Regional Advisory Council (RAC) Minutes: Year 2
Date: September 10-11, 2007
Location: Hotel Blake, Chicago, IL
RAC Members Present: Nancy Allee, Ambrosya Amlong, Lori Bell, Terry Burton, Lisa Burwell, Mary Congleton, LaVentra Danquah, Mindy Egeland, Liz Fine, Pat Hamilton, Mark Holman, Rhona Kelley, Shirley Lewis, Logan Ludwig, Mary Markland, Diane O'Keefe, Kolleen Olsen, Melinda Orebaugh, Barbara Platts, Denise Rumschlag, Sheila Shellabarger, Jan Simon, Elaine Skopelja, Celine Woznica, Jason Young
GMR Staff Present: Ruth Holst, Carol Scherrer, Holly Burt, Jacqueline Leskovec, Charniel McDaniels
Guest Presenter: Diane Westerfield
Call to Order: The 2007 meeting of the NN/LM, GMR Regional Advisory Council meeting was held at the Hotel Blake in Chicago on September 10 and 11, 2007. The meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, September 10th.
Orientation and Introductions: Interim Director Carol Scherrer welcomed the group and announced that Kate Carpenter would be assuming the position of RML Director on November 1, 2007. Following self-introductions of all those present, Ruth Holst, Associate RML Director, presented an update on what's new in the GMR Office as well as an overview of activities during the first year of the contract: Regional Advisory Council, September 10, 2007 .
Presentation: Jacqueline Leskovec presented an overview of the results of the Focus Group Interviews that were conducted
with representatives of community-based organizations in May, 2007. This was followed by a general discussion
about issues related to community outreach and ways that RAC members can assist the GMR staff is program planning
and evaluation. Highlights of the Monday afternoon discussion are summarized in Attachment 1 
.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m. on September 10 and resumed at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2007.
Day 2:
The second half of the meeting was devoted to the topic of emergency preparedness planning.
Ruth Holst presented an overview of the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness Project, the purpose of
which is to improve the NN/LM's ability to respond to emergencies.
The plan has five components which are outlined in the Power Point slides: NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness Project .
Guest Presentation: Guest speaker Diane Westerfield, who is Preservation and Special Projects Librarian at Loyola University Chicago, provided an overview of the disaster planning process used at Loyola, including the benefits and challenges of using dPlan software to formulate the Loyola Library's plans, tips for how to develop and disseminate disaster plans, and some lessons learned during her experience as the lead librarian on the project.
Open Discussion: The presentations were followed by an open discussion based on the following set of questions:
- What barriers or problems do you face within your own institutions with regard to emergency preparedness (EP) planning? Which of these barriers do you think the GMR could help network members to overcome?
- What knowledge gaps prevent network member librarians from participating more fully in EP planning? Which knowledge gaps should the GMR try to address? What types of resources would be useful to support network member learning needs?
- One idea for the Cross-regional EP project is the concept of network member libraries serving as backups for each other. What do you see as the role for a backup library? If your library was shut down, what type of services would you need?
- Another idea from the cross-regional EP plan is to create and post a toolkit to help libraries in preparing for emergencies. What types of materials or resources should be included in the proposed EP toolkit?
- We want to encourage libraries that have a community role in emergency preparedness planning and response. What do libraries and librarians bring to the table that would be beneficial to community EP planning?
A summary of the highlights of this discussion is found in Attachment 2
.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned shortly before noon.
Respectfully submitted,
Ruth Holst
Associate Director, NN/LM, GMR
