Organization > Chapters > Greater Philadelphia > Minutes and Reports
Minutes
June 19, 2002 Meeting
Bryn Mawr College
VRAP held its spring meeting on Wednesday, June 19, 2002, at Bryn Mawr College with ten members present. Those attending were Heather Glaser, University of Pennsylvania; Nancy Halli, Bryn Mawr College; Tessa Izenour, Swarthmore College; Jeannine Keefer, University of the Arts; Anne Trotter, Rosemont College; Virginia Restemeyer, Philadelphia University;Joan Beaudoin, Bryn Mawr College; Carol Campbell, Bryn Mawr College; and Alice Bampton, Villanova University.
The meeting began at noon with a lunch in the Deanery-Taft Garden. President Carol Campbell called the business meeting to order at 12:50 p.m. and announced that seven members of the local group attended the Visual Resources Association convention in St. Louis. She also stated that the Tri-Colleges (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore) are actively discussing data imaging, data bases, and image presentation systems and that these are very expensive to implement.
Carol reported that while she was in St. Louis at the VRA convention she met Marcia Focht and learned that there are about ten chapters, some large and active with high dues and others like ours. Carol was asked how she knows who are members of our group and the answer is that it is determined by those who are members of the national organization who also attend the local meetings. Carol stated that we must hold two meetings a year and that we must submit a report to the national organization; the mid-year report was submitted in a timely fashion by Carol with a copy to Alice.
Our group was asked to ratify the appointment of Jeannine Keefer as a delegate to the national Membership Committee and we unanimously did so. A discussion followed regarding Jeannine’s responsibilities , whether this is a provisional appointment, and whether all local chapters have representatives.
The next topics for discussion were dues and the election or selection of officers. We have no dues, but Carol reported that both MidAtlantic VRA and the local ARLIS chapters have dues of $10 per year and we should be thinking about the possibility of dues for our chapter. Alice’s term as secretary will soon end and the next person on the membership list, Karen Glick, will become secretary as we decided at the spring 2001 meeting at Rosemont College. If Karen does not wish to accept the appointment Alice offered to continue in office and, should we decide to collect dues, she is willing to do our banking. This must be decided at the fall meeting.
We must hold our second meeting in the fall and there was a discussion about possible locations, speakers, and funds for honorariums. Invitations to speakers outside the immediate Delaware Valley area would require support of at least $650-700 to cover honorarium, travel expenses and overnight housing. Joan suggested that we might be included when people from Smith College come to the Tri-Colleges. A discussion followed as to whether Carol should ask for funds (amount available is unknown) from the national organization. Our consensus was that we should wait until we have some specific plans.
Both Heather Glaser (Penn) and Jeanine Keefer (University of the Arts) offered to host the fall meeting. Program and location of the meeting will be worked out and members notified by e-mail.
As part of new business we were reminded that VRA is calling for papers to be presented at the annual conference in Houston, April 7-12. The members present made no proposals.
With no other new business suggested, Carol adjourned the business meeting at 1:30 p.m. After a brief break, members met in classroom B 25 in Rhys Carpenter Library for Art, Archaeology and Cities for a demonstration by Joan Beaudoin, Associate Director, Digital Media and Visual Resources Center. Joan’s topic was "Digital Media and Visual Resources Image Collection," a three year project in which 132,000 records will go on line. Joan demonstrated how searches could be carried out although the actual functionality of the system will not be determined until it is tested by users. Joan reported that this is a large project involving several servers, several computers and scanners and a vast amount of time and the project will not same money.
Joan’s presentation was followed by a discussion during which we were told that digital images will be used for survey courses at Penn and Temple University. The University of the Arts uses File Maker Pro and MDID digital collection for images and the University of the Arts faculty must do their own work with staff providing training. Anne noted that Rosemont College has equipment available in their library for use by all disciplines. One of the major concerns for all of us is for adequate support staff to implement the new technology.
The meeting ended at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Alice E. Bampton
Secretary
