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WAML Business Meeting
Friday, September 27, 2024
3:59 pm – 4:35 pm MDT / 5:59 pm – 6:35 pm EDT

Call meeting to order: 3:59 pm MDT

Officers in attendance: Meg Miller (President), Cheyenne Stradinger (Vice President), Jessica Benner (Past President), Emilie Ducourneau (Secretary), Bruce Godfrey (Treasurer)

Approval of minutes from last year’s meeting:

• August 11, 2023
• Motion to approve by Meg, seconded by Kat, approved

Executive Summary (of Executive Board meetings since July)

• New Indexer for the Information Bulletin
  • The position for an indexer for the WAML IB was posted to the American Society for Indexers in January 2024. 
  • A subcommittee including Ken Rockwell (Involved in hiring previous indexer), Kat Strickland (Past President), Sarah Zhang (IB Editor) and Jessica Benner (President) interviewed three candidates in March and Pilar Wyman of Wyman Indexing was hired in July. 
  • She was contracted at an annual rate of $600 US dollars for preparation of indexes for 3 issues and updating the cumulative index of the Work. 
  • She completed volumes 54 and 55 in September 2024.

• WAML Inboxes for specific roles
  • Some challenges with Eventbrite prompted the need for a generic WAML inbox.
    • Our Eventbrite was being run on an individual work email account and Eventbrite requires a US citizen as a signatory. 
    • The conference email address we have been using is a distribution list not a formal inbox. 
  • The Board discussed creating a few specific accounts, e.g., conference and treasurer for specific business needs in the future.

• Honorarias for Social Media Manager, New Mapping Editor, and Archivist were discussed. 

• WAML Listserv
  • Migrating list from U-Washington servers to Google and using Google Groups to manage
  • Shaping it to act as a listserv 
  • Follow up email with more details will be forthcoming 
  • Old messages will go to a dark archive in our records at Stanford

Officer Reports

Bruce Godfrey (Treasurer) 

Organization remains financially healthy and steady.

Primary income: Membership | conference registration | conference sponsorship

Primary expenses: Honoraria | web hosting | scholarships | IB indexing | conference hosting

Two of the previous 3 years we collected more than spent.  One year we spent more than we collected. Over the last 3 years we have collected a little over $1200 more than we spent.

Calendar Year Start Balance (1/1/2024)                            $27,378
Calendar Year Start Balance (1/1/2023)                            $27,160
Calendar Year Start Balance (1/1/2022)                            $27,806
Calendar Year Start Balance (1/1/2021)                            $26,159

Cheyenne Stradinger (VP/PE)

• Worked on WAML 2024
• Organizing for next year’s conference
• Sending out survey soon–Please let us know what you thought of WAML 2024
• Oct 10 is WAML’s virtual conference–will send out a link soon

Emilie Ducourneau (Secretary) 

• N/A

Jessica Benner (Past President) 

• Finalizing set of templates for appointment letters–use for record of participation in WAML
• Thinking about a past president project for upcoming year

Meg Miller (President)

• Put together WAML 2024
• Please fill out forthcoming survey for WAML 2024
• Looking forward–ways to connect more efficiently. What works best for people? Text/emails…other ways to connect/talk

Appointed Position and Committee Chair Reports

Zoe Dilles (Archivist) 

• Working with Kim Durante and in the process of making a dark archive. There are no materials on the website but will be soon. Need anything? Reach out to us. The conference proceedings are on our website–go into searchworks or through Google and search “WAML”
• In process QAQC transcriptions for the audio of the presentations recorded for the virtual conference proceedings during pandemic. Using Whisper (AI) as well as manual to make sure everything is transcribed appropriately

Ilene Raynes (Book and Geospatial Resources Editor) 

• N/A

Sarah Zhang (Information Bulletin Editor) 

• Role handover
• In fall 2023, Chrissy Klenke, the former IB Editor, passed the role to me as the new editor. Thanks to Chrissy’s patience in training me, the transition was smooth. 
• New content

In the summer issue this year, I started a new series called “Geospatial Data Management Interview Series,” with the first interview published. The series aims to provide current, practical information on library projects and practices in managing, stewarding, and curating geospatial data. To all attendees of this meeting: I would appreciate any leads on potential candidates for future interviews in this series.  

