National Speleological Society
Operations Vice President’s Report
July 12 & 16, 1999
Operations Vice President
Report
Archivist Report
Audio-Visual Committee (Slides) Report
Audio-Visual Committee (Video) Report
Cave Files Committee Report
Headquarters Facilities
Committee Report
Internal Organizations Committee
Report
Internet Committee Report
NSS Bookstore Manager Report
NSS Library Committee Report
NSS Operations Manager Report
Office Automation Committee Report
Photo Archives Committee Report
Speleo-Museum Committee Report
NSS Library Cataloging Report, Attachment
1
Operations Vice President Report:
Mike Hood
23 Wells Avenue
Dayton, OH 45431-1420
(937) 252-2978
mhood@caves.org
The Department of the Operations Vice President consists of 12 committees, plus the NSS Operations Manager and the NSS headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama.
In this report, I provide the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the chair of each committee or organization, followed by their report. The committee and sub-committee chairs have provided the information in this report, although I’ve made some spelling, formatting, and minor editorial adjustments. If necessary, my comments are provided in Italics following the committee’s report.
PLANS:
The new Audio-Visual Library rental policy will go into
effect August 1, 1999. The new policy will require deposits on
shows and will replace the current rental fee. An article
announcing the new policy will appear in the July edition of the NSS
News. The other policy change concerning the A/V Library is
that only NSS members may check out shows.
PROGRESS:
The tabletop national display has been purchased and is
currently set up in Colin Gatland’s studio. Colin and I have
contacted several people and organizations requesting input for
the display text and photographs for the display. To date,
we’ve only received replies from Dr. Chris Groves and Dr.
Horton Hobbs. Colin has several quality photos we can use for the
display and we’ll see what scientific photos Dr. Groves and
Dr. Hobbs have that we can use. The cost of graphics and text, in
addition to the purchase of the display, should be below the
$2000 budgeted for the purchase of the display.
The National Speleological Foundation provided a $5000 grant to hire someone to perform the NSS Library cataloging project. Jim Hall has been hired to do this project. He has sent Jeanne Gurnee and me his first report. I’ve included it as attachment 1 to this report.
PROBLEMS:
It was hoped the display would be ready for the convention,
but that was not the case. The delay was partly due to waiting to
hear from people and groups contacted. After a reasonable amount
of time waiting for responses, Colin and I decided to proceed on
our own with photographs he has. We will hold off on the
scientific photos until after we see what Dr. Groves and Dr.
Hobbs have.
J. Reynolds Duncan, Jr.
153 Atria Drive
Toney, AL 35773-9515
(205) 852-4522
jrdandlld@aol.com
PLANS:
Continue with the review and cataloging of Archives material.
PROGRESS:
I have progressed to the point that all of the materials stacked
on the floor have been reviewed and categorized. There is still
more to do but the end is in sight. The main impediment in the
review of the material is the boxes that were sent to the
Archives many years ago with no (or missing) documentation on the
contents. This requires a review of each of the folders, or
sheets, to determine the subject matter. Boxes from a past
Treasurer of the society are not difficult but material from past
Presidents is challenging.
PROBLEMS:
Now that the contents of boxes are being moved to shelves for
organizing, additional filing cabinets are needed for the orderly
storage of the material. The budget allocation does not allow for
the purchase of new filing cabinets and few used filing cabinets
can be found within the budget allocation. The shelving that is
being used for the temporary storage of materials cannot be
expanded because there is no room in which to place it.
Audio-Visual Committee (Slides):
Colin Gatland
1151 Crestwood Hills Drive
Vandalia, OH 45377-2714
(937) 890-0339
pitdropper@aol.com
PLANS:
I still want to get the slide show from the Missouri
folks, however I think they might have put it on the back burner
as no new info has reached me as of yet. I still want to upgrade
the slide show graphics but have held off for the moment. I
wanted to see how funding was going (even though I was authorized
an additional $1,000 from the AV restricted fund, I felt that I
would rather wait a bit than spend it right away) so that I could
use the budgeted money the best way. I am still hopeful of
finding new potential slide show material this year from the NSS
convention (international exploration session, etc.).
