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ASIS&T PNC Officers Meeting
Friday, September 26th, 2003
Meeting called at 9:30am via conference call

• Officer duties
  • Mark said that maybe renominating Jim for a second year as program chair isn't the best solution. Rather, maybe the chair should be left vacant this year.
    Rayette and Jim said that means there's no program chair to move into chair position.
  • Mark suggested a new structure where there's a chair elect, and then the chair is responsible for the conference. The chair elect would assist the chair in planning the conference.
    Melissa said this structure might make the job more appealing to nominees, rather than the current model where there's so much work to do in the first year.
    Jim asked how we make the transition. Mark suggested that this be a skip year, with Jim planning the conference, and nominating a chair elect. Jim would then be chair, assisted by this chair elect.
  • MOTION: Mark moved and it was seconded (by ?) to change the officer duties so that the chair plans the conference, and the chair elect assists the chair. All approved.
    • Melissa suggested that the bylaws should include a conference planning committee, so the chair isn't carrying the load alone. Also, this will bring greater involvement to the chapter, possibly developing future chapter chairs and creating bigger commitment to the conference and chapter itself.

     

• Conference scheduling
  • Discussion about the value of moving the conference to spring:
    • Avoid conflicts fall conferences
    • Gather more i-school faculty, who have previously been unavailable in the fall.
    • Takes planning away from the summer, when people are busy with vacations, work, and i-school faculty are unavailable.
    • Students more interested in right before graduation in networking. Having it just as school is starting in fall misses all the incoming students.
  • MOTION: Melissa moved that the conference be moved permanently to spring; seconded by Rayette and approved by all.
  • Spring Conference Planning
• Tentative new date: April 10th. Send comments to Mark by end of day today, Friday, if there are any conflicts.
• Agreed that Friday-Saturday schedule will be retained.
  Banquet and keynote speaker(s) Friday night.
  Membership meeting Friday before banquet.
  Friday morning workshops, then start of regular program at noon.
  Wrap up the conference by noon Saturday.
• Jim said the keynote speakers are confirmed and asked if two speakers was OK. [I didn't note any disagreement.]
• Hotel reservations will be set for Friday night, with a limited number of rooms set aside for Thursday night.
• Discussion about program theme
  • Jim talked about his thoughts:
    How has Internet interaction changed in the past 10 years?
    Are our assumptions about information interaction still valid?
    Are users more literate or dumber?
    Are there qualitative changes in usage of information resources?
    Are people any more likely to use our resources than they were 5 or 10 years ago?
    What does the literature say about those issues?
    How does this affect the future of serving our users?
    Is "information overload" still a problem?
    Is our work used, or does everyone just Google or check with other people?
    Are we still invisible to the average user?
• Jim presented more information abut the keynote speakers:
  George Dyson: more theoretical. Evolution of the Web, evolution of how people process information. Are we evolving into a species that deals with information in a different way than before?
  Esther Dyson: practical application. Bringing information literacy to Eastern Europe. Has contacts in Silicon Valley, knows what's coming down the line.
  Both are excited about doing a dialog for the keynote presentation.
• Mark said that the workshop needs to really draw people in, perhaps more practical. He also said that we need a personality, someone known to also draw in people.
  Jim suggested how to gather user feedback. Rayette suggested metadata and the open archives initiative, making items searchable thru the Web. metadata. How to create the hooks so people can find things.
• Melissa said there are some interesting things going on at MS about access to information in the next generation Windows. Melissa will check with Vivian Bliss about topics and possible presenters.
  • Jim said he's contacted people near him (Scion? Mist and Riven?) about how do they interpret who users are and how they retrieve information.
  • Jim will put out an open call for speakers immediately, sent to associations, schools, whoever might be interested.
  • Jim will send out an e-mail to chapter members asking for conference planning committee volunteers and chair-elect nominees.
• Elections
  • For 2004, Jim is chair, so a chair elect is needed. Need election this fall for new chair elect
  • Mark said we need to codify how we handle elections in the bylaws. Bylaws currently say an election committee, but it's tended to be done by officers group only.
  • In the past, chapter elections were handled in past by program chair. Rayette suggested that the secretary/treasurer should run business side of elections.
    The leadership group would be responsible for recruiting nominees.
  • Rayette said the bylaws mandate a paper election. Mark said we may be able to change that to mandate an electronic election.
  • Mark: said the mailing is waste of money, especially when only one person is running for the position. Electronic ballots would be more fiscally responsible.
  • MOTION: Jim moved that the bylaws be amended to elections via e-mail; seconded by Melissa. Mark amended the motion to say electronically, because it could be handled via an only survey. Mark seconded the amended motion, and all approved.
  • MOTION: Melissa moved that the secretary/treasurer should handle the elections operations. Seconded by Jim and all approved.
  • There was discussion about potential chair elect nominees.
    Jim recommended Grace Whittaker, an adjunct professor at the UW. She has connections to the east (from Spokane). She may know other possible nominees.
    Rayette recommended Peg Walther from the UW. She's been heavily involved thru the years. She may know of other possible nominees as well
    Melissa will check with the student chapter for possible nominees. Melissa will also check in with Raya Fidel and Efthi at the UW.
• Discussion about when to hold the election. National conference is October 19th, probably too soon to gather nominees. It was decided to gather nominees by October 17th, with the elections complete by October 31st.

 

• Chapter bylaws
  • Mark said model bylaws available from National and we can modify them. Final bylaws need to be submitted to National for approval, then to the full chapter for approval.
  • Jim suggested that the bylaws be presented to the chapter at the spring conference.
    Melissa suggested that the new bylaws be sent to the chapter ahead of the meeting, so members can come prepared to discuss.
  • Mark said he's willing to oversee the process.
  • Jim suggested that everyone download template and send comments to Mark. Mark will summarize the suggestions and then officers will meet again to discuss the changes.
  • Send comments to Mark by December 1st.
  • Send revised bylaws to National by February 1st, with a goal for approval by March 1st.
  • Present new bylaws to the chapter at the spring conference and ask for comments. May need to send to National again before submitting to the chapter for final approval.
  • Discussion about how to validate electronic votes.
    Mark suggested a secure voting site (like Zoomerang) that would require a member number to validate the vote.
    Rayette said that responding to the ballot e-mail could be seen as validation, based on e-mail alias, which could be compared against the member roster
    Melissa will check with Richard Hill about how to validate an electronic election.
  • National delegate for 2003 National conference
  • Rayette cannot attend. She will recruit a delegate from the chapter.
  • Melissa will check records and possibly with Andrew and Brian to see what monetary support the chapter provides the delegate.
  • Conference budget
    • Melissa asked about amending the bylaws to include budget process for the regional meeting.
      Agreed not to set an explicit limit, but to present to the officers for approval a set period of time prior to the conference.
      • Jim will send out his budget numbers this next week, and officers will vote yea or nay.

Melissa will send the minutes to the officers for approval, and then Eda for posting on the chapter Web site.
Meeting adjourned 11:15am.