Tuesday – the day before Day One

As usual this will be an informal, slightly fictionalized version of the events that ensued during my travels.  I mostly tell the truth.  But I also mostly make things up as I go. So.  This all started at 5:45 am.  Unless you count the dog waking up at 5am, and again at 5:30 am forcing me to repeatedly roll over and pile the pillows over my ears (because the dog wakes the cat up and the cat meows incessantly until you get up and feed him). So I  guess I can’t blame it on the dog after all.

Planes were on time, and taxi lines were long, but I read quite a bit of “The Art of Asking” by Amanda Palmer.  I recommend it and you can borrow it when I’m done (seriously) but if you paint yourself white and stand on a milk crate, I take no personal responsibility.  Here’s what I learned as the plane flew across the midwest:
“Those who can ask without shame are viewing themselves in collaboration with – rather than in competition with – the world.
Listening fast and caring immediately is a skill in itself.
I have no interest in DIY. I’m much more interested in getting everybody to help me.  I think a better definition might be UWYC. Use what you can.”

http://amandapalmer.net/wp-content/themes/afp/paperback/assets/images/the-art-of-asking-cover.png

I also learned that it is okay to make people wait.  You are valuable. They are valuable also.  They deserve your time.  You deserve to take time.  If this is true of everyone, we need to stop hurrying and start investing.  Period.  Mic drop.

I got a cushy room.  Only for one night.  I need to pack up in the morning, move myself to a different hotel and carry my bags around. Aaargh.  Oh well.  I’m at a conference in a budget crunch.  I will complain as little as possible.

I spent the evening at a very good reception in a 3 story establishment with skeeball, foosball, pacman, and ping pong and I got to play them all.

I was also lucky enough to be joined by Dan, our discovery librarian *who I’ve added to the share in case he wants to comment or defend his honor.*

I ran into a scad of folks from the Alliance that I know who think OSU must just be an oasis of brilliancy, and who, of course, constantly threaten to steal our people (as they have with C-Dog and Zac).  Alas.  It’s hard having all the best colleagues – you guys rock.

TOMORROW.  6 am, I’ll rise, shower, and walk to the conference hotel with my prospects and my pick axe – and I’ll be digging for the dream. (“Every day that you get up and force your cards
Playing your story in fits and starts. Take your prospects and your pickaxe” Indigo Girls)

Miss you already.  Thank you for making this possible.

Wednesday Day
Or “In one hotel and out the other.”

Breakfast was delicious with bagels and scrambled eggs.  I ran into Julie Kowalski Ward from San Jose (who I met at the Access Services conference a couple years ago) – they’re going live in Alma next month and nervous! I’m going to try to have lunch or dinner with her this week and see what kind of questions she has.  Now for the conference.

Plenary
I got a chair in the back because it looks like we’ll be sitting awhile!  Record attendance again this year – over 700 people.

Habib Tabatabai is giving the welcome – mostly just recognition of the user’s group leaders and committees.  Mentioned that the user’s group will be focusing on Authentication, Knowledge Base, Alma usability and the new UI (user interface), Primo new UI, and Alma/Primo combined backoffice.

 

Mary Case – University of Illinois, University Librarian
Better Together: Enriching our Community Through Collaboration

Global community of collaboration, not just local consortia.  This includes not just shared collections and buying for the group instead of the institution, but also collaborating on data storage and preservation, research access, storage of de-duped collection and the maintenance of the agreed upon remaining print collections.  Requires a long-term plan to make sure we never lose the last known print copies as we go through the process of de-duping our collections.  OSU does this with the WEST program I think.  Those are the journal titles that come through circ and still indicate “Non-Circulating” – we have the copy that was saved!! Don’t lose it!  Public mission for collecting preserving cultural memory – special collections and archives are a huge help in this.  Not a very interesting keynote.  I’m kind of surprised.

 

Eric Hines – President, ExLibris North America
Global Company Update

A bit of a history of ExLibris, but one interesting thing – good company attracts good customers, BUT also good customers attract MORE good customers.  Which makes me believe that the Alliance (and OSU) are more than doing their share to keep Ex Libris flush.  One more good thing.  Community has the ability to bring things from the edges of the group to the center – for help, AND for growth.  Some of those folks on the edges have really good ideas!
Matti Shem-Tov – President, Ex Libris

Interesting points:  Over 1000 ideas have been submitted on the ideas exchange!  Wow – that’s crowd activity.  No indication from the speaker on how many of those ideas have been made real.

