October 2007:
President Betsy Simpson shared results of the evaluations of the Fall Program to the Board on October 29, 2007.

November 2007:
Nancy Cunningham announced that UNF had agreed to host the FACRL Fall Program for 2008. There was a discussion of the success of the scholarship competition and student panel of speakers at the Fall Program.

Beatrice Nichols released the corrected minutes from the spring 2007 meeting for posting to the FACRL website. Nancy Cook posted the minutes to the website.

Beatrice Nichols posted a draft of the minutes from the fall 2007 meeting and solicited corrections from the Board.

Mary Faulkner distributed the Treasurer’s Report.

The Board discussed FACRL’s 501c3 status. Betsy reported information learned in consultation with the IRS and ACRL to the effect that. FACRL currently meets federal criteria to be automatically accorded tax exempt status. She noted that the President and Treasurer will need to review gross receipts annually as the organization will be required to apply for tax exempt status if gross receipts exceed a certain threshold. Currently that threshold is $15,000.00 in gross receipts in three years per IRS Publication 557. Future Board Presidents and Treasurers should consult Publication 557 annually to review current financial requirements.

There was a discussion of membership succession and candidates for future board openings.

December 2007:
Treasurer Mary Faulkner posted an end-of-year report of FACRL’s income and expenses for the year. Gross income for the year totaled $3850.00.

January 2008:
There was a discussion of the FACRL incorporation renewal notice that was received by Past President Nora Quinlan. Betsy noted that since the renewal is not due until May, it could be completed after the election of new officers in order to reflect current officer information. The President will coordinate with Mary to complete the renewal.

Mary posted an expanded version of the end-of-year statement that she had distributed in December to show expense details.

Nancy Cook announced the deadline for submissions for the spring newsletter and solicited contributions.

February 2008:
Vice President/President-Elect Elizabeth Killingsworth circulated a draft call for presenters for the Fall Program. Board members collaborated on details of the draft and volunteered to distribute it through various channels. Nancy Cook posted the finalized call for presenters to the FACRL website and released it on the FACRL, FLA Academic and FLA general email discussion lists.

Elizabeth announced that she had received a request from Ruth O’Donnell that FACRL introduce the new FLA Executive Director at the Fall Program.

There was a brief discussion of a social event for academic librarians at the FLA conference. A Happy Hour was scheduled for Wednesday April 23.

A conference call meeting took place Monday February 25 from 2:30-3:25 pm. The purpose of the meeting was to review the by-laws for possible amendment.

In attendance: Michelle Apps, Sheri Brown, Nancy Cook, Mary Faulkner, Elizabeth Killingsworth, Jonathan Miller, Carol Ann Moon, Beatrice Nichols, Betsy Simpson, Linda Sobey.

First part of the discussion centered on an apparent conflict between the terms for officers, which includes the Executive Board, in Article 5 Section 2 and the terms for the Executive Board referred to in Article 6 Section 2. It was decided that the insertion of the term “elected” to modify “officers” in the heading for Article 5 and in the text of Article 5 Section 2 would clarify those sections and remove the sense of contradiction in the terms of office. There was a discussion of the service terms for Secretary and Treasurer.

Revision of article Article 5 Section 3 (b), which describes the duties of the Vice President/President Elect was discussed. The article outlines some duties that are no longer applicable. The Board agreed to a need to revise the wording and noted that the VP officer’s manual would be the place to specify the details of duty rather than the bylaws.

Discussion then turned to Article 5 Section 3 (c) which governs the role of the Secretary. It was noted that the secretary is currently serving as the board's ACRL Legislative Network Representative and the question was posed if this should this be written into the by-laws or if the Board should appoint another member to perform this duty. It was decided that the position of legislative representative would be formalized in the bylaws as a separate, named role in the Board. There was a discussion of whether to make this an elected vs. an appointed office and time limit. The Board decided that a 2 year appointment would be analogous with the newsletter editor term. It was suggested that the terms of service of the newsletter editor and legislative representative be staggered so that both positions do not vacate simultaneously and thereby minimize the number of offices that need to be filled in a given year.

The article governing elections, Article 8 Section 2, was examined next. Historically, elections were conducted at the board's FLA program with a number of attendees present. FLA’s recent change in programming means that the Board won’t necessarily have a program at FLA every year. There was consideration of moving the elections to the fall program, and, if so, would this necessitate a change in the date when officers assume their duties (currently set for after the FLA Annual Conference). It was noted that a transition to a fall election would create a gap of service between outgoing and incoming board members and officers.

There was a discussion about the general desirability of conducting election of the Board via online voting and how such a vote would be conducted. An existing service such as SurveyMonkey could be used to provide an electronic ballot to conduct elections and approve proposed bylaws changes by the greater membership. A link to the ballot could be posted to the FACRL website and removed to terminate the voting period. Membership could be informed of a pending ballot via email. Timing of emailing the membership on the bylaws changes and slate of officers was discussed.

The Happy Hour proposed for FLA Annual as a social gathering for academic librarians was discussed.

The conference call adjourned at 3:25pm.

On Tuesday, February 26, Betsy distributed a copy of the proposed changes to the bylaws.

March 2008:
On March 6, Nancy Cook announced the Happy Hour for academic librarians to the FLA Academic, FACRL and Florida Library Directors electronic discussion lists.

On March 12 Nancy Cook sent out an announcement about the proposed changes to the bylaws to the FACRL general membership.

Elizabeth provided an update on plans for the fall meeting. Meeting space has been secured and four program proposals have been received. Dr. Michael Reiner, Executive Dean, Kent Campus, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, accepted our invitation as keynote speaker for the fall program.

Betsy circulated a copy of updated officer’s manuals.

The election of officers and proposed bylaws changes were announced in the Spring Newsletter.

April 2008:
On April 2, Nancy Cook announced the upcoming election and vote on proposed changes to the bylaws to the FLA Academic, FACRL and Florida Library Directors electronic discussion lists.

On April 8, Betsy presented the meeting agenda to the Board and solicited additional agenda items.

On April 11, Beatrice posted the minutes of the fall meeting and the minutes of business transacted online since the fall meeting to the Board’s email distribution list.

On April 14, Nancy cook announced to the Board that the new officer manuals were available on the FACRL website.

Elizabeth forwarded eight program proposals for the fall program to the Board for review on April 15.

Nancy Cook re-announced the FACRL Board meeting, election, vote to determine bylaws changes and the scheduled happy hour for academic librarians to the FACRL, FLA Academic, and Florida Library Directors lists on April 15.

On April 21, Elizabeth forwarded one final program proposal for the fall program to the Board.