Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Health
Science LibrariansLesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Health
Science Librarians
Monday, 24 May 2004, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm — Map Room, Washington Hilton
1. Call to order: The meeting was called to order around 5:15 pm; in addition to the co-chairs — Gail Persily and Tom Flemming — between 15 and 20 members were present at various times throughout the meeting. As the first order of business, we went around the table and introduced ourselves and passed an attendance sheet on which names and e-mail addresses were recorded.
2. Programme Planning for 2005: Gail Persily raised the issue of programme planning for the next MLA meeting which will be held in San Antonio in May 2005. The organization of the next meeting will be different than any previous meeting. There will be five theme programmes: a different one for each day of the meeting. Sections (which are primarily responsible for the programming) have to indicate what they want to offer on any particular day to fit in with the theme of that day. Chris Shaffer is serving on the NPC for the San Antonio meeting, and is chair of the Relevant Issues Section, and will be in a good position to keep us aware of what is going on in terms of the planning needs and possibilities. J. Dale Prince and Michael Scott will attend the planning meeting which takes place in Washington (on Wednesday morning); Sheila Snow- Croft also volunteered to participate in that meeting and to keep us informed about what happens. There was brief discussion of a gender identity theme for a programme. We were reminded that the deadline for programme proposals for San Antonio is mid-June 2004.
3. SIG Goals and Objectives for the Next Year: Tom Flemming reminded everyone that the meeting in 2005 will mark the tenth year of our existence as an MLA SIG. It was at the San Antonio meeting in 1995 that we were officially recognized. It seems time for us to celebrate and to make a special effort to mark the end of our first decade in MLA. Various projects were suggested by the group as a means of celebrating our existence and making our mark in the larger organization.
Karen Zundel mentioned her diary of the 1995 meeting in San Antonio which could be used as the basis for an historical project, an article for the _MLA News_, or some other written piece that would document our beginning, or perhaps our first ten years. Tom Flemming offered to work with Karen on this project. It was mentioned that it will be important to involve Jerry Perry in this effort because of his close connections with our development at every stage of the way. Someone suggested that this might form the basis for a poster which could be presented at the next meeting. J. Dale Prince offered to work with Tom and Karen to explore this idea.
During the course of the year, a discussion on the SIG listserv about book reviews indicated that there is interest in pulling together an effort to disseminate book reviews of material that the group feels should be promoted. Two ways of accomplishing this goal were discussed: a) originally, the listserv discussion suggested that putting reviews on oour web site would be a good idea, and b) Howard Fuller, editor of the CAPHIS newsletter (who was present) suggested that he would be willing to disseminate reviews of appropriate books that members of the SIG might review. Chris Shaffer and Dick Miller expressed interest in following up on this idea. It was suggested that they contact Patricia Anderson (who was not able to attend the meeting) who originated the listserv discussion and who might be willing to become involved in a book review project undertaken by the SIG. Chris also suggested that "pathfinders" and bibliiographies on relevant topics would be useful additions to the material on our web site and would certainly rejuvenate the site, as well.
4. SIG Cooperation with Other SIGs: Gail Persily was actively involved during the course of the past year in trying to promote cooperation with other SIGs as a means of finding out how they operate (and what we might learn from them) and in an attempt to recruit new interest in the LGBT SIG, and possibly new membership. Gail has called a meeting of other interested parties to take place at the Washington meeting and will report on the outcome of these efforts at a suitable moment.
5. Accommodations for the San Antonio meeting in 2005: Tom Flemming reported the receipt in advance of this meeting of a message from Richard Klein, a former librarian and member of our group who has for some time served as our travel advisor and booking agent. For years, Richard has scouted out suitable accommodations for the SIG and booked us into a smaller (and less expensive) hotel than the official MLA hotel where members of the group can easily find each other and share the pleasure of each other's company throughout the meeting. Having left the field of health sciences librarianship, Richard is now working in Chicago as a travel advisor and concierge. In anticipation of next year, Richard has investigated accommmodations and group rates at the Red Roof Inn (1011 E. Houston Street, San Antonio) and the Hampton Inn (414 Bowie Street, San Antonio) and provided pertinent details about what each has to offer us and what each would charge.
In the ensuing discussion, it became clear that SIG members felt there was a good chance that both of these conveniently located hotels could be noisy and were possibly located too close to highways. It was suggested by members who know San Antonio that we should ask Richard to investigate accommodations at the Menger and the Crockett hotels which came highly recommended by some of the group. Tom Flemming undertook to pass along this information to Richard, along with our thanks for services rendered in finding us such a good spot in Washington. Everybody staying at the Jury's Normandy Inn (which had been arranged by Richard) was pleased with the hotel and the group rate we are paying.
6. The Succession: In anticipation of the fact that Gail Persily completes her two year term as co- chair at the end of this meeting, the co-chairs jointly called in a message to the SIG listserv about a month ago for volunteers to fill this soon-to-be-vacant position. We are pleased to announce that Sheila Snow-Croft, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will step into this position at the end of the meeting and serve a two-year term. Tom Flemming will continue as the other co- chair until the end of the meeting in San Antonio in 2005.
Jon Crossno and David Midyette have agreed to continue as newsletter editors for another term (two years).
Chris Shaffer indicated that he is becoming ever more busy with work and other commitments. Bryan Vogh, who had been helping Chris with the web site, has recently moved on to a position in a non-health sciences library and is no longer available to assist Chris. Chris requested that someone volunteer to be co web editor. Chris pointed out that the site has been moved to a commercial server and is easy to access and maintain, but that it needs leadership and updating. Chris is willing to continue to do basic site maintenance, but asked for volunteers to enhance and improve the site, particularly the resources section. Greg Bodin volunteered immediately to take on this task and will work with Chris to effect the transition. J. Dale Prince offered to take over as books editor for the web site and to work with Greg to revise the SIG site.
Michael Scott volunteered to serve as Programme Chair for the SIG for the coming year.
7. Any other business: Ammon Ripple, convenor of the SIG programme to be held on Tuesday, 25 May, which is co-sponsored by the SIG and the Public Health Section encouraged all present to attend to hear Dr. Anthony Silvestre speak about the importance of having LGBT concerns influence public health policy.
Tom Flemming thanked everyone who worked to make this meeting such a success, including (but not limited to):
— Gail Persily, who served exceptionally as our co-chair for two years;
— Richard Barry, who organized our very successful social event at the Dupont Italian Kitchen on Sunday evening, the 23rd of May;
— Richard Klein, who once again found us a wonderful hotel at a very reasonable price;
— Chris Shaffer and Bryan Vogh, who have maintained our web site for the past eight years;
— Jon Crossno and David Midyette, who served as newsletter editors for the past two years and are willing to continue;
— Ammon Ripple and Bryan Vogh who put together speakers and programmes to maintain the SIG presence in the content of this MLA meeting;
— Haworth Press, for their generous donation to support the SIG program;
— all those who attended and shared their ideas at this very successful business meeting;
— all those who volunteered to take on new responsibilities to rejuvenate the group and to keep us strong enough to celebrate our tenth anniversary in San Antonio!
Tom will prepare certificates to acknowledge and to document the contributions to the SIG for any of those who wish to count such association service for credit in an AHIP application.
[Corrections to and enlargements of these minutes are welcome from anyone who attended. Please contact Tom Flemming with your input, or simply send it to the listserv before the end of the month (June 2004) and I will incorporate it.]
MLALGBT Home
This page was last updated on September 15, 2004. Credits