership to no more than one member from the same unit
• Have more representation from Assistant and Associate ranks, and/or from newly-hired librarians

A discussion ensued in which the following points were made by members of the Board:

• The membership of CAPA is ultimately the decision of LAUC-LA.
• According to the Call, career status is required to be a member of CAPA, so this automatically excludes assistant librarians. [Note: this point was later corrected – according to the LAUC-LA Bylaws, members of CAPA shall have either career status or potential career status; however, temporary appointees are still not eligible to serve on CAPA.]
• For the purposes of CAPA, “representation” is defined as combining knowledge of a service area with experience in the Peer Review process.
• It is important to have representation across the functional units of the library.
• For the purposes of limiting membership, what is considered a “unit”?

The Board concluded that it will do its best to achieve representation across all units and ranks, working from the list of librarians who have applied; however, representation of all functional areas will be the first objective. Workloads in smaller units will also be considered when making appointments to CAPA.

Maureen has received no response to the letter to Gary Strong regarding including step information in appointment packets sent to CAPA.

4. Vice-Chair's report (Sandstrom)

The Ad Hoc Committee on Mentoring will be reconvened, with the possibility of including retired librarians.

Since the library-wide Diversity Committee has been inactive for some time, the issue of diversity needs to be addressed. LAUC-LA may need to reexamine the composition of the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity.

LAUC-LA is hosting a lunch for new librarians following their orientation September 6. Members of the Executive Board and the LAUC-LA Mentoring Committee are invited.

The LAUC Statewide transitional meeting will take place on August 21.

Two dates have been reserved for the LAUC-LA Fall membership meeting, to be decided upon at the next Executive Board meeting. Since there are so many new librarians (26), it would be better to publish brief bios in advance and have them introduced simply by name and unit at the New Librarians’ reception to follow.

Miki Goral has volunteered to work on updating the LAUC-LA brochure.

5. University Librarian’s report (Strong)

Gary asked if there were any questions on the YRL remodel, and reported that there were other areas on campus under renovation. He has met with the new Chancellor several times and has a positive impression of him. Upcoming library events include a new donors’ reception at the end of September and a Powell Society dinner on October 3.

6. Committee reports

Committee on Library Plans and Policies (Oppenheim)

Excerpts from the recent LAUC-LA brownbag on "The Future of Public Services in the University of California Libraries" were read at the LAUC Statewide meeting. Maureen and the rest of the Board thanked Michael for planning the brownbag, which was attended by ca. 25 people. The final version of notes from the session will be posted on the LAUC-LA Web site. Michael extended a special thanks to Marsha Kmec for handling the logistics and refreshments, and for all her hard work in making the session a successful one.

Committee on Professional Governance (Botello)

Committee on Research and Professional Development (Stephenson)

No reports.

CAPA (Goral)

CAPA completed the review of 31 packets, which included 26 appointments, and had a debriefing meeting with Gary Strong. Miki shared from a LAUC-LA report from 1979 which included a recommendation that all appointment actions include the propose rank and step.

The Committee on the Call will be meeting on September 13, 2007. They have already simplified some of the forms and appendices for this year.

The Board discussed how to formally acknowledge librarian promotions. Heidi will ask Pat Hawthorne about the possibility of having announcements published in the Staff NewsWeb.
       
7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:25 p.m.

Following the meeting, the 2007/2008 Executive Board met in executive (closed) session.