July 29, 2008 Minutes

Present: Debra Bloom, Jim Cross, Dorothy Hazelrigg, Susan Hoffius, Laura Jowdy, Kate Moore, Heather South, Elizabeth West; new web designer, Jennifer Welch

President Debbie Bloom called the meeting to order at 10:08 a.m.

• Approval of Minutes

  There were no corrections to the minutes of May 19 and June 6. Susan moved that the minutes be approved and Kate seconded. The motion passed.




• Reports of Officers

  A. Vice President: Debbie commented that the June 6 social turned out great. She, Georgette, and Ashley Till, of SCSU, are now sharing a blog to discuss the many patrons they share. Debbie may write something about this for the newsletter. Susan reported that the social made $320 and about 15 people registered. The email reminders seemed to work well. The scheduling of the event for a half day on a Friday also seemed popular. Susan circulated information on the SCAA awards and ideas for recipients. The potential recipients were discussed. It was decided that there could be two Career Achievement Awards when there were two deserving recipients in a year. Ideas for the Program Innovation Award included the new GLBTQ archives at South Caroliniana Library (discussed by Santi Thompson at the spring workshop) and St. Matthew's of Charleston, which has just started up their archive program under a volunteer. Susan will send out follow-up emails to make decisions on award winners; other nominees are welcome. Susan introduced Jennifer Welch as our new volunteer web designer. Jennifer had written up some notes about the website redesign. Jennifer noted that the look of the website will largely depend on the logo concept we choose, but that the usability and navigability of the site are separate, important issues. The look must be consistent throughout, with obvious menus. She suggested a 3-column layout. She also mentioned a plan to implement an online registration form that can be sent to the treasurer and membership officer, with payment via PayPal. Another idea is to sign up for a Flickr account for SCAA, so that photos from events can easily be posted and viewed. Jennifer circulated three logo concepts that had been designed by Tom Hamm, as previously authorized by the board. Each concept included designs for stationery, a website banner, and other potential uses. Everyone thought all three concepts were very attractive and well done. Most liked the colors of the first one, which featured a green-shaded banker's lamp and green lettering, although it was suggested that the font looked dated, the logo was less versatile, and that the lamp was not particularly related to archives. The second logo featured a red sealing wax design with “SCAA” stamped in it. This one seemed more versatile and clean-looking. It was discussed that SHRAB had a similar logo, but upon studying the SHRAB image, it is a photograph of an actual seal, not a designed logo. While the seal did not necessarily indicate “archives”, everyone thought it looked historical in nature. The third design included the outline of the state, a pair of white gloves, and some antique books. Concerns about this design included the idea that the state outline is overused and the thought that the gloves were somewhat of an obscure image for those not familiar with archival work. The Board voted on which logo to adopt, and the second option, the wax seal, was chosen. Hamm's fees are currently around $360-390, and he will work another hour or two to finalize our chosen concept. The total cost for his work will not exceed $500. He will send the image files to Jennifer for use on the site. Debbie asked that everyone check the website for errors so that they can be corrected as the site is redesigned, and to make any suggestions for new content, etc.

  B. Treasurer: Jim reported that the $320 in proceeds from the social should be put into the Hart Endowment, but that deposits can only be made in $100 increments. It was suggested that $20 be saved for use towards next year's social, and $300 be added to the fund. Jim said that we should redouble our efforts to actually give away some scholarship money. Various ideas were discussed, including adding an online application, emailing reminders to the members, and adding information to our conference brochures. Jim suggested waiting to deposit the $300 to see if anyone applies for funds this year, since there are still plenty of conferences upcoming. Debbie will email Jennifer Marshall to ask her to recommend any students who might need assistance with conference fees or travel. Susan asked if any particular member of the Board was designated to deal with the endowment and scholarships. The bylaws aren't precise, but it was suggested that it was a good task for the vice president to handle. Susan will look at the rules carefully and try to streamline the process. Jim investigated the possibility of setting up a PayPal account so that members can register and pay online. He calculated what our fees would have been if we had had PayPal in 2007, and if all members had paid that way: There were 103 transactions, with about $4500 coming in. At 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, we would have paid $161.55 to PayPal. Everyone felt that it was important to give it a try and see if it is worthwhile. Jim is still interested in finding out a few more details, such as if a minimum balance is required. He is going to check with the treasurer of SGA to see what their experience has been. Susan suggested that Jim draft guidelines about how the treasurer should handle the PayPal account. Jim thought that the process of transferring the account to a new treasurer this fall should not be difficult. Susan made a motion to have Jim finish investigating the possibility of opening a PayPal account, draft guidelines, and, if he is comfortable with it, to go ahead and open it. Dorothy seconded the motion and it passed.