• The Indexer

Due to the former indexer’s leave, a replacement was needed. Jessica Benner took the lead on this work, which included drafting the job posting, organizing the interviews, determining the successful candidate, drafting the contract, obtaining approval from the executive board, and coordinating the transition between the indexers, among other tasks. That was a lot of work—thank you, Jessica! Chrissy Klenke, Ken Rockwell, Katherine Strickland were also involved in the work. Pilar Wyman was hired as the new indexer, and she has finished the index files for volumes 54 and 55. Bruce will send her a check pending my approval of the work.

• The WAML IB Volume 55 issue 3 was published in July 2024. Starting Volume 56 in November!

Georgia Brown (Features Editor) 

• Please let me know if you have any updates / exhibits / good news you’d like to share in the IB Features at browngl@uwm.edu.
• Interviews for retired WAMLites

Nick Beyelia (Membership Manager)

• Reporting for this meeting represents membership numbers from January 1, 2024 to September 21, 2024. 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. An updated accounting of these statistics will be available in an end of year report, upon request. 
• 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. Moving forward reporting will be based upon a calendar year. This change was brought on because of the adoption of a membership renewal process that allows WAML members more autonomy in individual renewals. Reporting will not reflect membership renewals that took place between the previous membership report submitted to the WAML Executive Board on August 22, 2023 and December 31, 2023. No members were removed from the listserv during this transition in order to adjust to these changes. 
• As of September 21, 2024 WAML has a total of 63 Members. This comprises 48 paid memberships, 3 honorary year-long memberships that were gifted to WAML Scholarship recipients and 12 lifetime memberships. Among paid memberships 8 were brand new members and 7 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 dropped from last year when 73 members were reported; unfortunately this represents an all-time low in membership numbers. 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 while six personal checks were received last year to pay for membership to WAML and seven personal checks were submitted the prior year.    

Total Memberships Reported 

Year             Tot #         Lifetime         New          Scholarship      

2015            73                7h/1pd

2016            93                7h/1pd                                         

2017            91                8h/2pd             11

2018            82                9h/3pd             8

2019            94                9h/4pd             9                 

2020            94                9h/4pd             13               

2021 109 8h/4pd     19 2

2022 78 7h/4pd     2 3

2023 73 7h/5pd     7 2

2024 63 7h/5pd     8 3

sam hidde tripp (Social Media Manager) 

• N/A

Kevin Dyke (Web Administrator)

• Website–ongoing process adjusting to membership system. When it’s time to renew, if you have any questions–let Kevin know. You can also update your password on the website. He will make some clarifications on the website about the renewal process. Will find a way to turn on the auto renewal process so that people can see when their membership will expire. This will provide a consistent baseline of financial support. 
• WAML members–please look and add their info on the WAML website–describe their institution, contact info–only accessible to other members. It’s a WAML directory!
• Contact Kevin if you have any questions or issues

Jo-Ann Wong (Scholarship Committee)

• Regretfully could not make it to the conference this year.

Kat Strickland (Continuing Education Committee)

• This committee is being reformed. The Map Librarian’s Toolkit is now being updated and managed by the Communications Committee so the idea is to get people together throughout the year outside of the conference for training opportunities.
• If anyone is interested in being on the Committee or if you have ideas for workshops, let Kat know. Kat and Jessica have volunteered.

Georgia Brown (Communications Committee)

• In June, the Communications committee hosted a Map Librarian’s Toolbox Editing Party with 13 attendees. 
• ACTION–the attendees need to send Georgia their edits!!!!

Liaison Reports

Kathy Rankin, (ALA/MAGIRT) American Library Association’s Map and Geospatial Information Round Table 

MAGIRT presented a chair’s program at ALA Annual in San Diego on June 29, 2024. Vanessa Viola, who is the Art & Architecture Librarian at the New York Institute of Technology, and her colleague Elijah Williams presented on their experiences teaching maps and geospatial data in the context of architecture and design education. There was also a tour of the map collection at the San Diego History Museum in Balboa Park and a casual pay-you-own-way dinner. There were no nominations for the MAGIRT Honors Award, so the formal dinner was a membership appreciation dinner.  

