Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board meeting
April 10, 2018 4:00 - 6:00
Virtual
View full board meeting minutes here
Attending:
Allison Barker, Co-Director Southeast Region
Anita Cellucci, Advocacy
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Wendy Garland, Awards (V)
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning Co-chair
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Karen Davidson-Heller, Co-Director Boston Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director (V)
Laura Luker, President Elect (V)
Claudia Palframan, Co-Director West Region (V)
Greg Pronevitz, MSLA Communications Specialist (V)
Linda Redding, liaison to Digital Commonwealth
Katherine Steiger, Co-editor Forum Newsletter
Carrie Tucker, President
Jen Varney, Cambridge, Treasurer (V)
Call to order
Minutes from the March meeting were approved and the meeting was called to order.
MSLA positions for 2019-2020
Office manager/event planner update - Carrie Tucker and Laura Luker
Carrie Tucker, Laura Luker, Melissa Lynch, Kathy Lowe, Alida Hanson and Jen Varney interviewed two candidates, both with strong letters of recommendation. It was a difficult choice, ultimately decided to offer the position to Dianne Regnier
Carrie requested feedback from the board about the candidate, following which she informed the board of her intent to offer the position to Dianne. Board members are excited and relieved to have found good candidates for this important position.
Greg Pronovitz’s Title
Greg Pronevitz will be expanding his role as a consultant to MSLA next year, assuming appropriate responsibilities from the former Executive Director position from which Kathy Lowe is retiring. Because Greg will continue to act as an external consultant to the association, and because some of the original Executive Director responsibilities are being rolled into the Office Manager/Event Planner position, a different title for this role is warranted. After considering various titles, the board settled on Director of Programming and Communications.
Open (appointed) board positions
MTA task force / Salem libguide reciprocal linking Claudia Palframan
2019 annual conference update Laura Liker, Alida Hanson, Kathy Lowe
We had a very successful conference, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on elements including location, sessions, food, accommodations, etc. There are areas for improvement, especially wifi. We must strengthen that next time.
As our our biggest professional learning event of the year, and our biggest source of income, the conference was a financial success.
2020 annual conference location and dates - Board vote
The board approved a motion to make a deposit with the Sheraton Framingham for the 2020 conference, March 29-30.
Digital Commonwealth Carrie Tucker
Carrie Tucker attended the Digital Commonwealth annual conference in Worcester yesterday (Linda Redding is our liaison to DC). They are the ones who have done things like digitizing yearbooks and making them available online. Greg Pronevitz suggests that we continue our membership as a show of good faith and suggests that we might want to pursue a stipend support to work on the lesson plans or some other way to use their resources to showcase school libraries.
MSLA Archival Records - Carrie Tucker
Deeth Ellis, Jen Varney, Alida Hanson, Barb Fecteau, Laura Harrington and Carrie Tucker spent a day with Kathy Lowe looking through MSLA records dating back to the 1960s. Reviewing old minutes reminded us of our long, illustrious history. People have been working very hard for this association for a long time. It’s clear that our forebears were talking about information literacy before that term was coined. Jen Varney and Deeth Ellis are coordinating storage of archival records at Simmons University.
Awards - Wendy Garland
Happy with the banquet. Saw comments about wanting award winners to speak about their work, but that’s the point of the Idea Lab. Pictures are posted on the MSLA website. Will make recommendations about 2020 awards at our next meeting.
Carrie closed with a heartfelt thanks for all involved in the conference, especially Kathy Lowe, who as worked so hard for so many conferences and this is her last.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00.
Upcoming events
Upcoming board meetings
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick
Executive Board meeting
April 10, 2018 4:00 - 6:00
Virtual
View full board meeting minutes here
Attending:
Allison Barker, Co-Director Southeast Region
Anita Cellucci, Advocacy
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Wendy Garland, Awards (V)
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning Co-chair
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Karen Davidson-Heller, Co-Director Boston Region
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director (V)
Laura Luker, President Elect (V)
Claudia Palframan, Co-Director West Region (V)
Greg Pronevitz, MSLA Communications Specialist (V)
Linda Redding, liaison to Digital Commonwealth
Katherine Steiger, Co-editor Forum Newsletter
Carrie Tucker, President
Jen Varney, Cambridge, Treasurer (V)
Call to order
Minutes from the March meeting were approved and the meeting was called to order.
