New England Chapter Annual Report 2019

submitted by Sarah Funke Donovan

Current Roster

  • Sarah Funke Donovan, Chair, 2020
  • Lisa Wollenberg, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 2020
  • Marci Cohen, Past Chair, 2020
  • Brendan Higgins, Secretary-Treasurer, 2021
  • Patricia Brennan, Member-at-Large, 2020
  • Memory Apata, Newsletter Editor, 2019
  • Liz Berndt-Morris, Web Editor, 2021
  • Emily Levine, Archivist, 2021

List of Previous Goals and Progress Made

  1. Goal (Organizational Excellence): The board will better document current and past chapter committee membership: We have a document for Elections as well as a Google folder for Appointment letters, but these need to be consolidated into a spreadsheet for clarity.
  2. Goal (Organizational Excellence): To encourage greater involvement, we will offer a service similar to resume review for conference proposals for both our spring chapter meeting and for the MLA annual meeting: This goal was pushed to 2019-2020.
  3. Goal (Organizational Excellence): The board will find a new home for all our archives: Our Archivist expects to use her local contacts to finalize an agreement in 2019-2020 for a new location for our archives.
  4. Goal (Value of the Profession): The Oral History committee will focus on transcribing and disseminating interviews: The oral history committee transcribed two interviews and published the abridged interview of NEMLA member Patricia “Tish” Brennan in the chapter newsletter ( http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/new-england-quarter-notes-april-2019-no-201/#history ).
  5. Goal: The board will send personalized welcome emails to new and returning lapsed members, not just automated receipts for payment of dues: Templates were created to send to new and returning members to welcome them to NEMLA.
  6. Goal (Education): Our joint fall meeting is planned for McGill University in November 2018. The MLA board will join us for their meeting: This took place as planned, with 97 pre-paid registrants (29 of whom registered via NEMLA).
  7. Goal (Education): Our spring meeting is planned for Boston University in May or June 2019: This meeting took place on May 31, 2019, with 50 paid registrants.
  8. Goal (Education): The board will pursue educational outreach opportunities, particularly through state library organizations, to teach basic music librarianship skills to non-specialists: Our member-at-large developed a list of New England state libraries to contact, but her family medical leave necessitated pushing this goal to 2019-2020.
  9. Goal (Education): The board will pursue outreach opportunities with current library students at Simmons College: CFPs for our meetings were sent to the Simmons student listservs. One Simmons student will be presenting at our Fall 2019 Meeting.
  10. Goal (Education): To facilitate establishing communities of interest to foster greater chapter involvement, we will launch a pilot task force on how can existing professionals help current students: Though a task force was not established per se, last year, the board sent Simmons University in Boston a letter to encourage them to continue to offer a course in music librarianship. They had discontinued the course, despite being having offered the course since 1986 and being the only library school in New England that has offered a music librarianship course in recent memory. I am pleased to report that Simmons University reinstated their music librarianship course. It was offered in the summer of 2019, with the intention of providing it every other summer (during “odd” years).
  11. Goal (Technology): Pending a vote on a necessary by-law change, the chapter will transition to integrating our dues collection with MLA: Our by-law change was passed at our Spring 2019 Business Meeting, and we transitioned to MLA’s system in time for the July 1st FY start date.
  12. Goal (Technology): The secretary/treasurer will investigate cheaper alternatives to Eventbrite for meeting registration: Our meeting registrations/payments are now collected via a combination of Google forms and PayPal.

List of Future Goals

Goal Area: Organizational Excellence

  • The board will better document current and past chapter committee membership. To encourage greater involvement, we will continue to offer a service similar to resume review for conference proposals for both our spring chapter meeting and for the MLA annual meeting.
  • The NEMLA Archivist (Emily Levine) will be formalizing agreements to move our archives from the BPL to another Boston-area institution.

Goal area: Expand Membership Opportunities at All Levels of the Association

  • Our membership numbers fell somewhat due to a transition in the renewal process. The board will send personal prompts to renew to members who were active in the past but have not renewed in MLA’s system yet. The board will also send personalized welcome emails to new and returning lapsed members, not just automated receipts for payment of dues.

Goal Area: Membership. Objective 1: Increase outreach efforts to members from underrepresented groups

  • At our last board meeting, Paul Engel and Michael Rogan presented on their plans to create an online course in Music Librarianship and developed a task force that consisted of Liz Berndt-Morris, Memory Apata, Sarah Funke Donovan representing the NEMLA board and Paul Engel and Michael Rogan providing expertise from their experience teaching the Simmons University Music Librarianship course. The goal is to increase the number of non-traditional students receiving Music Librarianship training in order to increase the diversity of the profession.
  • The board will pursue outreach opportunities with current library students at Simmons University, such as sending NEMLA representatives to Simmons’ Career Fair.

Goal Area: Membership. Objective 2: Increase outreach efforts to organizations that are underrepresented, including those whose holdings reflect many types of music

  • This year our meeting locations are in non-academic institutions. Our fall meeting is planned for Manchester City Library (a public library) in October 2019. Our spring meeting is planned for Boston Symphony Orchestra (a performing arts organization) in April 2020.
  • The board will pursue educational outreach opportunities, particularly through state library organizations, to teach basic music librarianship skills to non-specialists.