MARS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Hilton Riverside, Grand Salon 7 Friday, June 25, 1999 Minutes Lise Dyckman called the meeting to order at 2:00pm. A. Roster was passed out, send corrections to Linda Friend. B. Introductions/Orientation New reporting forms available, attendance forms New Handbook revisions will be out soon. Noted that committee chairs will need to report on either Monday or Tuesday. C. Issue of Orientation was brought up: Is there a better time for the orientation part? Pair it with the Happy Hour, a breakfast meeting??? To be discussed further on Monday. D. Committee Reports 1. Planning (Denise Bennett) Goals 1999-2000 are out in Messages and on MARS-L; need to read them. RUSA passed on the questions regarding authentication. Handbook has updates. New responsibility for committee chairs: web pages. Aleisa McManus suggested putting them on ALA's page as it is indexed. Committee composition: ALA-4 years on a committee, consultants are used--need to obtain RUSA's permission to define. We see a consultant as a member going off the committee, but still needed to complete a project. Forms: motion form--have a formal piece of paper (already in Handbook)--assists MARS Archives and Secretary, helps find action items. Archive: a sub-committee is working on issues; still want paper copies of "important stuff;" need to determine how to handle electronic information. 2. Nominating (Amy Tracy Wells) Open for suggestions for people; will have Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary opening up 3. MARS Program Will be Sunday morning; "Technological Censorship" Membership meeting precedes with the presentation of the My Favorite Martian Award. Also will mention MARSBEST project and officers 4. Hot Topics Discussion Group (Carole Richter) error in time in program. May want to increase amount of time--discussion from Midwinter continued afterwards on a discussion list, has lagged some now. 35 people in attendance at Midwinter. RUSA has a handout for discussion groups--how can we get MARS on it? Denise mentioned an announcement--need someone responsible to get copy to RUSA. Chairs should also talk to Cognotes. Also mentioned that Faxon has a website with happenings at conferences. 5. Products and Services (Richard Hart) Scheduled for two meetings at this conference. Need to determine what the do at Midwinter, have had vendor forums which were successful. 6. Management of Electronic Reference Services (Colleen Seale) Still working on web page project 7. Public Libraries Committee (Alan Stewart) Program "RX for Reference" 9:30-11:00 AM. Will have online demos, presentations, Q&A; got a mention and a "star" in Library Journal's Picks & Pains. 8. MARS-L (Jian Liu) 459 subscribers. ALA upgraded listerv software, one new feature is an archive feature. 9. Outreach Taskforce (Naomi Lederer) need people for RUSA Membership booth 10. User Access to Services (LeiLani Freund) No program this conference. Updating bibliography; focusing on web site. 11. Education, Training and Support (Alesia McManus) Program: "Riding the Merry-go-Round" also got stars in Library Journal's Picks & Pains. RUSA has a new webmaster. 12. Local Systems and Services (Stan Lyle) Working on a "Directory of Innovative Reference Tools"; FAQs, tutorials 13. Publications (Karen Reiman-Sendi) have proposals from Public Libraries and MARSBEST. 14. MARSBEST (Amy Tracy Wells) good project, good group of people, good product. 15. Program 2000 (Linda Friend) Propose to have a futurist discuss digital libraries. E. MARS Organization MARS Goals and section review from 1997--where do we go from here? Requesting brainstorming for ideas--are we doing enough to assist with technological issues? We seem to be dealing solely with text-based forms. Amy suggested development, managing skills, licenses. Where is MARS' identity? Need a MARS Tickler file--ideas that committees may use for programs F. Other programs of interest were mentioned. G. RUSA liaison openings Meeting adjourned at 4:45pm. Respectfully submitted, Lori Morse MARS Secretary