July 26th ECSC Conference Call

Proposed Agenda:

• Planning Discussion for Dues/Donations (Martin)
  • Available: $93,750
  • "Buckets"
    • Scanning Costs (via Internet Archive)
    • Hardware/Software/Tech Development (including staffing)
    • Secretariat Support
    • Travel/Meetings
    • Outreach
    • Contingency
    • Indirect Costs
• Technical Update
  The BHL Exec group discussed options for BHL technical direction going forward. Recommendation is for William Ulate to become BHL technical director assisted by a Technical Advisory Group (to be appointed)
• Staff and Technical Meeting for the Fall
• New Membership Document (Connie) revisedBHL+Membership+Process+July+2+draft-2.docx.

• Global Updates (Chris/Martin)
• Round Robin Updates

Notes:

• Planning Discussion for Dues/Donations. (Martin). The Exec committee has not come to any firm conclusions about a recommended spending plan. The SC (Steering Committee) discussed how to allocate resources for the following needs. Scanning Costs (via Internet Archive); Hardware/Software/Tech Development (including staffing); Secretariat Support (includes SI staffing);Travel/Meetings (for Secretariat as well as SC and general BHL staff meetings); Outreach; Contingency; Indirect Costs. Since Macarthur funding is no longer available all previously allocations need to be revisited. We need to look at a budget of all fixed costs and consider unanticipated expenses for the contingency fund. We also don't know if we have support for the cluster after July 2012. We may know more after the EOL meeting in Beijing. This should not be considered contingency but tech development and should be a clear allocation. We also must evaluate the most cost effective way of supporting the cluster -keep at MBL/WHOI or move to Smithsonian. The SC agreed that hardware and tech support were high priorities. Martin will prepare a revised budget based on the input from the SC...with more detail about the total operating expenses for the whole project.
• Technical Update: With Chris' departure from MOBOT a new tech director must be selected. Bylaws state that this position is selected by the SC with guidance from the EC (Executive Committee). The recommendation is that William Ulate be appointed and a technical advisory committee be formed to assist. Staff and Technical Meeting for the Fall
• Staff and Tech meeting- Fall 2012. Originally planned to take place in NY but 9/11 and U.N. Session made cost of accommodations prohibitive that time of year. With 14K available from Lounsbery funding, the SC needs to decide how to divvy up the funding among all members to support attendance for at least one person from each institution. More people can attend if held on the East coast. Martin and Connie will discuss feasibility of hosting in Cambridge or Washington.
• New Membership Document (Connie) .As per an e-mail send by Nancy this a.m. she recommended that the new dues structure required further discussion. The current recommendation of $1000 was 10% of full membership. The discussion was tabled until August call.
• Global Updates (Chris/Martin) BHL Africa moving forward. BHL Australia will send Simon to U.S. to work on merging the Australian and U.S. portal.
• Round Robin Updates:
  • MBL/WHOI-- Holly is leaving for Florida Institute of Technology. Some restructuring occurring so it is currently unclear who will be BHL contact.
  • Harvard Botany - Judy reports still working on the finishing the field note project and writing GPI grant to digitize more field notebooks
  • NYBG - Susan reported on a Nursery and Seed catalog meeting held at NYBG and attended by several libraries with large collections of trade catalogs. The consensus was to get them into BHL. Future discussion will help clarify how to move this effort forward.
  • MOBOT - Doug said they are still scanning but at a reduced volume and dealing with pagination issues
  • NHL- Jane said they were still scanning and making progress on implementing MACAW. Dave Thompson has been hired to head the IT at he museum and are advertising the position of head of Digital projects.
  • CAS- Becky reported they are just finishing up their scanning allotment. She was invited to speak about the IMLS project at the Library Director Digital Strategy Conference.
  • Chris Freeland reminded the group that his last day at MOBOT is tomorrow and that he was still the PI on grants, still involved in the Global Names Project and an research associate at MOBOT.
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