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Minutes Executive Committee MeetingRome, Italy, 3-4 March 2006 |
These Minutes have been approved by the EBLIDA
President.
Chair: Jan Ewout van der Putten, President.
Participants: Karin Åstrom, Toby Bainton, Sue Brown, Marian Koren, Gerald Leitner, Barbara Lison, Helena Patrício, Bas Savenije, Disa Svenskberg, Lalla Sotgiu, Finn Vester.
Observer: Pedro Hípola.
1. Opening and announcements
Jan Ewout van der Putten (President) opened the meeting and welcomed the members of the Executive Committee to Rome. He thanked Lalla Sotgiu for the local arrangements and hospitality.
None.
The Agenda was approved.
The Riga Minutes were approved.
Likewise the EC approved the final version of Council Meeting Minutes, Cork, Ireland, 13 and 14 May 2005, after some outstanding question marks had been finalized. The Draft Minutes will be put on the web, in time for the next Council Meeting in Budapest, to be approved.
Separate Action list was considered. Most actions were executed, except for Action 8 - awaiting further info; Actions 12, 13 and 14 were postponed; Action 15 had become obsolete, deleted.
Results of selection procedure for new Director
The President briefed the Executive Committee on the results of the Selection process. The Selection Committee (Karin Åstrom, Sue Brown, Gerald Leitner and Jan Ewout van der Putten) received applications from various countries. Two candidates were interviewed; a third one couldn’t come. With the final candidate a second interview was held. The President gives an introduction of the final candidate. The committee had with him two very satisfactory interviews. The candidate is an intelligent, able young man. He is a librarian, a good organiser and very communicative.
The selection committee advised the EC unanimously to appoint this candidate as director of EBLIDA.
Prospects are good to have a new director who could start working 1st of May.
The EC members were content with the outcome and thanked the Selection Committee for its good work. They set a timetable for the next steps and expected the contract to be presented to the candidate within two weeks. The EC will receive a copy of contract and CV.
It was decided that silence would be kept, and only after the contract had been signed, EBLIDA would make a press release which would then be sent to all members and interested partners and library journals.
6. EBLIDA membership issues and Working Group
Membership status: report
An updated report was distributed, showing a number of members in payment arrears, increasing their debts every year. For EBLIDA this meant a considerable uncollectible sum (24.000, of which 8363 euro for 2005). The membership is not growing. A number of members pays slowly (1-3 years in arrears) or not at all. A number of full members are slow in sending in their ANP (Annual Non-Profit Turnover), and need still to be invoiced for 2006 (21.000 euro).
It was noticed that for the first time the EC was presented with in-depth information on the situation, as in fact should be the case every year, because the EC is finally responsible. The report showed where weaknesses were. The EC agreed on the need to clean up the list of payments in arrears, after a final effort to receive the payment. Members should not have the opportunity to build up large debts: after 2 years of payments in arrears, deletion of membership would follow. Members would, however, be encouraged to renew their membership. The writing off of debts would be done by the director, controlled through the budget mechanism.
Membership Working Group: results
As chair of the Working Group, Finn Vester reported on the results of the Working Group. Their recommendation to include EC members for getting final payments or at least a response was followed by assigning tasks, following the list of payments in arrears. An update action list will be sent to EC members concerned.
The Working Group recommended to take action for recruiting new members. Help was offered to make a text on EBLIDA membership benefits, which would be used on the occasion of the Council Meeting 2006. The Working Group would continue its work with a meeting in Budapest, together with the new director.
Decision on acceptance/deletion of Membership
The Association of Danish Public Library Managers, ANP 29.412 euro should pay 1290 euro (=5% of their income) (paid 502 in 2005); cannot afford; wishes Band A or will resign; The EC decided that no exceptions could be made. The Association will be informed accordingly.
Malta School Library Association, (ANP 462 Lm?) went over to full membership, should pay Band A; has payment difficulties in 2005, also for 2006;The EC advised the Malta School Library, to combine its membership with the other Malta Association, and delete its full membership.
