Meeting Minutes | 11 October 2011

ALA Student Chapter Meeting | October 11, 2011
12 p.m. IKBLC, Room 417

1. Attendance

2. Meeting called to order

3. Approval of meeting minutes

  • Chelsea explained that going forward, meeting minutes will be emailed to members for review and approval following each meeting (and prior to the next meeting). Once all suggestions have been incorporated, members will vote to approve meeting minutes at the following meeting, and the minutes will afterwards be posted on the ALA student chapter blog.
  • A vote is taken to approve the minutes from the September 27 meeting, emailed to members by Yolanda, and the minutes are approved.

4. SocialMedia

  • The ALA student chapter has a blog, which is available through the student organization’s page on the SLAIS website or by going to https://blogs.ubc.ca/alaplace/. ALA officer contact information will be updated on the blog. Layla, ALA student chapter webmaster/communications officer, has also started a Twitter feed for the group (http://twitter.com/#!/ubcala). She will be posting information about meetings as well as library news and UBC news. If you would like to follow the UBC ALA student chapter Twitter feed, but don’t have a Twitter account, you can subscribe to the feed using a RSS reader such as Google
    reader.
  • It was decided that members and officers will just use personal email addresses for correspondence as a group gmail address will be unnecessarily complicated for a relatively small group and there is a danger that a group email address will not get checked as often. [NB: After the meeting, we discovered that we already have a gmail address (ala.slais.ubc@gmail.com) that is listed on the contact us page of the ALA blog, so we will continue to have that address available for people to contact us, but we will still send out messages to members with our personal gmail addresses.]
  • If you have anything you would like to have posted to the blog or the Twitter feed, please feel free to send it to Layla at laylanaquin@gmail.com. Or, if you are not currently on the mailing list for the group and would like to be added, please email Layla.

5. Brainstorming: New projects and fundraising ideas

  • The goal of the ALA student chapter is to promote aspects and resources / projects of the American Library Association, so there is an opportunity for the student group to do programming and events that tie into ALA programming, but the group can do things that simply promote awareness of the ALA student chapter and things that the members consider fun or useful or valuable in building a community. Mary called for ideas for what members might like to do.
  • Sarah suggested that for the end of the term, the group might do a combined “white elephant” book swap and fundraising bake sale. While it was pointed out that a bake sale might not make much money, the current budget of the ALA student group would make a fundraiser bringing in even $50 successful. The idea was met with enthusiasm and it was proposed that the date should be set in mid-­November before students started to leave at the end of the term.
  • Judith proposed that we could try to have club t-­shirts made. The cost of having t‐shirts professionally designed and printed could run $10-­30, but there are also cheaper options such as having a chapter member design the logo and creating the shirts with homemade screen printing. Kaitlyn mentioned that she has a connection at home that might be able to design and print the t‐shirts at a discounted price and that she could bring them back with her at the end of the winter break. She will look into pricing and report back to the group. The t­‐shirts could not be subsidized by group funds and would have to be paid for by members.
  • Two dates for the book swap / bake sale were proposed. The preferred date is Wednesday, November 23, with the alternative date being November 16 in the event that the SLAIS lounge is not available on the 23rd. The book swap will go from 12 p.m.‐1 p.m., while the bake sale will last from 11 a.m.‐2 p.m., in order to give the maximum number of SLAIS folks a chance to buy goodies.
  • Carrie suggested that the chapter could take a field trip to a public library in the area and could establish a partnership with another ALA student chapter in order to clarify the role of our group. Mary and Elspeth confirmed that they are in the process of trying to establish a relationship with the ALA student chapter at the University of Washington, whose members are interested in visiting UBC. Jenn suggested a possible field trip to Seattle to visit libraries there and to connect with the UW ALA student chapter. This could be achieved with a bus rented through fundraising efforts, member cars, or a Zipcar.
  • In response to a call for ideas of philanthropic projects for the chapter, Morgan B. suggested volunteering in the central library and Jenn suggested that the Carnegie Library in East Vancouver could most benefit from our assistance. In order not to duplicate efforts of other student groups, such as Librarians Without Borders, who organize outreach programs such as the ones being proposed, it was suggested that the ALA student chapter could reach out to LWB, and possibly also collaborate with the Green College Outreach Committee, offering to provide ALA member time and assistance for projects that are already established.
  • Jenn suggested the possibility of a fieldtrip to the new Surrey library, and Dana offered to talk to the head of the Surrey Public Library system in order to try and arrange a tour of the library.
  • Elspeth suggested the possibly of volunteering at a senior center or doing volunteer reading for the blind. It was pointed out that volunteering though a public library is often difficult to do as they typically don’t allow volunteers, so volunteering would need to be arranged through a “Friends of the Public Library” group.
  • It was decided to focus on the following projects for this semester:
    • Making contact and establishing a relationship with the ALA student chapter at the University of Washington
    • Holiday book swap event and bake sale
    • Tour of the Surrey Library

6. Recap of ALA officer elections

  • Mary recapped the ALA officer election that took place at the September 27 meeting and introduced the new officers. This information will be updated on the ALA student chapter blog.
    • Elspeth Olson (olson.elspeth@gmail.com) and Mary Jinglewski (mary.jingles@gmail.com) are co-­‐ chairs
    • Layla Naquin (laylanaquin@gmail.com) is the webmaster/communications officer
    • Jennifer Pappas (jenn.pappas@gmail.com) is the treasurer
    • Chelsea Shriver (cg.shriver@gmail.com) is the secretary

7. Other business

  • Elspeth reminded people about the ALA student-­to-­staff program, which gives students an opportunity to attend this year’s ALA Annual Conference in June for free. (If you did not receive the email about this program earlier in the week, please email Chelsea.) The deadline for submitting your essay on how this program will help benefit your professional goals is December 1. Essays should be submitted to Professor Eric Meyers (eric.meyers@ubc.ca).
  • In order to be eligible for the ALA student-­to-­staff program, you must be a card-carrying member of ALA, so sign up for membership soon as it takes a while to get your card. In addition to getting discounts to conferences and access to publications and webinars, the ALA membership is a great thing to put on your resume.

8. Next meeting

  • The next meeting will be Wednesday, November 9, from 12-­1 p.m. in the Trail Room. Ideas /items for the agenda can be sent directly to the co-­chairs, whose contact info is above.

9. Meeting adjourned

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