Present: John Beauregard, Thomas Cesarz, Patrick C. Cloherty, Dee Hanley, Marjorie Hill-Devine, Doug Rendell, Bonnie Strong and Executive Director Ron Gagnon.

1. CALL TO ORDER—President Doug Rendell called the meeting to order at 2:10 pm.

2. MINUTES—Dee Hanley moved approval and Tom Cesarz seconded the approval of the minutes from the July, August, September 14 & 17, and the October Executive Board meetings. The vote was unanimous.

3. TREASURER’S REPORT—Tom Cesarz presented the budget. Marjorie Hill-Devine moved acceptance, John Beauregard seconded and the motion was passed unanimously.

4. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT—Ron noted that they were in the final stages of cleaning up from a very fast move to a new email server. Our site had been used for unauthorized spamming and Martha managed to move all of the NOBLE activity to a new server in a very short period of time. He noted that there were some problems in communicating with some of the email trainers in the libraries, so they will be holding additional training sessions for them. The Board wanted to publicly commend Martha Driscoll for her extraordinary efforts and her successful accomplishment in solving our email problems.

Ron reported meeting with architect Bob Farley regarding expanding the meeting room into what is presently storage. Our lease is up May 30, 1999 and we have to give 90 days notice.

6. AUTHORIZATION OF LETTER OF INTENT FOR NEW SYSTEM AND REVISED SYSTEM SELECTION PROCESS—Ron noted that letters of intent were due December 17, 1998. NOBLE is officially going out to bid for a client-server system which will run on PCs. Terminals will not be able to be used because they will not work. Marjorie Hill-Devine made the following motion:

The motion was seconded by Dee Hanley and passed unanimously.

7. REVISION OF PART-TIME SALARY SCHEDULE AND CONDITIONS—Ron distributed the current part-time regulations from the June 7, 1989 minutes of the Executive Board. They had advertised for a bibliographic clerk and had no responses; the pay scale was regarded as an issue. There was a lengthy discussion about the pay scale, with concern being expressed by several people that the pay scale should have been brought regularly to the Executive Board for review. Tom Cesarz moved to accept the Conditions of Employment for Part-Time Staff, including a new pay scale, subject to revisions as determined by counsel. Dee Hanley seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Discussion continued over what would be equitable for the current part-time employee. Marjorie Hill-Devine moved to compensate the present system operator at the new Step 4 rate retroactive to July 1, 1998. Tom Cesarz seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Also, there is agreement that whenever the salaries are reviewed, the Executive Board will look at all of the salaries which NOBLE pays.

8. SECRETARIAL SUPPORT FOR MINUTES—Doug explained that we (NOBLE) have evolved as an corporation so that now we have a treasurer who reviews the figures and signs the checks, while the actual books are kept by the Central Site staff. The job would be very time consuming for a volunteer officer. Similarly, perhaps the time has come to have the secretary responsible for reviewing the minutes but NOBLE staff could take them and transcribe them. Bonnie noted that the only way she could find someone to be secretary for NMRLS was to have the minutes taken by paid staff—others were too busy and didn’t have the time to do minutes any more. There was discussion, with the outcome that we have a trial period of a couple of months where Paula will take minutes at the Member Meetings only as Bonnie suggested and the present practice of the secretary taking the minutes of the Executive Board will continue.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bonnie J. Strong, Secretary