Blackheath Library, UK is three years in arrears; mail returned. Will be deleted as member.
APBD, Association for Librarians and Documentalists, Belgium, three years in arrears; will be deleted as member.
OPIB, Observatory for International Libraries and Archives Programmes, Italy, three years in arrears. EC member said that Paper work was underway, so membership is pending.
Application for Full Membership was received from Lietuvos mokslinių bibliotekų asociacija (Lithuanian Research Library Association); ANP 3873,66 – Band A. After checking the goals and statues, the applicant was adopted as member. A letter of welcome would be sent.
Question of introducing voting rights to associate members
This question is raised again in the EBLIDA Working Group on Trade Agreements and Libraries. The EC stipulated that this question was recently widely debated. The Council last year in Cork decided against introducing these rights. The matter should be considered closed for the next few years.
7. Strategy and Activities
Review of Strategic Plan 2004-2007
The Executive Committee sees no urgent reason to review the current Strategy now. It is a sound and practical fundament for the work that has to be done. It is better to go over the plan in detail with a new director and present possible revisions in the Council meeting 2007.
Even if the efforts in 2004 were directed at a more focused plan, some members of the EC think that the fit between the ambitions in the plan and the actual capacity of the bureau is not good. The EC has the responsibility to look at that especially in the upcoming review.
Input for Annual Report 2005
The former director left no draft for the report. Chairs of the various Working Groups will be asked to supply short texts on issues dealt with in the past year. Few facts from the EC and the office will be added. The Report will be compact. The report will be presented to Council by a member of the EC.
Annual Work Programme 2006
Likewise chairs would be asked to submit upcoming issues in 2006. Concerning membership activities, based on the French struggle for examples of implementation etc., the idea was born to facilitate members in learning methods of implementation of various EU directives, especially concerning lending right and copyright. This could be a workshop in September, with methods and case studies (
organisation could be outsourced with positive results on fifty-fifty basis).The EC also wishes to confirm its tradition of having its business meeting combined with a local workshop/meeting in especially new EU member states. This could also be a practice for Working Groups.
Financial Report 2005
Adoption of the Financial Status Report
Treasurer Finn Vester reported that he had had talks with the outgoing director and the accountant in January. On his requests clarifications were included in the final report. As a rule the sum of payments for 6 months’ running costs were kept in capital. Due to low activity level less money was spent. EC members noted that debts had risen enormously over the last three year.
The Financial Report prepared by Bouwer & Officier was adopted.
Draft Budget Revision 2006
Based on first meeting with Treasurer, a revision of the Draft budget 2006 had been prepared. Expected less income has been taken into account; likewise no workshops or EU projects were budgeted for. The balance sheet 2005 would be added to this Revision, and then the Budget Revision would be put to council.
Input for Draft Budget 2007
Based on the assumption that EBLIDA will work under a new director, a membership recruitment campaign, and some workshops are foreseen. The EC decided cautiously to put costs and benefits of workshops neutrally i.e. not prospecting extra income.
The Treasurer was thanked for his efforts.
This item was mainly treated in the EBLIDA Italy Meeting (Friday 16h30-18h00), except for necessary decision taking. Issues presented included:
General and membership
Copyright, Open Access
Digital Libraries (i2010)
European Professional Education
EU Service Directive, including the EBLIDA Statement
Furthermore upcoming issues were mentioned, such as:
Review of acquis communautaire of the Database Directive
The Italian colleagues present exchanged information and views on local developments, and appreciated the EBLIDA presentations.
In its committee meeting, the EC heard reports from the two PEG and CEG Working groups.
PEG
Sue Brown distributed a report from the meeting in Granada, where the Professional Education Group had met. The issues were calling for a next phase of the work, as the consultation on Lifelong Learning had finished. The sector was not a regulated sector in the definition of the EU. Establishing a common platform might help to strengthen the image of the sector, but some feared also the lowering of standards. In 2007 a meeting regarding the Bologna Process could take place, possibly in connection with the EU Presidency themes. The recommendations required allocation of people and resources; It might not be possible to carry out all the work. Discussion would therefore be prepared in the next Executive with the new director to set priorities. The EC was grateful for the work done by the PEG group.
