Academic Assembly of Librarians

General Assembly Meeting
Paley Library Lecture Hall
Special Meeting – April 12, 2005
2:00 PM

Present: C. Brigham, C. Davis Cunningham, M. Darby, A. Harlow, M. Jerrido, L. Lane, C. Lang, M. Larkin, P. Myers, D. Murray, F. Rowland, B. Schoolar, K. Szigeti, A. Vara, B. Wright

Vice-Chairperson Anne Harlow called the meeting to order at 2:05 pm.

• Vote on Changes to the AAL Bylaws
  • Proposed Changes

Throughout the Bylaws:  change “University Librarian” to “Vice Provost for Libraries.”

Section IIIB5:  change to allow PARA Committee to be elected in May due to new timeframe imposed by the TAUP contract.

Section IIIB9:  stated change for PARA election in May rather than September; change to allow members serving on PARA to recuse themselves should they be under consideration for promotion.

• Questions/Comments

There was a question about PARA members and promotion.  Since PARA members serve for two years, the current bylaws force PARA Committee members either not to apply for promotion or to resign from the Committee in order to be considered for promotion.

• Vote

The members present voted unanimously to approve the changes to the Bylaws.

• PARA Procedures & Guidelines must be rewritten to reflect the changes to the timeline.  The Steering Committee is recruiting volunteers to work on this project.  Mark Darby volunteered and noted that extensive changes probably would not be necessary.
• Merit Process
  • Laura Lane reported that the Merit Committee had completed its evaluations and submitted its recommendations to Larry Alford on February 15th in accordance with the procedures in place.
  • The ratification of the TAUP contract resulted in changes to this process.
  • The new process calls for the Merit Committee to consist of no more than six members: three to be appointed by AAL and three to be appointed by the VPL.  Larry recommended that the contract be followed while agreeing to keep the existing members of the Committee.  Thus Mary Edsall, Laura Lane, and Brian Schoolar were designated the AAL appointees while Carla Davis Cunningham and David Murray were designated the VPL appointees.  Molly Larkin became the final VPL appointee.
  • Merit policies will need to be revised to match contractual stipulations.  The Merit Committee has completed drafts of forms which will be distributed to the AAL once Larry has approved them.
• Questions/Comments

Fred Rowland commented that he had heard that there were possible problems with the merit process.  There were none with librarians; he may have heard that faculty had not done anything with regard to merit.  Mark Darby reported that the Deans were told specifically not to initiate the merit process for faculty.

Penelope Myers asked whether any department heads would need to resubmit evaluations.  Laura reported that Larry would notify department heads in the event that new or enhanced evaluations are needed.

Carla Davis Cunningham noted that the merit guidelines are issued by the VPL, not AAL.  AAL is submitting recommendations to him.

Mark noted that the contract rearranges the criteria for merit.  Our guidelines do suggest that we look at an individual’s entire career when evaluating for merit.

Laura noted that the Merit Committee’s recommendations on the merit process are intended to deal with the current merit cycle.  Procedures and processes may need to be refined for future merit considerations.

Mark noted that there are probably one or two more merit units available this year as merit units are a percentage of the total librarian salary pool.

Anne encouraged librarians to read the contract on the TAUP website.  Laura noted that pages 47 and 48 cover merit.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:22 PM.

Submitted by
Carol Brigham