LAUC-LA Executive Board Meeting (09-11)
Minutes
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm
College Library Conference Room (Powell 228)

Present: 2008/09 Board: Keri Botello (Chair), Hong Cheng, Debe Costa, Cheryl Kelly-Fischer, Diane Mizrachi, Louise Ratliff (Recorder), Heidi Sandstrom, Lise Snyder, Ken Wade (Parliamentarian)

Incoming board members: Socrates Silva, Amy Chatfield, Rhonda Lawrence (Chair-elect), Chamya Kincy (secretary)

Guests: Rita Costello, Nina Schneider, Becky Fenning, Miki Goral

Absent: Peggy Alexander, Lisa McAulay, Maureen Russell

1. Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 12:40 pm.

Everyone introduced him/herself.

Maureen Russell is not able to come today; Andrea Lynch (R&PD Chair) has left UCLA; Peggy Alexander & Lisa McAulay are also not able to be here. A quorum is present.

2. Agenda review and announcements:

One minor change: Rita Costello (Election Committee) will report when she arrives (because of another meeting).

3. Approval of Minutes/Secretary's report (Ratliff)

The minutes of the July 28, 2009, Executive Board meeting were approved as written.

Those present acknowledged Louise’s services as Secretary and Web Master and thanked her.

4. Chair's report (Botello)

Keri thanked all the board members for their attendance, support, hard work and good spirits, and welcomed the new members.

The COLSC (Faculty Senate Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication) has about 3 meetings per quarter, but none since May. What they emphasized this year is open access, which they want to get going, however there is some resistance at the statewide level. Also the Google Settlement has been a big topic. Shane Butler (Classics) will continue as Chair.

Management Council has not met much recently, but meets tomorrow to discuss furloughs. Keri will not be able to attend, but Keri will ask if Diane may attend this meeting.

LAUC statewide. Keri summarized the past year, saying there were some obstacles due to the reorganization of UCOP this year. Much has changed: we have to justify and submit a budget and get approval. Sam Dunlap and Lucia Diamond will be required to do this. This year was the final year of a face-to-face transition meeting. There will be only one statewide assembly this year. LAUC was asked by the ULs to put up a clearinghouse, which is now on the LAUC statewide web site.

SLASIAC still exists, and Barbara Shader is the LAUC representative.

SR 100.4 concerns were communicated to UC President Yudof.

LAUC President Sam Dunlap awarded thirteen travel grants to newer librarians with UC to attend the fall and spring LAUC Assemblies.

Local issues: We discovered opportunities to call special meetings of the LAUC-LA Executive Board and have open meetings for LAUC-LA members to discuss issues and forward suggestions to the UL. This is somewhat different from what has happened in the past. Snyder mentioned that we had some open meetings several years ago about the CALL. Diane will continue this practice. We made strides in communication with the UL, who attended most of the board meetings, and we had some good conversations.

Letter that was sent to UL re: the proposed revisions to the CALL (more later).

Keri and Diane met with LHR and Library Business Services about mini-grant funding and the budget for LAUC-LA. The mini-grant fund comes out of the MOU contract allocation, and is set aside for R&PD, and the UL may supplement this amount for the non-represented librarians. This year we didn’t spend much, so we ended in the black; however, the money could not be rolled over to 2010. Unlike other budgets, the LAUC-LA budget was not reduced; we were allocated the full $5,000. (It’s been the same since 1992!)

Because the mini-grants were funded at the end of the past fiscal year, they will be paid in July out of 2009/2010 funds (MOU funds). Diane and Keri posed the question: Could our budget cycle change to August to July? They will write a proposal to submit. Deborah Shade made the comment that since typically some of this funding is not spent by the end of the year, the LAUC-LA budget year change might assist in identifying these funds in time to reallocate them.

Diane requested that the Chancellor be invited to the LAUC-LA Fall Membership Meeting. This was carried out through Gary’s office and expanded into a Town Hall meeting with the Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor, and UL. Afterwards, the librarians will adjourn to another room for the Fall Membership Meeting and New Librarian reception.

Committee charges did not go out this year; Diane and Keri will craft them and send them out. Lise Snyder agreed to serve as the next Chair of the Professional Governance Committee; a number of bylaw issues will be examined for revision and cleanup. LOTY (Librarian of the Year Committee) will have new business, including the addition of an additional member and having the faculty member be a full voting representative to the committee. (This year there was a tie vote, so that needs to be prevented in future.)

Costa suggested that for the bylaws change we move the committees to the Standing Rules.

Lise explained the difference between bylaws and standing rules; if the committees’ compositions and charges are in the standing rules, revisions can be made by the Executive Board without requiring an election.

The Webmaster position is not defined, so it will be discussed.

Keri proposes that there be a new job for Past Chair: a member suggested that we have a more visible and updatable procedures manual. Keri is going to take this on this year. The past chair would be in a good position to do this, along with outgoing chairs of committees. (Much approval was expressed!)

5. Vice-Chair's report (Mizrachi)

Diane attended the statewide transition meeting last month with Keri. Lucia Diamond is the new LAUC President. LAUC statewide Executive Board monthly conference calls will be on the first Tuesday of the month; Diane invited Rhonda to join in.

