1. CALL TO ORDER
This regularly scheduled meeting of the CLAN Steering Committee meeting was called to order by Chair Kathryn Taylor at 9:45 A.M. at the Warwick Public Library.

Steering Committee members in attendance: Susan Aylward, Peter Bennett, Carol Brouwer, John Carney, Fran Farrell-Bergeron, Shirley Long, Doug Pearce, Pat Redfearn, Regina Slezak, Kathryn Taylor, Ulla Virks. Excused absence: Anne Parent

Also in attendance: Debbie Barchi (BAR), Chris LaRoux (GVL), Laura Marlane (CFA), Rick Payette (CLAN), Cindy St. Amour (PPL)

2. MINUTES OF JULY 28 STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
VOTED unanimously to accept the minutes of the July 28, 2005 meeting as presented. (Carol Brouwer, Fran Farrell-Bergeron).

3. SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT (Peter Bennett)
MIGRATION UPDATE
Peter has scheduled the first big conference call with Innovative on the topic of data extraction for this Friday (8/19). So far, he has created a test database of 150,000 bib and item records, 85,000 subject authority records, 50,000 name authority records, and 10,000 series authority records. System Administrator training is scheduled for October 17th and hardware installation will be the beginning of October. At some point, (sooner rather than later), it will be necessary to lock down the codes so that we are not adding codes, changing codes, or deleting codes. The Steering Committee agreed that this should be announced at the September CLAN meeting.

Peter asked the Steering Committee for direction on the issue of making quick decisions when and if immediate problems arise that require action during the migration. The Steering Committee felt that it would be entirely appropriate for Peter to send e-mail to the members of the Steering Committee and we would vote by e-mail to authorize any decision he felt necessary to resolve an unexpected problem or issue during the course of the migration.

4. REPORTS OF CLAN STAFF
CINDY ST. AMOUR (Head of Data Processing)
Cindy St. Amour entertained questions on the written report she had distributed via the CLAN.MESSAGE board. She also highlighted the very good news that we are caught up on the monies owed to us for E-Rate.  

RICK PAYETTE (Technical Support Specialist)
Rick highlighted the current worm situation and the importance of keeping up with the security updates. This latest worm managed to shut down CNN, NBC, and various other big computer sites yesterday afternoon.

5. TREASURER'S REPORT
Shirley Long distributed copies of the budget report for the period ending June 30, 2005 and also an interim report from July 1st to August 2nd.  These reports illustrate figures for the approved budget, the actual expenditures year-to-date, the expenditure variance of budgeted versus spent amounts, and the figures for the previous fiscal year as a comparison. Shirley has gone over the general ledger with Peter, Cindy, Leslie (former CLAN Treasurer), and Elaine. Most of the anomalies that seem to appear in budgeted versus expended funds have to do with reporting cash flow. In some cases, bills are paid in one fiscal year for another fiscal year's expenditures and membership fees are received at the end of one fiscal year as payments in advance for the ensuing fiscal year. This is not a problem of overspending or non-receipt of revenue, but rather a cash flow/timing of expenditure or receipt issue. Shirley reports that the budget is okay.

Peter expanded on Shirley's report and gave the Steering Committee good news. The NELINET charges are actually going down. CLAN budgeted $106,000 for FY 2006 and the fee will be only $68,000. Additionally, Internet Services budgeted for $162,000 will cost only $111,000. The savings in these two budget accounts will be applied toward the cost of the migration, which will further lessen the impact on our Champlin grant request for CLAN-related equipment.

Fran Farrell-Bergeron asked about our current Champlin grant balance, which is in the range of $82,000. Rick explained that some of the unspent balance is the interest that was earned before we started to expend the grant funds and that the bulk of the unspent balance is because there was a more significant cost savings on PC purchasing than he anticipated. This sizeable balance will not likely happen again because Rick now has a better idea of the actual costs and savings we receive on group purchases. Champlin has indicated that any balances are to be applied toward next year's grant request. So the $82,000 from last year's request will be applied toward what we request this year. In response to a question from Kathryn, Rick explained that if we did have an equipment need mid-year that was essential and there was going to be a balance unspent in that year's grant, Champlin would be very open to considering that request.

