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HEADLINE:2001 ANNUAL BOARD MEETING

Report

In Attendance: David Green, Charles Henry, Michael Jensen, Stanley Katz, Joan Lippincott, Amy Masciola, Kathleen McDonnell, Mark Roosa (for Winston Tabb), Samuel Sachs, Christine Sundt, John Unsworth, Duane Webster

Apologies: Patricia Williams

Action Items

  1. Create International Strategies advisory group
  2. Poll Board for international travel calendars and contacts
  3. Copyright Town Meetings: approach University of California system as a host; consider ways of documenting all town meetings in hard-copy.
  4. Revised FY2002 budget to be approved by the Board
  5. Board agreed to raise a minimum of $2,000 in membership income in FY 2002; the office will send out membership materials to all board members.

Executive Summary

1. Board Elections
Charles Henry was elected President-Elect and Joan Lippincott Secretary-Treasurer. Sarah Pritchard and Steven Hensen were elected as new board members and Joan Lippincott was re-elected for a second term. Retiring members Kathleen McDonnell and Duane Webster were thanked for their service.

2. Program Review
David Green stated that the key elements of 2001 were, first, seeing the concrete results of several NINCH projects and, second, NINCH’s own attainment of organizational independence. Products include the Copyright Town Meeting Report, the conference and report on “Building & Sustaining Digital Collections,” prototypes of the NINCH Database of Digital Humanities Projects and the Guide to Good Practice; a new NINCH website and brochure and the first in a regular series of annual reports on the most significant developments in the field. On the organizational front: the assistant to the director became full-time in July; NINCH hired its own accountant; and NINCH is now handling all financial affairs in-house.

NINCH furthered its engagement in international discussions and the board suggested the formation of an international strategies advisory group to advise on the future direction of international engagement.

Even though funding for a 2002 Copyright Town Meetings series is not yet assured, enthusiasm for the meetings continues. To leverage funding we will encourage institutional sponsorship of the meetings wherever possible (possibilities for sponsorship in 2002 include Georgia Tech and OCLC). The University of California system was proposed as a possible sponsor of a meeting focused on policy issues. International activity was an important new theme to stress. We were encouraged to document in hard-copy form all meetings and reports.

David Green noted the synergy between the copyright town meetings series and the American Assembly’s current project: “Art, Technology and Intellectual Property” (ATIP), in which he has been involved.

Goals for 2002
David Green reported that his priorities for 2002 are:

  • to meet membership goals ($156,000 in dues, up from $132,000 in 2001);
  • to ensure that the Guide to Good Practice has the launch, testing, and publication that it deserves, through further planning and further Getty grant funding;
  • successful release of the prototype of the database (with NEH and Getty records) and agreement with other funders for inclusion of their records; and
  • organizing a follow-up to the Building Blocks conference.

Financial Report
In FY2001, income from projected membership dues was down ($132,000 rather than $150,000) and no income to date had materialized from the corporate council campaign, resulting in a deficit that is expected to be around $7,500. This will be covered in the FY2002 budget. Due to a misunderstanding with the accountant, funds that should have been set aside in a reserve account had not been. This would be rectified in 2002.

Tom Costello reported his experience of conducting the corporate council campaign. He asked for contacts for Oracle, Accenture, Ernst & Young, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat. Contacts were offered at Sun, Microsoft and EBSCO. Apex was to be added to the recruitment list. After considerable discussion of the prospects for the corporate council campaign, it was proposed that the goal for FY2002 be reduced from $60,000 to $30,000.

To assist in meeting the FY2002 goal of $156,000 in membership dues, it was proposed that each board member commit to bringing in a minimum of $2,000 in membership revenue. This was accepted as the sense of the meeting. The Board then approved a motion to reduce the expense side by $30,000 and to tentatively approve the budget until a revised budget was submitted for approval.

3. Performance Review
The executive director’s performance evaluation committee had not met. The board made some suggestions to the committee, which would confer shortly and make recommendations to the board.

4. Digital Promise Letter
A letter of support for the Digital Promise project would be drafted and sent before the end of the year.

5. Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held at the Association of Research Libraries on Friday May 17, 2002 (exact times still to be decided).

