Present: Sandi Schroeder, President Richard Evans, Vice President Carolyn Weaver, Treasurer Jeanne Moody, Secretary Charles Anderson, Director Seth Maislin, Director Kate Mertes, Director Peter Rooney, Director Diana Witt, Director
Guest: Maureen Thompson, Executive Director
Sandi Schroeder called the meeting to order at 8:45 a.m.
MOVED: That the minutes of the November 12-13, 1999, board meeting be approved as amended. Moved by Seth Maislin Seconded by Kate Mertes Passed: All in favor
MOVED: That the following motions voted upon by electronic mail between November 14, 1999 and May 7, 2000 be incorporated into the minutes of this May 2000 board meeting as read. Motion tabled because last-minute motions had not been incorporated into the report sent out to the Board. A revised version with the additions was not available at this meeting.
Electronic Meetings Kate Mertes reported on the protocol for electronic meetings. At this time there are no official parliamentary procedures. Roberts Rules is not planning to work on this in the foreseeable future. ASI needs to develop a more formal protocol for e-mail motions, discussion, and voting. Since this is a perpetual meeting, it is assumed that everyone is always present. Therefore, it is important to let everyone know if you are unable to be online. Urgent vs nonurgent messages should be distinguished by subject line typography. Kate will work on developing formal rules for ASI.
President's report. Report is attached. The job description for President to be discussed later
Vice President's Report Compensations being given by the Sheraton Old Town Hotel for the inconveniences caused by construction activities were enumerated. The attached job description was read.
Secretary's Report By-laws require that the secretary is responsible for confirming the membership status of candidates nominated for board positions and for mailing the ballots. These requirements originated because the secretary maintained the membership database, which has not been the case for some years. In practice, candidate membership confirmations as well as ballot printing and mailing is being done by the the Nominating Committee and the Administrative Office. Because the board liaison for the Nominating Committee has been someone other than the secretary in recent years, the secretary's involvement in elections has been neglible.
MOVED: That the Secretary be the board liaison to the Nominating Committee in accordance with her/his responsibilities according the by-laws. Moved by Diana Witt. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed: all in favor
Treasure's Report The final budget will be published in a future issue of Key Words. At present, the budget is still in draft form until final figures are received. Discussion of the proposed budget was postponed until the end of this meeting.
Reimbursement requests should be sent to Treasurer who will approve them and then forward them to Drohan Management Group for processing.
Administrative Office Maureen Thompson, the executive director, was officially introduced to the board.
MOVED: That Drohan Management Group be required to submit by one week before the fall board meeting, a written year-end report of their activities with recommendations for the ensuing year. The report should also be made available electronically. Moved by: Diana Witt. Seconded by Richard Evans. Passed: all in favor.
The Executive Director was asked to investigate the feasibility of using the Internet for on-line registration for annual meetings, membership dues payments, and purchase of logo items.
MOVED: That the Executive Director be granted membership on the ASI-L list. Moved by Carolyn Weaver. Seconded by Richard Evans. Passed: All in favor
MOVED: That the Executive Director be formally appointed an ex-officio, nonvoting board member and have full access to membership on the asiboard. Moved by Charles Anderson. Seconded by Carolyn Weaver. Passed: All in favor
Site Section for Annual Meetings As Executive Director, Maureen Thompson will be doing conference site selection for annual meetings in 2003 and onward. She stated that wanted to wait until after learning about this meeting before acting on site selection for 2003 and 2004. She explained Drohan Management Group's procedures for site selection and conference planning.
MOVED: That the Site Selection Committee be disbanded and the function moved to the management association. Moved by Diana Witt. Seconded by Charles Anderson. Passed: 7 in favor. Abstained: Jeanne Moody
OLD BUSINESS Archives Committee People should be reminded send reports and records to the committee to be put in the archives.
By-Laws Committee Since November 1999, the committee has undertaken preparatory work for revising the bylaws regarding sustaining members and for drafting a committee charge. Peggy Gschaar will work on indexing the bylaws and the Maryland Code Summary. The board should designate who maintains the official copy of the bylaws; otherwise there could be questions on which revision is the latest. Policies that refer to the nonexistent executive committee should be revised.
