Friday, July 21, 2006
VCU Campus, Richmond, Virginia
Agenda
- Welcome (Curtis Lyons, Head of Special Collections and Archives, VCU)
- Chapter affiliation agreement (Emily)
- Review/distribution of the ARLIS/NA strategic plan (Emily and Kathy)
- Mind mapping – reflections on ARLIS/DC-MD-VA (Emily and Kathy)
- a. Who are we?
- b. What is our mission?
- c. What are our mission critical activities?
- Priorities (Emily and Kathy)
- a. Education
- b. Outreach
- c. Professional Development
- d. Recruitment
- e. Community Building
- f. Communication
- Strategic Planning Wrap Up (Emily and Kathy)
- Financial report (Yuki)
- Report on ARLIS/NA activities (Heather)
- Report from Backlund Award winner (Kathy)
- Update on Annapolis meeting and call for speakers (Cameron)
- Future meetings and events (Emily, Sharon)
- New business
12:00 pm – Lunch
1:00-2:00 pm – Collection Development for Artist’s Books
2:15-3:00 pm – Tour of Anderson Gallery
- Welcome
- Chapter affiliation agreement.
Mr. Lyons welcomed the group and told us a little bit about the library and its relationship to the VCU School of the Arts.
Emily opened the meeting by asking Heather Ball, the Southeast representative to the Executive Board, to address issues about the proposed chapter affiliation agreement. (The agreement was forwarded to the membership by Emily Rafferty in an email message dated 6/27/2006.) ARLIS/NA has asked all chapters to sign the affiliation agreement by July 31, 2006. Heather stated that the Affiliation Agreement has gotten mixed up with a proposal for ARLIS/NA to collect all dues, including those collected by the Chapters. Heather entreated the group to separate these two issues and distributed copies of a message from ARLIS/NA President Ann Whitesides clarifying the Board’s response. The message was sent to the ARLIS listserv on 6/30/06.
Heather stressed that the most important aspect of the agreement is the liability insurance. Apparently the ARLIS/NA insurance coverage has never included Chapters. Heather regrets that the emphasis of the discussion about this on the ARLIS listserv has inappropriately merged two issues that should remain separate.
Heather explained that the Board meets weekly by phone or email, and they had voted to collect dues centrally as a service to the Chapters. They have now tabled this idea pending further discussion of how this would actually work.
Questions were raised about the possibility of Chapters establishing a friends group, or having something similar to a tiered membership for people who are interested in taking part in the ARLIS chapter activities but who do not wish (or cannot afford) membership in both organizations. We plan to discuss and define these levels at a later meeting, but several membership levels could be offered, such as “Guest”, “affiliate”, “student” or “associate”. Some changes will need to be made to the Chapter bylaws – but we will be able to do that at an upcoming meeting once decisions are finalized. It was suggested that perhaps there could be an incentive to belong to both organizations – perhaps a discounted membership fee?
Regarding the Affiliation Agreement:
The Affiliation Agreement codifies the arrangements that we already have as a chapter of ARLIS/NA. The agreement will (1) allow the Chapter to use the ARLIS name and (2) will extend insurance from ARLIS/NA to the Chapters. If Chapters do not sign the agreement they will likely lose their affiliation with ARLIS/NA.
The Affiliation agreement does not change or enforce memberships in the Chapters. However, the copy of the Affiliation Agreement that was sent to the Chapters includes information on dues being centrally collected, so we need either a new copy of the agreement without that information, or we need to strike that information from the document to be signed.
ARLIS DC-MD-VA currently has 52 members. Fifteen members were in attendance at this meeting. After a discussion about what constitutes a quorum, it was decided that all members of the Chapter should be able to vote on this important issue. Therefore it was decided that the Board would send out ballots by email or surface mail so that all members would be able to vote on this important issue. We acknowledge that the Chapter will not sign the agreement by the July 31, 2006 deadline, but Heather assures us that the deadline has flexibility built in, especially given the active discussions across the listserv about the Affiliation Agreement and the membership issues.
The Board plans to meet on August 2, 2006 and will share all of this information with Chapter members via the listserv and possibly the blog on the ARLIS DC-MD-VA site.
