2002-2003 ALA President and 2003-2004 Chair, APA Standing Committee on Salaries, Mitch Freedman convenes the Joint Meeting of the Task Force on Better Salaries & Pay Equity and the ALA-APA Standing Committee on Salaries at 6:09pm.

Present: Mary Berman, Carol Brey-Casiano, Diane Fay, Keith Fiels, Jenna Freedman, Mitch Freedman, Arthur Friedman, Joan Goddard, Dan Golodner, Janet Lee, Donna Mandel, Nina Manning, Ray Markey, Marci Merola, Rosemary Mesh, Patricia McHugh, Leslie Monsalve-Jones, Dan O'Connor, Sushila Shah, Laura Sutherland, Carol Thomas

In the absence of Ms. Schuman, Mr. Freedman will chair on behalf of all units.

The Chair of 2003-2004 Standing Committee on Salaries is Mitch Freedman. All three groups meet simultaneously. The group includes members of the Task Force, members of the Working Groups and members of the Standing Committee on Salaries.

Mitch asks participants to volunteer for 1 or 2 Working Groups. Mitch introduces Marci Merola, the ALA staff responsible for getting out all of the publications.

Mitch asks for WGs to report on what each has said and done from Midwinter.

Diane Fay reports for the Union WG and the Support Staff WG:

Union WG Issues:

* The Union Working Group and the Support Staff Working Group had met together since so many of the original Support Staff WG members were not at Toronto
* Union group wants to continue and look at identifying a complete list of what unions represent library workers.
* National Library Week-targeting and recognizing support staff
* During the WG meeting, the union WG discussed organizing around the issue of funding of the APA. Don't let APA go by wayside because of funding. Keith Fiels will report on the funding issue.
* Since Unions have a big issue with pay equity. Look to partner with unions on work on pay equity. Mitch Freedman discussed this with Karen Nussbaum, ALF-CIO Assistant to President Sweeney.
* Because of the budget issues and the emphasis on the budget cuts, look at collecting success stories on how unions helped with this issue. Addressing budget and staffing cuts.

Support Staff WG Issue:
* Suggestion on the support staff side to find a way to deal with the class issue.

Joan Goddard reports for the Partnerships/Outreach/Coalitions WG:

The P/O/C WG came up with four different letters to be sent. A first draft for each of them was devised. The letters will address members of the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), a few national groups working on low-income issues, groups with ALA affiliation or joint committees, ALA-related friends of the library and trustee organizations, and will ask the national organizations to tell their state and local groups about the 2001-2003 salaries TF and ask them to get in touch with library staff to offer support for library workers' salary improvement efforts.

Joan Goddard reports for the Research/Resources WG Subcommittee of the ALA-APA:

The Research/Resources WG will continue to update the bibliography for new salaries toolkit.
* There is also concern about clarifying the ALA salary survey's purpose and how it can be used to work towards appropriate salaries.
* The WG will work with the ALA Office of Research and others to try to develop the idea of the salaries TF's Research WG regarding academic research projects related to the economic and other values of library staff work, as a variant on the work being done already regarding the organization. There is also interest in working with the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics regarding their library worker salaries data collection to make their statistics more consistent and useful. Margaret Myers, the chair of the TF's Research WG, will continue to participate although she has asked not to be the Chair of the new WG.
* Mitch said during his speeches that it is very important to not just look at other library workers' salaries, but look at people in fields that are comparable to us. Also look at salaries at all levels in other occupations-to use the methods of determining comparable worth of men's work and women's work jobs, when working to improve salaries.

Comparable Worth:

* Mitch says we're a predominantly female profession, so all of us are paid worse. The reason we're paid less as a group is because the library workforce is predominantly female.

Keith Fiels enters meeting.

