SRRT Action Council Virtual Meeting, June 18, 2020 Minutes

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Social Responsibilities Round Table

Action Council Virtual Meeting

Summer 2020

Minutes

Thursday, June 18th

1:00-5:00 PM EDT

Attending: Charles Kratz, Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Al Kagan, Lisa Eichholz, Tom Twiss, Jenny Bradshaw, Sherre Harrington, Tara Brady, (vbmoo), ODLOS (Briana Jarnigan), April Sheppard, Diedre (diedrec), Mariella Colon, Stavroula Harissis, andrewkpace, Olivia Scully, Ginny Moore, Jane Glasby, Kathryn Phenix, Wanda Huffaker, (13015688743), Mike Marlin, Mark Hudson, Cindy Hohl, Deborah LaFond, Ed Garcia, Julie Winkelstein, Wendy Stephens, LaJuan Pringle, Michael Mungin, Derek Wilmott, Jay Dela Cruz, Laura Kultutsky

  1. Welcome and Introductions
  2. Review of Agenda
    1. Additions to Agenda and Approval of Agenda April Sheppard moved, Stavroula Harrisis 2nd. approved
  3. Approval of Midwinter 2020 Minutes (Jane Cothron)**moved April Sheppard , Tom Twiss 2nd, approved
  4. ODLOS Report and other items
    1. Briana Jarnagin, Program Coordinator, Community Engagement, Office for Diversity, Literacy, & Outreach Services, ODLOS
      1. Will send report prior to Virtual Conference. Working on Task force for Cultural Proficiency in Public Libraries. Will circulate for public comment in spring. Set up page combatting fake news and COVID-19. Black Lives Matter page also. Pages updated as new resources identified.

In Feb, ODLOS staff attended PLA conference (Nashville), hosted small networking event. Spectrum Scholar working to promote community and BIPOC communities on self-care, held virtual hangouts. Spectrum Advisory committee working to provide online spaces for scholars, pivot to provide open space for individuals to process what’s going on around them in terms of BLM, protests, etc.

Charles: frustrated with lack of information on status provided to round tables.

Mike Marlin: asked about CFO leaving, Ed Garcia: left to take position with another nonprofit

April: question in group chat: Deborah LaFond: discussion of effects of COVID19 on budget and the question of cutting resources vs. jobs. [Would love to participate in a dialogue on COVID CUTS and the impact to resources that promote anti-racism, social movements, diversity and inclusion in general - For example, cuts to Alt-Press Watch, Alternative Press Index, Genderwatch, Ethnic Newswatch, Women and Social movements, Black Abolitionist Papers, African bibliographies have been targeted for cuts based on cost per use criteria primarily when clearly, there may not have been as many hits as disciplinary database titles but may deserve broader criteria than CPU? WOnder if there is discussion or guidelines on preserving/creating criteria to acknowledge importance of and need for specific diversity and inclusion resources rather then "OBJECTIVE" CPU criteria? Thank you. Would welcome! Thank you. dlafond@albany.edu Deborah and COllection Development Criteria question]

    1. Ongoing SRRT Website Maintenance.
      1. Migration from old website to site complete, but still needs some cleanup. Links not underlined automatically and blend into background CSS. Resolutions archive has some missing resolutions, need to have information about results of resolutions (passed, referred, etc.)
      2. May need to have another web coordinator since April will be new SRRT coordinator. Stav Harissis volunteered to work on web site, working on social media. Currently a group of 4, April, Olivia, Jane, Stav (social media). [Chat: Diedre: I found the some links on the WGSS site weren't working and so they asked for information about this. The response this morning from is that WordPress wikis and blogs on all AAL sites have been down for a number of days due to hackers. IT staff are aware of the problem and are trying to get the sites back up and running soon.]
      3. Al Kagan volunteered to help find results of resolutions (contact after this meeting). He and Tom Twiss have been working on revamping International Task Force site; will let April know when they are done

