Meeting Minutes: August 22, 2002

Minutes of August 22, 2002 meeting, Central Agency for Jewish Education, Miami

Present: Margot Berman, Robin Coller, Heidi Estrin, Etta Gold, Sandy Gottesman, Bea Muskat, Art Quinn, Phyllis Robarts, Sara Schandelson, Schlomit Schwarzer, Alice Shook, Walter Spielman, Lee Wixman, Shirley Wolfe

I) President Heidi Estrin opened the meeting at 12:25pm. Heidi thanked Shirley Wolfe for hosting the meeting at her library. Shirley gave some background as to the loss of funds for her library budget over the past few years. The new director of CAJE seems to be taking more of an interest in the library, but it is unknown whether the CAJE library will continue to be viable.

II) Convention news- Heidi announced that eight chapter members attended the convention in Denver this past June. Heidi, Etta Gold and Lee Wixman all spoke of their experiences at the convention. The new president of ALA, Mitch Freedman, spoke at the convention highlighting the need to raise the level of respect and pay of library professionals. His speech was part of the inspiration for our chapter's new "pre-certification" project.

III) Pre-certification- Heidi spoke of the accreditation process and a new program created by our chapter to help promote the importance of the library. This pre-certification step is not an official requirement of accreditation but it is suggested that those librarians seeking accreditation participate in this extra step. Those interested would host a chapter meeting and invite the administrator of the host institution to speak at the meeting about the importance of the library, at least to raise consciousness of the library. Participants should also compile letters of appreciation to demonstrate the impact of the library on its users. During the pre-certification meeting, chapter members would help the host to assess their library in order to fill out the accreditation paperwork more easily. For a full explanation, see the cover story in Headlines & Footnotes, August, 2002.

IV) Chapter business- members discussed topics for future meetings, such as birthday book clubs, senior book clubs and teaching through historical fiction.

Membership dues ($15.00) should be sent to Heidi.

Heidi issued a press release on the chapter's representation at the Denver convention, which was published in the Sun-Sentinel's "Shalom Today" section, August 8, 2002. The tour coordinator of FAU's Judaica Collection, upon reading the article, contacted Heidi to invite SFAJL to visit the collection and perhaps to hold a meeting there. Other SFAJL members are encouraged to use this press release in their own local papers, or to create press releases when appropriate.

Lee Wixman shared a letter from Palm Beach County Library System announcing its joining AJL.

V) Swap and Share- Shirley, Heidi, and Etta shared information on publications related to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Some other members said that their congregations will have services remembering the attacks but have had little publicity. Other members had been asked by law enforcement not to have services on that date.

VI) YOUR News- Sandy Gottesman announced she is getting married in October. Robin Coller announced her graduation on August 10 from USF's library science program. Phyllis Guttman's mother in New York recently passed away.

The next AJL meeting will be at Temple Israel in West Palm Beach on October 16. Alice Warren Shook will be our hostess, and we will initiate the pre-certification process for accreditation during the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45pm.