Ten and Counting:
An Informal (and somewhat personal) History of the Early Years of the
South Carolina Chapter of SLA
by
Robert V. Williams
1995
History | Chapter Presidents
Founders Award Winners
For several years prior to 1984 a number of us in South Carolina who were SLA members had thought of trying to establish a chapter in the state. Don Miles, at Milliken, and Tom Sutherland, at Savannah River, were the chief "agitators" to do this. I was one of the "footdraggers" on trying to do this because of my experiences, several years earlier in Atlanta, trying to keep the South Atlantic Chapter of SLA going with only a few members.
Despite my reluctance, three or four SLA members in the state urged me to write SLA headquarters and ask about the number of members in the state as well as in Augusta, Savannah, and Charlotte. I did this in early Sept., 1984 and received a reply from SLA that there were 56 members in the areas we enquired about. SLA also informed us that it only took 15 members to form a provisional chapter and 25 to form a regular chapter.
Encouraged by these numbers, Mike Kronenfeld of DHEC, Deborah Hotchkiss of the SC State Library, and Michael McCulley of Cryovac, and I appointed ourselves as an informal committe to pursue the matter further. We met on Oct. 15, prior to a program held at the College to which special librarians from around the state had been invited, to discuss possibilities and make further plans.
Shortly thereafter, during the annual business meeting of the SCLA Special Libraries Section at the SCLA Annual Conference, we made a brief presentation of our work thus far and asked what folks would like us to do next. Herb White, former President of SLA and ASIS, was a conference speaker and attended the business meeting. He urged us to proceed with forming a chapter, noting that in Indiana they had been successful with even fewer numbers than we had available to us. Suzanne Krebsbach, then Librarian at the McNair law firm in Columbia and Chair of the Special Libraries Section of SCLA, offered the help of the Section and noted that she was about to do a survey of the needs/interests of special librarians in the state. (The Section had already published, in 1982, a directory of special libraries in South Carolina.) Based on the discussions there, Suzanne and I designed a small survey and sent it to all known special librarians in the state in Dec., 1984. It asked a number of questions about workshop interests, memberships in professional associations, and, particularly, whether those folks who were members of SLA would be interested in starting a South Carolina chapter. We also asked would they serve as officers, work on committees, and attend meetings regularly.
The survey results were encouraging. With about 50 responding, 25 SLA members said they were interested in forming a SC chapter (8 said no and 17 were undecided). Other questions showed that there was considerable interest in attending meetings, organizing workshops, and participating as officers.
While it appears that not much happened between January and April, 1985, in reality some important work took place because of the activities of the Student Group of SLA at the College, chaired by Elizabeth Haworth Whisnant, and the encouragement of Christyn Billinsy and Liz Qunell to continue working toward establishing a chapter.
In late April, Suzanne Krebsbach organized a SCLA Special Libraries Section workshop at Davis College that was well attended by special librarians. After the workshop, EBSCO sponsored a reception and dinner at the Faculty House. Chuck Leachman, of EBSCO, worked this out and was very supportive of all of our early work in establishing the chapter. During an informal "business meeting" after dinner, we discussed the results of the survey and asked what folks wanted us to do about forming a chapter. There was unanimous agreement that we should petition SLA to form a provisional chapter for the state. I was asked to take on the job of getting the petitions signed and communicated to SLA. SLA members at the dinner signed the petition.
I do not recall how many petitions I obtained that night but it enough to justify asking for provisional chapter status. By May 23, I had sent 24 signed petitions to SLA headquarters and SLA placed our petition on the Board's agenda for action at the Winnipeg annual conference in June.
None of us from South Carolina were able to be in attendance at the SLA Board meeting when it came up the first time in Winnipeg. During the Winnipeg conference I was told that the South Atlantic (now Georgia) Chapter officers had objected to our petition, despite the fact that I had written them of our intentions and had never had any kind of response from them. I met with both the South Atlantic Chapter and North Carolina Chapter folks during the meeting and tried to work out any misunderstandings that might have arisen. The SLA Board of Directors did approve our petition and we officially became the South Carolina Provisional Chapter at the June, 1985 meetings of the Board.
Based on the discussions we had at the Faculty House meeting in April, the plan was to ask for provisional chapter status for two years and then apply for full chapter status if things went well. SLA agreed to this plan and Emily Mobley, then Chapter Cabinet Chair of SLA, gave us tremendous support and encouragement during this time--and SLA sent us our first check!
The first official program and business meeting of the Provisional Chapter was Nov. 14. Sena Black, of the USCInstitute for Information Management, Technology and Policy, was the speaker and about 20 people attended. After the program we elected the following as officers: Bob Williams, as Temporary Chair/President; Michael McCulley, Pres. Elect; Christyn Billinsky, Secretary-Treasurer; David Moltke-Hansen, Director.
Elizabeth Haworth Whisnant offered to begin drafting the by-laws for the chapter and Deborah Hotchkiss volunteered to edit the newsletter. The first issue of the newsletter, then without a title, appeared in March, 1986. It featured our distinctive logo, designed by Patty Bustamante, which still graces our newsletter and stationery. It contained a listing of 39 members but added the caution that about 15 of these were student members and not likely to remain in the state very long. It also reported on our first workshop, held at Milliken in February, with 27 in attendance.
To say that things went well for the chapter over the next year is probably an understatement. Officers did their job very well, Deborah Hotchkiss did an excellent job with the newsletter, Elizabeth Haworth Whisnant got the bylaws approved, and members came to meetings. By March, 1987 we had 55 members, finances were in good shape, and program planning was working nicely. By the time of the annual conference in SLA in June, 1987 we were more than ready for full chapter status. Our application was considered by the SLA Board at its first meeting, June 6, during the Anaheim Conference and was approved. I was not able to end the Board meeting but when I arrived at the conference I found what appeared to be a birthday card from Julie Macksey, Chapter Cabinet Chair saying: CONGRATULATIONS ... YOU DONE REAL GOOD! and signed by all the members of the SLA Board.
The final recognition and official installation came at the Sept. 16 dinner meeting at Milliken's beautiful guest house when Emily Mobley, SLA President, presented us with our certificate as a regular chapter. It was a superb ending to the early years and another beginning to a strong and vibrant chapter.
Chapter Presidents:
Robert V. Williams, June, 1985-July, 1987
Michael McCulley, June-Dec.,1987
Trudy Craven, Jan., 1988-June, 1989
Deborah Hotchkiss, July, 1989-June, 1990
Lee Hemphill, July, 1990-June, 1991
Lois P. Sill, July, 1991-June, 1992
Harriet Oglesbee, July, 1992-June, 1993
Jan Watson Cambre, July, 1993-June, 1994
Jeanette Bergeron, July, 1994-June, 1995
Ellen Dewkett, July, 1995-June, 1996
Leon Gyles, July, 1996-June, 1997
Nancy Taylor, July, 1997-June, 1998
Patsy Moss, July, 1998-June, 1999
Thomas Hill, July, 1999-June, 2000
Tom Sutherland, July, 2000-June, 2001
Christine Whitaker, July, 2001-June, 2002
Stephen Bajjaly, July, 2002-June, 2003
Helen Ivy, July, 2003-June, 2004
Nina Brunet, July, 2004-June, 2005
Robert V. Williams, July, 2005-December, 2006
Robert V. Williams Founder's Award Recipients
(formerly SC-SLA Founder's Award)
Robert V. Williams, 1987
Christyn Billinsky, 1996
Jeanette Bergeron, 1998
Leon Gyles, 1999
David McQuillan, 2000