PROGRESS:
Well, if you call spending money replacing shows
progress then we had a lot of progress these past few months (see
problems). However on the other hand, missing slide are now
replaced and back in circulation for the members. I have just
finished the Best of 1999 Slide Salon Show and made two dupe sets
for Avis at the NSS office. I also duped and created the graphic
slides for the supplied Idaho convention slide show. There are
also two dupe sets in circulation right now. I just finished the
Best of 99 photo CD. From now on I will burn the dupe CD's at no
cost to the society. I am also making a third CD for the AV
committee files. This will ensure there is a backup in case of a
CD becoming lost (see below). I think the progress to reach a
better way for the membership to use the AV library slide shows
& videos without a cost (just a deposit) is a good resolution
to a bad problem. Mike Hood, OVP, has been very instrumental in
coming up with a final policy. He has taken a lot of comments and
ideas and made what I feel is a good decision for the AV library
and the NSS. I am also starting to get feedback from some members
who use the slide shows, via e-mail. I asked Avis to place a
comment list in the slide shows that go out. I asked that any
comments about the AV library or individual shows please be
directed to me. They are now trickling my way. This is a good way
to hear from the membership.
I must mention that Avis Van Swearingen has done a lot of work organizing the AV library and should be commended for her commitment and attention. When I was last at the NSS office in late March she showed me what she has been doing to get the AV library in good working order. It is very important for one person to diligently look over the AV library. I am very grateful that Avis is doing so.
PROBLEMS:
The biggies this time that sucked up a lot of money were the
replacement of missing slide shows. These were shows that were
just found to be missing, maybe for several years. These shows
were just discovered to be missing. A big chunk of my allotted
budget again this year went to replacing or maintenance.
Hopefully this show replacement phase is about over, at least
with the AV funds having to foot the bill.
Smaller problem:
I had a member who created a slide show after being asked to. Now
after returning from a few years abroad, his show is not in
circulation. He asked why, I told him I would try and find out.
He wants to know what to do to get it back in circulation, at
this point I couldn't tell him much. Is there a policy about
recirculating pulled slide shows? When someone creates a show are
we obligated to make it available it for "X" months?
There are several pieces of equipment bought for the AV committee, which are for two projector shows or programming slide shows. To date (after almost two years as chairman) no one has asked to use the equipment. It is gathering dust. My suggestion would be to either see if Bruce Bannerman can use it or possibly sell it and place the money back in the AV restricted fund. Either is better than letting it just sit and take up space. I have no idea what it is worth, however I would not expect it to be worth what it was originally bought for.
Colin has done a good job getting the slide shows reproduced and replaced. The new deposit policy for the AV Library goes into effect August 1, 1999. This should alleviate problems we have with funding missing shows. As to getting pulled shows back into circulation, this should be a simple matter. If we still have the show on file, or have the original copy, it should be a simple administrative decision to place the show back in the catalog and make it available for checkout.
Audio-Visual Committee (Video):
David Socky
6572 Woodbrook Drive, SW
Roanoke, VA 24018-5402
(703) 989-7693
sockydr@roava.net
PLANS:
Pursue Purchase of a new Video/Computer Projector
I have started the process of purchasing a new
video/computer LCD projector to replace our old and heavy
three-gun projector. Primary usage will be for the yearly NSS
Photo Salon for graphics and video. However, because modern
projectors are smaller in size, lighter weight, and have a higher
light output (and are easier to use), the projector can be used
for other purposes throughout the year. Bob Vandeventer is
loaning the NSS an InFocus Projector for the convention this
year, so afterwards, a model and price will be decided, and if
funding is found, the NSS will purchase a new projector.
I have not made any other new plans, since only minimal progress has been made on plans from the spring (or even from last year).
