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Governance Update, August 2021

The Board of Directors met on August 9, 2021 via video conference. In attendance were Brian Detlor, PhD (President); Naresh Agarwal (President-Elect); Clara Chu, PhD (Past President); Ina Fourie, PhD (Treasurer); ); AJ Million (SIG Cabinet Director); Anna Maria Tammaro, PhD; Dan Wu, PhD; Lydia Middleton, MBA, CAE (Executive Director); and Chris Cunningham, PhD (Parliamentarian)

Consent Agenda

The consent agenda, which was approved included the following:

  • Draft Minutes of 14 Jun 2021 Board Meeting
  • July 2021 Membership Report
  • FY2021 Preliminary Financial Statement
  • July 2021 Merrill Lynch Statement
  • 2020 Wiley Publishers Report

President's Report

Brian Detlor reported on the following:

  • Ther was a healthy turnout for elections, with a lot of members voting. Abebe Rorissa will be President Elect and Joan Bartlett, Tina Du and Maria Bonn will be Members-at-Large.
  • He is in regular contact with Sandy Hirsh (President of ALISE) and Michael Seadle (Executive Director of iSchool) to discuss iFederation activites.
  • There will be two panel sessions that he will participate in. The first will be the iFederation panel at the ALISE conference on September 24th, and talk about resilience in Information Science &Technology Research and Practice. He will then represent ASIS&T at our Annual Meeting where he will participate in a panel talking about how to grow the iFederation.
  • He prepared a short video for Michael Olsson, a professor at the University of the Philippines. The video is for the 60th Annivesary of the School of Library & Information Studies at the University of the Philippines.
  • He received a complimentary registration to the SLA conference from August 11th-13th and will attend virtually.

Executive Director Report

Lydia Middleton reported on the following:

  • Membership is increasing, thanks to Annual Meeting registration.
  • Annual Meeting registration is slower than hoped with most registering for virtual. She noted that this will be an important consideration for AM22 as we don't want the face-to-face meeting to languish.
  • Annual Meeting Submissions were lower than usual.
  • All individual awards have all now been chosen.
  • The election concluded with record-breaking response.
  • 36 applicants out of 86 distinguished members met the crtieria, these members will be reocnginzed at the Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony.
  • Finances for the year-end for FY21 projects net profit in excess of $300k.
  • Annual Meeting is the top priority for the remainder of the year.

SIG Cabinet Report

AJ Million reported the following:

  • The quarterly SIG Meeting was well attended and they proposed ways for SIGs to become more active.
  • He has solicited nominations for SIG Cabinet elections and will hold elections at end of August.

Chapter Assembly Report

Sam Chu was not in attendance so Lydia Middleton reported the following

  • The Middle East Chapter has been formed formed. Dania Bilal has taken the lead and there are currently about 10 members in the Chapter.
  • Terrence Curtiss is reaching out to get more activity going in the Midwest and Southeast Chapters.
  • The West US chapter and Canada Chapter are the next Chapters that need to be created.
  • Michael Olsson is currently working on creating an Oceania Chapter.
  • Crystal Fulton is helping out with a lot of acitivies for chapters and is a great asset.

Strategic Plan Update

Lydia reporting the following:

  • Regional Chapter matters are gaining momentum.
  • Distinguished members have been informed and will be recognized at the Annual Meeting.
  • Consulting Service Proposal addresses several strategic objectives.
  • The Publications Commitee proposes a switch from having JASIST Special Issue from Annual Meetings to inviting JASIST authors to present at the Annual Meeting program, so the rigor of Annual Meeting presentations is increased.

Consulting Service Proposal

Members of the Board have identified the offer of consulting services for hire as a potential source of revenue for the association. Under this proposed program, ASIS&T will serve as as the contracting entity in the provision of consulting services staffed by ASIS&T members to a variety of potential clients to provide consulting services in a wide array of areas. Public- and private-sector entities throughout the world would be potential clients. The initial financial outlay for the program would be $62,000 over two years with a predicted 100%+ ROI by the end of Year 3.

The Board generally supported this idea, noting the potential to provide not only revenue but also member benefit and increased exposure to industry and government.

Motion: To authorize staff to move forward in developing a full-blown business plan for the consultin program and consult counsel on appropriate organizational structure as well as future expenditure up to $62,000 from reserves to support this effort. Moved by Detlor and seconded by Fourie.

The motion was passed.

Next Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Board will be held as follows:

Saturday, October 30, 2021
Salt Lake City Marriott

All members are welcome to attend as observers without voice or vote.

Return to Inside ASIS&T, August 2021