The December 3-4 Fall Assembly in Berkeley will be the only Assembly in 09/10. Costa asked about the north-south rotation. Diane is unsure whether this will be the only year with one meeting. Mass digitization and preservation will be the program topic. There will also be an open discussion of hot topics (patron services and the long-term impact of furloughs on our professional development). Probably travel grants will be made available.

LAUC position paper #5 will be posted to our website. The roles of LAUC and of the Union are different and there is confusion. This paper reminds us and others about what we do, and that we are academics.

Mentoring Task Force (Rhonda is now Chair ex-officio as LAUC-LA Chair-elect). A task force web page was completed and put on the LAUC-LA website. It will also be linked from the LAUC Clearinghouse. LAUC-LA members profile pages will be created for every member (in process). The audience is other UCLA librarians, with the purpose of breaking down the silos so we know more about each other, and for networking and mentoring, ride-sharing, or whatever. Rikke Ogawa and Kris Kasianovitz hope to have the profile pages up by Sept. 1st. There will be informal and formal mentoring/buddy programs. There will be a LAUC-LA brochure for new librarians, and informal sessions like brown bags for professional development.

6. Committee Reports

CAPA (Costa)

Not finished yet with this year’s actions. Statistics will be coming out soon about the number of merits, what levels, number of agreements/disagreements, etc. Most work was completed near the deadline, with 2 meetings per week and by posting documents on Sharepoint. Currently there is one appointment to review. The Orientation for the new committee will be held the 3rd week in October (they have already had their debriefing), at which time the current committee will stand down.

Committee on Research & Professional Development (Lynch courtesy of Botello)

Keri has nothing new to report. She thanked Andrea Lynch for pulling together several events with Peggy Alexander. We had three statewide grants funded this year from UCLA, and 3 mini-grants from LAUC-LA! We had a very good year for grants. This is largely because of the active committee and the brown-bag sessions they presented.

Committee on Library Plans & Policies (Fischer)

It was a light year, with nothing to report.

Committee on Professional Governance (Snyder)

It was a light year, with nothing to report. Next year will be busy.

Committee to Review the CALL (Lawrence)

Most of the changes/revisions shared from Jenifer Abramson (Assistant Director, Library Human Resources) were minor editorial changes that were not substantive. However, during the first meeting she handed out some documents explaining the criteria for Distinguished Librarian, with no advance notice. Rhonda laid out the existing language of the CALL and the changes, which are to require a Librarian 5 to submit a plan 18 months in advance to Gary and receive his endorsement; also required is a 3- 6- 9- year plan. Then, the “Capstone achievement” would have to occur in the immediate 3-year review period. In sum, you have to be at L5, and then within 18 months you need to submit a plan.

Issues include: librarians being able to pursue their own plan; the capstone having to be in that one 3-year period, only; your capstone could have occurred earlier (e.g., a Ph. D.); librarians in affiliated units would be under different supervision. There is no recognition that a librarian could have achieved several significant accomplishments. We have issues with the endorsement, the capstone. Gary did state that he would postpone these changes, and he wants LAUC-LA to set up a task force to review the CALL. Rhonda suggests that we should be able to appoint people we want to this task force. Diane and Keri had a discussion with Gary about this. The Committee to Review the CALL reports to the LAUC-LA Board; it is a LAUC Committee, so it has within its purview taking questions back to the board.

Elections Committee (Costello)

Rita described that this year we used the CIS tool for the LAUC Statewide election, and paper ballot voting for the local election. The committee recommends staying with online voting because of the ease and time-saving; there will be a cost (estimated at $300-500 per year, based on the complexity of the ballot and the size of the voting population for UCLA only). Rita estimates that if there are 2 elections, they would probably bundle them and charge the higher end of the range, but prices are not set hard. Rita has received no feedback from other campuses that have used electronic voting. (This year there were 3 campuses.) She plans to look at the return rates and compare them to past manual voting to see if there was an effect on turnout. The CIS people urge LAUC to have the local and statewide elections on the same date, to reduce the complexity and encourage turnout. This system has many built-in security measures that are not available in Survey Monkey or Zoomerang, and it meets our bylaws. Lise recommended that Diane take to LAUC statewide a suggestion that we get everyone on the same election schedule (all campuses and statewide), so that in the future a consolidated election could be done. It is worth investigating because we can’t afford to continue our past manual practices. Rita mentioned that it would be easiest for us if we adopted the same calendar as the statewide election. And then every institution could help pay for it. Ken stated that we can readily change our schedule, as it is in the standing rules.

7. Topics, Items to pass to 2009-2010 Executive Board

Election calendar changes.

Explore a unified ballot.

Costa: revisit the Diversity Committee.

“Blast from LAUC-LA’s Past”

Online LAUC-LA archive, linked from the web page.

Issue-based discussions (brown bags). In October an open discussion or round-robin of unit work plans, which Gary has now made available on the Sharepoint site.

January, Next Generation Melvyl discussion.

Fall Membership Meeting, with Chancellor Block and EVC Waugh. It may be recorded for UCLA only.

Also invite the COLSC Chair to this and to our Town Hall meeting and our membership meeting?

Chairs will be asked to get their final reports in no later than two weeks before the Fall Membership meeting. Deadline for annual reports will be Oct. 16th.

8. Adjournment 2:25 p.m.