FRIENDS OF THE GOLDA MEIR LIBRARY

Board Meeting

Friday, January 25, 2002, 12 noon

4th floor Conference Center

Present: Tom Bliffert, Lois Blinkhorn, Simone Conceição, Susan Engberg, Bruce Fetter, Norman Lasca, Scott Sampson, Barry Silberg, Sally Tolan, and Peter Watson-Boone.

Guests: Ewa Barczyk, Michael Doylen, Linda Kopecky, Davey Singer, and David Tucker.

The meeting was called to order at 12 p.m.

1. Minutes of the October 3, 2001 meeting were approved as submitted.

2. President’s Report:

• Noted with sadness the death of Judge Stanley Miller. Fetter, Lasca, Van Horne and Watson-Boone represented the Friends at the funeral service. A book on African-American history will be added to the Libraries’ collections in memory of Judge Miller.
• In response to the tragic events of September 11, the Friends donated $100 to the Friends of the New York Public Library.
• Inside Inscriptions brochures were mailed to about 3,500 individuals, including UWM alumni, members of the Friends, and UWM faculty and staff. Encouraged by the moderate success of the fund-raising program so far, the Friends will continue to support it. The brochures will be added to the Friends of the Library book bags.
• Lasca has received no nominations to fill vacant seats on the Board.
• The Friends’ annual meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 14.
• The Friends’ book sale will be held on Monday-Wednesday, April 8-10. Lasca asked members to assist in finding volunteers to staff the sale. It was moved and seconded that the Board authorize the expenditure of not more than $200 to hire UWM students to help with the sale. Watson-Boone explained that while the students would help set up and take down the sale, the Friends still needed to find volunteers to staff the sale. Motion passed unanimously.

• Book sale prices received exhaustive discussion. Doylen reported on UW-Madison’s book sale prices. Lasca recommended that the Friends adopt the following:
• Monday (UWM students only)
• 4-7 p.m.: $4 for hardcovers; $2 paperbacks; $2 records
• Tuesday (open to all)
• 10 a.m.-7 p.m.: $4 for hardcovers; $2 paperbacks; $2 records
• Wednesday (open to all)
• 10 a.m.-1 p.m.: $2 for hardcovers; $1 paperbacks; $1 records
• 1 p.m.-2 p.m.: bag sale, $5
• 2 p.m.-3 p.m.: bag sale, $4
• 3 p.m.-4 p.m.: bag sale, $3
• 4 p.m.-5 p.m.: bag sale, $2
• 5 p.m.-7 p.m.: bag sale, $1

It was moved and seconded that the above pricing schedule be adopted. Motion passed unanimously.

• Bliffert asked about the possibility of holding book sales at the Columbia Hospital next year. Watson-Boone will investigate and report to the Board.
• The membership total is 361.
• The UWM Foundation Report lists donors by name. Lasca advised donors wanting anonymity to be aware of this.

2) Treasurer’s Report: Silberg submitted the report. As of 9 Jan 2002, the Friends of the Library current balance was $48,939.

3) Committee Reports:

• Development Committee:
• Tucker explained that during the last six-months, he has been building the base for a successful fund-raising campaign. Specifically, he has ensured that there no are conflicts between the Friends’ and UWM’s fund-raising efforts, held meetings to develop campaign strategies, and identified foundations (both family and corporate) to whom the Friends should reach out.
• Tucker introduced the Friends’ life membership category that is meant to recognize individuals for supporting the Libraries with a single $1,000 cash gift. Watson-Boone concurred with the proposal that life members be recognized on a plaque in the library.
• Bliffert asked whether soliciting donations from corporations to support serials subscriptions had been tried. Watson-Boone reported that previous experience suggested that this did not produce good results.
• Silberg asked Board members to make contributions to the fund-raising campaign.
• Tucker thanked Bliffert for lending inspirational support to the present campaign by establishing “The Thomas and Jean Bliffert Trust for the Friends of the Golda Meir Library.”

4) Director’s Report:

• Watson-Boone noted the passing of Daniel Foley, the Libraries’ non-book cataloger and metadata librarian. Foley’s brother and sister donated books and artwork from Dan’s collection to the Libraries.
• The Libraries have started a campaign to raise matching funds for a $50,000 grant for processing the WTMJ-TV news film collection.
• The Libraries have reviewed with faculty the decisions behind the recent cancellations of serials subscriptions, and will be providing electronic alternatives to print subscriptions.
• Following the tragic events of September 11, the UWM Libraries have received an increasing number of requests for information about Afghanistan. As one response, the Libraries have posted a unique online exhibit consisting of images of Afghanistan. The exhibit includes 189 digitized images from the Harrison Forman photographic collection, which is housed in the Libraries’ American Geographical Society Collection (AGSC). The URL is http://www.uwm.edu/Library/diglib/afghan/index.htm. Tucker suggested sending information about the exhibit to Milwaukee-area high schools.
• The Libraries are considering an event to mark the addition of the 5 millionth item to their holdings.
• At the President’s request, selected library staff will be making brief presentations to the Board. To initiate this series, Watson-Boone introduced Linda Kopecky, Head of Research and Instructional Support (RIS), who explained the scope of her Department’s mission. RIS provides information service at the reference desk as well as online; a users consultation service; and research and instructional support. Last year, the Department staff held more than 550 instructional sessions attended by over 8000 individuals.

5) Committee Reports (continued):

• Program: Blinkhorn reported that the annual meeting will focus on libraries. Details will be forthcoming.
• Communications: Fetter reported that the Committee was distributing a survey to identify activities that members might be interested in attending.
• Nominations: Committee will meet as usual this Spring.

New Business:

6) Bylaws Revisions

a) Fetter moved and Sampson seconded that the Friends’ bylaws, Article 5, Section 3 be revised as follows:

All Directors shall serve until the expiration of their terms except in cases of incapacity, resignation, or removal from office. An affirmative vote of two-thirds of all current members of the Board (excluding ex officio members) shall be required to remove a Director from office. The President shall, with the concurrence of the Executive Committee, have the authority to appoint a person to fill any vacancy occurring on the Board; the appointed Director shall serve until elections are held at the next scheduled annual meeting.

Motioned passed unanimously.

b) Tolan moved and Conceição seconded that the following revision in the Friends’ bylaws, Article 3, Section 2 be approved:

The classification of membership is:

(1) Regular
(2) Contributing
(3) Sponsor
(4) Patron
(5) Corporate Benefactor
(6) Life Member

The Board of Directors of the Friends may recommend to the membership special recognition for contributions to the Friends or to the Libraries, including honorary life membership. Motion passed unanimously.

7) The annual meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, 2002.