CEAL Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting II: Wednesday March 13, 1999, Boston, MA

The March 13, 1999 meeting of the CEAL Executive Committee was convened in Boston, MA, with CEAL President, Tai-loi Ma presiding.

1. Tai-loi's resignation. Tai-loi Ma announced his resignation as CEAL President one year early. Since his move to Hong Kong, it has been difficult to keep in touch with CEAL business. Bill McCloy, Vice-President/President-Elect, will serve as "Acting President" for his first year of office, as President for three years, then as Past-President for one additional year. Tai-loi will remain on the Executive Committee as Past-President for two more years. This was approved by the Executive Committee.

2. Bylaws Revisions. Bill will appoint a group to discuss possible revisions to the Bylaws (the "CEAL Procedures") and to report back to the Executive Committee. Possible topics may include whether or not a Nominating Committee is needed, the length of tenure of officers, etc.

3. Theme for Meetings. Do we need a Program Committee for CEAL? A theme for the Plenary Session? Should the Vice-President coordinate programs? Discussion ensued, but no consensus was reached.

4. Committee Programs. In the past, committee programs have been finalized too late. It was agreed that in September or October, committee chairs will announce preliminary plans for their meetings to the Executive Committee. We will also try to identify potential speakers earlier. The final schedule will be announced to the membership one month before the annual conference, and a preliminary schedule will be announced somewhat earlier than that.

5. Sequence of Meetings. A question was asked about the sequence of meetings of the various committees decided upon by the Executive Committee a few years ago. It was noted that CEAL Secretary, Charles d'Orban, should have this information in the minutes of past meetings.

6. Interval Between Meetings. It was agreed that we will try to schedule 10 minutes between meetings to allow for an orderly movement of people in and out of the meeting rooms. It was noted that the AAS schedule allows for 15 minutes between sessions.

7. Workshops. Yuan Zhou announced that the Committee on Chinese Materials hoped to have a Chinese Studies Librarians Workshop at the CEAL 2000 Conference. Others reported that the NCC (National Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources) was planning one as well and that the Committee on Korean Materials was in the preliminary stages of planning one for 2000 or 2001. One member asked whether the Library of Congress might not be planning a workshop as well. Bill volunteered to find out what the Library of Congress was planning. [Note: Subsequent inquiries indicated that LC was not planning a workshop for 2000.] Due to the number of workshops planned or contemplated, it was suggested that we might hold them sometime other than in conjunction with the annual conference. However, this would likely increase the expense considerably and thus will not be considered seriously for the time being.

8. CEAL Liaison to the NCC. Hideyuki raised the question of who should be CEAL's official liaison to the National Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC). The consensus was that the Chair of CEAL's Committee on Japanese Materials should serve in that capacity. [NOTE: At Hideyuki's request, Bill later wrote a letter to that effect to the NCC Chair.]

9. Publications Committee. It was pointed out that there was no incoming chair of the Publications Committee. Bill reported that Gail King has agreed to continue in that role.

10. Statistics Task Force. The Task Force needs a new chair to serve for 3 years. The CEAL President needs to appoint the Task Force as well.

11. Grants to Committees. A few years ago, the CEAL Executive Committee voted to make available a grant of up to $500 every year to two CEAL committees on a rotational basis. The Chair of a requesting committee must justify the request with a formal proposal. Last year, we defined an order of rotation; however, we could be flexible if committees agree to trade places. In 1999, the Public Services and Chinese Materials Committees were eligible. In 2000, the Japanese and Korean Materials Committees will become eligible. In 2001, the Technical Processing and Library Technology Committees are eligible.

[NOTE: At this point, several Executive Committee members left the meeting to attend the OCLC CJK Users Group meeting.]

12. CEAL Treasury. CEAL Treasurer, Fred Brady, reported that we have around a $9,000 surplus in the CEAL budget. In April 1995, the Panmun Publishing Co. gave a $1,000 grant to the Committee on Korean Materials which has remained in the CEAL treasury since then. Though there is no deadline for application for this money, there is a need for accountability. The Committee needs to be reminded of this and to justify its use to CEAL. [Note: As the Chair of the Committee on Korean Materials, Joy Kim, was not present, Bill later notified her about this grant, and steps were taken to transfer the money to the Committee.]

13. Asian Studies Librarians in Europe. Bill reported that Thomas Hahn has approached him about inviting European librarians to the 2000 CEAL meeting in San Diego. Thomas feels that the dual appeal of San Diego and the opportunity to visit East Asian collections on the West Coast may attract some of our European colleagues to join us. It was decided that Bill would invite them through the chairs of their professional organizations and that Thomas Hahn and Charles d'Orban would coordinate the visits. [Note: Subsequently, Charles issued the invitations on behalf of CEAL.]

14. Room and Equipment Requests. Charles d'Orban reminded the Executive Committee that AAS will ask us about room and equipment needs sometime in October or November.

15. Interest Groups. Bill inquired about whether we should schedule additional meeting for special interest groups, such as those who use the same online catalog vendor, etc. Several alternatives were suggested. One was that these groups be folded into our existing committee structure insofar as possible. Another was that members could make known their interests in advance, perhaps through Eastlib, and could then set up their own meetings outside the CEAL meeting structure. Ai-Hwa pointed out that when Maureen Donovan was President of CEAL, she scheduled several breakout sessions towards the end of the Plenary Session.

16. Asian Librarians Liaison Committee. Someone asked the nature of this committee which meets during the AAS Conference but is not affiliated with CEAL. Bill will check with Raymond Lum for more information.

17. CEAL Archives. Bill mentioned his hope that CEAL could establish an archive of minutes and Executive Committee decisions on issues such as the rotation of committee meetings, criteria and schedules for committee grants, etc. Perhaps the latter could be mounted on the CEAL website.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill McCloy [for Charles d'Orban]