Discussion of new APA Standing Committee on Salaries and it's WGs:

* Mitch says there has been a change in plan, some of his appointments on behalf of Carla Hayden, will not stand. Dr. Hayden will appoint 3 members herself. There are only 9 positions. There were 30 members of the Better Salaries Task Force.
* As Chair 2002-2003, Mitch Freedman appointed the WG Chairs.
* The WGs associated with a type of library will specially focus on specific types of libraries: academic, public and school.
* Mary Berman will Chair the Advocacy, Legislation & Training WG.
* Chapter Relations will be chaired by someone very active in the state associations (Maybe Art Friedman?)
* Diversity WG may have the Chair position open.
* Grants and Fundraising may or may not make sense as a WG. Maybe grants/fundraising and partnerships can be all together.
* Pay Equity will be chaired by Mike Leber, the official ALA representative to NCPE. Diane Fay thinks it's good to establish a Pay Equity WG. AFSCME and AFL-CIO have a liaison to NCPE. Pay Equity in ALA works on equal pay for equal work.
* Jenna Freedman would like to see Women's Issues incorporated into one of the WGs
* Programs WG would be charged with facilitating programs at conferences.
* Research and resources WG will carry on work that was done under the Research & Resources WG of the TF. The Toolkit people would be responsible for ensuring a new edition comes out every year.
* Support Staff WG will be chaired by Carol Thomas and will welcome all support staff people but no more than 9 people can join a WG. All meetings will be open meetings.
* If the Union WG has 17 members
* The Video and Media Relations WG is chaired by Mitch Freedman to focus on getting a video of 5-7 minutes advocating for library worker's salaries. There is tentatively a contract in process with a firm in Princeton, NJ that did a video on Princeton PL. The video would be done in a way to be useful to library boards, colleagues, the mayor and the public.
* The Website WG will be chaired by Laura Sutherland.
* Jenna Freedman talked about a Library School Student WG and a National Library Workers Day WG.
* Rural library WG does not yet have a chair.

Volunteers for WGs:

Carol Brey-Casiano, the President-Elect-Elect :

* Carol Brey-Casiano talks about the importance of having money behind this effort. For Carol Brey-Casiano during her Presidential Year, it will be of most importance to advocate for libraries in every form. One can't really talk about libraries without talking about the people who work in them.
* We have to show why libraries are important and once that is established, talk about the people working in them, and then can say "pay them more money" because the community will see the value in them

Keith Fiels discusses financing of the APA:

* Keith asks for introductions so he knows names.
* Keith Fiels would like to discuss the business plan.
* The APA has to be self-supporting and in this way, it's a 'contained box.' Mitch asks for Keith Fiels to explain.
* ALA-APA is a separate 501c6. It cannot receive gifts of money from a 501c3 and it is designed to prevent just this.
* The challenge faced with: is how to create a viable organization that generates revenue. Works on both certification and salaries.
* 1-2 years ago there was a well-developed business plan regarding certifications and most of that would be subcontracted out to someone else doing the credentialing. The certification piece is contained within the ALA budget. The salaries piece is more complicated. There was no membership attached to APA.

• * There are 4 sources of revenue.
  1. Moving Library Personnel News (currently being produced by HRDR-Human Resources Development & Recruitment). Lorelle Swader does Library Personnel News that draws together information from a variety of sources: employment cases, employment law, designed for people dealing with personnel issues. Used by directors of medium-large public libraries primarily. It will now be a new APA publication, but ALA will contract with the APA to make them available to ALA members. That would be $60,000/year for the APA. It should capture enough of the existing content but also expand on salaries, success stories to further the goals of the APA.
  Keep the same price to keep existing members and the cost will be kept down by going electronic, which generated another 25,000.
  2. A series of reports generated on a quarterly basis based on needs such as the ALA Salary Support, the Support Staff survey, Toolkit, report that may contain something like standard job descriptions. Looking at $200 a year similar to kinds of subscription services being offered by a number of other divisions. Would be available for groups working on these types of comparable worth studies to assist with individual efforts. The overall income for that is another 50-60K
  3. A Consulting Service by the APA Staff to do training, help people get started doing a comparable worth study. A certain amount of time, the APA Staff would be out in the field for the kind of trench experience to bring back to APA for reports.
  4. The final revenue source would be contributions. About 20K a year through contributions. When it got to BARC (Budget Analysis Review Committee) and Finance & Audit, it was upped to 50K. It is still a discussion item because that's a massive stretch. FTRF only gets about 20K a year. So it's a significantly higher contribution projection.