    1. Social Media Outreach (Stavroula Harrisis): Stav: working on social media sites (Facebook page, Twitter[handle: @SRRT_], Facebook group. Planning to livetweet the SRRT afternoon of social justice. Diedre posts SRRT/ events to Facebook group.[ From Mariella Colon to Everyone: 10:38 AM can the programs be live streamed into twitter and facebook too?] [Stav: I created a resource guide for understanding abolition if folks are interested, feel free to share: bit.ly/abolition-info] [Lisa: I wish it were a guide, but it's a page within our diversity education guide: ]
  2. Executive Board Report
    1. Ed Garcia, Executive Board Liaison: see BC statement, endorsed by Executive Board. Finance staff and staff still dealing with financial shortfall. Considerating setting up operating working group to look at organizational setup, including Round Tables (who is representing Round Tables?). ASGLA wants to disband as a division due to financial constraints, trying to find slots in other divisions for their various groups. SCOE/Forward Together: approved phased implementation, working group and financial group; will go to Council for approval. If Council approves, then Council would have oversight of the process.
    2. April Sheppard: feeling that we are not being listened to with SCOE/Forward Together Working Group. Ed: now will be in the hands of Council which should allow feedback, proposals for changes, amendments [Tara Brady: need AC vote on Forward Together timeline.] [Andrew Pace: As a SCOE member, I will say that there was sincere attempt to listen (hence the Council process). The feedback at times was overwhelming. SCOE needed to balance moving things forward with making sure we heard a very varied set of constituencies.][Mike Marlin: Please forward concerns to him and/or Tara Brady.][Charles Kratz: volunteered to work on bylaws committee for Round Tables.]
    3. Tara Brady: moved to support proposted timeline for Forward Together Working Group and make a lot of noise at Midwinter (Al Kagan—would not support this motion, because it seems to implicitly endorse the report: move as substitute: that SRRT AC oppose the SCOE/Forward Together timeline because it appears that approving the timeline implicitly supports the SCOE/Forward Together recommendations; Tom Twiss 2nd: to let Tara know the will of the Round Table for report to Council: Al found that this is in the form of a motion in Council. Stav: notes that the proposal is going forward, how effective will dissent be? Charles: objection to SCOE/FTWG is the loss of elected legislative group (Council). Tom: voting on timetable is to vote to establish before the plan has been approved. Diedre: curious about how the virtual Council meetings go, if they go well, then there might not be a need to change or eliminate Council, which would eliminate even the perceived need to restructure/eliminate Council. Sherre: question about actual timeline, there is a lot that has to happen between now and December,when Council is supposed to hold a constitutional convention to change the organization; is there enough time to actually accomplish the tasks—is this a reasonable timeline? Tara: ask FTWG committee to take last 3 months into account and bring back a new set of proposals, keeping in mind the momentous changes that have happened in the last 3 months. Mark Hudson: we’re being asked to vote on the timeline before the plan has been adopted. Stav: “I don’t like the idea to come back with a different proposal because I don’t trust them.” It will depend on Council to take the next steps. Fears that voting no on the timeline will only be seen as obstructive; will not send the message that we intend. Mike Marlin: voting no will not do anything; either we do think 6 months is enough time to steer Council, or to come up with an alternate proposal, extend the timeline to assess virtual meetings and even if it gets voted down, it will encourage people to think about changing the FTWG proposal. Tara: can vote to abstain and will still be able to step up and speak to our concerns. Jane Glasby: motion says that Council adopts this timeline. Al: change the motion to abstain [for all stated reasons]. Stav: more comfortable with abstaining. Charles: as Ed Garcia stated, if we have something else to propose, we need to state it. Motion to abstain passed.]
    4. Anything to take back to Executive Board. Charles: Thanks to Ed for being the most thorough EB liaison.
  3. Council Resolutions (Tara Brady)
    1. Recording of email endorsement votes for minutes - Action item
      1. Biblo Tribute Resolution: Al Kagan moved, Tom Twiss 2nd: approved
      2. IFC Statement Condemning Police Violence Against Protesters and Journalists: April moved, Tom 2nd: [Comments. Tom: directly contradicts IFC resolution on BDS/Palestine that passed at Midwinter. and IFC are demonstrating hypocrisy in endorsing only resolutions that are politically popular instead of affirming general principles. Charles: asks Tom to send verbiage about the contradictions and doublethink between condemning police violence against BIPOC and denying Palestinian rights to Tara. Stav: is BDS something to push on social media. Tara: needs positive language to include BDS rights/Tom to send language for framing to both Tara and Stav.
      3. IFC Resolution Condemning Police Violence Against Protesters and Journalists: Mark moved, Tom 2nd: endorsed.
    2. Other Resolutions
      1. Resolution on Developing Library Security Policies in keeping with Policy: April, moved to endorse in principle, Tom 2nd: (send comments to Tara Brady): approved
      2. Resolution on Protecting Privacy and Safety in Coronavirus-related Library Policy: April moved, Stav 2nd: approved.
      3. Resolution Condemning U.S. Media Corporations’ Abridgement of Free Speech: Sherre moved to endorse, April 2nd: approved
      4. Resolution on Autonomy and Fiscal accountability[ask Tara for link/wording]: [comments: Mike Marlin: very complex, sounds like acquiesing to ’s financial mismanagement; messy, thorny, probably will be referred to BARC. Charles: opposed to this, seems like backpedalling; objects on principle to transferring monies without permission of the affiliated groups. Tara: sounds like a preemtive compromise between ‘never do this again’ and ‘this is what happened’. Al: this sounds like just giving in to what has already happened. Stav: could we do a counterproposal preventing any future move by to appropriate funds. Tom: says that money would be restored when fiscal crisis is resolved—who decides when it’s resolved? Sherre: what happens if the chair does not give permission, the ‘and’ in the resolved indicates that the round table chair would be able to veto? Motion to endorse in principle if round table chairs will definitely have veto power for the decision, Tara will request clarification from the floor.
      5. Other
  4. Elections
    1. SRRT Action Council
      1. Congratulations to newly elected AC members: Jane Cothron, Al Kagan, Charles Kratz, and Wendy Stephens
