Chapter Relations Committee I

Saturday January 25, 2014
Philadelphia, PA

Washington DC office will be building capacity over the next 3 years.  The first piece will be an environmental scan.  Chapters may be able to participate in this part of the project in the late spring.  There will likely be more ways.

Suggestion that each chapter do an annual report.

Librarians Build Communities http://www.librariansbuildcommunities.com - Report on this organization transitioning from Libraries Build Communities to LibrariANS build Communities.  It is a fundraising opportunity for chapters to help support local communities.  Examples are painting projects, building projects, fundraising, and food donations.  You build your community through volunteer work.  You can do a small project.  It is an all year long possibility for helping a community. This could provide an opportunity to engage a different part of the chapter membership.

ALA has a new membership brochure.  20 reasons you should join ALA.

ALA has received a Gates grant to assist libraries in connecting with communities.

ALA will begin a new strategic planning process and will be using the methods learned by the Gates grant to connect with library communities.  Focus groups will be used to broaden participation beyond surveys.

After a couple years of being impacted by the recession, ALA's budget is stabilizing.

American Alliance of Museums has a center on the future of museums.  It has been a successful center - looking at trends in the next decade.  The center brings this information together and shares it with the museum community.  They have worked to include training and tools for museums to help them think about the future and developing long range plans.  ALA has received a grant from IMLS to support a center for libraries.  A summit will be held on legislative day.  The summit will include people from library settings and non-library settings.  The discussion will be about the trends that may be coming in the library profession.  This will serve a broad set of interests in all libraries.  More information coming in February and March.

Washington Office information - promoting Mobil Commons.  Allows ALA to send messages to members about action items that need support and will allow members to have an immediate calling option to your legislators.  To join text the word "library" to:  877877.  Expect to receive 2-3 messages a month.

Network neutrality is a current issue.  Up to this point everyone has had equal access.  Court decision was made that Verizon could charge more for high speed access/services.  FCC could choose to appeal the decision.  ALA doesn't know what the next steps are but the WA Office is watching this very closely.

There has been a little increase in LSTA funding.  $4M has been added back into state funding.  Tribal library funding was also increased by a small amount.  

May 5-6 will be National Library Legislative Day in Washingon.  ALA has been advised that we need to increase our advocacy in order to get federal library funding.  Other organizations are "louder" and libraries aren't being funded at the level of some of these other organizations.

The office will be contact chapters directly about pinpointing and speaking to specific senators and/or representatives on specific issues.  They are interested in pinpointing with a custom message - and willing to take the time to figure out the right person and the right message that state representatives can deliver.