PROGRESS:
Rental feedback cards
Nothing has been done yet. Borrowers of the AV video
programs are encouraged to send in a 3x5 survey card which asks
about the quality of the show, whether we should keep it in the
library or not, suggestions for improvement, and so forth. So
far, I have received out 40 to 50 of these cards. Before the
convention I will compile all the comments, and a list of
suggestions. From this data, we should be able to see how the AV
library is doing from the perspective of cavers, but more
important, we can find ways to improve the AV Library and the
administration of the Library.
NSS Convention video
Nothing has been done yet. Late last year I supplied a
montage of video footage on past NSS conventions to Carol
Tiderman (for use by the Maine Convention staff). The video will
be shown to the City Council and other public officials in Maine
in preparation for the NSS Convention in that state. The purpose
is to give public officials some idea of what the NSS, and its
yearly Convention, is all about. Because this was a
‘rush’ project, the video I supplied was real rough
– no titles, no narration, no music, just a bunch of scenes
from past NSS Conventions.
What I would like to do is to produce a more professional show about NSS Conventions and what they are all about. Something like this could be a great marketing tool, making it easier to show local officials the benefits of NSS Conventions. Soon, I will be asking for help in planning, scripting, and writing a narration for such a video. It would be real nice to have some good basic ideas before the Convention in Idaho this year. That would allow myself and others to obtain specific footage for an NSS Convention video.
"What the NSS is about" video
Nothing has been done yet. The project above (NSS
Convention video) is only a show about NSS conventions. I would
also like to produce a video, which tells the viewers what the
NSS is all about. I know there is at least one program of this
type in the library, but I imagine it is somewhat out of date. As
in the Convention video, I will be asking for help in planning,
scripting, and writing a narration for this production.
Public Media
The show was aired in March, but I missed it. Nothing
else has been done. Discover Channel: Some time this year, the
Discover Channel will air a program called "Storm
Warning." It will be a program about a cave rescue under
flooding conditions. As with the National Weather Service, at
their request, I supplied cave footage, which included a lot of
scenes of cave streams, near siphons, and other ‘wet’
scenes. Depending on how it turns out, this may be another good
program to include in the AV library.
New AV Catalog
Nothing has been done yet.
AV Video database
Alex Sproul: A project for this winter is to database the
video archives by subject, title, and producer, correlating them
to cassette and time-code placement on the cassette. This project
is ‘in progress’.
National Weather Service
I will bring a copy to the NSS Convention. The scripting
of the National Weather Service video about the dangers of
flooding has been completed. At their request, I supplied a Beta
SP copy of my caving footage in order to obtain the best quality
video. They are in the process of editing the program, so I
expect the final production will be done early spring. This could
be another good video to include in the NSS AV library.
PROBLEMS:
Time
I never seem to have enough time to do all the things I
would like to do. If nothing else, there will be a good NSS Year
2000 Convention teaser video after the photo salon this year in
Idaho. A good portion of my time has been spent producing this
15-minute show for the NSS 2000 Convention staff.
Cave Files Committee:
Richard Blenz
8070 W. Eller Road
Bloomington, IN 47403
(812) 825-2345
rblenz@ucs.indiana.edu
PLANS:
To run the files as usual.
PROGRESS:
Running the Files as usual.
PROBLEMS:
None
Headquarters Facilities Committee:
Greg Freese
8012 Strong Dr., SE
Huntsville, AL 35802
(256) 881-6544
gfreese@mindspring.com
No report received.
Internal Organization Committee:
Evelyn Bradshaw
10826 Leavells Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22407-1261
(703) 898-9288
ebradshw@staffnet.com
PLANS:
1. Fulfill my responsibilities with regard to the
Congress of Grottos 1999.
2. Lay groundwork for improved collection of I/O annual reports
1999-2000.
3. Continue ongoing work for the Internal Organizations
Committee.
4. With Cheryl Jones, plan Regions/IO Roundtable for convention
1999.
