Richmond Academic Library Consortium (RALC) Board

Meeting Minutes

January 23, 2023

Opening:

The regular meeting of the Organization/Committee Name was called to order at 2:01 pm on 1/23/23 date by RALC president Suzanne Sherry.  The meeting took place virtually via Zoom. Present at the meeting were:

  • Christopher Richardson (Union Theological Seminary)
  • Christopher Welch (Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Irene Herold (Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Kevin Butterfield (University of Richmond)
  • Loftan Hooker (Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Michael Rawls (Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Pamela Foreman (Virginia Union University)
  • Robin McCall (Union Theological Seminary)
  • Suzanne Sherry (Brightpoint Community College)

Approval of Agenda: Approved, quorum established.

Approval of Minutes: Approved with no corrections.

Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Michael Rawls shared the report; balance is healthy. Some institutions have not paid their dues, they have been contacted. The fee for web hosting will be due in February.

Committee Reports

Professional Development and Networking Committee: Loftan Hooker announced that a new program highlighting Jewish American Heritage Month is in the early planning stages. More members are needed for the committee and the exciting work they have planned.

Outreach Committee: With the departure of Will Weaver from Reynolds, Molli Gonzalez is now the sole member of the Outreach Committee. Will was also the webmaster for RALC. The website has been transferred to Suzanne Sherry, but the responsibility of the web continues to lie with the Outreach Committee. More members are needed. Christopher Richardson suggested that Dora Rowe might be interested in joining Outreach; she also has experience with WordPress sites. Molli Gonzalez has also volunteered to be responsible for the RALC site.  

New business

RALC Award for the Profession. The language in the Award was revised considerably; thank you to Christopher Richardson, Nancy Falciani-White and Suzanne Sherry for this work. The revised language, including the renaming of the scholarship to award, was approved by the committee. The new document and accompanying letter will be loaded to the web and shared with the committee for distribution at their institutions. Please encourage interested colleagues to apply.

Additional Committee members. Suzanne will share the process for volunteering for committees with the group. Please encourage interested colleagues to volunteer.

New officers. The terms of the current officers will end at the Spring meeting. A Vice president/President Elect and Secretary will need to be elected at our next meeting. Members of the committee were encouraged to volunteer for one of these positions.

Announcements

Brightpoint. Brightpoint’s president will be leaving at the end of February; an interim has been appointed. The library will be recruiting for two staff positions this spring.

UPSEM. Christopher Richardson is leaving, and the new library director Robin McCall was introduced and welcomed. The library is hiring for reference librarian and a library director for the Charlotte campus. Robin will oversee both.

VUU. No announcements.

UR. The current provost is leaving, and a new provost will be hired.

VCU: VCU Libraries is hosting an author even for Black History Month. RALC Library colleagues are welcome to attend; the Zoom link will be shared. The Reflection Room in Cabell is moving forward; more funds will need to be raised before construction begins. A development/donation campaign is being launched. Irene visited the book lab and book arts spaces at UR and Longwood; these projects will inspire new projects at VCU’s makerspace. There was a water leak in the Health Sciences Library, and affected walls, carpet, and items in the archive. Insurance is covering the damage. VCU is recruiting, and has added team members recently. The budget is expected to be tighter next year. Irene mentioned the College Library Director Mentoring Program, recommending it to Robin as a new director.