Break time – I got to check into my new room and the view is amazing.

Next Generation Library Services – this will be multiple speakers and appears to be a great big long advertisement for ExLibris products.  Including cheesy videos with dramatic soundtracks.

Bar Veinstein

“Generation CX” Customer eXperience.  Designing for the users – both us *libraries as customers* and OUR patrons.  Focus this year on staff workflow streamlining, increased user community collaboration, services consistently available, and addressing staff needs quickly.

New Alma UI promises less clicks to get things done, more customizable screens and fields, and a more intuitive layout.  Added 10 more ideas exchange points for each user, have developed 36 ideas so far (there’s the answer from Matti’s presentation above).  36 out of 1000, well….  Adding Benchmark Analytics (I’ll be attending a session on this later in the conference).  Ability to compare workflows and use stats against others – also unique and overlap records, etc.  These should be extremely helpful for acquisitions and cataloging to my mind. Check out Oklahoma OVAL (virtual academic lab) – they are doing some super cool things!  

“Bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and Beauty to people’s lives.”  Don Norman

Shlomi Kringel

Discovery and resource lists – This discussion promises to be mostly about Summon (ProQuest), Primo and Leganto (reading lists product for course reserves).  Much of it won’t apply since we aren’t using some of these tools, but I’ll try to grab anything of value.  OOH- here’s a bit on the unified management of Primo and Alma *and a session Friday morning on it I’ll try to go to* – at this point, just a mention that combining config of the 2 products into one platform will make eas of publishing and record movement/edits much more simple.  AMEN.  Leganto looks cool but I believe it costs extra.  It allows instructors to use the lists themselves, make additions, drag and drop items into the lists, and etc.  Involves the instructors far more directly in their process of reserves, also allows for email/text integration through Canvas to notify students when a reading list has been created for their courses.

Ido Peled

Mobile Campus Solutions (CampusM) – supporting student services.  Estimated 5 hours per day on mobile devices for the average American.  Immediacy and urgency are built in to mobile devices.  CampusM creates a portal experience for mobile where all the different apps/contacts/sites they need to use can be put into one place.  Seems like ExLibris version of MyOSU, but includes “MyAccount” displays from Primo/Alma, cross platform similar to google integrations where all the things are in all the places (also like iCloud).  But can’t really tell if it’s trying to also be a learning management system like blackboard/Canvas.  Very odd.  But interesting.  ID box and push notifications – you can use cards or boxes at the entrance to rooms and buildings (or on people’s name tags) that work with apps to broadcast something whenever you’re close to them! I’m in love with this idea and need to read more on it – I think this is called cell broadcasting….

Okay LUNCH!  Macaroni and cheese, and Chicago Style pizza (as envisioned by hotel catering) – if that’s really what Chicago Pizza is like, I think my taste needs further development to get to a point of appreciation.  The mac and cheese was yum.

Alma UX – new user interface – Dana Sharvit (ExL)

This room is at almost double capacity so I’m sitting on the floor but will try to keep as good of notes as possible.  So far just an explanation of the process for coming up with the designs and functionality through user input, focus groups, and beta testers.  Workshop to get people to do their regular workflow from beginning to end – this taught them a lot about how people are using their product.

Multiple customizable menus including favorites, search display contents you can choose metadata elements you’re interested in.  Drop down in repository search displays previous 10 searches.  Right click to perform actions – no longer need all the action buttons.  Advanced searching allows you to type in the field you want (for instance “Location”) and it will bring up the terms that contain that option.  Uses “Look up OR Select” so you don’t have to go through all the steps to find your locations.  Still filters on the left, buttons on the right.  Most functions will ahve a different look but similar functionality so no need to re-learn process, but definitely we will have to re-do all the screenshots that include menus and navigation….

Rollout – May 21 for the focus group sandboxes. July for our testing sandboxes at the Alliance.  Alma community August or September release in production.

I’m actually presenting on the new UI at Summit/Fulfillment Day in early August, so I’m going to have to make huge push during that July sandbox period!  Yikes!

Analytics and Your Neighbors – Comparative Approaches – Aasof Klein @Rima Reves: this guy reminds me so much of Donovon presenting for Yoel Korick (ExL)

Comparative analytics needs to find a good balance of group size, number of institutions, comparative institution size and volume.  Benchmark Analytics requires a breadth of comparison and big data, key performance indicators (KPI), while Comparative Collection Analytics operates at a depth of comparison – small group, specific data

KPI need to be snapshot-ed every month or every year to enable the identification of trends

Example of need – ordering to shelf-ready time is significantly longer than reported at other institutions.

