Category Archives: Meetings

Winter 2022, Meetings

November Business Meeting – Rhea Ballard-Throwe

CALL convened on November 18, 2021 at noon via Zoom for our November Business Meeting. There were 54 registrants for this meeting. President Jamie Sommer opened the meeting and thanked Lexis for sponsoring the door prizes before handing it over to Vice President Scott Vanderlin, who introduced our speaker, Dean Rhea Ballard-Thrower.

Speaker

Dean Ballard-Thrower was recently named the University Librarian at the University of Illinois Chicago. She was previously the Executive Director of the Howard University Libraries and a tenured professor at the Howard University School of Law. She has also served as Director of the Howard University Law Library, Associate Director of the Georgia State University Law Library, and as a reference librarian for the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas-Austin. Continue reading November Business Meeting – Rhea Ballard-Throwe →

Fall 2020, Meetings

November Business Meeting – David Schwartz and Adam Pah from SCALES-OKN

November 19, 2020 Business Meeting at 12:00 p.m. via Zoom

Our November Business Meeting had 59 attendees. President Lindsey Carpino opened the meeting by welcoming new members and introducing our sponsor, Thomson Reuters. Blythe McCoy discussed the various COVID-19 and civil rights resources that Thomson Reuters has made available to researchers. She also discussed Thomson Reuter’s financial support to the city of Minneapolis and expanded opportunities for employees to volunteer in the community. Continue reading November Business Meeting – David Schwartz and Adam Pah from SCALES-OKN →

Fall 2020, Meetings

September Business Meeting – Grace Pai, Director of Advancing Justice–Chicago

Our September Business Meeting was attended by about 70 CALL members. President Lindsey Carpino opened the meeting by thanking outgoing board members (Jessie LeMar, who is now Past President, Joe Mitzenmacher, and Jesse Bowman) and welcoming the board members that joined in May (Vice President/President-Elect Jamie Sommer, Treasurer Tom Keefe, and Director Mandy Lee). Lindsey noted that we’re maintaining our usual schedule as best as possible, including virtual Business Meetings, calls for grants and awards, and continuing education events. Virtual happy hours have been popular and will continue. Further, we will ramp up diversity and inclusion efforts this year. Continue reading September Business Meeting – Grace Pai, Director of Advancing Justice–Chicago →

Spring 2021, Meetings

May Business Meeting: Diane Rodriguez (AALL Vice-President)

Our final business meeting of the year was held over Zoom. In addition to our CALL award winners, recognized below, President Lindsey Carpino also acknowledged CALL members that won AALL awards this year:

  • Stacia Stein won the Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award
  • Matt Timko won the AALL/Lexis Nexis Call for Papers Award in the New Member Division
  • Mandy Lee won the Minority Leadership Development Award
  • Clanitra Stewart Nejdl won both the Emerging Leader Award and the AALL Spectrum Article of the Year Award!

Continue reading May Business Meeting: Diane Rodriguez (AALL Vice-President) →

Summer 2021, Meetings, CALL Committees

CALL Meetings Committee 2020-2021 Annual Report

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Carrie Port – Co-Chair
Eugene Giudice – Co-Chair
Mike McMillan – committee member
Jill Meyer – committee member

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic precluded any in-person events.  The meetings committee, realizing the necessity to keep the librarian community connected, was able to put on a number of virtual events.  The events that the committee planned this year were as follows:

Virtual Quarterly Meetings

September 2020 Business Meeting – 71 attendees
November 2020 Business Meeting – 60 attendees
February 2021 Business Meeting – 63 attendees
May 2021 Business Meeting – 72 attendees

 Virtual Events

CALL Trivia Night December 17, 2021– 10 teams with 2 to 5 players

Book Club – January 28, 2021

Pritzker Military Museum & Library Virtual Tour March 18, 2021- 19 attendees

 Online Happy Hours

Thursday, June 18, 2020
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Thursday, October 22, 2020 (Lunch)

In addition to these events, the Meetings Committee worked on updating its committee charge to reflect the board’s directive to have all committee charges reflect an acknowledgement of the diversity and inclusion needs of the Chicago law librarian community.

