LAUC-D Executive Board Meeting

Friday, May 5, 2004

Corrected and Approved

Present: T. Malmgren (Chair), D. Goldstein, P. French, D. Morrison, R. Gustafson, B. Heyer-Gray, C. Craig, N, Kushigian, P. Inouye, D. King (Recorder)

1. Call to Order: 9:05 AM

2. Minutes from last meeting (April 9): Approved with one correction

3. Announcements:
(a). Spring Assembly is next Thursday on May 13. There will be a webcast at 1:15 that afternoon. Question: are there any plans to have a screening of the webcast in the library? T. Malmgren will follow up with Dale Snapp on this issue; it might need to be held in the LIL because of the landline phone. The Statewide Executive Board meeting will be on Friday, and T. Malmgren will write up a short report upon returning.

(b). Last Monday, T. Malmgren participated in a Statewide conference call. The search for the AUL for Public Services position at UCSD has been completed, and an announcement is expected soon. The UL position at UCSC is now in the second round of interviews. There have been no applications for the travel award to Spring Assembly. This is an award for new librarians, and T. Malmgren will announce a reminder at the next LAUC-D General Meeting. The interim Professional Governance report is being revised; T. Malmgren has sent in proposed revisions, and these will be up for discussion at Statewide. The Position Paper Review Task Force report will be up for discussion at the General meeting today. The suggested revisions are for the guidelines on writing position papers. LAUC Statewide has opened the appointed position for webmaster; those interested may apply for it. Appointments to Statewide begin in August. The date for Fall Assembly will preferably take place before Thanksgiving. There was some interest in Statewide Executive Board for future meeting sites only taking place at Berkeley and UCLA. The site for the next Statewide meeting is still uncertain.

LAUC-D Executive Board members expressed some confusion over the meaning of “retired” as opposed to “archived” in the Position Paper Task Force Report. While all LAUC documents are archived for historical purposes, a retired paper will refer to a document that no longer reflects a LAUC position. The position papers will represent the organization’s position at a particular time, and will no longer be constantly revised. The issue of confusing language on what these terms mean may be something to discuss at the Statewide meeting for some clarification.

4. Committee Reports
(a). Review Board (N. Kushigian): The committee is effectively finished for the year. There will be a report soon.
(b). Research Committee (D. Goldstein): The Statewide committee sent recommendations to UCOP with funding suggestions. UCOP allowed the application of non-unit funds to research this year.
(c). Professional Activities Committee (C. Craig): An e-mail has been sent reminding members of deadlines for submitting travel funding requests.
(d). Program Committee (R. Gustafson): The program on journal pricing with Ted Bergstrom went well, but there weren’t many faculty in attendance. The program on open access publications is still being planned, but it still needs more H/SS titles. D. Goldstein mentioned the History Cooperative from leading historical associations. Some of these publications are open access.
(e). Nominations (D. Morrison): The committee has completed the proposed slate of candidates, and will take nominations from the floor. There were many volunteers for appointed positions as well. T. Malmgren thanked the committee for its hard work. There is a short turnaround after the elections in June to report results to the Statewide Secretary. The Board unanimously adopted the slate as proposed. The Executive Board officially accepted D. King’s offer of volunteering for the position of LAUC-D web manager for the coming year, but agreed that the position should exist more officially in the future for the sake of continuity. If by-laws are reviewed in the future, it is one of several positions that the organization may change or add.

5. Peer Review Documents Revision/Review Committee (PRDRC)
The committee submitted proposed revisions to the Board. P. Inouye provided an overview of the background on this for members. Local language in peer review documents can be changed annually, but APM language cannot. Right now, the language used is not exactly the same for represented and non-represented librarian documents. Confusion occurs because of differences between APM language and local language; though the Review Board often finds the APM language to be useful, they are required to use local language only. Executive Board determined that the membership needs to review the report and bring it to some sort of specific vote. Proposed revisions have been discussed often, but never voted on. This can be an agenda item at an upcoming general membership meeting in the summer. However, any approved revisions will probably not go into effect this coming year, since George Bynon must submit library review documents to the campus in August.

6. Distinguished Step
In a conference call with Statewide LAUC President Linda Kennedy, the ULs returned proposed system-wide discussion of the Distinguished Step back to individual campuses and local language. The criteria for the Step are still in the salary scale notes for represented and non-represented librarians. UCD local language has not been changed since the 1970s, so it may need to be reviewed. The Board discussed possibly sending this charge to the Professional Issues Committee or the PRDRC.

The following points were discussed by members regarding this matter:
* The issue is really whether we want a “barrier step” at UCD and if we can come to a consensus about it. Also, if the Step is in the salary scale notes, it affects all campuses and may not even be something we can completely control. Who can actually revise policy? Are we trying to draft an actual change, or state an opinion on the subject?
*Alternatively, we can cut out all language that refers to the distinguished step locally, and substitute it with the more basic language in the salary scale notes.
*But, the extra language can help provide the Review Board with better guidance in making recommendations. We may want to schedule a meeting of the membership and ask if a codified barrier step is desired locally.
*If a barrier step is imposed from an outside force and cannot be changed by LAUC, this needn’t be a big issue.
*The Distinguished Step is supposed to be a career overview, but it is often perceived as a review of a librarian’s most recent activities.

T. Malmgren will investigate this matter further with G. Bynon and M. Sharrow, and the Board will revisit it later. Specifically, the Board needs to know what the process would be for changing any language, and what role LAUC-D can play in this.

7. Meeting Adjourned: 10:45 AM