6. AD HOC COMMITTEE ON STANDARDIZATION (Chris LaRoux)
Chris LaRoux distributed copies of the report of the Standardization Committee including a tally of the results of the survey that the committee used to develop its recommendations. The report presents recommendations on Holds, Loan Periods, Renewals, Fines, MARC records, Bibliographic Records, the OPAC screen, LINKS to other resources through the CLAN interface, Group purchasing, Purchasing multiple copies to fill holds for best sellers, and Conversion to radio frequency tags to replace the current barcode system. The Steering Committee was very impressed with the report and very appreciative of the committee's efforts. Peter Bennett expressed his sincere appreciation for this excellent set of recommendations that will ultimately make his job as system administrator much easier.
There was much discussion about the individual recommendations put forth by the committee, including the recommendation to lease multiple copies of bestsellers to help fill holds. The Steering Committee felt it would be less expensive to purchase multiple copies outright rather than to lease them.
 
The Steering Committee felt that, although individual directors may feel that some of the recommendations may be controversial or difficult for them to implement on the local level, it will be important for the membership to consider these recommendations thoughtfully and fully, with an open mind, and to have an opportunity to discuss them as a group. CLAN library directors will receive the ad hoc committee's report prior to the CLAN meeting on 9/8/05.

The Steering Committee asked Peter which of the standardization recommendations, if approved, would be essential to a smooth migration. He felt that the recommendation to standardize holds was the one that CLAN members needed to consider first. This recommendation is for CLAN to adopt a systemwide holds policy so that all holds would be systemwide holds, no longer offering the option of local holds. Within the framework of the systemwide holds, all holds would be governed by the "My Patron First" policy so that individual library copies will serve local patrons before being sent through the system to fill another library's holds. Libraries could choose not to allow holds on a particular local collection, but this would mean no holds at all. The Steering Committee will bring this recommendation forward for a vote at the September membership meeting. Other recommendations of the ad hoc committee will be up for discussion and will be matters on the agenda for the November meeting.

7. AD HOC COMMITTEE ON PERSONNEL POLICY
The committee had not met prior to the Steering Committee meeting, so there was no report..

8. AD HOC COMMITTEE ON GROUP PURCHASES OF DATABASES AND SERVICES
Laura Marlane appeared before the Steering Committee to discuss the formulation of an ad hoc committee to investigate group purchases of databases and services. She reported on some initial investigation that she had done with Proquest on the Providence Journal database, the Ancestry database, and HeritageQuest. The discussion progressed to include other databases-Books in Print, for instance-and other vendors, such as Ebsco. Steering Committee members thought it was time to review our Gale subscription as part of any investigation of group purchases. It was suggested that Dorey Conway, Chris Jeffers, and Pat LaRose would be good additions to the committee. Dorey has already been talking with the Gale representatives about CLAN's subscriptions and how to promote their use. Laura will contact the other potential members of the committee.

9. INSURANCE FOR CLAN OFFICERS AND STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Kathryn will talk with Elaine about investigating how to add liability insurance for those serving as officers and steering committee members since CLAN does not presently have this coverage.

10. OTHER
THE VOTE TO MIGRATE TO THE TRIPLE I PLATFORM
Fran reported that her constituent does not feel the Steering Committee has addressed her concern regarding the wording of the motion to migrate at the May 12th membership meeting. The Steering Committee discussed this concern once again, at length. The Steering Committee believes it has considered the concerns thoughtfully but reaffirms their statement from the 7/28/05 Steering Committee meeting that the intent of the motion voted upon by the membership in a roll call vote was to migrate to Triple I. The Steering Committee believes this issue is now closed.

11. ADJOURNED  TO EXECUTIVE SESSION

VOTED unanimously to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel matters. (Carol Brouwer, Ulla Virks).

The meeting was adjourned to Executive Session at 11:30 AM.
Respectfully submitted,

Susan Aylward
Secretary