Mid-Atlantic Chapter
Visual Resources Association (VRA)

Minutes of the Business Meeting held at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
October 28, 2011

Chair, Jacqueline Protka
Secretary-Treasurer, Jessica Bailey
Attendees: Catherine Adams, Jessica Bailey, Amy Golder-Cooper, Jodi Hoover, Jeannine Keefer, Jennifer Kniesch, Carolyn Lucarelli, Jacqueline Protka, Paul Reuther, Bob Willis, Ross Wolcott

The meeting was hosted by Jennifer Kniesch, Visual Resources Librarian for the Department of Art and Art History at Dickinson College. The Pennsylvania meeting location was chosen in support of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter’s efforts to reach out to former members of the dissolved Greater Philadelphia Chapter. The day began with coffee and pastries and a tour of the VRC in the Weiss Building. Attendees were also treated to a tour of the Trout Gallery before the business meeting. After lunch the group was given a tour of the Goodyear Building gallery, ceramic studio and artist/ student studios. The final scheduled activity for the day was an Adobe Lightroom instruction session taught by Ross Wolcott.

Call to Order, Introductions & Approval of Summer 2011 Minutes

The business meeting was called to order by the Chair. There were 11 attendees, including three VRA members who did not belong to the Mid-Atlantic Chapter at the time: Carolyn Lucarelli and Catherine Adams from Penn State University in State College, PA, and Amy Golder-Cooper from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. (Ms. Lucarelli and Ms. Golder-Cooper have since joined the Mid-Atlantic Chapter).

The Chair thanked the non-members for attending. All attendees introduced themselves. The Secretary-Treasurer forgot to bring copies of the minutes from the Summer 2011 meeting at George Mason University, so it was agreed that they would be approved at the next meeting (at the VRA Annual Conference in Albuquerque, NM).

Third-Quarter Reports from Chair and Secretary-Treasurer

The Chair reported that 24 Chapter members had already renewed for 2012. The Secretary-Treasurer reported that the Chapter Bursar account held $1,213.53.

Report from Top-Up Award Committee and Discussion of Application

Jennifer, Jessica and Jodi presented the application materials they had created for the award and asked for Chapter feedback. Based on the balance in the Chapter Bursar and increasing conference registration fees, a $300 top-up award was recommended and a vote confirmed that this should be the amount. The Committee members agreed to send out the call for applications via the VRA-L list serv in early December, with an application deadline of early January. The Committee members also agreed to evaluate applications and choose the recipient.

Shared Shelf/ Albuquerque Conference/ Future Meetings

Jeannine Keefer (University of Richmond) was an early adopter of Shared Shelf. There was some discussion of methods for ingestion of cataloging data from subscribers to ARTstor.

The Chair asked how many attendees were planning to go to the VRA Annual Conference in Albuquerque in 2012. Many attendees were not yet sure if their budget would allow for travel to the southwest.

Sites for future meetings were suggested, including the Richmond Botanical Garden, and trying to arrange another joint meeting with the ARLIS DC-MD-VA Chapter.

Call for New Business/ Adjournment

None of the attendees had any new business to add to the agenda. The meeting was adjourned.