2025-09-24 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

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Minutes
WAML Executive Board Meeting 
9/24/2025
9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern

Call meeting to order: 9:04 am Pacific/12:04 pm Eastern

Officers in attendance: 

  • Cheyenne Stradinger (President)
  • Sierra Laddusaw (Vice President)
  • Meg Miller (Past President) 
  • Jack Tieszen (Secretary)
  • sam hidde tripp (Treasurer) 

Absent: 

Other attendees: 

Theresa Quill, Emma Slayton, Georgia Brown, Nick Beyelia, Josh Sadvari, Alyssa Renteria, George Carhart, Emilie Ducourneau, Kevin Dyke, Zoe Dilles, Craig Haggit, Ken Rockwell, Bruce Godfrey

Approval of minutes from last meeting:

Officer Reports & Check-In

  • Cheyenne Stradinger (President)
    • We made it to Moscow! 47 Registered.
  • Sierra Laddusaw (Vice President)
    • Met with Craig (Denver Public Library) 9/23 to discuss 2026 Annual Meeting
  • Meg Miller (Past President)
    • IB Committee Update
    • Letters for folks who needs one for promotion etc
  • Jack Tieszen (Secretary)
    • No reports.
  • sam hidde tripp (Treasurer)

Actions approved over email by E-Board since August 2025 E-Board meeting

  • N/A

Appointed Position Reports

  • Sarah Zhang (Information Bulletin Editor)
    • Georgia Brown has stepped down from the role of Features Editor. Emma Slayton will be the new Features Editor starting with the fall issue. Georgia did an interview with Emma in the Summer issue. Thanks Georgia for her contribution to this section!   Michael Smith, who has been the New Mapping Editor for the past two years, has retired. In the absence of this role, Ken Rockwell has agreed to be the Interim Editor. Chrissy Klenke helped with this section in the summer issue. Thanks Ken and Chrissy! 
    • Meg Miller initiated a small ad hoc committee to review all things IB-related after being approached by EBSCO about adding the IB to the index of one of their open databases. The committee members are Meg Miller, Chrissy Klenke, and me. Tom Brittnacher, Zoe Dilles, Kevin Dyke, and Georgia Brown have all contributed to the discussions. We have held a few meetings, and the focus has shifted from EBSCO’s proposal to the broader issue of the IB’s discoverability and related matters. Specifically, we are exploring minting DOIs for the IB and indexing it in Google Scholar. The work is ongoing.
  • Ilene Raynes (IB Book and Geospatial Resources Review Editor)
  • Emma Slayton (IB Features Editor)
  • Nick Beyelia (Membership Manager)
    • Reporting for this meeting represents membership numbers from September 23, 2024 to September 2, 2025. These numbers are likely to change in the days immediately before and shortly after the annual conference as there is typically a rush of renewals surrounding this event. Reporting here is as close to the date of the conference as possible.  
    • Changes to membership processes
    • The most significant change this year is a switch in the membership timeline. In previous years, reporting was based upon a fiscal year model that began on July 1 and ended on June 30th of the following year. That changed as of last year. Reporting will now be centered around the annual conference as it is often the catalyst for membership activity – both membership renewals and new membership and is the marked event requiring an annual summary of membership activity.   
    • As of September 2, 2025 WAML has a total of 65 members. This comprises 50 paid memberships, 3 honorary year-long memberships that were gifted to WAML Scholarship recipients and 12 lifetime memberships. 
    • Among paid memberships 13 were brand new members and 6 were renewals following lapses in membership. We have maintained the number of lifetime memberships from the previous report with 5 paid and 7 honorary memberships.
    • Membership has increased from last year when an all-time low in membership numbers was reported. It’s not clear if the new membership system may have affected these numbers, however, it is important to note that no personal checks were received to pay dues nor has any member reached out to ask about alternative ways to pay – i.e. a personal check. 
  • Chrissy Klenke (New Mapping Editor)
  • Zoe Dilles (WAML Archivist)
    • The presentations and photos from last year are not yet up (will be put up after the conference this year).
    • Access to previous files is easy, so just ask.
    • Locating/archiving where specific papers are located.
    • 2022 presentations have been recorded and transcribed, not deposited yet.
  • Kevin Dyke (Web Administrator)
    • Allocating meta tags to previous issues, making IB Google scholar indexable.
      • Articles only so no books reviews, president’s message, etc.
      • Main issue: How to assign these tags appropriately without making it an issue for the editor.