PROGRESS:
Congress of Grottos:
I am about to release a communication to grottos (and
others) giving their vote allocations for the Congress of
Grottos. This was not done earlier, since advance notification
seemed pointless if there was no COG agenda to be considered.
Communications with the COG Issues Chair (Jean DeVries) confirmed
that as usual there had been no agenda items received in response
to a notice in the NSS News. At the business meeting of the
Virginia Region on May 2, 1999, the chairman, Craig Hindman,
brought up under new business the question whether VAR wished to
forward any agenda items to the Congress of Grottos. I spoke up
suggesting that VAR might ask for discussion about disbanding
COG. Bob Hoke (D.C. Grotto) immediately moved to make such a
motion. Ray Herlong (Battlefield Area Troglodyte Society
"BATS") countered that there are many cavers now active
in VAR with insufficient background information on COG to cast an
informed vote on such a motion, and suggested that first we need
dissemination of what COG is all about. The final motion
therefore calls for circulating information about the Congress
that might lead eventually to a discussion at COG of whether to
(1) continue it as is, (2) continue it in some revised form, or
(3) disband it. I subsequently sent Craig Hindman a copy of a
memorandum prepared for the new grotto reference packet. It
contains the statement about the establishment of the Congress in
the NSS bylaws, the COG Rules of Procedure, and a short summary I
wrote of some occasions on which COG votes had resulted in action
by the Board of Governors. I also volunteered to combine my
planned bulk mail I/O mailing with the allocation of COG votes
with whatever VAR or the COG officers wish to send out and take
care of getting it circulated with utmost speed. They could
logically be combined, prepared and sent from Northern Virginia,
where I paid to keep the NSS mail permit active for now, and
perhaps would move faster and hence be given more attention than
if sent from Michigan or Maryland or Alabama. I believe mail
deposited in the Area Distribution Center in Northern Center
probably gets in to the mail stream a little faster. However, I
will not delay mailing the vote allocation list unduly. If COG
and VAR wish to do their mailing independently, I am certainly
not pressuring them to do otherwise.
Ongoing Work with Internal Organizations:
One grotto application has been approved (Southern
Arizona G-424). I was very favorably impressed with the
diplomatic way leaders of the Escabrosa Grotto and Pete Fine of
the new grotto met to discuss maintaining good cooperative
relations. There are three other grotto applications on file that
all seem promising. It was also good to learn that a group near
Custer, South Dakota, worked out with the Paha Sapa Grotto in
Rapid City to meet in Custer (where the caves are) half the year
and the other half in Rapid City, rather than starting a separate
grotto in the Custer area. In their particular situation this
seems better than having two separate groups both caving around
Custer. For about a year I have been collecting information from
the grottos as to their membership policy with regard to non-NSS
members. It has been obvious for several years that adherence to
the NSS policy mandating 100 percent NSS membership is rare. A
memorandum summarizing the results and a statistical report on
actual total membership figures for all the grotto has been
prepared and given minimal circulation. The IO Committee
continues to be involved in some foreign matters: A request for
help in applying for grotto status for a group in the Yucatan
Peninsula of Mexico was received and a packet was sent to them.
Two of the Bulgarians from the group earlier in touch with us
about some type of NSS affiliation have made plans to fly to New
York in May and attend the Northeastern Regional meeting in that
month. They approached Tom Oakes of MET Grotto for help in
paperwork needed to get the U. S. Visa. He in turn asked me to
send the requested letter to the U.S. Consul in Sofia, since my
title might give the letter more credulity. Such a letter was
sent by FAX on NSS letterhead, indicating welcome but no
implication of financial support for the visit. The members of
the Costa Rican Grotto requested help with some documentation
about histoplasmosis in caves to help them counter a threat of
Costa Rican authorities to close some caves where histo was a
problem. I referred their request to Dr. Warren Lewis in
Albuquerque and he helped with considerable documentation. He is
a real asset to the NSS.