MOVED: That the Chair of the By-laws Committee be responsible for maintaing the latest version of the bylaws. Moved by Kate Mertes. Seconded by Diana Witt. Passed: 7 in favor. Absent at time of voting: Seth Maislin
Chapter Relations Committee MOVED: To approve the revised by-laws submitted by the Pacific Northwest Chapter Moved by Diana Witt. Seconded by Carolyn Weaver Passed: 7 in favor. Abstained: Peter Rooney
Cookbook Committee The ASI Cookbook has been published and copies are available for sale at the registration desk. After the annual meeting, cookbooks can be purchased from the ASI headquarters office.
Dues The single renewal date for all members is moving forward. Initial complaints mostly stemmed from problems with database changes and have been resolved. Some issues that will be coming up with the change to a calendar fiscal year will be timing of chapter allotments distributions, budget, and the impact of the changed cash flow.
Electronic indexing award The contract with O'Reilly Associates to fund electronic indexing awards was signed this morning. There will be two awards of $1000 each. The awards have been funded through 2003, and the first one will be presented at the ASI annual meeting in 2001. Judging criteria, policies, and procedures have yet to be established.
MOVED: That ASI establish a standing committee responsible for administering and judging the awards for electronic indexing. Moved by Seth Maislin. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed: all in favor
Hines Award Committee MOVED: That the Hines Committee chair be appointed annually by the President to be consistent with the ASI by-laws. This motion shall override any previous guidelines or motions to the contrary. Moved by Peter Rooney. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed: all in favor.
The meeting was adjourned for lunch at 12:00 p.m. and reconvened at 1:15 p.m.
Indexer Locator The number of indexers submitting forms for listing in the Indexer Locator has been unpectedly low. The forms were inserted in Key Words rather than mailed separately; some forms evidently fell out of the newsletter during mailing. The deadline for submissions has been extended to June 1, and forms will be available at the registration desk and on the web site.
International Relations Committee The chairperson, Lori Lathrop, did not send a report. International delegates to the ASI annual meeting in Albuquerque will be meeting with Dick Evans on Friday evening.
MOVED: That the International Committee be dissolved. The international representative for ASI will be the incumbent president in keeping with the practice of the affiliated societies. Moved by Jeanne Moody. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed all in favor.
KeyWords Report The full report is attached. The Editor now does primarily editorial work. Drohan Management Group takes care of layout, printing and mailing tasks. The Subscription Task Force sent soliciting letters to colleges that teach indexing, but no additional subscriptions have been received as a result. Key Words is not a refereed journal, which is a subscription criterion for many institutions.
Membership Directory Future issues should be more carefully proofread before being sent to the printer.
NISO Committee The NISO committee was disbanded, therefore there is no report.
Nominations Committee Members show little interest in running for the ASI board. Time requirement is a major deterrent. Some nominees this year turned out to be active in local chapters but are members of the association.
Online Strategies Commitee Not much has happened. Seth is only official committee member. Diana checked links with other societies for Strategic Planning. Some publicity efforts but not this committee. Looking at indexing software and approval for ASI reviewing. Efforts are as individuals take them on.
Professional Development Committee Let's Get Professional workshop has been made available. There will be a round table discussion group on the topic at this meeting. There are fewer new chapters or chapters in trouble than last year, so there is somewhat less demand for professional development services.
Professional Relations Committee The purpose was to develop relationships with allied professions like editors but little or nothing was ever done. There is much overlap with the responsibilities of the Publicity Committee.
MOVED: That the Professional Relations Committee be disbanded Moved by Jeanne Moody. Seconded by Carolyn Weaver. Passed: 7 in favor. Absent at time of voting: Charles Anderson
Publications Committee Royalty statements for this year have not yet been seen. Statements are supposedly sent to ASI every six months, but ITI usually has to be prompted to send the money.
