Chapter Councilors Forum

Monday January 27, 2014
4pm
Philadelphia, PA

Midwinter
-With virtual conferences, should Midwinter continue? Can it be reduced? If Midwinter was reduced and always held in Chicago would that help revenue?
-Most organizations have council meetings twice a year, not conferences
-Midwinter is a revenue stream for ALA
-If Midwinter starts to include lots of programs, it will hurt local programming for state organizations.
-There are programs happening at Midwinter that are "hidden" behind the title of "discussion group."
-Can Council I and II be combine into one day so the Council meeting time can be shortened.  People are in favor of changing/moving the Tuesday morning meeting.
-At Annual can someone from ALA come and speak to the group about the pros and cons of having Midwinter.

Snowden Resolution
There was continued discussion about the Snowden vote.  Only one state council rep at this meeting voted in favor of the resolution.

Readers Advisory
They are starting a Readers Advisory Roundtable in Iowa and they are interested in finding similar roundtables in other states.  Texas has a roundtable.  Other places have interest groups and others are interested in learning more about these organizations.

Chapter Relations office is available to support Chapter Councilors and is the place to go for information for state chapters.

Representation on Taskforces
Chapter Councilors are asked to think about volunteering on other taskforces and committees.  Announcements are made in August about committee needs.  Announcements will be made on the Council listserv.  Recommended to put Councilor as a primary involvement in ALA.  They are looking for diversity.  Fill form out in August and will learn about committee appointments in late spring.

Tangable Benefits of Belonging to Chapters
Washington is looking at benefits to give people who join as members.
Discussion: Member rates to attend neighboring conferences in other states, liability insurance for individual members, instutions can file POs for conference registration, special legal advice especially in the area of copyright (Texas), patrons can pay their fines with a credit card - using the library association credit card account, health insurance available for people working in small libraries, purchased organizational copy of salary survey and shared it only with members (verified this was ok with ALA), joblist that costs $40 to post but it is free for institutional members, peer review journal available to members, corporate members have presence on the website -- 2 week advance notice on booking for conferences, trip sponsored by association and association profits for each person who takes the trip, text-to-contribute (Texas).

Declaration for Libraries
Campaign for current ALA President Barbara Stripling
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/declaration-right-libraries
-Washington DC representative talked about initiatives they have going on in February to support the Declaration project.
-Maryland - adults and children signing Declaration.
-Use an already established event.  Library association meeting with a signing area.

RFP Resolution Presented
Adding something to the RFP that requires cities to state the role of libraries in their cities (public and school).

Role of Councilors
In general it is expected that the Councilor will go to ALA and vote for the association based on the discussion - but asking for association input is rare.
Educating membership about things that are happening at ALA
What do you report back to the chapter?
Forward grant opportunities, hot issues, issues to discuss, awareness is a big part of the process of reporting.