Data is kept non-identifying – collaborative and peer-measurable (so you can narrow down comparison sets).  Student body size, collection size, circ numbers, gate count, etc to allow you to decide peer to peer.

In analytics, Benchmark Preview.  3 subfields – KPI measures, KPI date, Institution Profile

Dashboard example allows you to choose public, academic, consortial, etc.

I’m left wondering (and will have to ask unless he says) if we will get this data from everyone or only those who volunteer – and how many will volunteer, or have the time to get the data entered?  (Just got the answer – 70% of Alma institutions have opted in.  @Dan Moore: Have we?  When was this decided? I totally think we should)! Will they supply preset canned reports that we can edit by date, location etc.?  Hoping that’s the case for consistent comparison – everyone builds reports differently otherwise and the data might not mean what you think it does.

Some areas of interest still coming – number of items in Reserves location added each year; fines and fees – money owed, how many owe, money waived.  Transit time.  Borrowing vs. Lending for resource sharing.  

Collection analysis – IS identifying – this is for working with partners to create shared collections that do not duplicate, or only duplicate to a predetermined extent.  These institutions will have agreed in advance to share their identifying inventory data with each other.  This will work really well for the Alliance.  Compare holdings, depth of collection in various areas, prep for remote storage, agreed retention of final print.  This is wonderful and cool, and will probably, ultimately decimate our print collections.  While that is painful thinking in my world, the idea of fresher collections and more space is kind of a great thing. I wish you all were here to be in on this so I won’t lose the thread of all this before I get home and have time to talk with people about it!  

Data contribution is turned on in Analytics configuration, profile question 1.  I can double check this!
Ours is NOT turned on!  So we can’t use or be used!  We’ll add this to the next SILS meeting list.

Unlocking your Library with Alma’s Open Platform – Josh Weisman (ExL)

Alma open platform – integrations with other systems, REST APIs, and community to share what you’ve learned or need to learn (blog and forum).  Use the developer network to get these things started.

Tableau Web Data Connector – allows library data to be included from Analytics.  This is brand new and available on GitHub it’s open source.  I don’t know if we use Tableau, but there’s a very easy connector that just asks for a key.  Pulls in the column names and data types, calls the API behind the scenes and populates it into the report.

SWORD Digital Deposit Protocol – not familiar with this project for document deposit interface.  But there’s an API for that.

Webhooks – a new way to communicate with Alma (HTTP callbacks) – when an event happens in Alma, it calls a REST endpoint with a predefined response – thing it does.  So when X, do Y.  You can see the back end structure in the letter activity screen.

 

Has to support GET and POST.  Configure in integration profile, Webhooks, URL and a Secret to test.  Can be used to trigger job order.  Once on job ends, start the next.  Or once a holdslip email is sent, send an SMS text message as well….  I want to learn more about all of this.

Login via email is also set up at the same place social logins are set up – this is an interesting idea if we get stuck with no internal auth.  But no EZproxy integration.

I really wish I had time to learn and apply all of these tools.  It seems like there is so much we could be doing given time and understanding.  Maybe a class on integrations?  I need to know more.

 

Administrator Changes in Primo & Alma – Jean Vik (Univ of TX)

This is the last session of the day and my tablet battery is almost dead so you may or may not get full notes in here.

Oh geez.  This is going to be a whole presentation about what gets changed in Primo instead of in Alma.  I don’t know if this is going to be too useful to me since I can’t get into Primo Back Office.

 

I just made what I hope was a quiet and graceful exit.  Off to the hotel room and then dinner with the Alliance members who are here.  Dan is coming, and maybe Richard – it’s at Olive Garden so I think ravioli is in my immediate future!

I’ll recap dinner if I get back nice and early, otherwise – I’ll catch you all tomorrow!

 

Thursday Day Two

Scenes from last night include trying to walk to the dinner restaurant and being overcome by a deluge from the sky that forced me back to the hotel for shoes, socks and pants.  I was naive to believe that my status as a native Oregonian would protect me from, or at least prepare me for a Chicago-area rainstorm.  There was lightning. After that I ate some of Olive Garden’s crockery.  No really.  I’m currently attempting to digest ceramics.  Anyway – enough of that.  I got up and joined an impromptu meeting on Resource Sharing vs. Fulfillment Networks in Alma and learned a few interesting things about how they do it in Wisconsin.