FULL REPORT

1. Introduction
After introductions, Stan thanked Kathleen McDonnell for hosting the meeting at the Getty. He noted that the location had helped boost attendance at the Forum.

Stan commented that he was enormously pleased by NINCH’s performance to date, yet understood that the environment was a fragile one. A relatively new organization like NINCH was only as good as what it does next: we can’t rest on our laurels. He thanked David and Amy for their work and thanked the core supporting institutions, the Getty, ACLS, and CNI.

2. Board Elections
Michael Jensen moved to approve election of Charles Henry as President-elect and Joan Lippincott as Secretary-Treasurer. Sam Sachs seconded. The motion was passed unanimously and Charles Henry and Joan Lippincott were elected.

Duane Webster moved to approve the proposed new board members Sarah Pritchard and Steven Hensen and to re-elect Joan Lippincott for a second term. Duane noted that Sarah will be the ARL representative as well as representing the Santa Barbara Library. Mark Roosa seconded.

Stan asked for additions or corrections to the minutes of the April Board Meeting. As there were none, Kathleen moved to approve the minutes; Mark Roosa seconded. The motion passed without opposition and the proposed new board members were elected.

Stan Katz thanked retiring members Kathleen McDonnell and Duane Webster for their long and productive service on the Board.

3. Program Review

  • NINCH Products & Visibility
    Executive Director David Green recapped the report sent to the board on the year’s progress. He highlighted the fact that we are now beginning to see the concrete results of several of the projects NINCH has been working on for some time and it will be key in 2002 to ensure all NINCH products have maximum visibility. In 2001, NINCH published the well-received Report on the Copyright Town Meetings. It collaborated successfully with the Council on Library & Information Resources in organizing a conference on new business models for museums and libraries, a report of which all members received. At the FORUM, John Unsworth would demonstrate the prototype of the NINCH Database of Digital Humanities Projects and Seamus Ross would demonstrate the prototype of the Guide to Good Practice. The new NINCH brochure was in the board packet and Amy Masciola would be demonstrating the new NINCH website. The first in a regular series of annual reports on the most significant developments in the field will also be appearing on the new website.

  • Organizational Independence
    A second highlight of the year was taking the final steps towards organizational independence. Amy Masciola moved from half-time to full-time as assistant to the director this July and the coalition has hired its own accountant and is now handling all financial affairs (including staff benefits) in-house.

  • International Developments
    Following the confirmation at the last board meeting that international relations were an important component of NINCH’s activity, David reported that he had participated in a meeting of the leaders of cultural heritage agencies and organizations from several nations at the Tate Gallery, London. Most attendees were from the US, the UK and Canada. This group aims to share information and coordinate activity where appropriate among content providers around the world. The next meeting is scheduled to be in DC, March 19-20, 2002, hosted by the IMLS. David also made a presentation at the W3C conference in Hong Kong and assisted in preparing a report on that meeting for the G-8. It was noted that Seamus Ross, director of the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow, would be talking about international opportunities for NINCH during the FORUM.

    Stan asked about international programs and how involved we need to be. He commented that although the issues are international, NINCH is a small organization with limited resources. He proposed a working or advisory group to develop an international strategy that would include the allocation of staff travel and other commitments. David Green commented that connections with the European Union would be most promising and that Bernard Smith, Head of the Cultural Heritage Applications Unit was interested in NINCH and the possibilities for collaboration. Charles Henry added that we should think about how the board could more actively represent NINCH internationally and to consider international grant programs, such as the new NSF/JISC program. It was suggested that the board send in any details of their international travel to see where they could help further NINCH’s international visibility and strategic advantage.

  • Copyright Town Meetings
    Emphasizing the continued positive impact of the copyright town meetings on the community, Duane asked about the robustness of continued Kress financial support ($40,000 per year for the last three years) and what the strategy was for the meetings’ further evolution. Currently $17,000 remains after the 2001 series. More active sponsorship by large institutions contributing their own resources, as Rice University and the New York Public Library did this year, could enable more meetings at less expense to NINCH. Duane agreed that institutional sponsorship would be a good way of encouraging Kress’s continuing support and is also a good tool for stimulating interest on campuses. For 2002, OCLC and Georgia Tech have both offered to host meetings. The unfortunate demise of the Center for the Public Domain meant that a meeting planned for Durham would probably not now occur.