      2. Election of officers for 2020-2021 – Coordinator-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Committee Chair, Nominating Committee Chair - Action item
        1. Coordinator-elect: nominations: Sherre Harrington (April nominated, Stav 2nd): elected
        2. Treasurer: Lisa Eichholtz (Stav nominated, April 2nd): elected
        3. Secretary: Jane Cothron (Al: nom, Lisa 2nd): elected
        4. Membership Committee Chair: Al Kagan (April nom, Tom 2nd): elected
        5. Nominating Committee Chair: Charles Kratz (after discussion, will work on developing the position, nom Jane, April 2nd): elected [Stav: could have more virtual meetings. Jane Glasby: In addition to what Stav says about the opportunity for more online AC meetings. I think there may be opportunity for more virtual membership meetings, not necessarily formal, but opportunities for discussion, and that could be a useful tool for building membership and membership involvement.] [Diedre: I think the virtual meeting of Council may also give a better look at how flexible we can be using more electronic communications. This may affect the way the structure of Council is looked as a whole. I am also glad that SRRT is looking at more meetings like this. I am not really planning on ever returning to an in person conference but I do want to continue to be connected with SRRT and this really is a great way to do that.]
  5. Reports
    1. Bylaws Changes Approved (virtual meetings, no term limits for newsletter)
    2. Coordinator Report (Charles)
    3. Coordinator-elect Report (April) learning about SRRT and , helped with website migration, Herb Biblio Travel Grant, helped with social media, Midwinter meetings, representing SRRT with , worked on Social Justice Afternoon
    4. Treasurer Report (Lisa) **posted report: have some money, but cannot tell us how much $78,341 in reserves $6706 operating expenses, does not expect to get full dues because people are dropping expenses, not all Midwinter expenses have been charged. We have some money, but we don’t know how much. changed indirect budget expenses in midyear. [Charles: how will afford to keep smaller round tables?] As Lisa gets more information, she will share it with AC.
    5. Membership Committee Report (Al): latest report from was from February; 1867 members. Unfortunately, with COVID crisis, SRRT is losing members, for the first time in several years. [SCOE/Forward Together proposal that all RTs have $20 memberships, which goes against SRRT dues structure for international members and students]
    6. SRRT Afternoon of Social Justice Report – June 29 – 12:00-4:00 pm EDT (All)
      1. April: June 29, 12-4:00 pm Eastern. 3 free events, Native American Treaty Rights in COVID Julie Winkelstein: excited about the virtual social justice afternoon, worked on voter suppression program; would love to see SRRT meet monthly via Zoom and show that we don’t just exist, but actually do things. Sherre: question about voting, program does not have explicit library connection, is it all right for non-library folk to register? Julie: yes, non-library people should be able to register, planning to show documentary on voter suppression. Tom Twiss: have been telling friends about Native American treaty rights program, they are excited to either attend or watch recording of the events, will broaden exposure. Stav: social media/Twitter gathering interest.
    7. Task Forces Report
      1. Feminist Task Force (Sherre)
        1. FTF Virtual Conference Program: April pulled together panel in 3 days, for Virtual conference and for Afternoon of Social Justice (Emily will be available for Q&A). Content from libr.org migrated, but content from wikispace still needs to be migrated. How to archive content for Women in Library History tumblr. Need new FTF coordinator since Sherre is going to be SRRT coordinator-elect.
      2. MLK Jr. Holiday Task Force (LaJuan) what the other America looks like—focus for MLK sunrise ceremony. Ginny Moore has historical record for the MLK Holiday Task Force, but needs help to archive the information and store the documents. Drafted statement on police brutality and POC. Endorse BC statement. Library divestment from police would be a great virtual program. Stav: would like to do a program on BLM. Julie: BIPOC are a huge part of libraries; we need to focus on inclusion, free virtual conference would have been a BIPOC issue
      3. International Responsibilities Task Force (Al and Tom) Tom: revisions to website (Al adding information, links, resources), excited about the programs Al: speakers Winona La Duke, Ed Johnson (U Minn Director of Tribal Nation Relations), [missed name—find description]
      4. Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force (Julie) Julie: when libraries started shutting down due to COVID19, addressing homelessness went by the way, and libraries focused on their mainstream (virtual) users; set up survey to find out what libraries are doing to address homeless users in the time of COVID19, received 400+ responses, will report responses in newsletter article. The task force has the potential to be a much larger force in the world of hunger, homelessness and poverty. Some libraries have sent out bookmobiles as mobile hotspots.
    8. SRRT Newsletter Editorial Board Report (Melissa and Julie)
      1. Melissa: working on putting out the newsletter, trend is to only put out shorter articles and offload longer pieces to website; need permanent web team to respond to that kind of problems.[Olivia volunteered to be head of web team] Julie; looking forward to next newsletter which will be out soon; looked at archives of newsletter and it’s amazing at how much we are still working on that we worked on before.
    9. Planning & Budget Assembly
      1. Need a SRRT liaison for next year. Charles: asks that Treasurer take on the liaison position. Lisa already getting updates.
    10. Round Table Coordinating Assembly (Charles and April)
      1. Round Table Planning Groups to address SCOE Recommendations relating to Round Tables
        1. Bylaws, Operating Agreement, and others
    11. SRRT Liaison to ODLOS Advisory Committee (Jane Cothron)
      1. Need a SRRT liaison for next year. Jane Cothron to continue.
    12. SRRT Liaison to Intellectual Freedom Committee
      1. Mark Hudson will continue next year (3-year appointment)
  1. Biblo Conference Travel Grants Update (Charles Kratz)
    1. Rename them SRRT Conference Travel Grants (ALL) in order to focus on the larger leadership award named for Herb Biblo. April Sheppard moved to rename, Sherre Harrington 2nd: approved.
    2. 2021 Conference Travel Grants
      1. 2020 winners will continue in 2021.
      2. Will SRRT offer two additional grants in 2021? Lisa Eichholz moved, Jane Cothron 2nd: approved
  2. Need selection committee for next year. (April is chair, Al volunteered, Stav volunteered, Mark to continue)
  3. Other SCOE Recommendations and Future of Midwinter: need to keep track of what happens
  4. Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality Update (Al

