Welcome to the Friends of the Libraries & Archives of Texas

Friends of Libraries and Archives of Texas
Board Meeting Minutes
January 17, 2006
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Lorenzo de Zavala Archives and Library Building
Room 2002, 1201 Brazos Street,
Austin, Texas

Welcome and Refreshments
In attendance: Darryl Tocker, Sandy Melton Stephens, Michael “Mickey” Schott, JoAnne M. Moore, Dianna Dorman, Donald Oliver, Ramon Noches, Peggy D. Rudd, Carol Roark, Danielle Plumer, Martha Doty Freeman, Tracy Kulen, Liz Claire, Erica McKewen

Call to Order
Darryl Tocker, President called the meeting to order.

Reading and approval of minutes from November 2005, board meeting
No changes or additions, minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report
Mickey Schott gave the unaudited financial report. Not much change from the August report, however there were contributions from the Tocker Foundation and a generous donation from Sandy of $1,000.
Friends Group ended the year with a balance of $10,606

Darryl thanked everyone for his or her contributions.

Membership Report
86 current members
Technically the membership year ended at the end of December, so there are only 6 members who are current.
The mailing that went out in October didn’t yield a lot of new members.
Currently there are two life members at $1,000.
The plan is to reach out to the membership and remind them to renew.

Discussion concerning how to grow the membership of the Friends group. Peggy suggested that board members appear at the 10 system meetings, and speak for about five minutes to make an appeal for members.

Also, the Board could get permission to speak at the TLA Conference luncheon and let the audience know about the Friends Group.

Ramon volunteered to prepare a PowerPoint Presentation.

Darryl will work on membership development to include TLA exchange of mailing lists.

Newsletter Report
Tracy and Erica are working on the Winter 2006 Newsletter. Some articles are written, work continues on others.

State Library Report

Renovation of the building has begun. Texas Building and Procurement Commission has contracted with Bailey Architects in Houston.
The first meeting has been held, and there will be lots of meetings over the next three months; individual and large group meetings.
The building presents a lot of problems and challenges, as do the elevators and the HVAC.

In the seven stack areas there is no more room for archives. 30,000 cubic feet of records are currently stored off-site at the Records Center. The plan is to renovate for a projected 20-30 year growth.
Bailey Architects have a lot of experience working with libraries; they worked with the Fondren at Rice who, like the State Archives, will need to be open to the public during renovation.

More than likely additional funds will be needed, looking at fundraising activities and the possibility of going back to the Legislature for funding.
Staff and the architects will also be working with Brenda Banks, a consultant with the Georgia Archives, who is up with the “archives” technologies.
Would like for 2009 to be the year to cut the ribbon on the renovation.

2009 will mark the Centennial of TSLAC, and David Gracy, a member of the founding board who has a long history with TSLAC, wants to help with honoring the facility by writing and publishing a history of TSLAC.

David has a lot of graduate students at his call and this would be a great opportunity for them to perform research.

Looking at the possibility of UT or A&M Press being the publisher for this history.

There would be a chapter on the Friends in the book.

New Business:

Laurie Brix, volunteer with talking books, would like to become involved with the Friends group. Laurie is very dedicated to her volunteer job with 1000’s of hours dedicated, and would like to stand for election on the board.

Peggy Rudd gave a report on the Sunset Process.

Senator Brimer, a strong supporter of the bond authority for expansion and renovation of TSLAC, is on the Friends Board and is a long time user of the genealogy area. He will be involved in the October 2006 hearing.

Board 2006 terms are getting ready to expire. Darryl stated he would like to serve another term, as did Sandy, Mickey, Donald and Susan.

Nominations need to be brought before the membership.

A strong consistent Board is needed to go forward into another legislative session.

Martha Doty Freeman, commissioner of TSLAC, discussed major fundraising ideas shared at a recent management retreat. TSLAC wants to fundraise to help provide for the ongoing needs and for interesting projects.

Old Business:
The emergency distribution by the board was not needed, as the state library used agency funds and was reimbursed 100% by FEMA. These dollars went back into the general fund.

Thanks were given to Liz Clare for creating a fundraising plan to assist with the digitization of the Confederate Pension Application Collection.

The March meeting was rescheduled to March 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 at the Carver Museum to coincide with the THDI all day meeting.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted –

Susan Smith Dorsey, Secretary

Attending Board Members:

Attending Board Members:	Ramon Noches Carol Roark Pat Smith Darryl Tocker Susan Dorsey	Erica McKewen Liz Demoss Kathleen Jenkins Liz Clare John Anderson
Attending Guests