WSU Libraries Planning Committee Meeting notes, 10.Jul.1996

Washington State University Libraries
Planning Committee
10.Jul.1996 Meeting
Summary Notes

Attending: Janet Chisman, Vicki Croft, Rhonda Gaylord, Mary Gilles (Co-Chair), Daryl Herbison, Lauren McNiece, Jill Palmer (Recorder), Barbara Paulson, Kay Vyhnanek, John Webb, and Leslie Wykoff (via phone).
Absent: Ingrid Mifflin, Marilyn Von Seggern (Co-Chair), Sharon Walbridge, and Christy Zlatos.

Check-in
Vicki Croft reported on the Survey. There is a draft of questions - it hasn't gone to SESRC yet.
Meeting minutes
Changes were noted by Mary Gilles. Minutes of the July 3 meeting were approved as amended.
Internal Environment Questionnaire
The Committee reviewed the results of the "Libraries Internal Environment" (purple) sheet looking for recurring themes. It became clear that our stumbling blocks involved all aspects of the WSU Libraries Wheel of Values draft of 4/96.
Recurring themes:
Balance / Unbalance of Power (concentration of power)
Communication (focus on communication as power)
Faculty/ Staff split
Training (current trend is accidental training - not good).
Need to teach underlying skills
An opinion from last week was restated - that the basic organization was okay but needed tweaking - opinions were given:
Any organization will work if good communication/ trust/ respect/ and honesty are practiced.
Don't trust organizational change that is used as a tool to "solve" problems.
Need to be accountable, monitor personal autonomy and realize that consequences will occur for those who don't follow the policies and procedures.
We have a fairly dysfunctional organization now.
WSU is known for "doing it's own thing".
Need to be internally streamlined.
Some individuals are going to have to moderate the mantle of personal autonomy when it conflicts with the organization's needs and goals.
If we think we can hand out a mandate that everyone has to accept the new organization - it won't happen.
Restructure to place checks and balances anywhere it is needed.
We need to be able to make decisions without fear of being scolded for the results.
Allow decision-making to be more across the board to help meld the organization.
We have some good committee/working group models - we need to explore and use them.
We discussed some current groups and how they work - what is good and what is not. Groups need to have the representation that it needs in order to ensure consensus on decisions.
Need to deal with groups/individuals that are being obstructionists.
We reflect what happens at WSU as a whole.
Make sure we identify an appropriate balance between individuals and uniformity with center on patron.

Next week
Suggested that we break up into some groups and work on a variety of overall structures for the organization.

Summary by Marilyn Von Seggern, based on Jill Palmer's
WSU Libraries Planning Committee meeting notes