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Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 4-14-2021

5/7/2021

Massachusetts School Library Association ; Executive Board meeting
April 14, 2021 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 3-24-2021

4/14/2021

Massachusetts School Library Association ; Executive Board meeting
March 24, 2021 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 2-9-2021

3/1/2021

Massachusetts School Library Association ; Executive Board meeting
February 9, 2021 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 1-13-2020

2/2/2021

Massachusetts School Library Association ; Executive Board meeting
January 13, 2020 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 12-16-2020

1/2/2021

Massachusetts School Library Association; Executive Board meeting
December 16, 2020 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 11-18-2020

12/15/2020

Massachusetts School Library Association Executive Board meeting
November 18, 2020; 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM; Virtual Meeting

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 10-14-2020

11/1/2020

Massachusetts School Library Association Executive Board meeting October 14, 2019 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Virtual Meeting

Attending:
Michael Caligiuri, Co-Director Central Region
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Deeth Ellis, Co-Director Boston Region
Barb Fecteau, Co-Director Northeast Region
Sarah Forfa, Co-Director West Region
Wendy Garland, Awards
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Emily Kristofek, Office Manager
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director Emeritus
Laura Luker, President
Ingrid Mayyasi, Awards
Greg Pronevitz, Director of Outreach
Katherine Steiger, Forum Co-Editor
Georgina Trebbe, Advocacy
Pamela Vallee, Co-Director Central Region
Morgan Van Clief, Co-Director Boston Region
Jen Varney, President Elect

Welcome, call to order, approve reports and minutes of Sept meeting --- Laura Luker

Advocacy --- Greg Pronevitz and Georgina Trebbe
Georgina Trebbe is officially set up with the MBLC Public Relations Advisory Committee, subject to a November vote. Georgina and Greg would like to recruit others to join the Advocacy Committee; interested parties should contact Georgina (Greg will send a message to the listserv). Outreach - Greg attended MLA Executive Board meeting, talked about MLA Conference. Discussed advocacy, and hoping to get someone from ALA or Everylibrary (e.g., John Chrastka) since it’s a remote conference; hoping to plug something about school library advocacy in. Legislative Day will be virtual again this spring, but no date yet. A huge budget deficit anticipated next year -- $3-$5B, so our advocacy efforts will be critical.

Awards --- Wendy Garland Have a proposed timeline for awards, trying to shorten from last year. Hoping to cut nominating season off before the holidays. Timeline will culminate with the conference and some kind of virtual awards ceremony. Discussed renaming some of the awards to be more updated, expansive, and attract more candidates and nominations. Wendy would like to recruit a small group of members/task force to work short term on award names.

Conference --- Alida Hanson Theme: School Librarians at the Crossroads: Be the Hero of Your Own Journey, including topics on anti-racist education, online learning and education, with a fantasy thread running through. The dates are Sun/Mon March 21, 22. Jarrett Krosoczka is one main speaker, and we’re hoping to do “A Toast to Our Winners” with a cocktail/mocktail theme, on Sunday from 4 - 5:30. Conference platform: a task force was convened at the last meeting to explore options and based on their work, they are recommending Whova for the conference: competitively priced, convenient, easy to navigate, allows you to attach materials to sessions, has community areas available for chat, and has a virtual vendor hall. Whova seems to be the most appropriate for our scale of event. Alix Waznick and Alida are attending a conference hosted on Whova in November so there will be another opportunity to experience it more fully. The Board voted to approve the purchase of Whova for the conference.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

Minutes Board Meeting 9-26-2020 retreat

11/1/2020

Massachusetts School Library Association Executive Board meeting Retreat September 26, 2019 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Virtual Meeting
Attending:
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Deeth Ellis, Advocacy Co-Chair
Barb Fecteau, Co-Director Northeast Region
Michelle Fontaine, Treasurer
Sarah Forfa, Co-Director West Region
Wendy Garland, Awards
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Emily Kristofek, Office Manager
Kathy Lowe, Executive Director Emeritus
Laura Luker, President
Ingrid Mayyasi, Awards
April Mazza - MLS
Claudia Palframan, Co-Director West Region
Greg Pronevitz, Director of Outreach
Katherine Steiger, Forum Co-Editor
Reba Tierney, Forum Co-Editor
Georgina Trebbe, Advocacy
Carrie Tucker, Past President
Morgan Van Clief, Co-Director Boston Region
Jen Varney, President Elect
Alix Waznick, Professional Learning

