Minutes of a meeting held on 15 January 2001

Present: Pat Noon (chair), Gail Downe, Julia Munro, Anne Murray, Margaret Oldroyd, Julie Parry, Andrew Wale.
Apologies: Toby Bainton, Peter Guildford, Nicky Kershaw.

01/01 Pat Noon welcomed Anne Murray and Julie Parry to their first meeting of this Committee.

01/02 Minutes of the previous meeting (22 June 2000)

The minutes were accepted.

01/03 Matters arising

00/14 Action plan
The draft action plan had been presented to Executive Board, but the Board had decided to postpone approval until other SCONUL committees had also produced their action plans. There was therefore still the opportunity to amend the plan. Committee members agreed that the SCONUL award should remain at 1000 pounds and with this amendment to regard the plan as finalised. The plan would be presented to Executive Board in February.
Action: Pat Noon to make this amendment and send finalised plan to Executive Board.

00/14 Deputies email
In Sue Clegg's absence from this meeting Pat Noon agreed to contact Sue for further information.
Action: Pat Noon to contact Sue Clegg.

00/14 Occupational standards
Gail Downe reported that she was still trying to find a contact at UCoSDA (now HESDA) for Margaret Oldroyd
Action: Gail Downe to continue these efforts.

00/17 QAA guidelines careers
In Sue Clegg's absence discussion on this item was deferred until the next meeting.

01/04 Future role and priorities

The Committee agreed that it should seek to stimulate discussion on staffing structures (a topic last pursued in 1996). There was some debate on producing web-based information.

Action: Andrew Wale agreed to circulate a possible template for a staffing structure which might be used as a basis for gathering further information for an updated briefing/working paper.

It was suggested that the committee should have a standing item on the agenda to consider national initiatives affecting staffing and staff development.

01/05 SCONUL Award 2000

The Committee were in agreement that Claire Barnes should receive the award for 2000. Pat Noon has confirmed this with Claire, who will write up her investigation and also present it in due course to a SCONUL conference. It was agreed that the timetable for the 2001 award would be the same as for 2000, with a deadline of August 2001.

Action: Julia Munro to contact Antony Brewerton for any suggestions on improving the award poster.

Themes for the 2001 award were discussed. These included ways of meeting the training and development needs of part-time staff (e.g evening, weekends only), such as innovative approaches to induction.

Action: Pat Noon to consider wording for the suggested themes for the 2001 award.

01/06 Organising a SCONUL staff development event

Pat Noon relayed the background on this item from Sue Clegg.

Members of the Committee made some suggestions for inclusion:
Under 4.1 sponsorship and also exhibitions.
Under 7.2 disability requirements.
Under 7.4 evaluation forms.

Action: Pat Noon to feed back these comments to Sue Clegg.

Action: Other members to send any other comments they think of to Sue. This item would be revisited at the next meeting.

01/07 SCONUL trainees

The issues outlined on the paper were discussed. In the light of the fact that references are requested very early in terms of the trainees' experience, Committee members wondered whether it would be worth requesting some guidelines on what is required from referees.

Action: Pat Noon to discuss with Toby Bainton and report back to the next meeting.

01/08 Institute for Learning and Teaching (ILT)

Margaret Oldroyd reported. The promised guide to fast track membership for Library/Support staff has not appeared, nor has the publication of stories of successful applicants. The details of associate membership are still awaited. The ILT is now advertising for accreditors with a Library/Information Services background.

Action: Margaret Oldroyd to pursue the above issues with the Library Association and report back to the next meeting.

01/09 SCONUL ACoS events

Managing for strategic change

This would run in June and September 2001. To date there were 19 participants signed up. The course needed 20 participants to be viable, and 24 to make a profit.

Action: Pat Noon to check progress and report back.

Introduction to management

Margaret Oldroyd reported on her attendance at the last "Introduction to management" (December 2000). This had been a successful course though some attendees were possibly too senior.

There was some discussion on successful differentiation for applicants between "Making management work" (a middle management course) and "Introduction to management" (intended for those moving into management positions). It was suggested that some publicity documentation describing all three courses might be useful in sharpening self-selection between the three courses.

The possibility of SCONUL ACoS assisting with the provision of some case studies/exercises with a Library/Information Services background was discussed.

Action: Margaret Oldroyd to consider making a request for case study information via lis-sconul-staffing

Deputies events

This item has a rather confused (not to say troubled) background which Pat Noon described for the benefit of new members. The present position is that Sue Clegg intends to email deputies via lis-sconul to discover their development needs and to seek volunteers to organise an event.

Training together

Pat Noon reported that this event needed a new plan and new ideas for a theme.

This would be discussed at the next meeting.

01/10 HIMSS project

Pat Noon reported that he and Sue Clegg were on the board for this project and had attended the first meeting. A workshop "Filling the gap" was to be held in February 2001 under the auspices of the project.

01/11 ISNTO

Julie Parry had attended an ISNTO event. She indicated that the ISNTO might have difficulties operating cross-sectorally, and that it was important to consider the activities of regional training groups.

01/12 UCISA

No discussion in Peter Guildford's absence.

01/13 HE Libraries response (SCONUL/LA CDG)

No discussion in Sue Clegg's absence.

01/14 Staff development policies

It was suggested that a trawl should be made to discover which SCONUL institutions had staff development policies which they would be prepared to make available for a working paper publication. Action: Anne Murray to email lis-sconul.

01/15 Library Association Draft Corporate Plan - revalidation of associate membership

No discussion in Sue Clegg's absence.

01/16 Any other business

i) Pat Noon reported on a proposal to establish a Masters degree in HE Management at the Institute of Education. The fees for this course were likely to be in the region of 5000 pounds, thus casting some doubt over the likelihood of its take-up in sufficient numbers.

ii) Pat Noon also reported on the recent award of government funding to HEIs (a total of 80 million pounds for 2001/02) for the reward and development of staff in HE. The funding had various conditions attached to it. Institutions had to produce a human resource strategy by June 2001 to qualify. Monies would be made available to those successful in December 2001. The Committee agreed to keep a watching brief on developments.

01/17 Dates of next meetings:

22 March 2001
7 June 2001