Updates from task forces, committees, etc.

  • Continuing Education (Kat Strickland)
  • Communications Committee (Georgia Brown)
    • Kevin finished all the website edits from June’s website editing party. Huge shout out to him! 
    • For the conference this year, I put together a spreadsheet about roommates / carpooling / joining a text group to help with money saving. I also created a What’s App for at-conference communications. I think adding these duties or something similar would be good to add to the CommComm Chair duties. 
  • Scholarship Committee (Jo-Ann Wong)
    • Scholarship winners:
      • Karen Pfeffer, Circulation Supervisor & Technical Processing Assistant at the Earth Sciences & Map Library at the University of California Berkeley 
      • Anna Rohl, Map Curator of Clark Library at the University of Michigan Library.
  • MAGIRT/ALA Liaison Report (Kathy Rankin)
    • MAGIRT officers as of July 1, 2025, are Susan Moore, chair; Iris Taylor, vice chair/chair elect; Erin Cheever, past chair; Laura McElfresh, secretary; Pete Reehling, treasurer; Sam Kim, assistant treasurer. 
    • At ALA Annual in June, MAGIRT’s social event was a visit to the Free Library of Philadelphia featuring imaginary places maps, historical maps, and a map overlay tool. The tour was followed by a no host dinner. 
    • The winner of the MAGIRT Honors Award was our Michael Smith, recently retired from UC San Diego where he was the Subject Specialist for Maps, Philosophy, Religion and Jewish Studies. He has held many positions in MAGIRT since he joined in1995, including treasurer for several terms. Michael also has held numerous roles in GODORT, is a past president of WAML, co-hosted a WAML conference, and was the long-time writer/editor of the News and Notes section of the Information Bulletin. 
    • The MAGIRT Chair’s Program at ALA Annual was Walk Around Philadelphia: Discovering the City by Exploring Its Boundaries. The speaker was J.J. Tiziou, who is a local artist and massage therapist who leads the walk. The walk is a participatory navigation experience in twelve segments over four three-day weekends. Print and digital maps are the starting point. 
    • All MAGIRT print publications have been digitized and the print copies have been given away. There has been a problem with access to the Guide to US Map Collections. It was a problem with logging into the ESRI account. 
    • Kathleen Weessies of Michigan State University is doing a MAGIRT-sponsored webinar presentation titled A Map Librarian on the Road: Four Libraries in Four Days. She will share her findings on the question “Are large academic map collections largely the same?”Kathleen will also invite participants to discuss the role of maps in academic research and how map libraries might evolve to meet future needs. This free webinar will be held via Zoom on Thursday, October 23, 2025, at 2 pm EDT. *Respectfully submitted, Kathy Rankin, MAGIRT liaison
  • ACMLA Liaison Report (daniel Brendle-Moczuk)
    • To: WAML September 2025 Re: CARTO_ACMLA_ACACC Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Association des Cartothèques et Archives Cartographiques du Canada Liaison Report to WAML 
    • CARTO_ACMLA_ACACC held its 58th annual CARTO conference in Kingston, ON at Queens University June 11-13, 2025 with the theme of Confluence: Maps and spatial technologies at the convergence of disciplines, methodologies, and practice. CARTO_ACMLA_ACACC Executive as below: President: Zach MacDonald, Map Librarian, Western University Library, London, Ont Past-Presidents: Francine Berish, Geospatial Data Librarian, Queen’s University Library, Kingston, Ont and Rene Duplain, GIS Librarian, University of Ottawa Library Vice-President: Sherri Sunstrum, Cartographic Specialist, Carleton University Library, Ottawa 
    • CARTO_ACMLA_ACACC plans to have its next conference at the University of Victoria-UVic (Canada) June 1-4, 2026 in conjunction with the Canadian Association of Geographers-CAG. *Respectfully submitted, daniel Brendle-Moczuk, CARTO_ACMLA_ACACC liaison to WAML Geospatial Librarian, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
  • NACIS Liaison Report (Theresa Quill)
    • The NACIS annual meeting takes place in Louisville, Kentucky from October 14-18 and the schedule has been published: https://nacis2025.sched.com/. Most conference presentations are recorded and made available on the NACIS YouTube channel after the fact. Some library-related presentations that WAML members might be interested in include:
      • Floating in a Sea of Paper: How Penn State Geography Deaccessioned Their Map Collection
        Fritz Kessler, Penn State, Daniela Aiello, Penn State
      • How to use millions of historic maps
        Ian Spangler, Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, Bert Spaan, Lead Developer and Co-Founder, Allmaps Project
      • Paste-Ins to Pixels: Contextualizing Cartography through Student Projects at the David Rumsey Map Center  
        Kristina Larsen, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Libraries, Niles Dorn, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Libraries
      • Maps That Glow: Teaching with Paper Circuits
        Theresa Quill, Indiana University Libraries, Leanne Nay, Indiana University Libraries
      • Creative Methods in the Cartographic Classroom
        Meghan Kelly, Syracuse University
      • Putting maps in their place (and time): bringing archival research into the cartography classroom
        Jerry Shannon, University of Georgia
    • NACIS is also conducting their annual Census of members as well as voting for elected leaders. Both of these links are limited to current NACIS members.
  • GSIS (Chrissy Klenke)
  • NGAC Liaison Report to WAML Executive Board – September 2025