Details of meeting content can be found on the agenda (created by Laura Luker using Slides Mania).
Call to order 9:16 Laura Luker

Housekeeping
Jamboard ice-breaker - What was one win you’ve had so far this school year? Reba Tierney motioned to approve the reports and minutes of the June minutes, Kat Steiger seconded and all in favor. Deeth Ellis motioned to approve the proposed policy language changes (see agenda for detail), Patsy Divver seconded and all in favor. Reminder to all board members to familiarize themselves with the Board handbook.

Votes: Alida Hanson described a proposed new budget line item for Whova - to use for our first virtual conference. Whova is like Sched, but has additional features for communication and social interaction (e.g., streams/chat rooms, etc.) The cost for the platform is $1,299 plus potential additional modules. It needs to be integrated with a video conference platform -- we will use Google Meet. We won’t have other conference costs like facility rental, food. Would likely not use Sched with this, perhaps a spreadsheet would suffice. Other organizations of our size have used this service for their virtual conferences. Other services Alida explored were much more expensive. Alix Woznick noted that the Northeast Media Literacy Association is using Whova this fall. Deeth Ellis suggested reaching out to someone who has used it for a reference. Morgan VanClief suggested Remo as an alternative to Whova. She will explore why an organization she knows opted to use Remo instead of Whova. A task force was formed to evaluate Whova, Remo and other options for the virtual conference, since no financial commitment has to be made until February: Alida Hanson, Jen Varney, Kat Steiger, Alix Woznick, Morgan VanClief and Deeth Ellis volunteered; Alida will email the team. Board changes this year: Carrie Tucker, past President is proposed Director Southeast Region; Deeth Ellis proposes moving from Advocacy to Co-Director Boston Region. Kat Steiger motioned to approve these new board appointments, Patsy Divver seconded, and all in favor. Jen Varney motioned to approve updated Board meeting dates (see agenda), having changed the May date to avoid Ramadan, Maria D’Orsi seconded and all in favor.

Reports and Updates Treasurer’s Report: Michelle Fontaine and Jen Varney
FY21 budget needs a second vote. Working to merge Quickbooks accounts after maintaining two in the past. Kat Steiger motioned to approve the FY21 budget, Deeth Ellis seconded, and all approved.

Conference update: Alida Hanson, Alix Woznick and Plan B Team
Theme: “School Librarians at the Crossroads: Be the Hero of Your Own Journey.”
Looking for a fun, uplifting theme that incorporates topics members said in survey are important. We hit on the theme of fantasy. Once we identified the theme, the committee mood improved. It lends itself to many opportunities, games, themes, etc., but can also incorporate more serious topics that members want to see included in the conference. We’re going to motivate, have fun and geek out over what we love to do. We will be the heroes of our own journey. Currently looking at speakers and respective fees. Looking at 2-day conference Sun/Mon March 21/22. Haven’t decided on pricing. ALA set floor at $65 so we’re looking at very low cost. We want serious sessions, members to be able to present, etc. Reba Tierney suggested we use theme to treat it almost like a comicon with games, costumes, etc. 2020 conference cancelation update: the board was fortunate to get some pro-bono legal advice and assistance that enabled us to successfully postpone the Sheraton until 2022. The Texas Library Association has a great YouTube and social media presence for their conference so we’re hoping to learn from them.

Advocacy and outreach: Greg Pronevitz, Georgina Trebbe & Deeth Ellis

Outreach: Greg Pronevitz asked MBLC if they would include school library representation on their Public Relations Advisory Committee, a group that will advise the MBLC as they develop their three-year marketing plan in addition to providing input on statewide campaigns for things like ebooks, databases, etc. Georgina Trebbe volunteered to join the committee. Greg will reach out to MBLC to make the introductions.

