Organization > Chapters > Greater Philadelphia > Minutes and Reports

Minutes

August 25, 2005 Meeting
University of Pennsylvania, Fisher Fine Arts Library, Rare Book Room

Convenor: Heather Glaser, Chairperson

Attending: Joan Beaudoin (BMC), Monica McLaughlin (Rosemont), Carol Campbell (BMC), Susan Dreher (Swarthmore), Mary Wassermann (PMA). Evan Towle (PMA).

Heather Glaser, Chapter Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. The meeting was the “spring meeting” for 2005, which was delayed due to Heather’s taking maternity leave. Evan Towle, Visual and Digital Resources Librarian at PMA, was welcomed, and Monica McLaughlin, who has returned to Rosemont College after an interruption.

Old Business:

  1. Heather submitted a Mid-Year Report to the national Board on June 14, 2005. She read the reply from Kathe Hicks Albrecht, VRA President (American University, Wash. D.C.), dated July 29, 2005, who thought the proposed idea of a future meeting with ARLIS/Delaware Valley Chapter a good one.
  2. Heather clarified that the Chapter must have two meetings a calendar year. Last year there was also a special event, the ARTstor demo at Bryn Mawr College on June 18, 2004.
  3. Reports from attendees at the national VRA conference at Miami, March 6 -10, 2005:
    1. Susan Dreher received an educational award ($ 50 from VRA Education Committee) to attend the CCO workshop. She also went to an ARTstor session.
    2. Joan Beaudoin reported on several workshops or sessions, including “Professionalism” (Jeannine Keefer, a previous chapter member was a speaker), architecture and ARTstor.

New Business:

  1. Treasurer’s Report. Carol Campbell gave the Report for 2004: There are 8 paid members (national and local) and 2 institutional members who have not yet paid 2004 local dues. The treasury is $ 90: $ 10 dues from the two officers, Campbell and Bampton who paid $ 5 ea. in 2003; $ 80 dues collected from 8 persons in 2004). The treasury is still not at a level to be practical for banking because of fees. A savings account should be considered.
  2. Dues for 2005 continues the same amount. At the August 25 meeting, all seven persons attending paid dues ($ 70) so that the treasury now stands at $ 160.
    The Chairperson read the Chapter’s “Dues statement” in response to an inquiry as to reason/use of dues from a chapter member.
    The Secretary-Treasurer clarified that the collection of local dues is now required by the National Board for all chapter members, including institutional, who must pay local dues individually.
  3. Heather Glaser and Mary Wassermann reported on their attending the Greater New York Chapter meeting at Princeton University on Friday June 17, 2005, on “Almagest.” A brochure was handed around. Almagest is a) an interface that allows the searching of several database softwares. b) acts as a presentation platform for faculty so that students may consult later. It takes images, film, clips, audio-clips, and is full-text searchable. It has purpose of an institutional repository where users can post own work. Concern about copyright issues was raised. MDID, instead of Almagest is currently used by the consortium of BMC, Haverford, and Swarthmore for their image repositories.
  4. Group discussion of ARTstor in local chapter institutions with its pluses and its ongoing limitations, and the technological responses to advances from institutional IT persons, e.g. how to survive when projectors are being phased out, and new classrooms are being outfitted with only single, not dual projection, and a move to a “scholarly commons.” For the most part, most of the chapter members are currently running dual technologies (both analog and digital) without added staff support, or enough financial support to make complete conversion practical.
  5. Carol Campbell agreed to continue the current Secretary-Treasurer’s two year term for 2006, as she had previously only accepted for 2005.
  6. Joan Beaudoin, Head of the Visual Resources Dept. at Bryn Mawr College, announced her departure at the end of September 2005 to take on a Ph.D. program in Information Services at Drexel, with fellowship support. Carol Campbell spoke for the chapter members in expressing gratitude to Joan for all her many years of VRA-P service and support! She has just completed her MLS at Drexel and has a forthcoming article due out in ARLIS’s ArtDoc.
  7. Heather polled members for topics for an afternoon meeting at the next national conference, Baltimore, March 6 -11, 2006. She also asked for ideas for the next local meeting, with several good ideas suggested that might also be of interest to local ARLIS members.

The meeting ended about 2:30 p.m. with refreshments provided by the Chairperson in the Fisher Library Staff Lounge. The program was a visit from 3 -3:45 p.m.to the Arthur Ross Gallery, for the exhibition, “Whimsical Works: The Playful Designs of Charles and Ray Eames.”

Respectfully submitted,
Carol W. Campbell

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