We regret to report that we have established that at least four grottos from whom no annual reports were forthcoming are definitely defunct: Shascade in California (founder died and secretary moved away), Palouse in Idaho/Washington (sparkplug moved and grotto generally too small to survive that), Micronesian Cavers in Guam (communications too spasmodic and founder may have left Guam), and Hondo in New Mexico (over two years attempts to locate key people to take over after founders left were unavailing). Some grottos whose names will not appear in the 1999 directory are indeed quite active and as soon as the necessary information is on file they will continue to be carried on the active list in Huntsville and the I/O files. (A few of these have already come in.)
I/O Roundtable for Regions:
Cheryl Jones asked Mike Hood last fall about scheduling
some kind of event at convention 1999 where Regional leaders
could share problems and procedures. As I was asked about this, I
mentioned the proposal when I sent out the Regional annual report
forms early in 1999. Pending confirmation of a specific slot on
the week’s program, no formal pre-convention plans for
content of the meeting have been made. Cheryl agreed to preside.
A late afternoon in mid-week seems like the best possibility.
Privately, I suspect that many Region leaders will be surprised
to learn what a vast difference there is between them (membership
arrangements, their financing arrangements, even their size and
to some extent the type of programs set up at regionals).
If the regions support this, it could be a very useful forum. However, with all of the other activities going on at convention, I’m sure not all regions will be represented. I suggest waiting to see how this turns out before making a decision to make this an annual meeting.
Plans for 1999-2000 Report Schedule:
Definitely the deadline for grottos to get reports in
will be a month earlier,—i.e., January 15. (I should have
made this change before now, but I inherited the February 15 date
and assumed that it was set in stone. The need for such change
becomes obvious when you reflect that back then there were less
than a hundred grottos and now there are two hundred, more or
less, and back then the Members Manual came out in
December instead of June). Communication has been identified as
the major problem in securing annual grotto reports. Getting a
reliable grotto person identified on the I/O mailing list to
receive the report mailings is the secret to improve the
situation. I inherited one such alternate and that report is
always one of the first to arrive. For what it’s worth, the
very new grottos are usually prompt in reporting. My other
project that may improve the situation is to write a small
booklet covering the whole gamut of reporting. First, the actual
questions asked will be explained, what answers are expected to
cover (or NOT cover), why the information is requested and what
happens to it. For example, I may tell them that when we ask
about grotto achievements we don’t mean a list of grotto
members who became fellows or had a slide shown at the Photo
Salon, etc. Sponsoring a regional, a cleanup, a convention,
managing a cave, or doubling their NSS membership are group
achievements. We can highlight the value of preparing ahead of
time for the report by keeping certain statistics up to date.
Then I think a lot more can be said about using the computer
program and exactly how it expedites the report processing (And
make it clear that sending in a textual message by email takes as
much time to process as when the printed form is mailed back). I
see this publication being prepared to look more like a special
publication than just another memo on white letter-size paper.
Hopefully, it will catch the eye and will arrive separately so
that it will NOT be put into the library with all the exchanges,
etc., but will be put in to the hands of the person doing the
report. I am also aware that almost every geographical area has
some kind of e-mail list, similar to VARLIST here. I can get
information about reporting there as well on the Cavers Digest.
Fortunately, most if not all, the grottos that really do not have
ready access to e-mail facilities are ones that do the report
promptly. As far as I can tell, putting a short reminder into the
NSS News is not of much good. I look to see that it is
there, but it’s on the pages that many readers perhaps skip
over. Maybe the best way to get anything into the News would be
my writing a "Letter to the editor."