Other: There will likely be another virtual legislative day this spring, but no firm date yet. The Beacon (Massachusetts Municipal Association online journal) published an article in July, “Libraries innovate through COVID emergency, seek funding support,” describing library activities during the pandemic, including the Virtual School Librarian. Greg worked with Laura Luker, Jennifer Harris, MLA Legislative Committee Chair, and Greg Peverill-Conti and Adam Zand fromwww.librarylandproject.com to submit. Looking for a successor for Greg’s position.

Virtual School Librarian: Georgina Trebbe Decided to remove the ask a librarian a question element since it was underutilized and used more often by administrators vs. students. Needs subcommittee help to beef up the VSL.

MSLA Advocacy Request Form:
Deeth Ellis Current form focuses on school librarians who need advocacy assistance because their jobs are being changed, eliminated or threatened. However, there now appears to be a new threat during the pandemic: reassignment of librarians to other teaching roles in the school. Consequently Deeth proposes to change the advocacy page to have a form to fill out to record these kinds of changes to people’s positions. She noted that we need to solicit more people to fill out the form so we can build data on this new phenomenon and threat. Discussion ensued about turning this into a survey instead of just a form that people have to seek out. Decision: re-publicize the form on the listserv and in job-alike zooms; consider building a formal survey and conducting action research on this topic.

Awards updates: Wendy Garland The Awards Committee met over the summer and is planning a similar sharing out of award winners like last year, making it a virtual celebration. Would like to talk to the conference committee about including it as a piece of the conference. With Jarrett Krosoczka as speaker, perhaps we could leverage his participation with the awards ceremony. Laura Luker noted that in addition to awards we should plan to recognize the job alike zoom organizers for their commitment over the summer and beyond.

MSLA’s Antiracism Work (see jamboard): prompt: Add thoughts here about MSLA's reimagining of Outreach/Advocacy/Diversity. Dream big. Suggest people who might be great!

This time is an opportunity to re-imagine what we are trying to accomplish. How can we use our “teacher voice” for good. Review Survey data from annual meeting and check out the Padlet! Discussion ensued. Acknowledge that everyone is in a different place in their journey of understanding of all of the related issues. Particularly challenging that our profession is so overwhelmingly white and female. How do we diversify our profession? Greg Pronevitz noted that MBLC, MLS and MLA are all working on this -- perhaps we could collaborate? Group WeHere is a group for librarians of color (but not specifically school), might be a good information source in the future. What we’ve done so far: ongoing legislative work to promote equity and access. Still necessary to get school library representation at DESE so that we can provide more non-traditional paths to certification (e.g., paras who can prepare portfolios). Georgina Trebbe suggested that we need to play the long game -- inspire our students of color to think about librarianship as a profession. Michelle Fontaine suggested book Cultivating Genius. Morgan Van Clief suggested that we think a lot about the diversity of the speakers we include at our conferences and PD. Starting MSLA cohort of Project READY (reimagining equity and access for diversity) For youth serving librarians. Includes lots of eye-opening, discussion prompts, videos, resources, connections, books, etc. Laura Luker will email listserv to gauge interest. #disrupttexts - decolonizing the curriculum initiative. MLS course offers PDPs, so we should recruit ELA and History teachers to take this course with us. Dismantling Racism Workbook for organizations: we will entertain these questions at our next board meeting (see agenda link and jamboard question)

Action Plans -- try to work with your committee to create action plans in time for the next meeting. It might help to review last year’s action plan for reference.
See Resources page for great stuff.

Wrap up: Barb Fecteau agreed to create themed cocktail/mocktail for conference. Asked others to submit ideas to keep it fun!

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 6-10-2020

7/9/2020

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board meeting
June 10, 2019 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
(Fourth full board meeting during school shutdown for COVID-19 Crisis)

Virtual Meeting

Attending:
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Deeth Ellis, Advocacy Co-Chair
Michelle Fontaine, incoming Treasurer
Sarah Forfa, Co-Director West Region
Wendy Garland, Awards
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Laura Luker, President
Claudia Palframan, Co-Director West Region
Greg Pronevitz, Director of Outreach
Reba Tierney, Co-Editor MSLA Forum
Georgina Trebbe, Advocacy Co-Chair
Carrie Tucker, Past President
Pamela Vallee, Co-Director Central Region
Morgan Van Clief, Co-Director Boston Region
Jen Varney, Treasurer
Alix Woznick, Professional Learning

Reports and minutes of May meeting were approved.