Publicity Committee Report is attached. Press releases routinely sent to C-Span's Book TV program have paid off. A crew from C-Span will be taping the workshop on Friday afternoon. When the tape is actually shown on television, Kate Mertes will give an introductory interview. ASI should try to get copies of the tape and permission to market it. This should be taken care of by Drohan Management Group, rather than Information Today Incorporated (ITI).
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGs) MOVED: That the guidelines for SIG affiliation be approved, with the proviso that a reactivated sig may not receive a startup grant within 5 years of its original dissolution. Moved by Jeanne Moody. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed: All in favor
Strategic Planning Bill Drohan will be asked to facilitate a strategic planning session at the board meeting in November. The incoming president will need to appoint a new chair as the vice presidential duties will be too time-consuming for Diana Witt to continue the work on strategic planning.
Some areas of concern : E-mail protocol and netiquette. We are becoming increasingly more computer oriented and need to work on issues like e-commerce for online conference registration, logo-item sales, etc.
Deadlines for various events also need to be addressed. Deadlines of all kinds should be made apparent to the members as well as the board. Every issue of Key Words should have a notice of forthcoming deadlines for things like nominations, submission of Key Words articles, meeting registrations, etc.
Tax-empt status There was another review deadline May 1. We are still waiting to hear from the Internal Revenue Service. Original documents have since been obtained from a former president.
Salary Survey Responses were biased--they came mostly from new indexers. Men appparently have larger incomes from indexing, but if one factors out women who index only part-time, then rates were comparable. Survey has been done every threee years. It is recommended that in future the survey be sent out as part of the annual renewal form.
Membership Renewal will now coincide with the end of tax year. Other membership concerns will be raised under New Business
Web site The members-only area still needs some testing before it becomes official.
MOVED: That we accept the web site policy. Moved by Seth Maislin. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed 9 in favor. Absent at time of voting: Diana Witt
Wilson Award This year there were originally 17 entries, but a couple withdrew later. The judging process still needs to be more regularized with better use of the standardized forms. There can be only one winner.
NEW BUSINESS
Revised Budget Proposal The revised budget proposal was presented the treasurer. The budget is for 12 months, but will probably be revised again in January when the fiscal year changes to calendar year. If approved, the revised budget will be published in Key Words.
MOVED: That the proposed budget for 2001 as revised at this meeting be adopted Moved by Carolyn Weaver. Seconded by Dick Evans. Passed: all in favor
Logo Use The possibility of changing the guidelines for use of the ASI logo was briefly discussed. The present guidelines will remain in place for now.
Publication of Minutes In the interest of expediency in making board actions available to members, it was discussed whether minutes should be published as soon as completed even though they will not be approved unitl the next board meeting. It was also discussed whether they should be published in Key Words, given the effort to turn that publication from a newsletter to a professional bulletin.
MOVED: That approved Minutes be posted on the members-only portion of the web site Moved by Kate Mertes. Seconded by Seth Maislin. Passed: 8 in favor. Abstained: Peter Rooney, Jeanne Moody
Indexing of Motions The project is in progress. An index to minutes from 1996 through March 2000 will be completed by the next annual meeting.
Insurance for Members Kate Mertes has investigated the options and consulted with several insurance companies. ASI is not a good candidates for group insurance because of size and geographic scattering. Insurance is done on state level, and some states will not accept policies without a minimum number of members in that state. Some of the larger chapters may be able to get good health or disability insurance. Other associations will be contacted to see how they handle the matter.
Membership Committee ASI has never had a committee to recruit new members and follow up on lapsed members to encourage renewal. Drohan Management Group has recommended that ASI work more actively on attracting and retaining members. Sandi Schroeder, in her role as past president, would like to take on this project.
MOVED: That we establish a standing Membership Committee. Moved by Seth Maislin. Seconded by Kate Mertes. Passed: all in favor
The Fall meeting will be in or near Reston, Virginia, so that the board can meet the Drohan Management Group staff. Dates will be established at the meeting on Saturday.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.