 

Ex Libris Strategy Update

Oren Beit-Arie (ExL Chief Strategy Officer)

ExL wants to extend their reach beyond libraries and into research, teaching and learning, and academic leaders.  In the research cycle, funding and re-use/openness rules, and competition are the 2 main drivers.  Visibility is critical.  ExL wants to move into data management and research storage, compliance and IR community supports in a single system environment.  System of Research Records.  Researcher deposits, sync with external repositories, capture published content.  Enhance metadata and identifiers, ad data linking and OA workflows.  Sounds like they want to move into campus-wide solutions (like their campusM tool) and focus more on the building institutional repository and data management tools.  Hoping this shift in focus doesn’t take away from their Alma commitments.

 

Customer Life Cycle at ExL

Jane Burke (ExL VP Customer Success)

YIKES – going to go work on email.  This is more of the ExL sales pitch and etc.  Yay! 1 hour to catch up!  

 

Document Delivery and Delivering Digitized Items – Nate Turajski “Solutions Architect”

And now that I’ve seen the presenter’s title, I’ve decided that we should all get “Solutions Architect” name tags. What do you think?  Do you love it?

I know that circ isn’t involved in doc delivery but this looked really interesting and it’s definitely functionality we have yet to explore in Alma.  **January 2017 release notes have good instructions.  Workflow for owned physical copy by email attachment, or link if you add it to the repository.  Depositing the article allows for limits of how many times it can be viewed and how long before it’s flushed.

Use regular request feature, then patron digitization.  Add Partial Digitization designation to have pages/chapter options pop up.  Have to be copyright clearance approved – waiting for copyright clearance is a status.  When ready to digitize, change to the digitization department (instead of the circ desk) because it really is a work order.  Set up is in fulfillment configuration menu under digital fulfillment, and user needs to be set up as an operator.  This is a simple enough process that I want to try a couple of tests of it when I get back.  I know that the upstairs folks are busy busy and use the scan and deliver, but this looks like a reasonable option – not knowing their full workflow I’m not sure if this would be an improvement or not.  It sounds like sending a link will of course require us to have storage space outside of Alma (unless we want to subscribe to their Alma D repository program solution).  More later – this will be fun to explore!  AND Ray indicated that she thinks we HAVE an Alma D subscription but she’ll have to check with Al to confirm that.  

 

Lunch!  Taco bar and Churros.  Happy tummy.

 

Management Q&A

These are questions sent in by conference attendees for the ExL managers.  Most of the answers are very surface level and the questions tend to express uncertainty and worry that people really aren’t sure how migrations might go or what the future of projects in discovery might look like as ExL redirects its resources toward new products.

Live questions included addressing the Chrome upgrade that broke stuff last month and what to do with our reliance on web browsers and their upgrades.  I asked a question about the new projects vs. the commitment to improving existing products with only 36 ideas exchange implementations.  Not much of an answer.

 

Calendars in Alma – Seriously??? – Tari Keller (UKY)

She’s got 10 libraries with different hours.  Hoping she’ll have some tricks and tips but so far this looks like basic configuration. Instructions in the wiki are just as good for this part.  She seems to use the calendar for informational pieces or things like that.  They don’t trigger anything though.  She mentioned that even though the libraries had similar hours, she had to duplicate the calendar.  But I got curious and this isn’t actually true.  If you add standard operating hours to the institution calendar, they will inherit to any libraries that DON’T have their own designating standard hours.  So you put the institution hours as the most common hours in this instance and only enter standards into individual libraries that are different.  I tried it with IPPC that has no hours/due times so nothing to mess up ((hoping I didn’t break anything – I think I deleted all of my attempts)).  I am doing a session on calendars at Summit/Fulfillment Day and think I’ll be sure to mention the different closing/different due time in multi library institutions, and using events to trigger exact due date by TOU and fulfillment rules.  This could be used to have regular collection books not due until beginning of next term but allow reserves to circulate as normal over the break, etc.  Rolling rules over at 1 year – potential effect on overdue #of days if you delete too soon, but annually works well. Very basic session but at least it got me thinking!  I’ve got ideas for August now.

 

Alma Product Update and Roadmap

Assaf and Dvir (missed their last names)

Main drivers include resource management, gaining insights, UX, collaboration, open platform operability, Acquisition streamlining (and other units).

Roadmap

Insights is about Analytics and the mission to benchmark and comparative analytics – Saw a full session on this earlier.