NGAC met in October and December of 2024 and in February and June of 2025. Major developments include the release of the NSDI Strategic Plan 2025 – 2035 in October 2024. I have made a summary of the plan available online. The NGAC also released several reports in the past year, including Near-Term Opportunities for Our National Spatial Data Infrastructure and Advancing the Nation’s Geospatial Ecosystem: Guidance and Best Practices for Sharing Priority National Data. The next meeting is at the end of October 2025, where several more reports will be discussed, including topics such as GeoAI, Data Access and Download, and a new(ly) updated FGDC Standards.

 -Submitted by Ryan Mattke / NGAC L

Old Business

  • Previous action items:
    • Send report for NCAG meetings to board (Ryan Mattke)
  • Proposal for WAML to take over Online Guide to U.S. Map Collections. ALA/MAGIRT is the current owner, but various issues have made it so the Guide has disappeared/doesn’t have a home. Many WAML members are also coordinators for the Guide.
    • Draft some letters of interest.
    • Suggestion: What if it wasn’t tied to ArcGIS Online but rather another platform? Keep it as simple as possible and build in that it can be passed around.

New Business

  • George Carhart offering to host the WAML Conference at Texas A&M and the Cushing Memorial Library and the Cushing-Evans Map Room. Located in College Station, TX.
  • Discussion of Treasurer transition for Bank of America. Bruce Godfrey is no longer Treasurer and the position is now held by sam hidde tripp. Bank of America will need WAML Exec Board approval.
    • Approved by the board.

Potential Features Announcements

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday October 29, 2025 at 9 AM Pacific/12 PM Eastern

Meeting adjourned: 9:53 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern

Minutes submitted by Jack Tieszen (Secretary).

Approved by the Executive Board by email on October 6th

Action Items

  • Meg: Update the list of potential conference location and pin people down for dates.
  • Write down Milwaukee as a (potential) destination for the 2027 conference

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