    Duane suggested that the University of California library system might be approached, especially in light of the recent focus on policy issues in the town meetings. Christine Sundt thought the meetings should pay more attention to international issues. Stan agreed, adding that this should be part of the next Kress request, as he knew Kress is interested in these problems.

    Overall, Stan felt the Board should review achievements to date and specify future directions. With the growing frequency of DMCA court cases, Duane thought there will be increased need for copyright problem-solving.

    David Green noted that NINCH is preparing for a conference to create a copyright action agenda to be hosted by Peter Jaszi’s Copyright Clinic at the Washington College of Law. The now-defunct Center for the Public Domain had been expected to fund this event but now we are examining other funding sources. Members of the working group of this project had proposed that we revisit our first principles regarding copyright. David had subsequently brought the proposal before the Intellectual Property committee of the National Humanities Alliance to re-examine the NHA Principles (which have been a frequently visited component of the NINCH web site) The committee agreed to examine the document, marked-up to show examples of where it had clearly become dated in its five-year existence.

    Christine Sundt thought it a matter of urgent concern that we document the content of the Copyright Town meetings. She thought a print compilation or summary of the meeting reports is key to guarantee their survival. Perhaps this could be part of the next Kress application.

    Stan noted that we had not yet discussed procedures for archiving any NINCH materials. John Unsworth suggested looking into the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), a research center and archives at the University of Minnesota “dedicated to promoting study of the history of information technology.”

    David Green mentioned that there had been some good synergy between NINCH’s copyright activities and the current American Assembly project. The American Assembly is a Columbia University institution conceived and founded by Columbia president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. It convenes experts to focus attention and stimulate informed discussion on a range of critical U.S. policy topics and usually issues a report as a result of the meetings. This year David was appointed to the steering committee of the Assembly’s current project examining “Art, Technology and Intellectual Property” (ATIP). He will have participated in the two assemblies convened for this project and believes this has given NINCH good visibility as well as having fostered the relationship between NINCH and the arts community. The assemblies convened both the nonprofit and the commercial sectors within the arts disciplines and covered union as well as IP issues and business models.

  • Goals for 2002
    Looking to the future, David said that his priorities are, first, to meet membership goals (taking in $156,000 in dues, up from $132,000 in 2001), working with a small board committee and perhaps a consultant, and, second, to ensure that the Guide has the launch, testing, and publication that it deserves. It is a critical publication for NINCH and for the field and must not falter. David is proposing to send a small proposal to the Getty for the publication and launch of the Guide as well as training workshops.

    The database project is developing well; John Unsworth deserves special credit for his work here, as do Chuck Henry and John Price-Wilkins (at Rice and Michigan, respectively) for their continued funding of staff on the project. We plan to release a prototype this year and attract other funders beyond the NEH and the Getty.

    Building Blocks has been fallow this year but one of the projects resulting from the workshop received a $900,000 NSF grant in 2001. OCLC’s Meg Bellinger has expressed interest in hosting a follow-up workshop in 2002 and David would like to hire a part-time consultant to work on the ongoing grant proposals that came out of the first workshop. To the question of how many of these project proposals had real possibilities, David replied that he thought there were five or six that could go far but that a follow-up meeting would seriously re-evaluate what should be pursued.

4. Financial Report
David thanked Amy for her enthusiasm in learning new skills involved in setting up NINCH’s new financial arrangements. The Board commented on a financial statement to date for FY2001 and a proposed budget for FY2002. The notable element of the financial statement was that although expenses were very much on target, income from membership dues was down ($132,000 was collected of a projected $150,000) and that the corporate council had not produced any members, resulting in a deficit currently expected to be around $7,500.

Duane commented that the deficit showed that funds should be specifically set aside in a reserve account. David said that he had understood this but that in the past the accountant had not actually sequestered those funds. David reported that NINCH’s accounting was done on a modified accrual basis.

John Unsworth suggested that instead of hiring a consultant to raise $24,000 in new membership dues, the board commit to actively recruit new members. Christine Sundt proposed that participants in NINCH programs, such as the Town Meetings, be encouraged to join the coalition.

