May 2002 Executive Committee Meeting

Thursday, May 30, 2002
Old State Capitol Building, Milledgeville, Georgia

PINES Executive Committee Chairman, Alan Kaye, called the meeting to order at 10:20 A. M. Executive Committee members and other PINES members present were welcomed to the Old State Capitol Building in Milledgeville by Twin Lakes Library System Director, Lillie Crowe.

All Executive Committee Members were present – Greg Heid, Alan Kaye, Diana Ray Tope, Steve Schaefer, Mike Dugan, Charles Gee, Walter Murphy, Debbie Manget and Barbara Hutsell.

The minutes of the April 25, 2002 PINES Executive Committee were approved on a motion by Murphy; second by Dugan; 7 in favor, one absent.

Since issues of proxy representation had been raised after the last meeting (Fayetteville, April 25th) of the PINES executive committee, a draft, “Guidelines for Proxy Voting” had been prepared by David Singleton.  This draft was to be used as a basis for discussion by the Executive Committee prior to consideration by the membership at the afternoon meeting.   In the Executive Committee’s discussion, it was noted that although the issue of proxy voting does indeed need clarification, it is only one of several basic governance issues that should be included in a comprehensive review of the PINES by-laws.

The motion was made that the incoming Executive Committee Chair, Diana Ray Tope, be directed to appoint a task force to review proxy voting procedures and other relevant issues and make recommendations for revisions to the PINES By-laws.  On the motion by Hutsell; second by Manget, the vote was all in favor, none opposed.

A follow-up motion by Greg Heid proposed that the task force for by-laws review also investigate the possibilities for virtual attendance. Telephone speakerphone, video camera or computer via the Internet or GSAMS were mentioned as possibilities, so that, in the event that an executive committee member finds it impossible to attend a meeting, his/her vote could still be counted.   On the motion by Heid; second by Schaefer; the vote was all in favor, none opposed. 

PINES Project manager, David Singleton, gave his report.  He welcomed Dr. Lamar Veatch, State Librarian, to the PINES Executive Committee meeting.  David introduced the PINES staff members present, Julie Walker, Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia, Bin Lin, Michael Imsand and Brad LaJeunesse.   

David gave an update on voter registration procedures.  He distributed a report on Intra–Pines loans and reimbursements.  David was requested by Executive Committee members to make sure that notification of the PINES reimbursement checks be directed to the system headquarters and that the check should follow the notification in a timely manner.

Julie Walker discussed SIRSI 2002 release; she said that several items were being closely monitored in the second quarter release.  Training sessions are planned in the near future on the Serials and Acquisitions modules.

The PINES staff will take advantage of API “advance program interface” training by a SIRSI trainer from Huntsville in the near future.

Retrospective conversion of the bibliographic records of two large local history/genealogy collections is almost complete and these records will soon be ready to be loaded in the PINES catalog. 

Database clean up is in progress for e-mail notification of holds and mail notices for holds will be discontinued.  At this time, mail notices for overdues will continue for 7, 14 and 30-day notices.

Brad LaJeunesse, PINES System Administrator, reported that reports have been removed from the production environment.  This should address the afternoon system slowdowns experienced earlier this year. BRS indexing tool is being used for re-indexing of the database. 

Elizabeth Garcia reported on improvements in WebCat display.

New subcommittee members proposed by PINES directors are presented. 

Nominated for Staff Training/Documentation Subcommittee:
Lynn Floyd, Hart County; Danielle Richmond, Clarksville-Habersham County Library; Jennifer Durham, Statesboro Regional Library System and Belle Bush, Houston County Public Library.  
Nominated for Public Website Subcommittee:  Jennifer Milstead, West Georgia Regional Library and Claudia Gibson, Chestatee Regional.

Motion to approve nominations for new sub-committee members was made by Mike Dugan, seconded by Walter Murphy; the motion was amended by Greg Heid to add Leslie St. John to the Public Website committee. Amendment seconded by Schaefer; 0 opposed.

Items Requiring Follow-up Reports or Decisions by the Executive Committee

1. The proposed changes in the wording of overdue notices were approved as presented by the PINES staff.  Motion by Schaefer; second by Dugan; all in favor.
2. David Singleton presented the wording changes to the “long overdue” letter that were requested by the Executive Committee at the last meeting.  No action needed.
3. At the April 25th meeting, the Executive Committee had considered the Circulation subcommittee’s proposal that it should be a PINES-wide policy to charge patrons the cost of lost books in addition to the overdue fine.  The Executive Committee voted to return the matter to the subcommittee for further study.   The Circulation Subcommittee had now returned their proposal to the Executive Committee in its original form.  Again, there was much discussion and no consensus was reached by the Executive Committee.  Charles Gee made the motion that the Executive Committee accept the sub-committee’s recommendation; seconded by Hutsell.  The motion was defeated by the same number of votes as at the previous meeting; 3 in favor; five opposed.  The result is that each PINES member system may still exercise local option in this matter. 
4. The draft of Brief Title guidelines was approved as presented by the PINES staff. Motion Schaefer, second by Heid; 0 opposed.
5. The draft, “Cat 1 Authorization as an Outsourcing Option” was presented by the PINES staff with the recommendation that this policy be adopted and the PINES staff be authorized to work with Hall County on a pilot project.
6. The PINES staff reported that the new optional item type, “facility best-seller” had been created following the decision of the Executive Committee made at the April 25th meeting.

Chairman Alan Kaye then stated that an objection had been expressed with regard to the procedures used this year for the election of new members to the Executive Committee.  It was pointed out that these procedures were in violation of the PINES By-laws.  The By-laws state that the members of the Executive Committee “will be elected at the meeting in May” and that “nominations will be accepted from the floor at the May meeting.”   Instead, the election had been conducted by mailed ballots prior to the membership annual meeting.  David Singleton stated that the intention of the change in procedures was to avoid the possibility that a quorum would not be present at the annual meeting. The lack of a quorum would necessitate that the staff send out another ballot by mail following the meeting and would delay the announcement of the election results.

Chairman Alan Kaye recommended that attendance be taken at the membership meeting to determine that a quorum is present, and if so, that the PINES members present today be asked to approve or disapprove the method of election prior to announcing the results of the vote. This was acceptable to the majority of the members of the Executive Committee; Debbie Manget made the motion that the committee follow the chairman’s recommendation, seconded by Tope; the vote was 7 in favor, one opposed. 

The meeting adjourned for lunch to be followed by the PINES membership meeting at one P.M.   

Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Hutsell