Board Meeting Minutes from the March 2020 Meeting

Attendees: Elise, Sarah, Stefani, Adam, Mary, Meaghan, Jessica, Jasmine

  • The world has changed since our February meeting. The March meeting opened with board members sharing stories of how they coping and how their libraries are responding to the pandemic. Members shared ideas for staying occupied, engaged and in touch via text groups, virtual story times for kids and access to free online content from museums, artists and educational organizations.
  • The board reviewed and approved the minutes of the January meeting despite all the changes that happened in the interim.
  • Financial Report:
    • Adam processed refunds for the spring meeting and some partial refunds as fees included a membership fee for some who chose to attend and also join the chapter.
    • Since we needed to postpone the spring program until the fall, we are in good shape financially
    • The chapter is now officially recognized as a legal entity with the IRS, thanks to Adam, who has been working on this for a long time!
  • Spring Program:
    • Postponed until September 25 at the Charles Library, Temple University
    • Eamon Tewell will be the keynote speaker
    • All of the other presenters agreed to presenting at the fall meeting instead.
    • We may be able to open the event up to additional presenters
  • Planning for a Virtual Spring Meeting: COVID-19 Library Response
    • Professional Development virtual meetup
    • Possible Title: Convening Librarians: Creating community and supporting students during COVID-19
      • Shared understanding for what is happening regionally in our academic libraries
      • How do all the closings affect our students?
      • Brainstorm strategies to create community and support students
      • Crowdsource resources – Google doc
    • Large meeting with breakout sessions on Zoom
    • Hosted by University of Delaware – Aimee is coordinating
    • Crowdsource resources on Google spreadsheet
    • Registration via Zoom or Apricot
    • Description and call for registration to go out very soon, Stefani is drafting language for the announcement
    • Volunteers Sarah, Jasmine, Elise, Stefani and Meaghan will meet on March 23 to plan
    • Added note April 21: Resources from this meeting are publicly available
  • Elections
    • Director-at-Large: Maisha Carey, Melissa Corell, Brendan Johnson
    • Vice President: Sam Kirk
    • Ballots to go out in April via Google forms and election to remain open for two weeks
    • Winners to be announced
  • Legislative Liaison will become Community Liaison
    • Jasmine and Stefani are working on a job description
    • The position is appointed. Greg Laynor of Thomas Jefferson University was suggested
    • Hope to fill the position by Fall
    • The position could include Chapter’s Council responsibilities and perhaps reconnecting with the Maryland Chapter. Stefani, Jasmine and Jessica will discuss
  • Mentoring Program
    • Jasmine has reached out to all who had signed up. Some people remain unpaired and more mentors are needed. We discussed whether location or type of library matters, but decided that any connection would be helpful.
  • Social Event
    • on hold for now – we may consider holding something online
    • New Social Committee Members: Rachel King, Abby Cengel. Abby suggested setting something up to follow the spring meeting at Temple. The team will consider having something after the fall program
    • An in person meeting to be considered at a later date. Elise will report back
  • Blog posted about the Virtual Spring Program
  • Recruitment of new members will be tied to the Fall Program
  • Website:
    • Karen investigated and corrected a problem with the mentoring form not forwarding to email and also took steps to improve SEO for the site
  • OER Community of Practice
  • ACRL Update
    • We’re waiting to receive the form from National in order to submit our annual update.

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