MSLA positions for 2019-2020
Office manager/event planner update - Carrie Tucker and Laura Luker
Carrie Tucker, Laura Luker, Melissa Lynch, Kathy Lowe, Alida Hanson and Jen Varney interviewed two candidates, both with strong letters of recommendation. It was a difficult choice, ultimately decided to offer the position to Dianne Regnier
Carrie requested feedback from the board about the candidate, following which she informed the board of her intent to offer the position to Dianne. Board members are excited and relieved to have found good candidates for this important position.
Greg Pronovitz’s Title
Greg Pronevitz will be expanding his role as a consultant to MSLA next year, assuming appropriate responsibilities from the former Executive Director position from which Kathy Lowe is retiring. Because Greg will continue to act as an external consultant to the association, and because some of the original Executive Director responsibilities are being rolled into the Office Manager/Event Planner position, a different title for this role is warranted. After considering various titles, the board settled on Director of Programming and Communications.
Open (appointed) board positions
- Advocacy - still a work in progress. Carrie Tucker and Judi Paradis conferred about various options and will continue working on this after break.
- Professional learning - Alida Hanson has volunteered for this role, thank you!
- Robin Cicchetti, James Lonergan and Greg Pronevitz met for 45 minutes with DESE Commissioner Riley and two of his top aides and shared MSLA’s priorities.
- The Commissioner offered to share existing DESE data about school libraries that we could use that to help build a school library census. This includes licensure information and building-based information on school library facilities. The advocacy team plans to work with this data to begin to construct the basis of a census. The team pressed our request to have a representative at DESE to represent school libraries. We should hear back about this soon. The Commissioner expressed some reluctance because he feels all other groups will ask for a position too.
- The board discussed concerns about the accuracy of the DESE data and the need to verify and update it.
- Greg Pronevitz listened to board members’ concerns and pledged to bear these in mind in future meetings and communications with the team and the DESE.
MTA task force / Salem libguide reciprocal linking Claudia Palframan
- MTA will be offering a toolkit for advocacy on the MTA website, but would also like to replicate it in the Salem State libguide
2019 annual conference update Laura Liker, Alida Hanson, Kathy Lowe
We had a very successful conference, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on elements including location, sessions, food, accommodations, etc. There are areas for improvement, especially wifi. We must strengthen that next time.
As our our biggest professional learning event of the year, and our biggest source of income, the conference was a financial success.
2020 annual conference location and dates - Board vote
The board approved a motion to make a deposit with the Sheraton Framingham for the 2020 conference, March 29-30.
Digital Commonwealth Carrie Tucker
Carrie Tucker attended the Digital Commonwealth annual conference in Worcester yesterday (Linda Redding is our liaison to DC). They are the ones who have done things like digitizing yearbooks and making them available online. Greg Pronevitz suggests that we continue our membership as a show of good faith and suggests that we might want to pursue a stipend support to work on the lesson plans or some other way to use their resources to showcase school libraries.
MSLA Archival Records - Carrie Tucker
Deeth Ellis, Jen Varney, Alida Hanson, Barb Fecteau, Laura Harrington and Carrie Tucker spent a day with Kathy Lowe looking through MSLA records dating back to the 1960s. Reviewing old minutes reminded us of our long, illustrious history. People have been working very hard for this association for a long time. It’s clear that our forebears were talking about information literacy before that term was coined. Jen Varney and Deeth Ellis are coordinating storage of archival records at Simmons University.
Awards - Wendy Garland
Happy with the banquet. Saw comments about wanting award winners to speak about their work, but that’s the point of the Idea Lab. Pictures are posted on the MSLA website. Will make recommendations about 2020 awards at our next meeting.
Carrie closed with a heartfelt thanks for all involved in the conference, especially Kathy Lowe, who as worked so hard for so many conferences and this is her last.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00.
Upcoming events
- MLA Annual Conference, May 20-22, 2019 at Sheraton Framingham
- Better Together, MSLA/MassCUE, Fall 2019, TEC Walpole
Upcoming board meetings
- Wednesday, May 15, 2019 4:00 MLS, 225 Cedar Hill Street, Suite 229, Marlborough
- Wednesday, June 12, 2019 4:00--6:00 location tbd
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick
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