ALA Annual Conference 1996 MARS ExComm minutes Tuesday, July 9 Present: ExComm: Denise Bennett, Pat Riesenman, Laine Farley, Elliot Kanter, Amy Tracy Wells Guests: Marcella Stark, Lise Dyckman, Jennifer Heise, Lee Dalzell The meeting was called to order at 9:30. Management: Lee Dalzell The Management Committee will break into 3 groups to explore and establish a concrete committee-wide project. Members will discuss via a listserv. The group agreed that if folks outside a committee wish to join a committee listserve, they should contact the committee chair for permission. The Management Committee will continue to define the relationship between it and the Managers in MARS discussion group. Jennifer Heise mentioned the oddity of the procedure for electing discussion group vice-chairs. Pat Reisenman clarified that MARS recommended appointing discussion vice- chairs during the last MARS Section Review, but either the RASD or ALA level dictates that sections must elect discussion group leaders. This topic should be addressed in the upcoming section review. MARS Handbook The RASD table appeared to run out of available copies of the updated MARS Handbook early in the conference, to the dismay of many Martians. The migration of the MARS Handbook to the MARS home page should provide another option for committee chairs and others to access needed sections and forms. Committee chairs requested an additional section to the MARS Handbook on "tips for committee chairs" that will include improvisational techniques for situations such as room assignment snafus when the ALA Program lists one location and the MARS flyers list another. MARS 20th anniversary At the 1996 Midwinter meeting, MARS ExComm agreed to postpone a major section bash until the 25th anniversary. However, since Martian Kathleen Kluegel will be the RUSA Chair in 1997, she has already budgeted for some MARS celebrating. She asked if MARS would object to a small reception (party food at the Program, perhaps), and Denise Bennett told her there would be no objections! Scheduling Coordination In the continuing evaluation of scheduling many MARS committee meetings in one room, committee chairs voiced a preference for a much larger room to reduce babble and squeezing. In a larger room, a few long tables might prove preferable to round tables. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00.