Duane Webster suggested that it was hard to approve a 2002 budget that included such membership projections when the goals for last year were not met, and thought we needed a discussion on membership strategy before finishing the budget discussion. The board thus deferred budget approval until further discussion of membership and the corporate council campaign.

Consultant Tom Costello joined the group.

Membership and Corporate Council
The corporate council campaign was over a year old now. At the last board meeting there were mixed feelings about continuing without results. Consultant Tom Costello reported that, given the downturn in the technology sector, it has been difficult to go into a company with the idea of NINCH, which is not so easy to explain. Although Tom expressed frustration with the speed of responses, he noted that companies are not refusing contact. He is convinced the campaign will go more smoothly once the first companies are recruited and thought the campaign’s exclusivity (of having only one company in each sector) is a good selling point.

To illustrate the slow but steady progress of the campaign, Tom rehearsed the contact history with IBM. After two sets of discussions he is now hopeful of a positive response from an IBM consultant. Meanwhile, some companies that were on the recruitment list have died or are in such dire straits that it doesn’t make sense to approach them. On the other hand, he asked if any Board members had contacts at Oracle, Accenture, Ernst & Young, Cisco, and Red Hat. He thought we should cultivate Hewlett-Packard, even though now was not the time, and need a strong contact there. John Unsworth volunteered some contacts at Sun and Microsoft as well as Mario Morino of the Morino Institute. Duane suggested adding EBSCO to the list and gave a contact. John and Stan mentioned that they could provide entree for Tom to several company representatives they had met at conferences (in particular some e-book companies, such as Thomson Learning at the New Media Publishing conference). Stan suggested that Apex be approached.

Duane commented that corporate commitments tend to be through specific individuals and that maintaining that contact through changes in the company becomes an issue. Joan backed this up with CNI’s experience with technology-based companies. Chuck said he was not discouraged, that NINCH is starting cold but that companies and organizations are listening. We should, however, seriously reconsider this if we have nothing to show for it a year from now, and Tom agreed. He disagreed, however, with another suggestion that companies should have an initial free year, to lure others in.

Summarizing, Stan Katz thought we should continue the effort to recruit corporate council members. He asked Tom’s opinion of whether the current target of $60,000 could be met in FY2002. Tom thought it realistic to budget for two corporate council members and a small number of $5,000 memberships. Stan thanked Tom for his help and for coming to the meeting.

After Tom Costello left, the Board resumed discussion of the budget and membership issues. Stan suggested we reduce the corporate council goal to $30,000 in the FY2002 budget. Although David suggested that we increase the amount we expect in the regular membership dues, several board members felt that was unrealistic. Duane, registering anxiety over the dues revenue in the projected budget, thought that simply maintaining current membership will be difficult in 2002 and noted that the economic climate indicates that institutions are reconsidering all memberships. He was echoed by Kathleen. Stan said that the Board had a responsibility to be realistic: if we have better progress than we expect we can re-budget. Chuck commented that since dues are low, they might not be a target for cancellation but there is still a need for concern and agreed we needed to scale back the budget.

John reiterated his suggestion that the Board commit itself to recruit members, though Joan questioned whether that revenue would all come in during the next fiscal year.

Chris suggested funds from law firms. David suggested approaching them for funding IP programming rather than membership.

Stan summarized by stating that the proposal on the table would be to lower the revenue expectations by $30,000. Stan suggested David revise the budget to take these factors into account and re-submit it via e-mail.

John Unsworth moved to reduce the expense side by $30,000 and to tentatively approve the budget until the staff prepares and Joan submits a revised budget for approval. Sam Sachs seconded the motion.

John asked the Board to affirm the commitment to recruiting members. David commented that staff would update and send the board recruiting materials. Stan proposed each Board member raise $2000 in memberships. It was accepted as the sense of the meeting.

5. Performance Review
The Board had an informal discussion about the executive director’s performance and made some suggestions to the performance evaluation committee, which had not yet met. That committee would confer shortly and make recommendations to the board.

6. AOB
Support for letter for Digital Promise: David reviewed that the Board had agreed to a letter for support of the Digital Promise and we have not yet prepared it. David declared his intention to follow up on this and Stan supported this. There was agreement by the Board. David will draft the letter in the next two weeks.

7. Next Meeting
Date of Spring meeting: May 17, 2002, in Washington.