and Howard Besser): will need to raise more money, to aim for award in 2021. SRRT coordinator will choose 3 people for selection committee, 3 year terms. Need to create simple application form. Charles Kratz, Wendy Stephens and Laura Kultutsky volunteer.

XII. SRRT Programs at Future Conferences

    1. Juried program submissions for 2021 Annual Conference – deadline- September 2020. Stav: BLM, coordinate with BC. Al: postponed previous program and will propose it. Jane: ask Julie about program around HHP COVID survey and results.
    2. SRRT Coordinator’s Program for 2021 Annual Conference
    3. Other 2021 Annual Conference Programs
    4. 2021 Midwinter
  2. Other Business
    1. Monthly meetings: Jane Glasby: wants to hold monthly/bimonthly meetings. Wanda(IFRT incoming chair): would meetings have to be open? To everyone? Just to members? Stav moves to create monthly or bimonthly open virtual meetings/gatherings, Lisa 2nd:

XIV. Open Forum / Conclusion

Guests:

1:10-1:30 pm - Briana Jarnagin, ODLOS Report

1:30-1:45 pm – Ed Garcia, Executive Board Liaison

Please Join us for the

SRRT Programming During 2020 Virtual Conference – June 24-26, 2020

SRRT Chair’s Program

Herstory through Activism: Women, Libraries, and Activism

Description: In honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and the 50th anniversary of ’s Feminist Task Force, this panel presentation will look at the intersections and relationships between women, libraries, and activism. From early literary clubs to today’s radical feminists, libraries have always been a haven for both women and activists. Hear “herstory” from a diverse group of librarians and learn more about how this relationship developed and grew into today’s current activism. See how far we’ve come and what else is left to do.

Co-sponsored Program

Behind the Wires: American Concentration Camps Then and Now



Description: The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (AP) in collaboration with REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking and co-sponsored by Social Responsibility Round Table (SRRT), brings this joint-session featuring two speakers who will share and highlight the perspectives of today’s migrant concentration camps experienced by refugees today and the Japanese American Concentration Camps experienced by people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. In this session, both speakers will highlight the importance of solidarity in supporting Asian-Pacific Islander and Latinx immigrant and refugee communities-at-large by showcasing important resources, programs, and outreach activities. Attendees will learn from these perspectives through literature, services, and community engagement in fostering solidarity during challenging times.

SRRT Afternoon of Social Justice – June 29, 2020

12:00-4:00 pm EDT

Join the Social Responsibilities Round Table for an Afternoon of Social Justice. This free virtual event features librarians and scholars as they present on a variety of topics including Native American rights, democracy in the time of COVID, and women activism and libraries. Plenty of time will be allowed for questions and discussions after each presentation. Each session must be individually registered for and a link to recorded sessions will be emailed afterwards for those who can't attend live.

Schedule (Eastern Time):

12:00pm – 1:30pm

1:45pm – 3:15pm

3:30pm – 4:00pm