Archives:
This moves slowly. Blue Ridge Grotto wanted copies of
some of their early material (in preparation for a major
anniversary) and I was able to hand them the selected copies at
the recent VAR. I took some material several years ago and more
recently sent some by
Reynolds Duncan when he came through here to visit in Baltimore. The main need now is to create space here each year in the five full filing cabinets used for Internal Organizations to add the new reports, which fill one full drawer by themselves. Before the material from early years can be sent to NSS Archives, I know from experience that I should extract and hold any copies of original or revised constitutions and bylaws, and I also think it’s important to hold the material relating to the initial inquiry, processing and granting the application. This may well cut down the need for going to the archives for documents, and some kind of list of what is held out needs to be made. So this is a slow job!
Internet Committee:
Joshua Abdulla
14638 Bach Dr Ste 833
Carmel, IN 46032-7062
(317) 582-0008
joshua@caves.org
The NSS Internet Committee (IC) is responsible for providing all Internet related services for the NSS. These services include e-mail accounts, web accounts, and the maintenance of the NSS web site. Members of the committee include:
PLANS:
Number-one priority over the next several months will be
to better market the online NSS Bookstore. This may include any
one of the following:
The IC will also heavily market the new Internet Services that members can take advantage off—namely e-mail accounts @caves.org and web space for members.
PROGRESS:
PROBLEMS:
As usual, the biggest problem is time and timely
responsiveness to queries regarding the web site. With Camille
now helping out on keeping the NSS bookstore updated, some of
these problems will be alleviated.
From feedback I’ve received from various people, the web page awards seem to be a big hit. The web page award is an unofficial, informal award that is used simply to recognize outstanding and creative web pages that are connected to the NSS web page. The award is more in line with the salon awards, rather than an official NSS award. Two awards will generally be presented each quarter and a sub-committee of the Internet Committee reviews all the web sites linked to the NSS web page. Each page is judged in several areas and the top scoring web pages win. Winning pages may place a distinctive icon on their page. There are no benefits or status with winning this award—simply recognition for putting together a nice web site.
NSS Bookstore:
Jim Hall
623 Larry Place
Madison, AL 35758
(205) 772-9829
jimehall@compuserve.com
PLANS:
Camille plans to go to SERA this month. Convention is
coming up and the Bookstore will be there. We are planning on
going to OTR also.
PROGRESS:
Still looking for new books to sell and about a year’s worth
of On Rope is left in stock.
PROBLEMS:
Fiscal year end gross sales were $128k for 1998-1999 compared to
$153k for 1997-1998 Probably due to lack of advertising in the
NSS News. New book Speleogenesis is being printed
for sales to university at a price of $60. We don't need to
target that market, we need reasonable cost books for our 11,000
members.
The new Speleogenesis book is slated for publication this fall. The price of the book will be $60. David McClurg, Chairman of the Special Publications Committee, has been working hard to get the book reviewed by Choice and other academic institutions. Although the book is not geared toward the "average Joe Caver", it is, none the less, an important scientific and academic book. Compared to prices of over $100 for similar books used by universities, this book should be a good deal. We’re also getting Cave Minerals of the World II reviewed by Choice and the American Geological Society. Many thanks to Dr. Louise Hose for getting me the information on how to get our publications reviewed by them. Also, many thanks to Emily Davis-Mobley and Dr. Ira Sasowsky for the information they sent me about getting publications reviewed.
NSS Library Committee:
Richard Downey
380 N. 600 East
Orem, UT 84097-4843
(801) 224-6678
cavediva@uswest.net
PLANS:
I got a minuscule report from Bill Torode who says his
agenda is "Buy Books and work on the Cataloging"
Sound's good enough to me but I'm still interested on how he's
dividing the budget amongst those projects. I had a long
conversation with Jack Speece concerning the satellite Library in
the northeast. He has made some preliminary contacts with the
hopes of securing a room, which could be more or less permanent.
A couple of options are at a local Genealogical Library or at a
nearby public library. We did however entertain the idea of doing
a subscription to building a permanent structure on the Tytoona
Cave property. I know this is just flying in the wind at this
stage, but I think it may have some merit and needs discussing. I
will be doing a trip back east sometime between convention and
the next BOG meeting in November.
