RMRT Board Meeting
September 26, 2023
Called to order at 4:00 pm (Eastern) by Chair Shelley Lauer-Bader.
A motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of June 24, 2023 was made by Naomi Angier and seconded by Pat Hogan. Motion passed.
Attendees: Shelley Lauer-Bader, Chair, Naomi Angier, Incoming Chair and Director, Kay Cassell, Assistant Treasurer, Mimi Morris, Secretary, Rocco Staino, Immediate Past Chair, Lisa Kippur, Director, Ann Marie Pipkin, Director, Nann Hilyard, Director, Freedom to Read Foundation Liaison & Book Discussion coordinator, Danielle Ponton, RMRT Staff Liaison, Nancy Bolt, Member, Ed Rossman, Member, Pat Hogan, Member, Phyllis Bernstein, Member, Susan Boyd, Member, Toni Negro, Member
Statistics and announcements: Our numbers are up! Current membership is 392. Our liaison to Executive Board is Stephen Yates. He will send information to us monthly and invites any of us to attend Open Executive Board meetings via Zoom. Shelley will copy and paste Executive Board information and send it to us [see email sent to RMRT EB, 10,14,23.] Aaron Dobbs is still our Counselor but was unable to attend today.
Kay Cassell and Danielle Ponton, Treasurer's Report:
As of today, we have a balance of $41,888. We've had two disbursements for the awards, overhead of 10% of RMRT membership to ALA, and bank fees.
A donation of $1,000 to the Freedom to Read Foundation will be in next month's report.
There was a discussion of costs that should have been presented from Annual Conference, including a donation to the Newberry Library which we can submit to Danielle. We offered to cover expenses for our Conference speaker, but she has not submitted a request for reimbursement.
Nominations: As Past Chair, Rocco will chair the committee, and has several potential names. It is still early in the process.
Book Discussion: Nann reminded everyone about our Fifth Sunday Book Discussion on October 29 at 3:00 pm Central time. As a reminder, our format is that we each bring a book to share based on a common theme. In honor of Halloween, our theme is Something Spooky! Nann will post the Zoom link.
Awards: Kay chaired the committee last year and will stay on as a member; we need a new Chair and 3 members. The Horrocks Award is limited to RMRT members, while the Gadfly Award is open to all ALA members. It would be great to make sure we highlight the Horrocks Award as a membership incentive! 2024 Awards Committee members – Kay Cassell, Nann Hilyard + one more person. Suggestions needed!
Freedom to Read Foundation: Nann reminded us that Banned Books Week is coming up, and with increasing challenges across the country our support is more important than ever. Nann urged everyone to contribute, either when our ALA dues are paid or as a direct contribution at FTRF.org. The Foundation is a 501c3 organization on its own, independent of ALA.
Annual Conference, San Diego, June 27 – July 2, 2024: we will be assigned program time slots. We can request days and times, but it is not guaranteed. Our Business Meeting is usually on Saturday, followed by the Book Discussion.
The President's Program is usually on Sunday. We have had good responses to author programs, but we can consider other topics. Suggestions were made to consider a speaker from the San Diego Zoo, or a local history topic. Naomi will check into the Zoo options, and Ann Marie will look into the author/local history options.
Friday night dinner: Naomi has done some research for dinner.
Tour: Naomi mentioned the Dr Seuss collection at San Diego State University. There may not be availability for a tour on Saturday, but Monday morning would be a second choice.
Social Media: should we have a more active presence as a method of engaging with members and as a recruitment tool? We could post past program pictures, program announcements, and highlight the books included in our Fifth Sunday discussions.
Discussion about RMRT website on ala.org. Can we update it ourselves? We should check with Danielle.
Board of Directors positions and clarifications: Naomi is listed as Chair-elect and Director concurrently. Kay is listed as Assistant Treasurer, but there is no one in the Treasurer's position. We have 3 Directors, so we need one more. As a group, we need to document this so we have a clear understanding of positions and officeholders. Nancy thought we eliminated the Assistant Treasurer position (and there was agreement that it is not needed). Ann Marie said that, per the Bylaws, we can appoint Kay as Treasurer. Naomi moved to make that appointment, Rocco seconded. Motion passed. Naomi also moved to appoint Pat Hogan as Director for the remainder of this term, Rocco seconded. Motion passed.
Ann Marie said that the current Bylaws were put in ALA Connect in 2021, voted and approved by the members. The Bylaws should really be called procedures and included in the updated RMRT Handbook. Ann Marie moved that Bylaws be renamed Procedures and incorporated into the Handbook. Naomi seconded. Motion passed.
We had a brief discussion of the status of the New Member Welcome Letters, and if they had gone out. Shelley will check with Danielle. We also discussed the opportunity to promote free ALA dues with 25 years of continuous membership. Nann will add that to our Facebook page. There may be many retirees who are unaware of this option.
Our next meeting will be in November (or early December.)
Meeting was adjourned at 5:21 pm (Eastern)
Respectfully Submitted,
Mimi Morris
RMRT Secretary
------------------------------
Michele Lauer-Bader
Library Trustee
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------