Because the discussion about the Chapter Affiliation Agreement and the Membership benefits and levels took more time than was originally allotted, it was decided to postpone the discussion of the Strategic Plan for the ARLIS DC-MD-VA Chapter until the Fall meeting in Annapolis. Emily pointed out that there are some missing elements that would be needed to actually write a strategic plan for the Chapter such as a mission statement. A question was raised about the possibility of funding a survey or hiring a consultant to help us through this process. Heather mentioned that ARLIS/NA has a “SurveyMonkey” account that any group can use. Lucie was instrumental in the Strategic Plan developed for ARLIS/NA and volunteered to work on the chapter Strategic Plan when that comes to fruition. Copies of the ARLIS/NA Strategic Plan and of the ARLIS/NA organizational chart were distributed.
Report from Secretary/Treasurer:
Yuki Dixon distributed a financial report, showing that the Chapter has a balance of $4,087.33 in its account. Yuki is not certain how much of this is from membership fees. In the past when members sign up for Chapter membership they are also given the option of contributing to the Student Award or to the Backlund Travel Award.. Emily questioned whether this would still be possible if ARLIS/NA were collecting all funds, since this is an important source of income for these awards. Heather surmised that many chapters will have individual needs that will be addressed as the membership issues continue to be discussed. Heather encouraged any member with questions to contact her. Yuki also said that there are no branch banks for the account in Richmond, and that the money in our account is not earning any kind of interest. Kristen suggested that we should investigate an interest bearing checking account at the least. Yuki will investigate.
Backlund Award Report:
Kathy Woodrell gave a report about her activities at the ARLIS/NA conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Kathy was the recipient of the Caroline Backlund travel award.
Upcoming Meetings:
The next meeting of the Chapter will be October 20 in Annapolis, MD. Emily Rafferty and Cameron Caswell are planning the event. This is our joint meeting with VRA. Each organization will hold a business meeting and then we will visit the Naval Academy Art Collections. Unfortunately, the tour of the art gallery at St. John’s we had hoped to have will not take place because they will be in between exhibits on October 20. VRA has offered a speaker about post-implementation CCO. We are also looking for a speaker from our group.
Sharon Wasserman from the National Museum of Women in the Arts handed out “Save the Date” flyers about an exciting event in December at the Women’s Museum. December 6, 2006, beginning at 3:00pm. We are very grateful to Sharon for thinking of ARLIS DC-MD-VA!
National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) Curator of Book Arts, Krystyna Wasserman will give us a tour of the exhibition “The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts” (on view October 27, 2006-February 4, 2007). The exhibition will feature 105 unique and limited edition artists’ books created by 83 artists from 12 countries and 25 states. It will include works from 1970 to the present collected by NMWA since the Museum’s founding. Some of the artists whose works will be included are Carol Barton, Mirella Bentivoglio, Julie Chen, Susan King, Audrey Niffenberger, Meret Oppenheim, Claire Van Vliet, and Kara Walker.
After the tour, attendees will have the opportunity to do some holiday shopping at NMWA’s “Celebrate the Season” event. We’ll also gather for drinks afterward at a restaurant near NMWA (TBD.)
After a tasty lunch Yuki Dixon gave a presentation on “Collection Development for Artist’s Books.” She gave an overview of the Artists’ Book Collections at VCU and discussed the purposes of the collections. They are primarily used by students in the VCU School of the Arts. Yuki compiled several handouts for the group including “Collection Development Guidelines for Artist’ s Books,” “Major Vendors of Artist’ s Books,” “Book Art: A VCU Libraries Pathfinder,” and “Sample Collection Statements and Policies for Artist’ s Books.” She walked attendees through the various handouts, and also showed an interesting selection of books and materials from the collections. Yuki also discussed her decision-making process in collection development for these books. This was a very helpful and interesting presentation that everyone greatly enjoyed.
Following Yuki’ s presentation on Artists’ Books we went to the Anderson Gallery on the campus of VCU. The group was greeted by Amy Moorefield, Assistant Professor/Assistant Director and Curator of Collections at the Anderson Gallery. She invited us to look at two exhibits, the first of which was called “The Human Touch” which was selections from the RBC Dane Rauscher Art Collection. After seeing that exhibition we went upstairs with Jolene Milot. Jolene works in the Library at VCU and is also a graduate student in the Museum Studies program. Jolene and other students curated the exhibition “From the Seat of Authority,” which questioned exhibition practices and analysis.
Attending:
Mary Anne Dyer
Kristen Regina
Sharon Wasserman
Sarah Falls
Courtney Yevich
Lee Viverette
Liz Gushee
Isabella Marques de Castilla
Anne Simmons
Yuki Dixon
Jolene Milot
Kathy Woodrell
Heather Ball
Lucie Sylianopoulos
Brenda Bikos
Respectfully submitted
Kathy Woodrell