Unified Resource Management – this is more of the Alma D I was talking about, repository deposits, digitization workflow and etc.

Alma new UI for this summer (also saw this earlier)

Collaboration – convert/transform your records to move them out for consumption by 3rd party software.  Metadata integration with linked data and enhancing the metadata editor to work with linked records, support triple store service and using BIBFRAME.  I’m sure that Ian and the upstairs crew will understand all this and that.

Audience questions about continued dedication to making the community zone functional – working with other vendors to make it cleaner and easier to ingest records without creating dupes and errors.

Alma analytics – any move to real time data? No specific plans but interested

And that was it! Not a lot to go forward with, but there were a lot of small details in the printed document that weren’t presented here.

 

Alma Working Group Meeting

I’m not a member of this group but sitting in on their meeting just to see what they’re about.

1. Enhancements – we’re waiting on pointing and 2nd round votes.  WG leadership is hoping for a more successful outcome – may work toward presentation of a low and set number of enhancement requests (5-10 possibilities) instead of the hundreds we start with.  A way to use our votes more strategically and to put ALL your points on the biggest issue each year so we can move some of these important things forward? Does EVERY request deserve to have it’s hearing?  Or should the group remove the requests that have low impact, low transferability, small # of impacted users?  Maybe raise the bar for submission of the enhancement requests including use case, screenshots and etc.  Incomplete enhancements or those that do not make sense should just be rejected.  Number of points is inadequate, missing functionality should not be an enhancement.  
2. Authentication Focus Group – internal password options for removing them, but we need something other than just social media pass-throughs
3. Primo/Alma mix project – session tomorrow
4. UX Project for new UI – improved ergonomics, working on feedback methodology, May 24 in sandboxes for early adopters.  Look, feel, and ergonomics but not changes in HOW things work, just where they are and what they look like.
5. Community Zone management

Working group is turning over after 4 years of service and looking for new members.

 

Dinner at Big Bowl (Thai food – not bad) and then planning Alma – The Musical with Mary from UO. We will be famous, we will mock, we will sing.  Rehearsals coming to a workroom near you.

 

Friday – Day Three

 

Slept through my alarm meant to wake me up in time to get a run.  Kind of on purpose.  I was really sleepy this morning.  Ray brought her extra chips and cookies and I’m taking them tomorrow for the plane!  Super Score!

 

Automation and Batch Processing for Remote Storage – Sarah Koller (UCDavis)

Their regional storage serves 10 campuses and they DO NOT duplicate titles.  Once an item is in storage it is shared between all campuses.  Their offsite storage does NOT use Alma, so once the item is moved.  Needed the item to not show in Primo because it can’t show true availability.   Need to move both monographs and serials.  This will be about monographs.  Used “change holdings information job” – required them to use a norm rule and Droolz (I know nothing of this but hope to learn).  Norm rule added a note to each holdings that it was relocated to storage – also provided an opportunity to check that other parts of the record were clean.

Create a set for monograph single, monograph multi-volume, and serials (depending on what you’re doing) – imported from Excel as an itemized set.  Employee the norm rule in the change holdings info job.  Once run, check the records for accuracy.  Then deletes items while maintaining the holdings and bib records.  Item list should be empty.

Note needs to go in the holding record because the item records will be gone.  Holdings stays so the record shows up in Primo but without availability.  Wondering if they could add a public note to each of these with a URL to the storage facility’s page?  OR make the title of the location a link to that page?  They used a button instead and it worked better – pre populates the ILL request form they use for pulls from storage.  Also I think buttons are supposed to be better than links for low vision/blind users and screen readers.

**Side note that Haithi Trust will send links to materials that you have had but no longer have (which is why they don’t delete ANY of their bibs and holdings).  Should this be true for us too?

 

Advanced Analytics – Allison Erhardt (UManitoba)

Change editor in “My account” preferences to start on the criteria page instead of results page.

Dashboard reports are based on loan date criteria – problems include the idea that returns will only be counted on items LOANED during that time AND returned during that time.  So if your range is March Loan Dates, something borrowed in February and returned in March would not count.

Lifecycle (physical items) – Active and None (deleted will bring back everything – even though they’ve been withdrawn)

Customize error reports in the xyz button results display, display custom message to make results message more friendly.  This is done per report.

***Bins act like a filter in reverse.  Groups your data together.  Loans per hour and per day of week.  Lists each one which is not what you want.  Put them in a bin and it will tell you how many instead.  Use Edit Formula and choose Bins tab.  Add a Bin to get Loan Time “Is between”

This is something I needed just 2 weeks ago. @Amila: This would have been so helpful when you were pulling laptop loans and returns.  Keep it in mind for the future.