  C. Membership Officer: Kate said that Jim had forwarded the names of a few more new members, and we now have about 68 paid members. Henry Fulmer gave Kate a box of old membership directories that had never been assembled and distributed. She plans to put together a new directory to hand out at the fall conference, as we usually have done. The possibility of a .pdf version was discussed. Some groups, like SGA, no longer print their directories in favor of .pdfs. We had decided some time back to remove our membership information from the website for reasons of privacy, but that was because the list was publicly accessible. It could be put on the website with password protection, or a .pdf could be emailed to all members. Heather expressed a concern that we are moving all of our communications and member benefits to web and electronic versions, and that there may be members who are not tech-savvy enough to feel comfortable with that. It was decided that a two-pronged approach, with both hard copies and electronic versions, was the best.

  D. Directors: Georgette Mayo was absent, but had submitted a director's report to Debbie. Heather thought that the tentative title for the fall conference, “What You Never Learned in Library School” might be too limited and suggested instead “What You Never Knew You Needed to Know”. The sessions will cover HVAC systems, human resources issues, public speaking, and safety/tricks of the trade for field work. This last will be covered by a panel including Jeannette Bergeron, Heather, Elizabeth, and Richie Wiggers, local records analyst. The tentative schedule is human resources and HVAC in the morning, lunch and business meeting, then public speaking and the panel discussion. Cardinal Consulting, which is sending a speaker for the public speaking presentation, sent us a questionnaire so that they could learn more about SCAA and tailor their presentation accordingly. Elizabeth suggested adapting some of their questions to a fact sheet that we could give future speakers, since we've had some in the past that did not seem completely sure of who their audience was. Susan suggested asking Tom to make a banner with our new logo and drawing attention to it at the business meeting. The banner could be reused for future events, including if we have a table at others' conferences. She will check with him about making one. Heather will send a draft of the conference brochure to the Board members for approval, and will plan to send brochures to all SCAA members, as well as SCLA and other groups we have targeted in the past. Debbie suggested that it might be a good idea for each of the officers to give a brief report at the business meeting on what he or she has been doing this year.

  E. Newsletter Editor: Laura passed out a cost comparison of the two future options for the SCAAzette, which are 1) hiring a new professional designer, since Geoff LoCicero is no longer available, or 2) purchasing software and having the editor do the layout. The software purchase is far cheaper, since Laura estimates that a single issue of the newsletter would cost $715 with a professional designer, even though the newsletter is in an electronic format only (so no printing costs). Heather moved that Laura be authorized to purchase Microsoft Publisher software, which will be transferred to future newsletter editors. Susan seconded the motion and it was approved. The submission deadline for the next issue is around Sept. 5.




• Old Business

  Elizabeth brought up the subject of elections, which will be held at the fall conference. We need candidates for vice president/president-elect, director, and treasurer. Various potential candidates were suggested, and Kate went through the list of members for additional possibilities. It was agreed that candidates for vice president should have some degree of past involvement with SCAA, while the other two slots can be filled by relatively new members. Elizabeth made a list of possible candidates and will begin contacting them to see if they are willing to run.




• New Business

  Earlier in the year we had discussed putting together a template for an Archives Month press release that different members or organizations could adapt for their own use. Heather said she had actually been working on the idea and would be putting something up on the Archives Month webpage. SCAA will get credit for the idea, but the product will not be exclusive to SCAA members. Everyone was pleased with that result.



• Next Meeting

  With the program for the fall conference firmly in place, we will not meet again until the conference, which will be on Oct. 8.




• Adjournment

  The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.