Housekeeping items --- Laura Luker

CARES Act grants -- school libraries are eligible (has to do with Virtual Programming for Distance Learning), be sure to consider applying.
Partnering with MLS to create a resource guide about diversity and anti-racist education, gathering resources for and from librarians.
Rewriting MSLA Strategic Plan starts next year (current plan ends 2022)

Performance evaluations and contract approvals --- Laura Luker

Director of Outreach Greg Pronevitz’s performance review and contract ending December 31, 2020 were reviewed and approved.
Office Manager / Event Planner Emily Kristofek’s performance review and 12-month contract were reviewed and approved.

Professional Development -- Laura Luker and Georgina Trebbe

100+ people responded to survey
- Learning to be an anti-racisit and school re-opening plans top the list.
- Approx 44 people are interested in the white supremacy study group Alida Hanson will be running this summer.
A subcommittee is working on “plan B” revenue streams in case there is no in-person conference again next year.

Advocacy Committee --- Greg Pronevitz, Deeth Ellis, and/or Georgina Trebbe

Greg Pronevitz reports that virtual legislative day was a tremendous success; Deeth Ellis and he presented; more than double typical in-person attendance (400+ people; 30+ legislators and aides present, a little lower than normal). It appeared that there were a lot more school librarians at the virtual meeting than we typically get.
Greg Pronevitz worked with Laura Luker, Jennifer Harris, MLA Legislative Committee Chair, and Greg Peverill-Conti and Adam Zand from www.librarylandproject.com to get an OpEd published in the Boston Globe in support of Virtual Library Legislative Days, but were unsuccessful in getting it published so used it as an announcement instead.
Deeth Ellis is continuing to work with DESE data and MLA to create a preliminary school library census despite having no conference this year; the board confirmed this ongoing priority.
Georgina Trebbe wrote a blog post for Knowledge Quest/AASL on the Virtual Librarian libguide.
Greg Pronevitz expressed thanks to Deeth Ellis for her hard work on Advocacy this year.
Carrie Tucker shared that Maryland’s School Library Association created an online form for librarians who need assistance with Advocacy in their district (e.g., facing cuts). Greg Pronevitz indicated that the committee hopes to build tools for those who will need this kind of assistance as budget cuts increase in the coming year(s).
Stats on Virtual Librarian:
- March 2020: 286 views
- April 2020: 2,486 views
- May 2020: 806 views
- June 1-9: 441 views (there was a spike on June 1 – 196 views)
- Total: 4,019 views
Greg Pronevitz sent a thank you letter to Commissioner Rileyfor his mention of the Virtual School Library in his weekly update and in response his staff volunteered to add our VSL to their Coronavirus site’s resources. It hasn’t been updated yet, but hope it will be soon.

Laura Luker: welcome to Michelle Fontaine, our incoming Treasurer for next year.

Office updates --- Emily Kristofek

All conference refunds are complete.
Patsy Divver suggested that we collect both personal and professional emails on registration forms so that if a member leaves a school then we don’t lose contact with them.

Budget Report --- Jen Varney

Revised budget based on last month’s discussion points was reviewed and approved.

Policy manual update --- Relevant items were reviewed and approved:

Added Paradis award.
Vote to approve committees: President recommends maintaining current committees in addition to a new committee devoted to anti-racism and equity.
- Need to also make room to audit the board as a whole; our structure and processes -- that might be something for this committee to work on and/or work it into our strategic planning process.
Formalize MLS liaison.
Changes to monthly meetings - make them open meetings with public comment periods.
Annual meeting changes - we need a virtual annual meeting this year.

Lots of issues we need to grapple with as a board -- not just diversity issues, but also examining the way we operate overall and transparency to our members.