Susan Moore is the new vice-chair/chair-elect. MAGIRT has a new website that is running on Drupal 10. There was a virtual event called Leap into MAGIRT! on February 29^th that was about map librarianship and included thirteen presentations on such topics as collection management and digitization. It was designed to promote MAGIRT and to help fill the void left by Midwinter. The event was a success. 

Respectfully submitted,

Katherine Rankin,

WAML Liaison

daniel Brendle-Moczuk, (ACMLA) Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives 

• Held in Halifax in June. Next year it’s going to be in Kingston, Ontario. 

Chrissy Klenke, (GSIS) GeoScience Information Society 

• N/A

Ryan Mattke, (NGAC) National Geospatial Advisory Committee

• N/A

Vacant, (SLA/G&M) Special Libraries Association’s Geography and Map Section 

Old Business

• Appointed Positions & Liaisons since the last conference (August 2023) (Jessica)
  • We successfully filled several vacancies this year. THANK YOU to those who took on these roles!
    • Appointed Positions:
      • Archivist, Zoe Dilles, Stanford
      • IB Editor, Sarah Zhang, Simon Frazer
      • Social Media Manager, sam hidde tripp, Fresno State 
    • Liaisons:
      • National Geospatial Advisory Committee, Ryan Mattke, University of Minnesota
    • Committee Chairs
      • Scholarship Committee Chair, Jo-Ann Wong, NYPL
  • Discussed adding Liaison for NACIS and still have a vacancy for the Special Libraries Association. If interested, talk to a Board Member!

• Physical Address (Jessica)
  • WAML needed a physical address in the State of California for tax purposes and non-profit status. 
  • The original conversations and proposal was sent to Stanford in March 2022 by Evan Thornberry. On March 19, 2024 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Jessica Benner on behalf of WAML and Julie Sweetkind-Singer, on behalf of Stanford. The MOU should be revisited 5 years from signing. 
  • The WAML Physical Address is now:

Western Association of Map Libraries 

c/o Evan Thornberry, David Rumsey Map Center

Green Library, Stanford University

557 Escondido Mall; MC 6004

Stanford, CA 94305-6004

• Policies and Procedures (Jessica)
  • There have been several updates to the Policies and Procedures
    • Scholarship Committee Chair and Scholarship Committee were added
    • Appointed Positions were revised and updated
    • A Secondary Signatory responsibility was added to the Vice President/President-Elect role (on a three year cycle)

New Business

• Principal Region and Conference Locations
  • Discussed and listed out current handshake agreements and suggestions for potential WAML conference locations. Will make decisions in the upcoming year
    • One of these is Yukon Territory – which we realized is not actually in the Principal Region (Item 10 in WAML Bylaws).
      • Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
    • Proposed a discussion at a future board meeting to look at the Principal Region and brainstorm ways to maintain WAML’s identity in the West but open the opportunities for conference locations outside of the West.
  • Proposed to have a section in the WAML Conference Manual to track these loose agreements so the Board can follow up with them when appropriate.
  • Section in the manual to track these loose agreements about where the conferences are. This needs to be formalized.
  • There should be an exec board meeting about talking about this issue. THere should also be a membership meeting to discuss this.
  • Meg proposes that we revisit this issue at a later meeting.

• Membership Updates (Kevin)
  • Auto Renew is now enabled in PayPal for membership dues. If you check this option, your membership will automatically renew every year. 
  • Fill out your member profiles on waml.org.

• Next year’s conference is going to be hosted by Bruce Godfrey at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho! Bruce was planning the 2020 conference and was interrupted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

• Thank you to Cheyenne Stradinger and the University of New Mexico Libraries for hosting the conference this year! 🌶️☀️🗺️

ACTION: Fill out the survey so that Bruce can start planning the Idaho conference!

Meeting adjourned: 4:35 pm Mountain time. 

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