The first NINCH Executive Committee meeting was held May 26,
10am-2pm in the ARL conference room at 21 Dupont Circle. Present were
John D'Arms (chair), Susan Fox, Charles Henry, Joan Lippincott,
Deanna Marcum, Kathleen McDonnell and Duane Webster. Pat Williams
sent her apologies.
1. CORE VALUES & COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
The committee approved the "Core
Values" statement created by the Public Interest Campaign Task
Force, on the condition that several changes were made. The most
important change was clarifying the difference between the arts and
humanities in the first paragraph--specifically adding that the
humanities were concerned with a responsibility for the past.
This is primarily an internal document to indicate to members what
our basic values are. It also has value in indicating the character
of the coalition to potential members and funders. While the values
expressed are akin to those of many in the field, the committee
affirmed the importance of articulating them in a concise document,
such as this one.
It was important for NINCH, especially in the context of debates
such such as the recent ones around copyright, to boldly declare that
our values were not principally economic, and that we were working
for a different kind of intellectual future than that proclaimed by
others.
It was recorded that our intention was to make the Core Values
statement a live hypertext document that would be updated and
refreshed with illustrative links to demonstrate examples of the
principles we declare.
The Copyright Statement was also approved, subject to some minor
changes and legal review. Both statements will be presented for
approval by the NINCH Board, via e-mail, and will then be posted to
the website.
The Committee voted to recommend that the Public Interest campaign
Task Force continue its work in planning for a campaign and to
report, via the Advocacy Working Group, to the Board in October.
2. OUTLINE OF STRATEGIC PLAN II
In reviewing the achievements to date and the continuing and
planned activities for NINCH, David Green presented, as a discussion
document, an early draft of a new Strategic Plan.
The three elements of the current "Start-Up Strategic Plan,"
Community Building, Information & Education, and Advocacy would
be subsumed under "Developing a Voice" in the new plan. This section
lists NINCH's achievements in bringing together the many parts of the
cultural community under the common banner of networking cultural
resources, as well as reaching out to other communities (especially
the scientific community and the private sector). Program priorities
include:
- "Public Interest" Campaign: continue the planning of the
outline and parameters for such a campaign by Task Force for Fall
Board presentation
- COMPUTING & THE HUMANITIES: continue planning via the
estanlished steering committee to examine ways in which humanists
and computer scientists and engineers can work together more
effectively in networking cultural resources; continue working on
first two "spin-off" projects:
- "Humanities Informatics:" work with discipline-based
humanities organizations to articulate the needs of arts and
humanities scholars and practitioners so that we may develop
software tools and other instruments to make cultural resources
increasingly, deeply and broadly accessible;
- International Distributed Database of Humanities Digital
Projects: continue work with directors of humanities computing
centers to design reliable, ongoing database of exemplary digital
arts & humanities projects, with detailed production
information, to act as a tool for practitioners as well as a
resource for researchers
- Public-Private Sector Collaboration: establish a working group
to plan for project to examine best practices in public-private
collaboration in networking cultural resources;
- Website re-design;
- Collection of Best Practices in digitizing and networking
cultural resources;
- Copyright Town Meetings;
- Listserv development.
The new components of the proposed plan are "Articulating a
National Program," in which NINCH continues its work in identifying
and reporting on several large-scale cultural infrastructures being
built by different sectors, and "Enabling Integration," in which we
begin working seriously to ensure that such multiple infrastructures
are integrated or easily interoperable and accessible.
The Committee found the plan ambitious and broadly on target but
cautioned the director to be realistic about what could be achieved
given the size and resources of the coalition. It recommended
further development and thought on the plan before being presented to
the Board in the Fall.
NINCH's role was at one point characterized as that of activating
the community by amplifying certain activities of its members.
Questions for the coalition include: how to decide what to amplify;
given the community, what is the value added by NINCH; where are we
with and without NINCH? Some saw an issue in potential tensions
between NINCH's own leadership program and its activity in servicing
its members' needs.
3. ORGANIZATION OF REVIEW OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S PERFORMANCE
The Committee determined that it should have charge of the review
of the performance of the NINCH executive director. Currently,
because NINCH is legally a project of ACLS, that review is conducted
by the president of ACLS. Accordingly, the committee agreed that the
executive director should submit a self-evaluation for FY98 by
October 1, to be considered at a meeting of the executive committee
on Sunday October 25. Any adjustment in salary would be backdated to
July 1, in accordance with the ACLS timetable.
4. BUDGET REVIEW
The Management Committee approved the budget presented for fiscal
year 1998.
The FY98 budget is $133,750. With current pledged members dues of
$142, 850, current six-month expenses of $65,700 and a deficit of
$3726 carried forward from the previous year, NINCH appeared on-track
to achieve a balanced budget this year.
NINCH Executive Committee
Meeting - May 26, 1998