PROGRESS:
Things seem to be just humming along and at this point
I'm just feeling my way. I guess Bill has carte blanche
within his budget to do the buying, but does the committee have
any guidelines for his use? Also who all comprises the committee
besides me and I also suspect you are there by default?
PROBLEMS:
None that I can see at this point but again I'm just
starting and hope to have more to report on next time.
NSS Operations Manager:
Camille Mueller
National Speleological Society, Inc.
2813 Cave Avenue
Huntsville, AL 35810
(256) 852-1300
manager@caves.org
PLANS:
By the end of the summer, I plan to be a web master. The
bookstore will start being updated on a weekly basis. Josh and I
have discussed methods to increase the bookstore ranking on the
search engines. On "GoTo.com", I searched under Cave
books, we were not listed under the top 50. I searched under
Speleology books, we were not there but BCRA (British Cave
Research Association) was # 2 and the Lubbock Area Grotto was
listed as # 29. Then I searched under Karst Books, BCRA was #1
and Mammoth Cave was # 2 and we were # 7. I am researching ways
to move us up to the top 10 list on the other two subjects.
Bill Torode and I will be staffing a bookstore booth at SERA Cave Carnival June 11-13. Avis and Jim Hall will be biking across magnificent Alabama during that weekend. Avis and I have already purchased our airline tickets for the Idaho Convention. The office will be closed the Thursday and Friday before the convention and the Monday and Tuesday after to allow the staff ample packing/unpacking and travel time. We plan to ship the bookstore to Idaho via UPS the last of June to make sure that the 4th of July holiday does not delay their arrival. SERA, the Convention, and vacations will ensure that the summer will fly by and soon it will be time to start working on the bookstore catalog.
PROGRESS:
When I took over this job in June of 1995, I had two major goals.
The first was to bring up a new membership database that would
increase the accuracy of membership records, provide a high level
of accountability, and increase the office productivity. When I
took over this job, membership cards were being hand typed,
renewal notices required manually attaching labels to each notice
(about 1500-1800 notices are mailed each month)and hand stuffing
each envelope. There was no accountability for the number of
memberships processed and the amount of money deposited into the
bank. The second was to bring up a new accounting system that
automatically handled invoices, inventory, A/P, A/R and all the
other accounting functions. I am happy to report that I have met
both of my goals just before my 4th anniversary and with a
significant reduction in the office budget (I came in $10,133.27
under the 98/99 budget and $6284.79 under the 94/95 budget even
with increases in postage and printing cost). I would like to
especially thank Dave Irving, Phil Winkler, and Les Cardwell for
all of their support, guidance, and help in reaching these goals.
I burned the midnight oil with all three of them and they kept me
from going totally insane on those days when everything went
wrong.
The fiscal year 97/98 bookstore sales were around $160,000.00 and this past fiscal year (98/99) were around $128,000.00. I feel that part of this significant decrease in sales was due to my inability to properly manage and market the bookstore due to the overwhelming demands of getting a new accounting system up and running. Funds have been allocated to hire a part time bookstore manager but I have decided to hold off on this for two reasons. The first reason is that I feel like I will now have additional time to allocate to the bookstore duties. The second reason is that Bill Torode has starting learning more about the computer and the Internet. Bill has started researching the Library of Congress and other web sites for cave related books. With his new found computer skills, he has brought me numerous titles that he feels the bookstore needs to obtain — complete with ISBN numbers, anticipated publication dates, and the Publisher’s name. I would prefer to increase Bill’s duties and hours to include more title research and purchasing duties along with learning more computer duties and skills.
Josh Abdulla set up a dummy bookstore web site for me to learn how to update the bookstore website. Phil Winkler introduced me to some great web sites and to Brett Rabideau, who provided me with even more recommendations and help. Armed with 3 great HTML books and a web class, I learned how to update the website and gained access to the real web site. I am amazed at how easy it is but I know that I still have a lot to learn. Our web page was sadly out of date and still listed "Manual of US Cave Rescue Techniques" as being available. Josh just did not have enough time to handle all the bookstore changes that happen on a weekly basis, attend college, work, and run the rest of the website chores. I have not had enough time to really update the web page but I did get the out of print books removed and the new books added.