The committee encourages the board to appoint newer members and members from diverse communities to the committee because it is the committee’s opinion that working the meetings committee, especially the registration table is an effective way to build one’s network.

With regard to planning for 2021 – 2022 meetings, the committee encourages future Meetings Committees to continue schedule happy hours and other off-meeting opportunities for networking and staying connected between meetings.

Winter 2021, Meetings

February Business Meeting

Our February business meeting convened on February 18 over Zoom and had 53 CALL members in attendance.

President Lindsey Carpino opened the meeting by reminding attendees that the CALL election is going on until March 15 and that this month the community service has arranged for CALL to support the DuSable Museum of African American History (more on these in the committee announcements below).

She also thanked our speaker Robert Ambrogi, noting that outside of a remote meeting it would be difficult to schedule a meeting with him present. Vice President Jamie Sommer introduced Mr. Ambrogi, who is a long-time expert on legal technology, practice, and ethics. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of LexBlog.com and writes a technology column for Above the Law. Continue reading February Business Meeting →

Winter 2021, Meetings

Trivia Night Review

The meetings committee hosted a holiday online trivia night on December 17, 2020. Ten excited and hopeful teams participated. Tanya Carlson, Konya Moss, Jessie LeMar, and Sandy Qiu of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom were the winning team with an assist from their families.

Jillian Baker hosted the trivia night and wowed us with her inventive questions. There were music hints to all the questions and the rounds consisted of pop culture, back to school, random questions, and two picture rounds featuring movies and license plates.

The Final 2 Questions are listed below. For fun see if you know the answers.

  • Children Books: Released in 1987, what book was the result of more than two years of detailed work by illustrator Martin Handford, and spent 93 weeks in the number one spot on the New York Times Best Sellers List?
  • Geography: Which US State has the most natural lakes?

The Meetings Committee is excited to host more events in the future.

Winter 2021, Meetings

CALL Media Club: The Little Paris Bookshop

2020 was an interesting year for the CALL Meetings Committee.  We were forced to revise the traditional “Business lunch” meetings, to at-home Zoom calls, and everyone struggled to stay healthy and sane while living out the year stuck in the “comfort” of our homes.

After some successful Zoom Happy Hours and a really fun virtual Trivia Night holiday party, the CALL Meetings Committee decided to get creative with different ways that our group could stay connected during the pandemic shut-down.  One suggestion was a book club.  We decided to try and keep it light, and fun, and use it as a way to get conversation going and give us all something to look forward to during the cold winter days.

The first meeting, of what we have now decided is the CALL Media Club (open to books and movies – and any other media we see fit to include) occurred on Jan. 28, 2021.  A few book options were sent out to the greater CALL membership to vote on, and it was decide to start off with The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George.  We had approximately 11 people join the group, and we had a great conversation during our lunch hour.

The book received mixed reviews, but the discussion sparked lots of recommended reading (and travel destinations).  The plan is to continue this quarterly, with the next session taking place in April.  We are hoping to try a movie for the next go-round, and there will be a survey sent out to the membership for recommendations.   So look for that survey to send in your recommendation, and hopefully we can double the participation for the next session!

Spring 2020, Meetings

Committee Roundup: Zoom Happy Hours!

When the rise of the coronavirus sent us home, the CALL Meetings Committee decided to host online happy hours. It has become a great way to raise a glass to discuss with working from home, fears and concerns about Covid, and chat about our favorite movie soundtrack.

Zoom Happy Hour
April Zoom Happy Hour (taken by Mandy Lee)

As librarians, we are skilled in learning new technologies so everyone has caught onto Zoom quickly. It has also been great to include CALL members who are living out of state (California, Indiana, Wisconsin).

After the success of the first online happy hour, we have been holding them every three weeks on Zoom.  We will be having our final summer happy hours on July 29 at 5:30 and August 20 at 12:30pm.

April Zoom Happy Hour (taken by Mandy Lee)
April Zoom Happy Hour (taken by Mandy Lee)

If you have suggestions for the fall please reach out to Eugene Guidice, Mike McMillan or Carrie Port, and stay tuned for the new schedule.