RECENT ACTIVITIES…

Board of Trustees Activities

The Board of Trustees met September 15 at TC3, and October 6 at Binghamton University (at the Annual Meeting). Actions taken at these meetings included:

· ·   Reviewing the audit. SCRLC again received a clean bill of health for our financial management.

·   Heard an update on the move of our banking to the Tompkins Trust Company. The Tompkins Trust Co. offers a suite of services that allow us to maximize earnings on our deposits while maintaining their security.

·   Amended the By Laws to update the number of terms a Board member may have.

· Approved payment of the Resource Sharing Subsidies for interlibrary loans within the region in 2005/2006. Forty three libraries shared $30,000 this year.

· Discussed the actions needed to dissolve the SCRLC Trust Inc.

· Reviewed a proposed investment plan for the Council’s cash balance and for any funds available after the SCRLC Trust Inc is dissolved.

· Reviewed, and provided advice on, a proposed Regional Digitizing Plan of Action.

· At all meetings, the Board approves all the payments we make and reviews a monthly financial report including how we are managing our budget. (JC)

SCRLC Recent Activities

Some of the activities the Council has been involved since July include:

· With a lot of help from one of the other NY3Rs, we planned and held a Basket Raffle to have some fun at our 40^th Annual meeting and at the same time raise some money for our continuing education program. Twenty two member libraries, individuals, and vendors generously donated baskets or cash for the raffle. There were elegant, fun, and practical baskets that ran the gamut from a romantic getaway in Trumansburg to a man size tool kit. We sold raffle tickets before and during the Annual Meeting and raised $1,500 that will help sponsor speakers in 2007. Thanks to everyone who donated baskets and bought raffle tickets! Our 40^th annual meeting was held in the same place as our first one in 1967 – Binghamton University. A fuller report on the day is found elsewhere in this newsletter. Planning for this meeting meant digging around in our archives – what fun that was especially checking out the typewritten minutes and remembering some of the people involved back in 1967. One person who is still working in our region who was here in 1967 is Elsie Torres from Wells College. I wonder if there are any others?

· This summer, we had a big clean up and got rid of a lot of old financial files that had accumulated. Getting the big shredder truck to come to our building and shred all the boxes of paper made this a snap. We did keep two original handwritten ledger books from 1967 just for the sake of nostalgia. We were into our history this year!

· We always have our audit in the early fall, and this year due to Danna Harris’s good business management, this was done in less than a day. Once again, we had a clean bill of health and received a basket from the Auditor as well!

· All library systems in New York State now submit their annual plans, reports etc. online to the New York State Library. Because of rather clunky software, this can be an arduous task. We submitted our annual plan in the summer and also the Plan of Service for 2006-2011. We are currently doing the online Annual Report for 2005-2006. We recently sent members a nice printed version of our annual report and you can see it online at http://www.lakenet.org/scrlc/2006annualreport.pdf

· Also early this fall, academic libraries submitted their applications for Coordinated Collection Development Aid. Twenty libraries applied for a total of $190,865 to supplement their collections. Information about this program and the subjects each academic library collects in can be found at http://www.lakenet.org/ccda.html. These materials are all available on interlibrary loan.

· SCRLC was the lead agent for all the NY3Rs in obtaining an LSTA grant to sponsor a statewide series of workshop on Continuous Assessment, Continuous Improvement. The third and last series is underway right now in Newburgh, Auburn, and Amherst. These workshops have led to some big and small changes in various work processes in libraries in New York and in some cases to a positive change in the whole culture of a library. We have heard stories for three years now about how the workshops affected services to customers, improved visibility with administrators, established teamwork that really works, and in one case, the library becoming a priority in fundraising. It has been a pleasure for us to work with Sara Laughlin and Associates. And it has been a wonderful experience to meet and work with so many great people around the state in the last three years on all of the workshops. (JC)