CEG:
Toby Bainton, in addition to the presented issues, considered the i2010, the review of the database directive, and the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights and digital rights, as lobbying issues for the coming period.
10. EBLIDA structure and regulations
Working Group on Regulations, results
Barbara Lison reported on the meeting of the internal Working Group on Regulations. Good Governance would be a guideline for looking at the Statutes and Regulations, making communication an important part of the EBLIDA work units. Clarifications will be proposed on the responsibilities of President, EC and director, as the statutes didn’t give them. Furthermore time limits were set for agenda and files for the EC meetings (paper: 2 weeks) and for response by the EC members.
The reference for Good Governance would be sent to the EC Members, who were pleased with the work of the Group, which will continue in Budapest with the new director.
EBLIDA Working on Culture
In the last Council meeting (CORK) iit was decided to monitor issues related to culture via discussion list. The EC sees no reason to set up a Working Group.
11. Preparation of Council Meeting, Budapest, 5 and 6 May 2006
Draft Meeting Schedule
The EC considered the first draft of the Meeting Schedule, prepared by Margo de Groot. The Hungarian colleagues from different library associations and institutions had had their first meeting to discuss input, possible visits and events. Some hotels were already selected and put on the website of the National Library, where the Council Meeting will be held. As a possible keynote László Csaba, Professor of Economics and EU studies was mentioned.
Concerning the programme, the EC suggested to have some smaller sessions, with outside speakers (to relieve some ‘traditional’ EBLIDA speakers), where participants could meet other organizations and exchange views. Speakers from SPARC and eIFL would be combined in a session on Open Access. Professional Education (combined with EUCLID) would be another session. Furthermore, Duane Webster (USA Lobby Bureau) would be interested in an exchange with EBLIDA. (Another subject could be the new EU development on Digital Libraries).
Input for Agenda of Council Meeting
Some upcoming issues will be considered.
Items for Executive Committee Meeting
The EC meeting will take place on Thursday 4th of May at 14h00, probably at the National Library, and will mainly be concerned with working with the new director, talking through EBLIDA policy, strategy and practice in the near future, apart from practical matters related to Council. In Budapest the EC internal working groups Membership Development Issues, and Regulations (not on Thursday) would meet, assisted by the new director.
12. Cooperation with other organisations
Reports on LIBER, SPARC, IFLA; contacts are on hold reported waiting the arrival of the new director.
Contacts to the Director:
Some organizations have contacted the Secretariat/Interim Director.
Arma International, Europe Office: Association for Information Management Professionals
IFFRO, International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisation; (Sent response to i2010 consultation)
For consideration and decision: The Association of Accredited Lobbyists to the European Parliament (AALEP) response to European Transparency Initiative
For decision: EBLIDA wishes to remain a guarantor for EDItEUR, the International Group for Electronic Commerce in the Book and Serials Sectors?
Caused by lack of time, these issues were not discussed. They will be on the agenda for May, unless the (Interim) director deems it necessary to make decisions sooner. In that case she will contact the EC by email.
13. Any other business
For information: current activities of website, discussion lists
Not discussed were: assessment of website, inclusion of Working Groups
14. Next meetings
Apart from the EC meeting just before Council to be held on 4th May 2006 in Budapest, the EC decided to have an early Fall meeting, proposed dates 6-7 October in Krakow, Poland. Contacts with Polish colleagues will be established to find confirmation of possibilities. Helena would like to welcome the EC in Coimbra (Portugal) in March 2007. The EC is happy to go to Portugal for the spring meeting.
An updated EBLIDA calendar would be provided.
14. Closure
The President closed the meeting with warm thanks to Lalla Sotgiu for hospitality, and to all members for their contributions.
Created:
28 March 2006Last updated: 22 June 2006