SALALM 57 Business Meeting & Closing Session (2012)

June 19, 2012, 3:00pm-4:00pm

Moderator: Lynn Shirey (Harvard University)

Rapporteur: Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University)

Martha Mantilla (University of Pittsburgh): “I’d like to start with the Executive Board Committee. Is there anything that the officers of that Committee would like to say? - No? Members at Large of that Committee, is there any business we want to cover? - Nothing. Closing Executive Board Committee, we’ll move on to Local Arrangements.”

Gayle Williams (Florida International University): “Point of order: our President hasn’t closed the meeting yet. (President) Lynn Shirey should run the business meeting; Martha, as incoming president, should convene the second Executive Board Committee meeting that follows.”

Lynn Shirey (Harvard University): “My announcement is, 'All protocols observed!'” [Applause and laughter]

Roberto C. Delgadillo (University of California, Davis): “We’re going to go through those things again, beginning with the Executive Board Committee, and read through the agenda of the first, the Executive Board Committee meeting, and summarize the points.”

Shirey: “Executive Board Committee has nothing new to report. Does Local Arrangements have anything further to report?”

Local Arrangements Committee, Elmelinda Lara (The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago): “The final report is that we had about 295 conference attendees. Expenses were $2,000 (US). Income was about $4,000 (US) , so we’re ahead.”

[Applause]

Constitution & Bylaws Committee, Rafael E. Tarragó (University of Minnesota): “This year the Constitution & Bylaws Committee reviewed the draft of a revision of the Constitution and Bylaws of SALALM, from 2000. This draft is for something called the “SALALM Bylaws.” We undertook the work of combining the two documents, the Constitution and the Bylaws, into a single “Bylaws.” We have revised that first draft, and my predecessor as Chair of the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, Jane Garner, has agreed to re-write our draft to include all revisions that the committee as a group has made. This final draft should be ready by the end of December 2012. In order to revise the Constitution & Bylaws, a vote by the membership is necessary. The committee will be contacting the membership to ask for comments about the changes, or suggestions, and they should get back to us. We’ll analyze all requests and hope to have the final draft for the 2013 meeting, and a vote by the membership. The Committee hopes that the new charter facilitates an understanding of the structure, mission and operation of SALALM and explains the details such as any proposal, for example, for a name change for the organization, how it must go through the process for incorporation as a non-profit organization, and must be registered in Washington, D.C. We hope that the document will be taken seriously by the membership when we send it out, and be voted on at the May 2013 conference in Miami.”

Policy, Research & Investigation Committee, Cecilia Sercán (Cornell University): “The committee met and reviewed two subcommittees which we were asked to disband, and they have been disbanded: Official Publications, and Gifts and Exchanges Subcommittees. There are two committees that asked to be merged and they are the Bibliographic Instruction and Reference Services Subcommittees. They have been merged and they came up with a new name: Research and Instruction Services. The Nominating Committee also asked that we do some revision of the “Operations Handbook,” basically mentioning the change that was made in going from paper to electronic ballots. They gave us the text to do it so we will update the Handbook. The other thing we will be doing, but this will be after the Constitution & Bylaws Committee finishes their work, is updating the citations to the part of the Constitution that are in the “Operations Handbook.” We’ve handed out the resolutions we have to vote on.”

Ellen Jaramillo (Yale University): “I know you all have copies, but I have to read the resolutions into the minutes:

