GAMERT (Gaming) Round Table

Here are my notes from the June 25, 2011, business meeting of the Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group (GGMIG) at the 2011 Annual Conference. This is an Online Doc, so others at the meeting should feel free to fill in any gaps.

1. GameRT
   Enough signatures were gathered last year for us to petition to become a Round Table. Thanks to Scott Nicholson (first GGMIG chair), Chris Harris (second GGMIG chair), and everyone else who shepherded the GGMIG to this point!
   
   JP Porcaro volunteered to be the interim chair for the proposed Games and Gaming Round Table (which we're calling GameRT for short). JP worked on draft bylaws and has put together an initial steering committee to guide GameRT as it gets off the ground.
   
   During the business meeting, we didn't know how things would go, but later that day the ALA Committee on Organization (COO) approved the petition request and sent it to ALA Council for a vote on Monday (6/27), where it was officially approved with no opposition.
   
   This means that GameRT will begin appearing as a membership option on ALA join/renew forms starting on September 1 (when ALA's fiscal year begins). JP and the steering committee will work to set a [low] cost for dues so that everything will be ready on that date.
   
   Then they'll work toward finalizing the bylaws for a vote, as well as creating a slate of candidates for officer positions (chair, chair-elect, treasurer, secretary) for the spring 2012 election.
   
   The initial members of the steering committee will be JP, Doug Baldwin, Jodie Borgerding, Toby Greenwalt, Justin Hoenke, Brian Mayer, Richard Pugh, M. Brandon Robbins, and Diane Robson. I'm happy to say that I'll be GameRT's staff liaison.
   
   Thank you to everyone who's stepping up to make this a reality.
     
2. GameRT initiatives
   The group discussed which initiatives the new Round Table should focus on and came up with the following list of recommendations:
1. Creating the committee/working infrastructure
2. Working on the dues structure
3. Taking over National Gaming Day @ your library to build out this important annual event
4. Creating an award or list of the best games
5. Updating the Library Gaming Toolkit once the new Drupal-based site is ready.
     
3. Discussion
   We heard from a couple of people who are doing interesting things around gaming at the library. Diane Robson at the University of North Texas is circulating video game consoles, while Richard Pugh from the Library of Congress (National Audiovisual Conservation Center) surprised us by discussing how he's archiving games for the LoC.

Watch here for more news about GameRT soon, including ways to get involved. We're all very excited about making ALA's gaming intiatives even stronger.

 Jenny