* APA Staff:

Full time director, ½ time research assistant, another full time professional and a ½ support position.
Mary Ghikas and Keith Fiels will be available for questions when APA gets a director on board. The Director position should be filled by September 1, 2003.
* Loan/revenue/making the APA a viable entity:
There is a 250K loan being made by ALA to APA with a repayment in 2004-2005. APA needs to be a separate financial entity. This business plan does not take into account other revenue sources.
On the reports, the salary survey sells for $60 a copy. The APA can contract back with the Office of Research.
Mitch Freedman is worried about people with reservations. The APA has to fly!

Keith Fiels says the rhetoric alone won't accomplish this. We need concrete resources. We have to develop useful, valuable tools to get the job done.
The main message is that 'there is no money to burn right off the bat.' The choice of the director is critical. ALA will do everything they can to make the APA successful.
Ray Markey is concerned because ALA cut out membership aspect to APA so now they lost a major funding source. The APA does not have it's own leadership structure, which means to say if people don't want it to succeed, people can make sure that it does not. Those in a leadership in ALA make sure there is a built-in political structure that wants it to succeed.
Mitch Freedman responds that APA was conceived as ALA. APA was a device that permitted ALA to have an advocacy arm for its members. If we get a few reports done and they're good, they'll be more money for research and more money for better writers. Mitch looks to vendors to put some money towards this. Mitch doesn't want to see this breaking away if ALA decides we can't generate funding towards it.
ALA needs to look at the check-offs on the membership form. There could be a 2$ check off to join the APA.
Patricia McHugh says there should be a history of documents about how the important change occurred so that organizations can use it as a tool if they are fighting for change.
Mary Berman asks about how ALA-APA is recruiting for the director position. Keith Fiels says they prefer a librarian, someone with understanding of issues relating to comparable worth.
Keith Fiels says he will ask Mary Ghikas about the job description. ALA wants to attract the best possible candidate. Trying to have a competitive salary for the ambitious position.
The group thanks Keith Fiels for attending.

APA Business plan:

* The business plan for the APA will go out on the listserv.
* Plans for 2003-2004 have been discussed.

Resolutions:

• * Jenna Freedman reports on the 2 resolutions that grew out of the TF1. Support Staff salary survey (which sounds like it's a separate survey, so people will have to pay 60$ per survey but the initial mission has been accomplished).
  2. Fair Pay for Library Workers Week, which didn't go through because APA has no money. Fair Pay for Library Workers Day during National Library Week. Sounds like it also won't go through. Art Friedman came up with 1 day of National Library Workers Day, which maybe the ALA can do.
  * Mitch Freedman says there wouldn't necessarily be money to do a National Library Workers Day to recognize the staff that works in libraries. If there's no salary attached to it, it can be part of ALA National Library Workers Week.
  * Public Awareness deals with National Library Week. Pat Schuman is Chair.

* An ALA Councilor can say "I want a National Library Workers Day attached to National Library Workers Week." Just to have people recognize it and then worry about the budget.

TF Events this Weekend:

* Jenna Freedman distributes the handout.
* The breakfast will be on the 43rd Floor.
* There will be a sign outside the suite.

Discussion Lists:

* The discussion lists will remain.
* Only people officially appointed to the WGs can post but we can have read-only members. Jenna Freedman wants to move to the sympa server.

Other:

• * Everyone is invited to the party at 9:30
  1. Work of the TF and the WGs
  2. End of tenure as ALA President to thank everyone: colleagues & friends
  3. Pat Schuman, TF Coordinator 60th bday
  4. JNB, VP of Cahners, 70th bday
  * The money for the party was donated by DYNIX Corp.
  * Mitch Freedman, 2002-2003 ALA President and 2003-2004 Chair, APA Standing Committee on Salaries, adjourns joint Task Force and APA Standing Committee on Salaries meeting at 8:00pm.