"Resolutions for SALALM LVII

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Campus Libraries, The University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; the National Library and Information System Authority, Trinidad and Tobago; and the Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago for hosting SALALM LVII.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the academic and corporate sponsors of SALALM LVII: Casalini Libri; Ebscohost; Elsevier; David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Harvard University; Latin Knowledge Consulting Group; OCLC; Phoenix Park Gas Processors; Scrip J. Trinidad and Tobago Limited; the UWI Bookshop, St. Augustine Campus; the UWI Marketing & Communications Office; Wanter Enterprises; and Zap Graphics.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the coffee break sponsors: Books from Mexico; Digitalia; E-libro; Elsevier; HB Books Publicaciones Chilenas; Howard Karno Books; Iberbook-Sánchez Cuesta; Iberoamericana Libros-Editorial Vervuert; Librería García Cambeiro; Libros Andinos; Libros Argentinos para Todo el Mundo; Libros de Barlovento; Libros de Todo Mexico; Puvill Libros; Retta Libros; Susan Bach Books from Brazil, Libros Centroamericanos.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Libreros’ Reception sponsors: Books from Mexico; Casalini Libri; Digitalia; E. Iturriaga & Cia., S.A.; Esteva Servicios Bibliotecarios; Gavilanes Books from Indoamerica; HB Books; Howard Karno Books; Iberbook-Sánchez Cuesta; Iberoamericana Libros-Editorial Vervuert; the Latin American Bookstore, Ltd.; Librería Linardi y Risso; Libros Andinos; Libros Argentinos para Todo el Mundo; Libros de Barlovento; Libros de Todo Mexico; Libros Latinos; Puvill Libros; Retta Libros; Sonia Silva Com’ercio de Livros; Susan Bach Books from Brazil; Swets.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank the Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by Elmelinda Lara, for the enormous work in arranging the conference, and especially for the arrangements made to organize transportation from and to the airport for the participants.

Be it resolved that SALALM thank Roberto Delgadillo for his six years as Rapporteur General and for his work in modernizing the collection and dissemination of reports.

Be it resolved that SALALM show its support the work of Professor Doris Sommer with Pre-Texts on creative literacy by donating an amount to be determined by the Executive Board to one of their programs.”

The final resolution was tabled, there not being any precedent for SALALM to have done something like this in the past, with the recommendation that it be sent to the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee had met this year before Dr. Sommer did her presentation, but Tarragó noted that there is a proviso in the Constitution that speaks to making charitable contributions and expenses not anticipated, and that they must be voted on by the Executive Board. The final resolution was tabled, and will be discussed in Executive Board.

A motion was made by Peter Bushnell (University of Florida) to approve all the Resolutions except the last one and was seconded by Williams. All resolutions, with the exception of the final one, were voted on and unanimously approved.

Membership Committee: No report.

Editorial Board: Hortensia Calvo (Tulane University) said that Orchid Mazurkiewicz (HAPI) told her that there was nothing additional to report.

Finance Committee: Paula Covington (Vanderbilt University): reported that they met twice and the Investment Working Group also met. They decided that TIAA-CREF will manage SALALM’s accounts, and as Covington then noted: “We have a recommendation for selling two investments which have not done well: Fidelity and Franklin. This seems like a good time to sell them. There was a proposal that we purchase directors’ and officers’ insurance, and there is a subcommittee that will be looking into those proposals. There was also a proposal that we have something like an audit but with a lesser compilation of work, depending on the kind of software [that] is implemented and what kind of audit trail it provides us with. Most of these things are the result of various recommendations by the fraud report that we received a few years ago. We’ve been trying to work towards those best practices and trying to prevent potential fraud, so these proposals will be looked into. We received the conference reports. Philadelphia did very well; I don’t have the exact figures. We made a profit which is good because we’re trying to build up the endowment. There’s a proposal for a change in the registration membership policy that will go to the Executive Board. $1,000 was approved for additional scholarship funds, and up to $3,000 for this additional insurance, although we’re looking at lower quotes. Those things were added to the budget that Hortensia proposed.”

Nominating Committee: Stephanie Rocío Miles (Inter-American Development Bank ): “This was the first time that SALALM used electronic ballots, and it worked very well. For 2014, Officers are: Vice President/President Elect: Roberto Delgadillo; Members-at-Large [2012-15]: Paloma Celis-Carbajal and Daisy Domínguez. Some of the things we discussed were some details of how to run elections in the future; candidates should be aware that their biographies are going to be made public on our website; a few standardizations of the cut-off date, that people have to register by a certain date so that they will be eligible to vote.”

LALA-L, Gayle Williams (Florida International University): “The number of Latin Americanist Librarians Announcements List subscribers has exceeded the number of personal memberships. The requirement for the LALA-L subscription is maintaining current membership in SALALM. Be aware those of you who did not renew membership for this fiscal year which is about to end, because of the move to better compliance with renewing one’s SALALM membership in order to vote, you will be dropped from the rolls of LALA-L until the Secretariat confirms to me your renewed membership. The deadline is September 1st.”