Prompt order to put months in order instead of alphabetical.  Edit prompt (pencil button, options, choice List Values)

Adding a chart or pivot table from the view button (with the plus mark)

***Filter by results of another report – this for patron purge.  Report of expired patrons filter by report of expired patrons with fines.  add filter that the primary ID appeared in previous list (last option in the filter list- based on results of another analysis.  @April: let’s look at this as it will make your patron purge lists so much easier to use.  We should be able to cut out the entire excel portion of the process!!

Analytics special interest group list

MOST USEFUL SESSION

 

Just Like Starting Over – Using Primo and Alma for Course Reserves

Molly Gunderson (PSU)

Reserves are free in Alma, (even eReserves), more mobile friendly, single sign-on

Their method:

1. Create Course (Terms list can be edited – @Rima: Would this be helpful?), add dates and instructor.  Save.
2. Create Reading List from the course’s dropdown Menu.  Use status complete because if you walk away it might not ever get finished.  Click on “Work On”
   1. Repository addition do search, find item, change location, add item policy if needed
   2. Personal copy – material type is limited to book or article.

Nothing new here yet.  This is very much the same as what we’re doing.

Widgets for CMS (for us Canvas).  I’m not sure if we have this and don’t know how we would get it done…. I think we have a chat widget so wondering if there might be a search box with it?

They are creating an item for eReserves that is a “Course File” and then link that out to the list of stored documents – she did not designate where that list lives, but the documents are stored on PSU servers rather than in Alma.  If we have Alma-D we could use their space and use links which she said is preferable so you can count clicks.

 

Data and Holds from Alma to Banner – Joe Ferguson (UTennessee)

Students who owe more than $X, a hold is sent to banner – not monetary data, but a hold. Sent to banner daily, updated in Alma hourly

Uses PHP script, MySQL Database, Alma Integration Profile.

Integration profile to export user blocks (it’s in the patron loader profile – already set up, just needs to be configured and turned on).  Sends file to the MySQL Database (this is the same idea as the parser program you use @Emma when you send fines and fees).  Database writes a file that Banner understands and dumps it on a server for Banner to pick up.  Hourly, runs a job to check if the student still owes $X – if not, writes to file to REMOVE the hold. Could use Webhooks (just learned about these the other day but runs and if/then or do/when process and could keep from having to run for updated removals hourly).

They are mostly doing this because they only send active fines over after they are a year old!! So they need a way to dig at people to get the fines paid – the hold does that without posting charges to Banner until they are super old.  They also take cash which is good because it potentially keeps students from getting pushed into collections unless they’ve been a year out, but still allows a built in “nudge.”  They don’t send faculty/staff charges at all!  Only have them pay in-house.

**@April: Check and see if the “Fine Fee Status” in Analytics could be used in setting the patron purge report more easily.  

When they send the fines to Banner, the Bursar’s office sends the library money and buys the debt.  If this is true for them, is this happening here?  I had always heard that we didn’t get money from the Bursar unless/until the student actually PAYS the fine.  If we are really being paid for the debt, before it is paid this makes me really nervous.  I wonder who at Kerr I should ask.

 

The only thing left is the key note at 2pm!  I’ll see you then.  LUNCH!

 

I spent the hour after lunch helping Julie Ward from CSU to look at her fulfillment configuration.  They go live next month and I wanted to help her understand how the rules and their order matter. I missed the keynote speaker except for now he’s answering questions that I have no context for.  I feel bad that I missed it but hoping that was helpful for Julie – she’s awesome.  There are so few people still here but I wanted to be able to see the afternoon sessions (it looks like there’s actually one more after this) and not get home after midnight.  

 

Closing Session – Habib Tabatabai, ELUNA chair

Financial summary report, introduction of new committee.

Next year’s conference will be May 2-4, 2018 in Spokane Washington at the Davenport Grand Hotel! This should dramatically reduce conference costs for Alliance institutions and foster a huge amount of residence sharing.  We’ve all got friends in Spokane!

 

Alright everyone.  That’s a wrap.  I fly out tomorrow and should be back to work on Monday!  Thanks to all of you who held down the fort while I was away.  I’m sorry to read that you have dealt with odors, power outages, absences, car trouble, plague and loneliness.  While I can’t resolve these problems, I will be happy to return and share in your misery!