Organization > Chapters > Greater New York > Minutes/Reports
Notes from the VRA NY Chapter Spring Meeting
Wednesday, May 13, 2009, Judith and Stanley Zabar Art Library of Hunter College
In attendance: Donald Beetham, Elizabeth Darocha Berenz, Ching-Jung Chen, Sherman Clarke, Claire Dienes, Lisa Gavell, Lorraine Gerety, Andrew Gessner, Sarah Goldstein, Kristine Heid-Santiago, Steven Kowalik, Billy Kwan, Carol Lekarew, Anastasia Levadas, Maria Oldal, Jenni Rodda, Eileen Sullivan, Kerry Sullivan, Barbara Treitel, Carey Weber, Dustin Wees, Julie Zeftel
Minutes
The meeting began at 3:00pm.
Barbara Treitel submitted her Treasurer and Membership reports to the members. The chapter balance is $1,655.16 as of April 16, 2009.
Expenses:
- $50.00 contribution as co-sponsor with the NYTSL towards their 2009 spring reception.
- $200.00 Chapter contribution to sponsor the national VRA conference.
- It was previously decided not to allocate money towards travel awards this year, since last year there were no applicants.
Membership:
Special thanks to Kristine Heid-Santiago, who is the webmaster and coordinator of the local chapter webpage, and also to Don Beetham who creates the email links into the web database and assigns new member numbers. There are currently 31 paid memberships to the chapter as of May 13, 2009.
Chapter by-laws, Bursary and Bundled Membership:
Billy Kwan led a discussion of the VRA Bundled Membership and Chapter Bursary programs. Each chapter must go over the options and tell the national VRA what they would like to do within a month or two. Billy also pointed out that the chapter chair must review the proposed changes to the chapter by-laws and suggested a committee be formed to review it and report to the membership. Discussion turned back to the memberships and bursary issue. The chapter decided to take a non-binding straw vote on the bundling and bursary. This vote is intended to provide guidance to the chapter officers as they continue to investigate these new programs and report back. Jenni Rodda moved that the chapter take a straw vote on whether to accept the Bundled Membership program. The vote was 12 for and 2 opposed. Dustin Wees moved that the chapter take a straw vote on whether to accept the Bursary system. The vote was 10 for and 3 opposed. The chapter officers will continue to look at the bundling and bursaries and report back to the chapter in a timely fashion. Dustin Wees moved that the chapter officers become the committee to study the changes in the chapter by-laws and report back as necessary. There was unanimous agreement on this from the chapter.
New Officers:
A new vice-chairperson needed to be designated at this meeting. Jenni Rodda graciously volunteered for the position and Steve Kowalik moved that the chapter vote on Jenni by acclamation. Sarah Goldstein moved into the position of Chair.
Fall Meeting:
Steven Kowalik proposed a possible meeting at the NYPL with Susan Chute, Supervising Librarian of the Art and Picture Collections. Billy Kwan suggested a possible topic/other meeting on statistics of use of digital images. ARTstor colleagues indicated they would be able to contribute to this discussion as well since this is a topic being worked on there. The chapter officers will discuss this and report back.
NYTSL Spring Evening Program:
Sherman Clarke mentioned that at the NYTSL meeting on May 6, 2009, Josh Greenberg of the NYPL had talked about a new open source digital collections tool called OMEKA, and that this may be of interest to members of the chapter in the future.
VRA Conference: Issues in VR Administration
Billy Kwan gave a brief synopsis and report to the chapter on a workshop he attended at the national conference in March. Much of the content was particularly relevant to the current economic climate, including some advice about how to be a valuable employee when many institutions are undertaking layoffs and cutbacks.
At 4:00pm the meeting adjourned to continue with the panel discussion on the disposition of analog materials as well as a tour of the new art library space of our wonderful host, Steven Kowalik. Congratulations and thanks to Billy Kwan, the outgoing chapter Chair for his service and leadership.
Minutes submitted by Sarah Goldstein.