Calvo: If someone renews right now, their membership will be over on August 31st. You’d need to renew after September 1st in order to be considered a member for next year.

Outreach/Enlace, Sócrates Silva (HAPI): “The Enlace raffle made $693 (US) and $2,548 (TT).

Communications Committee: No report.

Ad Hoc Committees:

I). Webinar Pilot Project Working Group: Calvo: “Orchid asked me to say that she mentioned at Executive Board that she is proposing that a task force be set up to oversee webinars.”

II). Scholarship Task Force: Peter Johnson: “The Task Force for spring term consisted of: Alison Hicks, Jesus Alonso-Regalado, Paloma Celis-Carbajal, Gayle Williams, Nathalie Soini who is at Ontario CA, Mary Jo Zeter and me. We received 28 applications over the course of two semesters, and we awarded three scholarships. One of the individuals is engaged in archival work dealing with Latin America and the other two are in library work. Biographies and photographs are on our website and that is being archived. We received $684 in donations plus a matching grant of $250. Spring term will be funded from a donation from an anonymous individual and this organization will spend $99. We hope to be able to count on the collaboration of those of you at universities with library schools and archival programs, to make yourself available to talk about these scholarships and SALALM. We’ll be sending out on LALA-L further information on new ideas to better integrate these awardees with the process of mentorship.”

Affiliated Groups:

CALAFIA: No report.

LANE: No report.

HAPI: No report.

LAMP: No report.

Libreros: Darlene Hull (Libros de Barlovento): “The consensus among the libreros is that they want to keep the fiesta, they are interested in having it manifest itself in a simpler form: DJ and drinks. The consensus on coffee breaks is that the libreros don’t want to sponsor any more coffee breaks. They want more time without conflicts for consultation.”

LASER: No report.

MOLLAS: No report.

ALZAR: No report.

ISIS:

LARRP: Williams: “This spring LARRP, working with CRL (College & Research Libraries) was able to get a significant discount for a one-time purchase of “Brill’s Classic Mexican Cinema” online database. Everyone who wants to go in on it should contact CRL by the extended date of September 1st. Having worked with it, I found, was not too highly specialized so I recommend that people get a trial. We agreed during our budget review not to raise membership fees. LARRP wants to move forward with new possibilities of projects and we are always entertaining ideas. Melissa Guy will head a group that will play an advocate role with some of the federated searches or discovery tools and will provide them suggestions for Latin American content. Fernando Acosta Rodríguez informed us of a digitization initiative that he’s trying to get off the ground: Princeton will digitize their political pamphlet collections that have not been microfilmed and new receipts. Other than asking for help in funding, we’re not sure how this will impact an activity for LARRP members. I’d like to express appreciation to Paula Covington & the IT people at Vanderbilt for investigating the feasibility of migrating LAPTOC. We’ll know more about that over the summer.”

Future Meetings: Meiyolet Méndez (University of Miami): “Next year’s SALALM will take place in Miami. Dates are May 17-22, 2013; that’s not the actual conference dates but we’ve reserved that space in the hotel for those dates. It is in the Westin Colonnade, Coral Gables, Florida. I double-checked the figures: Single and Double Rooms-the price is the same per night--$149.US; Triple--$169.US; Quadruple--$189.US, plus about 7% hotel tax on each [**internet search=12.5% Miami hotel tax]. Prices include wifi in the rooms. Breakfast is not included but the hotel is in walking distance of at least 100 restaurants. It’s in a walkable area of the city. It’s a 20 minute cab ride to the beach; an hour to the Everglades. Gayle and I hope to plan a joint host’s reception [with FIU] at the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection.”

Williams: “I’m planning on putting together a panel on and also a post-conference library field trip to FIU’s special collections. Bear in mind the hotel rates will be honored for 2 days prior and 2 days after the conference.”

