LISSA Officers Meeting 10/10/08

From lissa

Meeting was held Oct. 10, 2008 at 6:35p.m. in the GSLIS Lounge and adjourned at 7:30p.m. In attendance:Adrian Mitescu, current LISSA President; Amanda Bushnell, current LISSA Vice-president; Kim Giedd, current LISSA Treasurer; Abigail Sweeney, new LISSA Secretary; Christina Gillen, current Student-Faculty Representative, and Molly Caple, new Student-Faculty Representative.

Each member was given an agenda.

== Agenda Item 1: == New officers introductions: Shanti, Molly, Abi, and Helen.

Discussion:

Molly and Abi were present for the meeting. Both spoke briefly about themselves.

Action(s):

• 1: Remind new members to post profiles and a picture of themselves on the LISSA wiki so students can see who they are.

== Agenda Item 2: == Reports from the September and October faculty meetings (Adrian).

Discussion: First, a new program was launched at Simmons for sending GSLIS students over to Seoul, South Korea for a class, so GSLIS has been trying to drum up support towards that. The students would pay here and take the class over there for a week. So far, the program is only for GSLIS students. There are two other programs in the works as well: one in Argentina and one in Nicaragua, that are still in the planning phase. The difference is the South Korean class would be in English, while the other two require a knowledge of Spanish. Sergio Chapparo-Univazo is the organizer of the two Spanish programs, both of which need more support in order to work. Eventually, the programs may be opened up to other students outside the GSLIS program at Simmons. Next, there is a new faculty job offer out to a Mary Jordan, who would be teaching a class on public libraries and management of them. As for how the economy is effecting Simmons, undergraduate enrollment is down, but GSLIS has had its highest enrollment rate ever. There have been problems with fiscal management and the budget, and there will be cuts, but GSLIS will not be effected by them initially. Partly this is due to the program being up for re-accreditation, which the school is starting to work on, although it is still one or two years away. The previous one was in 2003, and there shouldn't be any problems with passing the accreditation. Part of the accreditation process involves the possible redesigning of the GSLIS mission statement. If altered, the mission statement may change what final projects GSLIS students must undertake before graduating, such as a thesis, exams. The mission statement change might also alter the core classes currently in effect. There has been rumor of a hiring freeze, but this is not true. Also, there are three new faculty members to GSLIS: Howard Rodriguez-Mori will be teaching Reference, Lisa Hussey will be teaching Management, and Douglas Harvey, a visiting professor from Australia, will be teaching Cataloging. Lastly, faculty discussed how and when they should petition a sabbatical for themselves. Generally, a year's notice is given in advance.

Action(s):

• 1: Any upcoming faculty meetings will be attended by Adrian and he will report them back to LISSA at our next meeting.

== Agenda Item 3: == The LISSA Award (Adrian & Kim).

Discussion: At the previous LISSA meeting, a idea of a LISSA award was approached. The award needs a name which will also hopefully define the purpose. LISSA members will be voting on a name through our Google group (email Abi for more information). The award would be voted on by students who would also supply the candidates they think most deserve the award. Faculty already have a leadership award that they award to GSLIS students, so this will be a different one than that. Any GSLIS student (except those in LISSA) will be eligible for the award. There isn't much time this semester to begin the process of creating the award and having students vote, so next Spring will be a more likely time to approach it, and hopefully the award will be up and running by this summer. Adrian has already talked to Em Claire, as well as the Dean about the award. It was decided on that the big prize will be $250, and then there will be a drawing for $50 for students to reward them for nominating/voting.

Action(s):

• 1: LISSA members will vote on a list of possible award names, listed on the LISSA Google group page.
• 2: In order to implement the award, a check needs to be run to see when the nominated people will be graduating. Someone needs to check with Christine Leland, and when the nomination list has been created, send the list to her to double check.
• 3: We will need a database to keep track of the students nominated, as well as a log in process so students can list a profile on why they are voting for the person, and then for the person nominated, so they can list a profile and picture. Kin will work on this with the database manager.
• 4: More discussion is needed on the nomination process at the next meeting.

== Agenda Item 4: == Discussion regarding the "LISSA Standing Appointment"(Adrian).

Discussion: The general LISSA meetings for all students that used to be in effect was stopped since no one was coming to meetings. Right now, LISSA has standing appointments, where two officers stand in the halls/Lounge before Mondays classes from 5-6 pm to answer questions about LISSA.

Action(s):

• 1: Amanda will try to show up for a Standing Appointment for two Wednesdays, Oct. 15 and 22 from 5-6, and Hannah will be asked to take the last Wednesday in October. Officers will talk amongst selves to figure out who will take November appointment, Abi will try for Thursdays in Nov. Please try a different day each month, and stick with one day per week.
• 2: Adrian will talk to ALA, maybe get the money together to post a big sign in the Lounge "Come talk to LISSA!"
• 3: Kim will put some money aside from the budget to pay for a bowl of candy to offer to students.
• 4: Officers will research printing up papers to hand out with the LISSA wiki URL on them.

== Agenda Item 5: == Outstanding issues from the previous meeting (in May).

Discussion: May meeting: LISSA emails were taken care of. Online evaluation is off the ground, and are all based on class evaluations. At the end of the summer, LISSA will try to get a database together of all the evaluations on every professor. Bringing speakers to campus: we are all very busy right now, it would be a hard thing to tackle. Postpone.

Action(s):

• 1: Adrian will ask at the next faculty meeting if faculty will let students fill out evaluations at the second to last class of the semester, not the last, so as to catch more students.

== Agenda Item 6: == Other Issues.

Discussion: End of semester party: 2nd to last week vs the very last week? Options are pointing towards a Monday more likely, so the 1st of December or the 8th. Fall graduation will be on Sunday, Dec. 7th, so the 1st might be a better option.

Action(s):

• 1: Amanda will decide on what place, day and time work best for the party and will keep us up to date on the plans.