Minutes 1999

IASSIST Annual General Meeting, May 20, 1999, Toronto, Ont., Canada

1. Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 13:24 with approximately 80 persons present. Chair: Peter Burnhill, President. Minutes: Laine Ruus

2. Welcome and presidential address (P Burnhill)

Burnhill welcomed those present. He reviewed briefly changes and successes of the past year, including: the restructuring of the treasucy, the successful reorganization of the Publications Committee, and the need for the Outreach Committee to seek a source of outside funding for the outreach activity.

For the next two years, focus will be on restructuring the Membership Committee, and on combining the DDI and Bibliographic Action Groups.

3. In memoriam for Ed Hanis (Vince Grey)

The news was received that Ed Hanis had passed away on May 6, 1999. Grey gave a brief biography of Ed Hanis, who had been a founding member of IASSIST, and its first treasurer.

4. Approval of the minutes of the previous annual general meeting.

Moved that the minutes of the 1998 annual general meeting be approved as presented. Moved - Laine Ruus, seconded - Wendy Watkins. The motion passed.

5. Election of officers (Joanne Dionne)

J Dionne reported on the election, on behalf of the Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee. The members of the Committee were: Chuck Humphrey, Jean Stratford, Libbie Stephenson (chair), Joanne Dionne.

Election results are as follows:

• President Peter Burnhill
• Vice-president Anne Green
• Regional secretariats
  • Africa Julia Paris
  • Australia Vance Merrill
  • Canada Wendy Watkins
  • Europe Vigdis Kvalheim
  • United States Peggy Adams
• Members at large
  • Canada Ernie Boyko
  • Europe Coor van der Meer
  • United States Lisa Neidert, Tess Trost, Patrick Yott
• Continuing members
  • Canada Suzette Giles
  • Europe Repke de Vries
  • United States Susan Adler, Diane Geraci, Ann Janda

Burnhill thanked the outgoing members of the Admin Committee for their contributions:

• Regional secretariates
• Europe Bridgit Winstanley
• United States Ilone Einowski
• Members at large
• Canada Gaetan Drolet
• Europe Karsten Rassmussen
• United States Peggy Adams, Jim Jacobs

He further introduced the continuing presidential appointments:

• Secretary Laine Ruus
• Treasurer Wendy Treadwell

6. Statement of financial health (Wendy Treadwell)

W Treadwell reported that the Association is in good financial condition, with reserves of approximately US$56,000.00, which represents a full year’s expenses, plus an additional cushion. Bank interest earned covers banking charges. The membership fees cover membership charges. Conferences generate additional revenues, for example, the 1998 conference generated US$6,000.00 in net income.

The treasury consists of, in addition to herself, three regional treasurers:

• United States Joanne Dionne
• Canada Gaetan Drolet
• United Kingdom Allison Bayley

7. Reports

7.1 Publications and Communications Committee (Peggy Adams)

Five issues of the IASSIST Quarterly have been mailed out, and one is at the printer. The process is as follows: rticles are first sent to Juri Stratford for editorial work, then to Walter Piovesan for layout, and then simultaneiously to Chuck Humphrey for mounting on the WWW site, and to Kinko’s for duplicating. W Treadwell produces the labels.

W Treadwell is also putting together a membership directory for publication and distribution. G Haley manages the Association listservs, to which only members can post. A team of four persons at Columbia University physically manage the listservs.

Near term issues:

• a more appropriate domain name is needed
• copyright and indexing issues need to be resolved.

7.2 International Outreach Action Group (Ilona Einowski)

I Einowski reported that the AGs goals for the past year have been accomplished. The AG consists of: Judith Rowe, Juri Stratford, Melanie Wright, Repke de Vries, and Laine Ruus.

Procedures for application have been outlined on the WWW site. I Einowski has also compiled a detailed history of the work done, outlining the problems encountered and the solutions applied.

At this conference, three persons were funded: Dusan Soltan, ? Stefanescu, and Tatiana Yudina.

7.3 Membership Committee

No report is available from this committee. The committee will be top priority for reorganization in the coming year.

7.4 Regional Secretariates (Ann Green)

Reports will not be presented at this conference. Reports for the previous year will be available on the WWW site in the next months.

8. Conferences (P Burnhill)

8.1 IASSIST 2000 conference

Will be held in the week of June 5-10, 2000, at Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois.

Local Arrangements Committee will consist of Ann Janda and Fay Booker; Diane Geraci.

8.2 IASSIST 1999 conference

P Burnhill thanks the organizers of the 1999 conference: C Humphrey, Program chair, Walter Giesbrecht, conference web master, Suzette Giles and Laine Ruus, Local Arrangements Committee.

9. Other business

Dusan Soltes thanked the Association on behalf of the Outreach Action Group-funded conference participants, and lauded the Associations efforts to facilitate attendance by Third World participants in the conference.

10. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 14:10.