Hull: “Something I didn’t mention from the libreros report that has to do with the conference is that, in conjunction with our good cataloging friends, John Wright, Stephanie, Ellen, etc., [we] have discussed having a pre-conference workshop on RDA.”

Williams: “We’re aware of that and have let Brenda Salem, new chair of the Cat. & Bib Tech. Subcommittee, know that unlike this year, the announcement of a pre-conference came out after some people had already made travel plans and couldn’t change them, we’re encouraging her to start developing plans and by the time the conference website is created in the fall, and registration, hotel registration, etc. all roll out we can have their information so that people can have that so people can take that into account when making their travel budget and travel plans.”

Jaramillo: “The group that has been working with the libreros is not actually a part of Cat. & Bib Tech. Subcommittee; it’s a separate group, but we’ve asked all the members of the Subcommittee for their input and to work with us on this.”

Anne Barnhart (University of West Georgia): “Along that line, the group that did this year’s instruction pre-conference will send out a poll on the listserv. If it’s warranted, we’re considering doing a longer version of the workshop at next year’s conference.”

Williams: “Mei Méndez is Chair of Miami’s Local Arrangements Committee and we look forward to seeing you all there.”

Shirey: “There is a proposal for 2014 that John Wright will present and the Executive Board will vote on later today.”

Wright read the letter of invitation from H. Julene Butler, University Librarian, BYU, to Hortensia, on behalf of SALALM, to convene its annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on a day in May or June 2014 that is mutually convenient. She has read and accepts the responsibilities of the host institution, and John will serve as BYU’s contact person. The Library remembers fondly the experience they had hosting the 39th SALALM meeting in 1994. They value the work of SALALM and look forward to renewing our acquaintances at its 59th conference. Wright added that since Dr. Butler steps down in September he was glad to have gotten her signature before she leaves the position.

Unidentified speaker: What is the theme for the Miami conference?

Mantilla: "The theme for SALALM LVIII is going to be: Pan-Indigenism, Cosmovision and Globalization: The Confluence of the Indigenous Modes of Thinking in the Americas. The idea is to gather the feedback from this conference and to start the conversation very early, to put up the website early in the fall, so we can prepare throughout the year. We’re planning to have workshops at the beginning and at the end, so we’d like to collect that information very early to allow for planning. I want to expand on what [then Pres.] John Wright did [in SALALM LIII, 2008], and twist a little bit. There are currently systemic indigenous communities communicating mainly through the Internet, throughout all the Americas, and I think we need to pay attention to what they are saying, to what they think. I’d like to establish an equal dialogue with them. It will be a challenging project.”

Tarragó: “This topic of indigenism is very timely because many of our responsibilities are combined with Latino studies, and where we live many immigrants are members of indigenous communities and are preserving their traditions. This aspect is perhaps something that can be talked about.”

Mantilla: “It’s not just for South America, etc. but also for the native peoples in the United States, so please help us to work on this wonderful project.”

Shirey: “Thank you Martha. I’ll report on the new committee chairs.”
Executive Board Committees:
Constitution & Bylaws Committee – Rafael Tarragó continues in his term as Chair;
Policy, Research & Investigation Committee – new Chair is Ellen Jaramillo;
Editorial Board – Orchid Mazurkiewicz continues as Chair [at the Executive Board’s pleasure];
Membership – Adán Griego continues as Chair;
Finance – Paula Covington continues in her term as Chair;
Nominations – new Chair is Stephanie Rocío Miles. New members are: Marisol Ramos and Phillip MacLeod;
Communications Committee – Daisy Domínguez continues as Chair [at the Executive Board’s pleasure].

Substantive Committees/Subcommittees:

Library/Bookdealer/Publisher Relations Subcommittee – New Chair is Jared Marchildon;
Gifts and Exchanges Subcommittee has been dissolved;
Official Publications Subcommittee has been dissolved;
Electronic Resources – new Chair is Michael Scott;
Audio-Visual Media – new Chair is Miguel Valladares.
Cataloging and Bibliographic Technology – new Chair is Brenda Salem.

Shirey: “I now declare this meeting closed, and we’ll proceed to the Executive Board Committee meeting which will be chaired by incoming President Martha Mantilla.”