ALIA Special Libraries Section (SA)

Meeting minutes

8:10am 13 October 2004.

The ALIA Special Libraries SA committee meeting for October 2004 was scheduled for 8:10am Thursday 7 October 2004 at Se-Juiced, corner Pirie Street and Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.

Only few items were on the agenda and all relating to the previous meeting. Some members of the ALIA Special Libraries SA committee were not able to attend the last few meetings due to other commitments. For those reasons Silvia Muscardin's proposal to conduct the meeting via e-mail was accepted by the majority of the committee members. This decision is taken in accordance with the new guidelines for meetings issued by ALIA National Office that allow for less formality in the way groups conduct their business.

Committee members and observers are invited to correct any point and to add to the summary below as they see appropriate. All contributions must be forwarded by 29 Friday October 2004. After that date the final version of the update will be posted to our website.

1. Minutes of previous meeting

No minutes available.

2. Business arising from the minutes

From memory the items that needed to be followed up were:

2.1 'Round up for the year' (Silvia)

So far six people put their names down for the Migration Museum tour, two requesting a CPD certificate. Four of them will come to the 'Round Up for 2004', drinks and dinner at the MBC Bar. Members of the committee are invited to send in their names and requests for CPD certificates, too, as numbers for the museum tour are limited. If the requests exceed the limit I'll organise a second tour either later in December, or in February next year.

The ad for the event was uploaded to our website. 'Thank you' to our secretary Chris Ridler and Sharon Cunningham, ALIA publishing officer.

2.2 Virtual meetings guidelines (Silvia)

The second draft of the guidelines is being prepared. I apologise for the delay, due mainly to work commitments.

The main change that was discussed at the September meeting relates to the duration of the meeting and the flow of the discussion. It appears that we cannot dedicate one hour to an online meeting, as we do for a face-to-face meeting. During meetings contributions flock in in an erratic fashion, another aspect of virtual, real-time communication.

At the last meeting there was consensus for the discussion to be initiated by e-mail, prior to a virtual meeting. The virtual meeting would be needed to finalise the decision on the items on the agenda, and to maintain a regular forum to touch base and update the committee on the progress of activities being organised.

The guidelines are being modified to accommodate for that change.

I reiterate that I am keen to see virtual meetings become an integral part of the way we conduct our businesses, as they allow a greater participation of members disadvantaged by distance or other circumstances.

3. Correspondence

3.1 Correspondence in

• None.

3.2 Correspondence out

• None.

4. Reports

Please, e-mail your reports to Chris Ridler for inclusion.

4.1 Treasurer report

• None

4.2 Law libraries rep report

• None

4.3 ALIA SALT rep report

• None

4.4 ALIA SA rep report

5. New business

No new business.

6. Any other business

Fiona Hemstock, ALIA special member, attended the September meeting as an observer. She would like to be updated on future meetings and events. I will add her name to the e-list for any communication regarding our activities, such as this update.

7. Next meeting

At the next meeting we only need to finalise the event for the end of the year. Therefore I thought we might try a virtual meeting once more and test the amended guidelines. The next meeting will be on Thursday 4 November 2004, ALIAnet SA chatroom, time TBA by e-mail.