RASS Executive Board Meeting Minutes
May 25th, 2012 / Kernersville Branch Library
Present
Kristine Benshoff, Amy Harris, Dana Haven, Crystal Holland, Ted Labosky, Mary Lane, John Raynor
The Report from the NCLA Executive Board Meeting
Amy began the meeting by summarizing what was discussed at the NCLA executive board meeting on
April 27th.
Amy reported that RASS had $4,800 in its treasury, and that the 2015 biennial NCLA conference will be
held in Greensboro.
Amy suggested that RASS ought to be sending a representative to the NCLA’s membership meetings.
She explained that these are virtual meetings which are held monthly, added that the next such meeting
would be held on June 20th, and asked if anyone was interested in attending one in the future.
Crystal said that she sat in on a recent NCLA membership meeting, and she thought that it was well-run.
She proposed that RASS hold a virtual board meeting in the future.
Amy said that she had spoken to Lynda about the NCLA membership meetings, and Lynda had
expressed an interest in attending them in the future.
NCLA President Wanda Brown’s six strategic initiatives were briefly discussed. In particular, Amy and
Crystal both expressed an interest in finding ways to “increase engagement among members.”
Amy also reported that a motion had been made that NCLA sections should turn 10% of the proceeds
from any section-specific events over to the NCLA’s treasury.
Collaboration with the Public Library Section on “Fabulous Friday”
Workshops
Amy opened the discussion of collaborating with the Public Library Section on their “Fabulous Fridays”
workshop series.
Kristine asked which topics the RASS would be collaborating on. Amy replied that RASS would be
co-sponsoring the entire series with the Public Library Section, beginning with the workshop on readers’
advisory.
Dana asked how often the Fabulous Fridays workshops would be run. Crystal replied that in 2011
there were four events, held at geographically-dispersed locations over a three month period.
Planning for a RASS Workshop Later in 2012: Topics
(1) Mary L. suggested collaboration with the Special Library Association on their upcoming “Personal
Brand” workshop on June 21st, and proposed offering something similar at a future RASS workshop.
(2) Crystal proposed a break-out session on marketing library resources, modeled on a webinar entitled
“Reference: Marketing What You Bought” hosted by Library Journal. This webinar was presented by
Maria Ziemer, from ProQuest. She suggested that Ms. Ziemer would be a good speaker for a RASS
workshop later in 2012, either in person or via Skype.
(3) Crystal also proposed a break-out session on marketing library resources in general, covering topics
like doing demographic studies to learn more about potential customers, and methods of tailoring a
marketing message for particular subsets of the population (“marketing to seniors is different from
marketing to Hispanics, which is different from marketing to home-schoolers”). Heidi Barry-Rodriguez
and Dan Brooks from Wake County Public Library (who had jointly given a presentation on marketing at
the 2011 NCLA conference) were also proposed as possible speakers on this topic.
(4) Amy proposed inviting a speaker from NC LIVE to give a presentation on new NC LIVE resources of
particular interest to reference librarians.
(5) Ted proposed ebooks as a possible workshop topic.
(6) Amy proposed a break-out session on LibGuides. This proposal generated some additional
discussion at the end of meeting, which is being recorded here for the sake of clarity. Mary suggested
that the section on LibGuides should begin with a speaker to provide an introduction, but that there
should be a panel of LibGuide users, ideally from different kinds of institutions, to take questions and
provide examples of creative uses of LibGuides. Crystal said that such a panel should definitely
include a LibGuides user from a community college. Amy then asked the board members to talk to any
colleagues who are using LibGuides creatively.
(7) Mary proposed a session either on online chat reference and NC Knows, or on creative library
applications for QR Codes.
Kristine wondered whether it would be possible to repeat the break-out sessions, so all of the attendees
can attend everything.
John proposed videotaping the break-out sessions and posting them on the RASS page of the NCLA
website.
After some discussion, three topics for break-out sessions where generally agreed upon:
(1) Marketing library resources (which would include, but not be limited to, a presentation by ProQuest’s
Maria Ziemer).
(2) LibGuides
(3) New NC LIVE resources
Planning for a RASS Workshop Later in 2012: Location and Price
John asked where the RASS workshop would be held.
Mary said that the Guilford Technical Community College might be able to host the event, and proposed
holding it during GTCC’s fall break (which begins on Monday, October 15th), to ensure that the
computer lab would be available. Mary said she would check with her superiors about the feasibility of
hosting the RASS workshop.
Amy volunteered UNC Greensboro as an alternate site, it GTCC is unable to host the workshop.
Kristine, however, suggested holding the event in the Raleigh area, to bring more audience members
from the eastern part of the state, but did not have a particular site in mind.
Amy suggested the Friday Center at UNC Chapel Hill, or Wake Technical Community College.
Crystal supported the idea of holding it at a community college.
Amy proposed holding it at the Davidson County Community College, in hopes of bringing more
audience members from the greater Charlotte area.
John supported the idea of holding the event outside of the Piedmont Triad, but Mary and Crystal
pointed out that the Triad is convenient because it is centrally located.
Amy said she would contact the director at Wake Technical Community College, and ask her about the
possibility of holding the event there.
Dana volunteered to contact the Friday Center at UNC Chapel Hill, should holding the event at Wake
Technical Community College not be possible. Amy expressed concern about the high price, but John
pointed out that the RASS treasury was, at the moment, relatively full.
The discussion then turned to the attendance fee. Crystal began by suggesting $25, including lunch.
Mary suggested using an inexpensive caterer, such as Subway, and charging less. Kristine and Amy
suggested charging less for RASS members. No final decision, however, was reached regarding the fee.
Other Business
Crystal proposed revising and updating the RASS bylaws, and pointed out that it has been ten years
since they were last updated (the most recent version is dated June 4th, 2002).
Crystal said she had reviewed the bylaws, and produced an annotated version with suggested changes.
John proposed scanning Crystal's annotated version of the bylaws, and sending the scanned version
out to all the executive board members by email.
The timing of the next executive board meeting was briefly discussed. A day in early August was
proposed, but no specific date was selected. It was, however, agreed that the next meeting would be a
virtual one.
Finally, Crystal proposed that RASS should run a webinar at some point in the winter of 2012-13, either
on NC Knows or library applications for QR Codes.