Avis VanSwearingen has worked with Colin Gatland and David Socky to improve the operations of the Audio-Visual Library. The AV library had gone a long way from the paper ledger of the early to mid 90’s but there were still some serious flaws in the renting process. Avis has finally gotten them ironed out. She went through the AV Library and the old paper files and tried to find the missing programs. Then she went to work with Colin and Dave to replace the hopelessly lost ones. She has started sending postcards when the programs are not back in 3 weeks. If that does not work, she makes phone calls. In addition to increasing the tracking of the programs, she has spend numerous hours going over the slide programs to ensure that the slides are in correct order and orientation. By running a daily pull list, she has ensured that everyone gets their program 2 to 3 days before the show date.
PROBLEMS:
None! With the first complete year on LedgerMaster a
complete success, I do not see any problems in the future.
Office Automation Committee:
Phil Winkler
816 N. Washington Street
Wilmington, DE 19801-1510
(302) 571-1156
72426.1153@compuserve.com
Nothing new to report. Operations are proceeding normally with the usual software blips on occasion mainly due to Windows anomalies.
Photo Archives Committee:
Karen Kastning
PO Box 148
Radford, VA 24141-0048
(703) 639-4666
kkastning@runet.edu
PLANS:
In the very near future, I will be obtaining some
additional archival storage materials (boxes, plastic slipcovers,
and notebooks). At least some of this will be used to organize
the H.H. Douglas collection (a mixture of prints, negatives, and
slides) acquired a few years ago.
Additional cataloging of material from Al Mueller (from the 1940-1950's) is high on the list of priorities.
Long-range plans continue to be to establish a detailed database for the photo archives (starting with recent materials and working my way backwards). Ultimately, I hope to have a very well organized photo archives for research purposes.
PROGRESS:
A multipurpose scanner was purchased in April 1999. This
should prove useful in the future.
I am in the middle of processing a rather large request for material for the 2000 convention guidebook among other things (from West Virginia). This request for archival materials will be filled prior to the convention. As some of the material being researched has not been published before, I will check on the possibilities of preparing an exhibit for that convention.
PROBLEMS:
No sizable or urgent problems.
Speleo-Museum Committee:
Craig Hindman
7600 Pindell School Road
Fulton, MD 20759
(301) 792-0742
ctiderma@ns.tssc.com
PLANS:
Now that the funding has been approved, a digital camera
will be purchased. After convention I plan to resume activity on
the web page. There will be a scaled down version of the Museum
at the convention, due to the travel distance. Several donations
tend to come in during the convention and they will be displayed
also.
PROGRESS:
One donation has been received since the last report.
PROBLEMS:
None at this time.
Until such time we have a permanent museum, the "virtual museum" web page should be quite interesting. The web page will contain photos and descriptions of the various items in the museum. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
NSS LIBRARY CONTRACT END-OF-MONTH REPORT FOR MAY 1999
I am using a library program "Winnebago" that the NSS owns. It allows searches by author, title, and subject. Of course, most subjects are caves or caving, followed by the country or area of the country they refer to.
So far I have spent 48.5 hours on the contract and 278 of the 4000-plus books are in the system. Attached is a listing of books cataloged to dated indexed by author (OVP Note—the attachment is not included due to size). The barcode number’s last four digits are numbers previously assigned to the books and printed in each book. The first digit is for book size; 5=regular size, 4=small size, 6=large size. In the library, they are filed in different areas by size.
The call number and type I am not using, the books with call numbers were imported from OCLC and are useless for us. The type can easily be used for language. I am entering author, title of book, ISBN/LCCN, publisher, date published, where published, size of book, number of pages, and language.
Jim Hall