The meeting was called to order at 12:02 pm in the Constitution Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel by Chair Steve Lastres. Steve welcomed everyone to Boston and the AALL Annual Meeting, acknowledging John DiGilio as the PLL VIP Special Guest, and Bob Romeo, CEO of Research and Litigation Solutions, from the luncheon sponsor, LexisNexis.

A motion to approve the 2011 Minutes with no changes was made and approved. Treasurer Elaine Knecht reported that the PLL-SIS Treasury had more than sufficient funds to cover expected expenses, including those of the PLL-SIS Summit.

Recognition:

Steve acknowledged the more than 70 PLL Members who volunteered freely of their time over the course of the past year. The volunteers were listed in the luncheon program and thanked publicly by having their name presented in a rolling format on a screen for all in attendance to see. Each one of them also received a personalized Certificate of Merit.

Highlights:

Steve reviewed the many accomplishments of the past year, including re-organizing the PLL Committee structure to strengthen the communication, education, media, public relations, and membership efforts; revising and solidifying the new three-year Strategic Plan; submitting more than 20 programs (11 of which were approved) to the AMPC for consideration for the Boston Annual Meeting; presenting 10 FREE webinars produced by the CI, IP, and KM Sub-Groups; and producing a stellar agenda for the third annual PLL-SIS Summit, attended by more than 300 Librarians and vendors.

Awards:

The Emerging Leader Award was presented to Sara Paul Raffel of Paul Hastings, and the Service to PLL Award was presented to Kate Martin of the Montgomery County (MD) County Circuit Court Law Library.

Summit Registration Grants were awarded to:

Matthew Elisha, Bryan Cave, Denver CO

Abigail Falls, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, DC

Louise Jensen, Drummond Woodsum, Portland ME

Diane Kaboolian, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, New York NY

Kim Martin, Goodwin Procter, Boston MA

Ciara Meeks, Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, Charlotte NC

Mary Ann Wacker, Bracewell Giulani, Houston TX

PLL-SIS Travel to AALL Grants were presented to:

Shari Berkowitz Duff, Reed Smith, Philadelphia PA

Matthew Elisha, Bryan Cave, Denver CO

Cameron Gowan, Jones Day, Washington DC

Janice Henderson, Law Librarian Consultant/Trainer, Brooklyn NY

Deborah Maglione, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP, Palo Alto CA

Abigail Ross, Keller & Heckman LLP, Washington DC

Cornell Winston, U.S. Attorney's Office, Los Angeles CA

PLL-SIS Board:

Recognition and thanks were given to outgoing Board members--

Jane Baugh, Past Chair,

Jennifer Berman, Executive Committee Member

Deborah L. Rusin, Secretary

New Board members were introduced and welcomed-

Cameron Gowan, Executive Committee Member

Kristine Lloyd, Secretary

Jean P. O'Grady, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect

Gavel Passed:

The gavel was then passed to Linda-Jean Schneider, as she assumed the office as PLL-SIS Chair for 2012-2013. Linda-Jean thanked Steve Lastres for an outstanding year as PLL-SIS Chair, and presented him with an engraved Crystal Trophy in appreciation.

Guest Speaker:

Linda Will then introduced Jim Pancero, her husband, as the keynote speaker. Jim spoke on "Strengthening Your Strategic Selling Skills: Are You Good Enough to Get Better?," a recurring concern during the Summit and other conference programs.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:05 pm.

I have attended quite a few AALL conventions since 2001, and I have always taken away a certain amount of information. My colleagues will often say that they aren't going to the convention because they don't see enough programs that interest them. From my experience I don't find that to be true. No matter what session you attend you will learn something or hear something that you never knew. Even if the topic is not related to your current position, there will be something presented that is a new idea. You obviously can't retain 60-75 minutes worth of information, but I try to take away one or two what I think are key concepts from that session.

Rethinking Your Value really did come out loud and clear in most of the programs I attended. Every speaker echoed the same message - in this economy if you aren't valuable, then you may not have a job. Bruce MacEwen, the Summit keynote speaker, advised us and our law firms not to be complacent. He said complacency is the greatest threat to any business. The legal culture has to change in order for firms to survive. Leadership and strategy matter more now than ever. As the world becomes more digital the library has the opportunity to build visibility. David Weinberger, the keynote speaker, spoke about the amount of knowledge now available on the web. He said it is up to the librarians to take all of the data and metadata and make it usable. Here are openings for librarians to prove their value.

What's My Bottom Line (Hot Topic) was one of the programs I found most interesting, which surprised me since the speaker was the managing partner of a large firm. (I didn't think listening to a partner was going to be too inspiring, I can do that in my own office) He was a very articulate speaker and he spelled out the situation that has been facing law firms for the past few years. Keeping the partners happy is his role, something basic I guess we all know, but hearing it did make an impression. Failure to embrace technology will have a negative effect on law firms. Some law firms would rather fail than change. This is rather a dramatic statement, but the truth of this can best be seen in the recent dissolutions of a few large firms. There are many opportunities for librarians and other administrative staff members to affect the firm's bottom line. He also said that law firms will look different in the next 10 years.

Our perception of a person or event dictates our behavior. The panel of Recharge: Increasing Your Influence, explained that only 10 % of what we perceive is really true. They gave examples showing how interaction with co-workers can often be misleading. We react to someone in a certain way because we think they either like us or don't like us. In reality they don't feel the way we think, but our actions may eventually cause them to change their original opinion of us. When we take our interpretation as fact our influence can be either positive or negative. We need to keep in mind the weight our perception has on our decisions. This was a very thought provoking session because at first glance it seemed like such basic information.

One of the last sessions I attended was again an excellent presentation - Wine and the Law. While this was very entertaining it was also very informative. I pour at festivals for a winery near my home in Maryland, so I am interested in wine statistics from other states. Maryland laws recently changed affecting wine sales. Wine can now be shipped into Maryland and local wineries can ship wine out of the state. This was an economic boost for the small wineries that don't have the distribution exposure as do the larger vineyards. I enjoyed talking to the wine commissioner after the program.

I found value in all of the programs I attended this year, hopefully I will bring that value to my job.