[Chapters-l] Brief update from ASIST Executive Board meeting in Montreal, March 4

[beata_panagopoulos at Harvard.Edu]

Dear Chapter Leaders,

The ASIST Executive Board met in Montreal, March 4, the day before the IA
Summit began.  Montreal (and the hotel, Le Reine Elisabeth) was a fabulous
location.  The IA Summit very successful.  I highly recommend you go next
year if it fits your interests and pocketbook.  It was a very stimulating
environment, with back-to-back programs over 3 days.

MY BRIEF REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE CHAPTERS

This past quarter since the Annual Meeting, we have updated the chapters
page on the ASIST website with the current leaders and also updated the
Chapters-L subscription list.

I am very grateful and happy to announce that we currently have 5 Chapter
Advisors who have touched base (or attempted to do so) with all of their
chapters.

Marija Dalbello
dalbello at scils.rutgers.edu
Pacific Northwest, Potomac Valley, New Jersey, and Delaware Valley
chapters)

Barbara Dunham
dunham.51 at osu.edu
Northern Ohio, Central Ohio, Southern Ohio, and Pittsburgh

Pat Flanagan
patf at wpi.edu
New England, Metro New York, Florida, and Indiana

Deb Helman
dhelman at engr.wisc.edu
Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago, and Michigan.

Linda McCann
lmccann at usc.edu
Los Angeles, East Tennessee, Taipei, and Europe

Out of 21 chapters, there are 7 that are not thriving.  They are:  Chicago,
Delaware, East Tennessee, Metro New York, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and
perhaps Taiwan.

Some chapter leaders from these struggling chapters express the need for
new ideas on how to get their chapters revitalized.
* We should share ideas for programs and speakers on Chapters-L;
* We need a mechanism for sharing information about speakers who are
travelling in the area or ASIST leaders in the vicinity, so that chapters
can take advantage of them.

OTHER NEWS FROM THE BOARD MEETING

* One of President Nick Belkin's priorities will be the recruitment of and
benefits for students, with particular emphasis on undergraduates.

* A taskforce will be set up to study the feasibility of taking continuing
education workshops on the road for both the undergraduate community and
chapters.  Perhaps we could do webcasts?  A pilot distance learning program
has already been done:  the program called "Strategies for E-Learning and
Distance Education Educators" co-produced by NEASIST and LACASIS in
December 2002.

* Progress on the ASIST website redesign has slowed down.  Hopefully,
chapter leaders will have access to the online membership database by June.

* Chapter Membership Chairs should ask Vanessa Foss (vfoss at asis.org) for
membership update reports and rosters.  They are not sent to chapters
automatically.  You should specify what information you would like in the
report.  The data should be relatively accurate.  If you see problems with
the data, please report this to Vanessa.

When the new website is up:
* There will be templates available for chapter web pages.
* Blogs and wikis will be attached to the system.  These should enhance
communication between chapters.
* There will be a document repository.  So, for example, we can have an
archive of chapter events posted to the website as a resource for chapters.

The suggestion was made to have an ASIST speakers bureau that could be
tapped by chapters.

You will be hearing from me again shortly - we have many great ideas to
work on that came out of our Breakfast Planning Meeting in Providence in
November.  So, stay tuned.

If you have any questions, issues or problems, please do not hesitate to
take them either to your chapter advisor, or to me or Amy Wallace, Deputy
Chapter Assembly Director (amy.wallace at csuci.edu)

Thank you for all your hard work!
Beata

Beata Panagopoulos
ASIST Chapter Assembly Director

Kennedy School of Government Library
Harvard University
tel. 617-496-1775
email: beata_panagopoulos at harvard.edu

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.asis.org/pipermail/chapters-l/attachments/20050322/67da5da7/attachment.html