PNC/MLA BUSINESS MEETING
Tuesday, October 26, 1999
Seattle, WA

The meeting was called to order by Carolyn Olson, President, board members were introduced, and the minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Executive Board Reports

Treasurer-Pam Spickelmier
The current balance is $5074.50. We increased the dues this year to $25 which stabilized our expenses and income as long as our annual meetings break even. Our reserves have dropped significantly over the past three years. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Chapter Council-Bob Pringle
PNC's web site has helped him find answers to questions that MLA has asked. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Membership-Barbara Crain
In an effort to save postage money, a dues reminder was posted on HLIB-NW this year, but only fifty people responded so we are going to go back to sending a paper invoice. Barbara asked for and received a volunteer from each state to help her contact non-renewals: Loretta Andress-Alaska; Kathy Nelson-Idaho; Jan Schueller-Washington; Steve Teich-Oregon; Jim Henderson-BC. It was suggested that we let people pay dues for the coming year on next year's annual meeting registration form. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Nominating-Maryanne Blake
Only 62 ballots were returned out of 150. Our new Chair-Elect is Janice Bacino and Secretary, Kathy Nelson. The Treasurer's office was decided on a coin toss because of a tie; Nola Higley was elected. This election really pointed out how each person's vote counts. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Archives-Janet Schnall
This is our 39th annual meeting, the eighth in Seattle. The early chapter history has been written and has been posted on our web site. The archives are off-site currently so she needs time to dig up any needed information. Please include names of committee members with reports.

Bylaws-Janette Schueller
We had a major revision of our bylaws this year which was approved in July. It will soon be available on our web site. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Conference Planning Committee-Leilani St. Anna
The committee is a resource and support for the local planning group and is streamlining the whole conference planning process. They are gleaning information from past reports and collecting anecdotal wisdom and putting together templates that reflect what they are learning. The committee is looking for a representative from each state to serve on the committee. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Electronic Resources
So far this committee has been unstaffed. A sign-up sheet garnered several volunteers to serve on this committee. A chair will be selected by Kim.

Government Relations
Marcia Batchelor volunteered to subscribe to ALA's legislative alerting service and keep us informed.

Professional Development-Lisa Oberg
This committee's way of doing their job is serving as a model for the rest of MLA. The CE survey was done electronically this year, and 74 were returned. Many people are interested in Internet-related classes which are more expensive to put on. We could keep expenses down by combining CE with other groups. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

Publications-Kathy Murray
Kathy would like to have state reports for the next issue. The web page went up this year, which has been a great help to everyone. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

1999 Program-Sarah Safranek & Chris Beahler
These two put this conference together on short notice and did a great job. They would like comments on whether to have a conference hotel or not. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

2000 Program-Kathy Murray
Kathy showed a video of Alyeska Resort. See the Executive Board Meeting minutes for the complete report.

MLA 2000-Jim Henderson
Jim showed a video of Vancouver, B.C. and encouraged us all to attend and take advantage of the favorable exchange rate.

Old Business

Finances
We voted in a dues increase last year so currently our revenues cover expenses except for special projects or unexpected problems. Our reserve fund has dwindled from $13,000 to $5000 over the last three years. It is important that our annual meeting break even. Do we need as many speakers? Do we need a keynote speaker? Is the group open to meeting in a place like Silver Falls? The Seattle meeting is solvent because we did not pay any speakers; the facility was low cost; and the RML helped with the speakers. In the future planners will have more information about the financial side of conference planning. Rosalind Dudden mentioned that Ken Oyer has developed conference expertise in meeting planning and had been paid a small honorarium by another chapter to advise. We could budget for eighty people and cancel if not enough people sign up.

The annual meeting is THE meeting for many people, so breaking even is preferable to making money on the conference. Any profit is used to build a reserve fund. One of our biggest expenses is board travel. Our goal has been to have one year's operating expenses saved; we are now below that. We need to take a close look at what attracts members to meetings. What makes us pay? We need to economize on less popular things and make enough money to support popular things. Do we want to eliminate scholarships or increase them?

Membership
What about an institutional membership? It was recently abolished because we were actually losing money on it. If it was higher than the individual rate, it might be OK. But what additional benefits would it bring to the institution?

The meeting was called for time at 11:25AM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Pam Bjork
PNC Recording Secretary