Council Membership Information Session - 2012 changes

The following was posted to the ALA Council list.

Dear Councilors,

We want to let you know about some changes we are proposing to make to the ALA Annual Conference meeting schedule.

As you know, we are actively working on ALA’s first virtual membership meeting. We’re excited that this virtual meeting will open the experience up to members who may be unable to attend the Annual Conference. The Committee on Membership Meetings is currently working on the date for the virtual membership meeting (they’re looking at either May or June) and the agendas for both the virtual and face-to-face membership meetings. The Annual Conference Membership Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 25th, from 3:30-5:00pm.

We are also proposing a change in the scheduling of the ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session beginning in 2012. This meeting will now precede the ALA Membership Meeting at Annual Conferences. This change will bring us into compliance with ALA Policy 5.5.2, which states: “there shall be at least one joint session of Membership and Council with the Executive Board, for information only, to be held prior to other meetings of Council and Membership.” We note that for many years, the membership meeting has preceded the information session instead of the other way around. Beginning in 2012, the Council/Membership Information Session will be now held from 2:30 to 3:30 on Saturday, just prior to the Membership Meeting.

We believe the Saturday date is optimal because so many members are there that day, and that focusing our attention on informing members about the one meeting will help us increase awareness and attendance. We also believe that the information session “fits” naturally prior to the membership meeting, as it includes reports from the officers and information on the Association’s financial state, all of which we want to share widely with members. The new schedule will also simplify communication with members about the meetings (in addition to bringing us back to conformity with our policy).

The purpose of this message is to let Councilors know that the Executive Board will be considering this change to the skeleton schedule at its next Board call (the Board has to approve any changes to the schedule). We want to let everyone know about the proposed change in advance, and will be sharing the updated schedule with you once it is finalized.

Roberta Stevens, 2010-2011 ALA President
Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director