Submitted by Terry Long
One of the items Suzanne Corriell reported on from the last VLA Council meeting was the following: [At the Council meeting they make] you PAY if you use an acronym and don't define it. There was about $10 in the jar to start from their executive session yesterday; I think that was up to $15 by the end of the meeting! Hilarious. Well, yours truly had to pay up this time. I did not define FOIA! I wasn’t the only one who was fined. I think they are up to $20 now!
As for the other items discussed/reported on at the Council meeting:
· Unfortunately, not enough money was committed to the library license plate initiative to have one issued. Any money received by VLA for this project is being refunded.
· There was no gain in state aid by the legislature, however it was not cut. The Legislative Committee has started planning next year’s agenda.
· Discussed how to improve communication with membership in order to keep them informed of VLA Council’s operation and actions.
· Lisa Varga, Executive Director, reported there has been interest in developing a marketing forum within VLA.
· 30 people applied for 3 available scholarships. Each scholarship is for $2500 and is awarded to students pursuing their MLS/MSLS degree
· VLA’s Annual meeting will be at The Main, a Hilton brand hotel, in Norfolk, October 11-13. VALL will have a program track as will VLACRL.
o Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures is the keynote speaker
o Lisa Varga and Patty Petroccione, VALL president, are inviting Ron Wheeler, AALL President as a speaker.
o There will be tours of Norfolk and the new Slover Public Library
o They have received more program proposals than anticipated. There will be 88-100 programs offered over two days.
o New members will have special activities, Sips and Sweets featuring dessert tastings at several restaurants. They will also have a breakfast at the meeting on Friday.
· Intellectual Freedom Committee will have a conference next year on creating strong collection development policies. The committee will meet for a half day retreat on how to be proactive, i.e. promote 1st amendment rights. They are considering sponsoring a library legislative day at the General Assembly.
· The Library of Virginia is quite concerned about the fate of IMLS. If it is not funded, the Library Development Division will be reduced to two people and the summer reading programs will not be funded.
· The General Assembly restored some funding to the Library of Virginia to restore hours and add some staff.
· There is an interesting new exhibit at the Library of Virginia: Teetotalers & Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled.
Acronym key:
AALL American Association of Law Libraries
IMLS Institute of Museum and Library Services
MLS Master of Library Science
MSLS Master of Science in Library Science
VALL Virginia Association of Law Libraries
VLA Virginia Library Association
VLACRL Virginia Library Association College and Research Libraries