Discussion of MSLA’s statement on anti-racism and recent events; removing reference to NESLA, otherwise approved.

Needs to be built into the strategic plan.

Continuation of this discussion TBD - stay tuned to email.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

Executive Summary Minutes Board Meeting 5-13-2020

6/9/2020

Massachusetts School Library Association
Executive Board meeting
May 13, 2019 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
(Third full board meeting during school shutdown for COVID-19 Crisis)

Virtual Meeting

Attending:
Jennifer Dimmick, Secretary
Patsy Divver, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Maria D’Orsi, Co-Director Metrowest Region
Deeth Ellis, Advocacy Co-Chair
Barb Fecteau, Co-Director Northeast Region
Pat Fontes, Awards
Sarah Forfa, Co-Director West Region
Alida Hanson, Professional Learning
Laura Harrington, Co-Director Northeast Region
Laura Luker, President
Claudia Palframan, Co-Director West Region
Greg Pronevitz, Director of Outreach
Reba Tierney, Co-Editor MSLA Forum
Georgina Trebbe, Advocacy Co-Chair
Carrie Tucker, Past President
Morgan Van Clief, Co-Director Boston Region
Jen Varney, Treasurer

Reports and minutes of April meeting were approved.

Housekeeping items --- Laura Luker

Personnel updates -- Michelle Fontaine will join the board as our next Treasurer
Remaining meetings are on the calendar and the dashboard.
- 6/10/20 4:00--6:00 most likely virtual

Advocacy Committee --- Greg Pronevitz, Deeth Ellis, and/or Georgina Trebbe

Inaugural virtual legislative days are taking place this week. The goal of these virtual legislative days is to get library aid on legislators’ radar and boost state aid to libraries.
Be sure to get in touch with your legislator to ask that they support library funding and indicate how important it is. Historical recessions have resulted in database cuts.
Laura Luker, Jennifer Harris, MLA Legislative Committee Chair, and Greg Peverill-Conti and Adam Zand from www.librarylandproject.com (professional PR talent) have been working together to submit an OpEd in support of state library funding to the Boston Globe.
We are grateful to Commissioner Riley for posting the link to Virtual School Librarian (VSL) in his Commissioner’s Weekly Update. Other promotion efforts include: letters sent to the DESE and MTA; Deeth Ellis has been working with Boston Teachers Union to increase exposure; submitted a blog post to AASL; and submitted an article to the MSLA Forum.
22 questions have been submitted to the VSL, a majority from administrators and teachers. The libguide got 3,248 views, 2486 in April, perhaps because it was on Commissioner’s Weekly Update. Representative Peisch and Senator Lewis are interested in helping in the future. WeMean MTA group is meeting and Georgina Trebbe is joining to make sure librarians are part of the conversation.
Teachers Advisory Cabinet is looking for volunteers; Georgina Trebbe highly recommends it. See DESE website for more information.

Office updates --- Laura Luker

CVENT refunds - most processed now if done by credit card (was a challenging process with CVENT); now working on check refunds and making good progress.

Budget Report --- Jen Varney

Budgeting process is beginning now.
- Shared proposed budget FY21. Discussed a variety of areas to consider cutting.
- Discussed possible alternative revenue streams in case we can’t have an in-person conference next spring.
- A task force was formed to pursue MSLA sponsored professional development opportunities: Jen Varney, Reba Tierney, Alida Hanson, Georgina Trebbe, and Jen Dimmick.
- Jen Varney will revise the budget so we can vote on it in June and September.

Other news from board members

Job-alike Zoom groups have been great.
Forum was just published, short but high quality; please read and spread on social media.
Shout-out to the award committee for great work on promotion -- check out the awards page to see fun new content (e.g., responses to questions the committee has asked them). Also great work spreading the word on social media.
Patsy Divver asked about returning materials; Laura Luker said the recommendation is to let materials sit for 72 hours before circulating. Greg Pronovitz has been following OCLC, IMLS, and Battelle COVID-19

study about virus survival rates on books and plastic. It will be summer before results are in. Recommendations range from 72 hours to 7 days.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Dimmick

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