Board Welcomes New Directors

At its August 6 meeting in Dallas, the Amigos Board of Directors welcomed three new members.

• Robin Fradenburgh, Associate Director for Collections and Technical Services at the University of Texas at Austin
• Lisa Wells, Assistant Director for Library Services, Pioneer Library System, Norman, OK
• Linda Morgan Davis, Assistant Director for Collections and Community at the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County (NM) Library

Fradenburgh and Wells were elected last May to three-year terms on the Board. Davis was appointed to a one-year term to replace a Director who recently resigned.

In her Chair's report, Carla Stoffle reported on an orientation session for the new Directors held the previous day. Stoffle also announced the appointment of Directors to the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee. Amigos Treasurer Craig Stephenson, City of Ponca City, OK, will serve as Chair of the committee that includes Fradenburgh and Ruben Aragon, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM.

In his Treasurer's report, Stephenson reported that Amigos’ net operations for June were below the business plan, while gains in the Amigos investment portfolio exceeded the plan. Stephenson noted that for the 2014 fiscal year that ended June 30, both the operational and investment performances exceeded the business plan.

In other business, Directors received a status report on the Amigos eShelf platform that is under development to provide an e-book distribution service for libraries; participation levels in the new member benefit programs that provide free subscriptions to members of the RDA Toolkit and free attendance at live online topical conferences produced by Amigos; and continued activities relating to Ask Amigos, the Librarian’s Reference Desk. As is the custom at the first Board meeting of a new fiscal year, Directors shared information about the library environments in their states. This information is the first step in a year-long strategic planning process that was described to the Board by Chair Carla Stoffle. (See “Viewpoint from the Chair” in this issue.)

In her report, Amigos President and Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Juergens provided the Board with various updates on the operations of the organization. She announced that Amigos has been awarded an additional $75,000 grant to help support development of the Amigos eShelf platform from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for November 12-13.