ALAO Support Staff Interest Group
Program Planning Committee Meeting
October 3, 2003
Miami University-Middletown

The fall meeting of the ALAO-SSIG was called to order by chair John Burke at 10:07 AM on October 3, 2003 in the library at Miami University – Middletown. There were 6 members in attendance including: John Burke, Angie Lorensen, Gaynelle Predmore, Martha Kluth, Becca Griffith, and Joy Ramos.

Announcements

John announced that he would like to find a volunteer to serve on the ALAO membership task force. This group is designed to look into the many aspects of membership including; why you should be a member and what you benefits you get from paying dues. They would like to also survey member's opinions on the cost for memberships and conferences. Anyone who is interested in serving on this committee should contact John.

Awards

The winner of the Ohio Library Outstanding Support Staff Award is Pat Wood from OSU-Marion and the winner of the Ohio Library Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff Award is Cathy Parker from the University of Akron. Thanks to the award committee of Joy, Martha, and Angie.

John will be contacting the winners to notify them of their award and their paid registration fee for the ALAO conference and for a regional workshop. He will also contact the individuals in charge of registration so they will know to waive the fee for the conference. John will be making certificates and will also begin working on submitting the names of the winners to other paraprofessional groups such as Library Mosaics and Library Journal to nominate them for their support staff awards. Angie will be presenting these awards at the ALAO conference in November.

It was also mentioned that we need to continue to advertise if we want to keep this award rolling. A plug for next year's award should be made during the presentation of this year's awards. July 31, 2004 will be the deadline for nominations, although the decisions on winners should be made sooner. Thanks to Judy for all of her work and for receiving the nominations.

Spring Workshop Review

John stated that he felt that things went well and that Doug was very flexible to work with, however, it was a big effort to do three workshops and it may be too much to do in the future.

Gaynelle felt the workshop at UT was not as well organized and that lunch seemed as though it was an afterthought. There were no signs, and Gaynelle had to volunteer to be a human billboard to direct traffic. This may have been because there was no local coordinator. It may be a good idea to make sure that there is an in-house person at the workshop sites.

Martha thought that the panel at Ohio Weselyan was very good and received favorable comments. The surprise panelist worked out well. She also agrees that having 2 workshops is much less stressful than 3.

Becca thought that the workshop at Shawnee did not have enough people for good interaction and that there was not a good representation from the area. She did like the lunch where individuals were encouraged to sit with people they didn't know by means of some sort of acquaintance game.

There was then a discussion on what areas of the state we should hold workshops if there are only 2 events. Do we hold events in 2 different corners instead of the middle? Some site suggestions included ATI, OSU-Newark, Otterbein, Cuyahoga Community College, Mansfield, and New Philadelphia. Suggestions were made to do a general survey that would provide the name of the institution, if they have facilities available to hold a workshop, if there is convenient parking available, and what kind of choices would be available for lunch. This would be an anonymous survey.

John suggested getting started with the ALAO liaisons at the institutions because most places are represented. A brief list of questions should be put together and John will start a discussion about this on the listserv.

Gaynelle suggested that we not do a spring event and do a preconference for next year's (2004) conference. This question inspired much discussion. There were concerns regarding the location in Dayton being too regional, maybe starting later to allow for longer drive times. John suggested that we do look into this option. There are many benefits to doing a preconference including: the location is already chosen, the extra day is already figured into the conference, much publicity will already be done, ALAO does registration, and hotel information is already gathered.

It was decided to look into this option and if we will be able to do this at the 2004 conference. John stated that he would be able to look at the rooms and that we should all be thinking about topics. The board needs to be asked about this and we may still need to hold workshops in the spring.

Gaynelle brought up a concern regarding loosing visibility if we did not hold any events in the spring. Our visibility can be maintained through ALAO Newsletter, doing more publicity during OLSSI and could possibly assist with an Ohio COPE-like event if one comes to be.

A question was also raised about holding the election of secretary/chair-elect if there are no spring workshops. It was suggested in trying to somehow vote through email. It is not restricted through the by-laws. Candidates will need to be sought out early.

Ohio COPE – Like Event

John mentioned the possibility of the development of an Ohio based COPE like event. This is an idea of Doug's that he would like to get going in Ohio, but is in its very early stages. This is something that would involve many state organizations a something that ALAO-SSIG should at least be aware of, if not involved with. The development of this kind of event may impact SSIG hosting spring workshops. More discussion on this topic will continue as the idea is developed.

Annual Conference

This year the SSIG has one full display table. We need to collect items to distribute and find people to staff the table during lunch and no-conflict times. Will need to gather candy, freebies, OLSSI information, information on technology programs, information about support staff and supporter of support staff awards, and sign-up sheets, which may also serve as a way to get nominations for secretary/chair-elect. John will put email out about staffing the table and will make nomination forms for the support staff and supporter of support staff awards. Gaynelle volunteered to coordinate any information anyone would like to put on the table.

There will also be a business meeting at this year's conference. With John's absence, Gaynelle volunteered to run the meeting allowing Angie to continue her duties as secretary and not have to take minutes and run the meeting. There will be 50 minutes allotted for the meeting. Doug will make a presentation about Cope III. The meeting part will consist of informing attendees about the function of the SSIG, what it does, and encourage individuals to join. Nominations for secretary/chair-elect will also be taken at this time.

SSIG will also be sponsoring Pat Wood's presentation as she is the winner of the Support Staff Presenter Grant. Doug will be presenting this award at this year's conference. This award covers additional expenses for support staff who are presenting at the conference. There is a total of $500 for recipients to cover expenses such as travel, hotel, duplication of materials, etc. This money is for the reimbursement of expenses only. Many of the details for this award are unclear. John will continue to research it, however, he does know that it is an award given by the program committee. A few things still need to be ironed out such as deadlines and who decides who receives the award. John suggested having members of SSIG along with program committee members deciding.

LUNCH BREAK WITH UKRANIAN DANCERS

 

Goals and Objectives

A question was raised in regards to the existence of the issues and concerns subcommittee, if there is one, if we want one, and if there should be one in the goals and objectives. It was agreed to keep this committee with the hopes that Angie will start something via the listserv this year.

Corrections were suggested for the goals and objectives. Most of these suggestions dealt with wording changes regarding the election of secretary/chair-elect. Since there is a possibility that there will not be any spring workshops, the wording of the goals and objectives should reflect that. Martha volunteered to modify the goals and objectives to reflect the suggested changes. She will make all the necessary changes and send it out via the listserv.

Academic Library Survey

John had an idea to send a survey out to find out what kind of topics people want presented at workshops. This survey could be used to plan the preconference and would be something that should be sent out before Christmas. This idea inspired many ideas and suggestions from the group such as doing a salary survey, other suggestions for things for SSIG to become involved with, and how much traveling are you willing to do for a workshop. It was then suggested to break up these ideas into three surveys one regarding the conference and topics, one for what SSIG can do for you, and possibly a salary survey. Other topics of interest were how many years you've served in your position, if there is any mobility for support staff, are there any rewards for loyalty? Out of this discussion came what seems to be some of the fodder to feed the rebirth of the Issues and Concerns committee. Angie agreed to address some of these topics via the listserv.

Website

The final order of the day was to look at the website and see if any changes needed to be made. It was suggested that there should be a link to OLSSI and a link from the main page to a page of Educational Opportunities including online library related programs and OLSSI with explanations. There should be an added page to include the winners of the support staff and supporter of support staff awards and nomination information. Distinguished service winners and the year of the first support of support staff award should be added to the history page. A reminder containing website updates should be sent via the listserv to get more members to visit the site.

Meeting adjourned at 1:47 PM.