ALAO-SSIG Planning Meeting
December 8, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 10:10 a.m. by Judy Orahood, Chairperson.

Judy reported that she has sent past program topics & names of chairs to Karen Plummer at ALAO. The information has not been updated yet – but she anticipates it will soon.

The group discussed the pros and cons of lending the name of ALAO-SSIG to the ALA Empowerment Conference. The group unanimously decided that we would like to move forward with supporting the ALA Empowerment Conference for Library Support Staff by being a co-sponsoring organization for the event. Judy will contact ALAO with this information.

The group discussed ideas for the Spring Workshop Program. Judy reviewed several topics and speakers from past programs. Judy offered the location of Ohio Wesleyan and the group all agreed that this was a fine idea. She noted that there is no charge for rooms, which helps with the cost of putting on the workshop.

Brian Hickam read some categories of topics that he had from the OVGTSL ’05 Conference. These included: Workflow Procedures, Web Based Tools, Technology, Space/Storage, Presentation/Digitization, Partnering with Vendors, Partnering with other Departments within the Library, Maximize the Use of Vendor Services, End User Involvement, Education & Training, and Consortial Endeavors with Library & other Institutions.

Other possible ideas for workshop topics were generated and placed on the board. These included:

• Computer classes – Judy noted there is room for approximately 30 in their computer lab
• OCLC Updates
• Managing Resources & Time to Bridge the Technology Gap
• How to Flourish in a Gadget-Centered World
• Break out session on Etiquette (i.e. email, instant messaging, etc.)
• How to Organize a Session (both poster session and how to give a presentation)
• How to Handle Problems with Supervising Students
• Library Snapshots (similar to the ones that OLSSI did). Suggestions were special collections at Beeghly Library Ohio Wesleyan and the Delaware Historical Society.
• Update on COPE 2003 (Congress on Professional Education)
• I work in a Library, but I’m not a Librarian
• Panel discussion on Politics at Work
• How to Manage Relationships within the Library – Library Patrons, Students, Co-Workers, etc.

It was discussed that in the past there have been a couple different variations on how the Spring Workshop was arranged. There have been workshops where it started with a keynote speaker and broke out into several break-out sessions. There have been other workshops where there were breakout sessions both in the morning and afternoon with repeats of some so that people can get to more of the choices.

We discussed which of the topics we generated we liked the best and which ones lent themselves to possible speaker choices available.

We tentatively decided on several choices with the caveat that certain individuals would be approached with the idea of speaking. These tentative ideas are:

An Innovative Workshop (offered once during the day) – possible speaker would be Laura Kinner – Brian Hickam will look into this one.

A workshop centered on Email/Spam and the technologies surrounding these – Judy Orahood said she has a possible speaker for this one. This would be offered once during the day as well.

How to Organize Poster Session/Presentation – Brian Hickam will come up with a speaker for this one. Possibility of offering this one twice during the day.

Library Snapshots – Special Collections at Beeghly Ohio Wesleyan and the Delaware Historical Society. Possibly offering one in the morning and one in the afternoon session. Judy Orahood will check on speakers for these.

Panel Discussion on Work Relationships and Library Politics – with panelists of one each: support staff person, administrator, student, librarian, and psychology professor. Judy has possible psychology professor. Also discussed the possibilities of administrator being Linda Dobb and librarian being John Burke. This session would serve as a keynote type of session.

We discussed possible dates to hold the Spring Workshop and came up with two dates for Judy to check on availability of rooms at Ohio Wesleyan. The possible dates chosen were: May 7th and April 27th.

The meeting was adjourned after setting the next meeting date for the ALAO-SSIG Planning Committee for January 26, 2007 at Beeghly Library at Ohio Wesleyan.

Respectfully submitted,
Sheryl Gannon
Secretary/Chair-Elect