Council III

Council III

February 3, 2015

Chicago, IL

9:30am

Resolutions:

Resolution Urging Library Directors to Encourage and Support United for Libraries Membership for Each of their Trustees - Resolved that the ALA on behalf of its members, urges all library directors to encourage and suport United for Libraries membership for each of their Trustees.

Election results for Executive Board:

Loida Garcia-Febo 

Jullius Jefferson Jr.

Mark Marlin

International Relations Committee Report - IFLA activities.  SIBF-ALA Conference.  The first one was held in Sharjah United Arab Emirates.  IRC/IRRT is creating a new international mentoring program.  Resolution on attacks on Charlie Hebdo is being supported by IRC.  The IRC is not supporting the forthcoming resolution on libraries in Gaza.  A motion was made for ALA to support UNESCO in its anniversary celebration.  The motion passed.

Intellectual Freedom Committee - New IF Manual will be published this spring and will be available in San Francisco.  Choose Privacy Week will be May 1-7.  OIF is receiving up to two new incidents per day - reports to challenges.  Resolution against the attacks on Charlie Hebdo.  Resolution passed.

Committee on Legislation - FLAG is a new committee that is a group of advocates across the country who can be called to action to speak to elected officials.  They are looking for members of people who are already in contact and have personal relationships with legislators so that information can be give to legislators quickly when issues arrive through these people.  They aren't looking for "typical library directors" but people who are related to legislators or have working relationships with legislators.  May 4-5 is Legislation Day.  Resolution on Preserving Public Access to Scientific and Technical Reports Available Through the National Technical Information Service.  Resolution passed.

Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion - Formed in response to ALA's decision to have ALA Annual in Orlando.  The report defines equity, diversity, and inclusion.  The task force is continuing its work with conversations and surveys.

Resolution on Destruction of Libraries and Schools in Gaza in 2014 - There was a lengthy discussion of the political aspects and specifics of naming Gaza in the resolution.  The "where as" clauses were discussed as tilting the resolution in a political aspect.  The resolution failed.

Keith Michael Fiels:  Final attendance 10,637.   Lower than the last 2 mid-winter meetings.

Chapter Council Forum

Chapter Council Forum

February 2, 2015

Chicago, IL

4pm

IRS Forms - The federal government cut the budget for producing paper forms in an effort to move to e-government.  This has pushed new needs to public libraries.  Passing the funding of forms on to public libraries or on to people who probably don't have funds for printing anyway.  This  year the issue is a "done deal" but what statement do we want to make next year?  This is an issue public libraries are struggling with.  There is a phone conference set up with the IRS to discuss these issues.  We need to keep ourselves aware of other ways e-government may be pushing services to public libraries.

Confederation of Southern States - States in several regions are looking at having reciprocal groups for sharing membership and conference activities.  The states that are talking about this are:  Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee.  Tennessee is thinking about having this kind of agreement with states that share their boarder.

Chapter Relations Committee - The ALA Office uses it to gather information.  What do Chapter Counselors want out of the Chapter office and/or ALA.  Suggested orientation sheet for new Chapter Councilors.  There needs to be communication between the Chapter Relations Committee and the Chapter Counselors.  Should Chapter Counselors attend that meeting?  There is confusion about who should go to this meeting.

Aspen Institute has hard copies of their report that we can request.

Gaza Issue - Destruction of libraries - a resolution that will come before Council III.  The  resolution coming before Council will be biased.  The resolution went before IRC today - but that committee did not approve it.

Salaries - Studies are comparing underpaid people to other underpaid people.  Reference to the Library Journal study that was published last year.  There was a discussion about how the APA looks at salaries.  Confusion about weather ALA is about libraries or librarians.

Term Limits for Chapter Counselors - About 1/3 of states have term limits for Chapter Counselors.

Membership Value - Reciprocal agreements with other organizations.  Offering liability insurance,   Renewaal rates are less expensive than starting a new membership.  Peer revivew journal publication opportunities..  Many associations are using the book Race for Relevance as a guiding source for planning.  Diversified revenue streams - not completely dependent on membership.  Membership, conference, publications, summer reading program that the association managed and sold it to other organizations/states/countries.  Illinois had a summer reading program that was sold to all of the millitary institution libraries.  Library Luminaries - ways to recognize people and fund the endowment program.  Special rates for library support staff.  Rates for students.

Council II

Council II

February 2, 2015

Chicago, IL

10am

Committee on Accreditation 

- The Council approved the Revised Standards for Accreditation.

Policy Monitoring Committee 

- A resolution that requires ALA committees to submit reports.  Adding it to the ALA Policy Manual.  The Council approved the revision to the Policy Manual.

-Lifespan of Membership Initiative Groups - that a group can exist for 3 years and renew every 3 years, or disband.  Adding it to the ALA Policy Manual.  The Council approved the revision to the Policy Manual.

-A new interpretation of the Code of Ethic was adopted in 2014.  Adding the revised interpretation to the Code of Ethics to the ALA Policy Manual.  The Council approved the revision to the Policy Manual.

Committee on Organization (COO)

-Proposing a revision to the composition and description of the Budget Analysis & Review Committee (BARC). The resolution would restrict people from only serving 4 years on BARC in a lifetime unless a person is elected to serve as Treasurer.  There was discussion about concerns about this limitation.  The issue was referred back to COO for revision based on discussion.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee

-The by-law change recommended by this committee will go to the ALA membership for a vote if the Council approves the language change.  The current bylaws refers to "Sturgis Parliamentary Procedure" in the bylaws.  The Committee Recommends that the ALA Council and its committees be governed by Robert's Rules.  There was discussion about this change: some state chapters use Sturgis because ALA has been  using it, people on Council are used to using Sturgis, this change will impact all committee work done by ALA, Robert's is easier to use.  The Council approved the change to go to a vote to the ALA membership.

Freedom to Read Foundation Report to Council

-Antigone Books v. Horne - the laws was written was to target "revenge porn" but has a wide net that impacts historic and artistic photographs.  FTRF is filing as a plaintiff.  There is currently a stay in this case.

-Arce v. Huppenthal - The Tucson Unified School District Case.  Hoping for restults in March or April 2015.  FTRF has filed an amicus brief on this case.

-November 17 - FTRF began celebrating its 45th anniversary.  There are a series of events to mark this anniversary.

-Supporting local activism - a parent group in Texas that is saying they do not want books banned in their schools:  HP Kids Read.

-Provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act continue to be watched by the FTRF.

-Krug Memorial Fund - supports education.  Supported a class at the University of IL library graduate school in 2014.  Provide funds for events during Banned Books Week.

-Strategic Plan Review occurred this week.

Programmatic Priorities

-Looking at the FY 2016 budget.  A motion that the budget will reflect the programmatic priorities for the FY 2016 budget.  The Council approved the motion.

New Business

-Resolution Encouraging Library Directors to Join their Trustees to ALA and United for Libraries, ALA Councilors Susan Schmidt and Emily Bergman.  Urges all public library directors to include membership for each of their trustees in United for Libraries in their budgets.  This referred back to the committee for presentation at Council III.

APA Meeting

ALA-APA

February 1, 2015

Chicago, IL

11:00am

Director's Report highlights 

-April 14 will be National Library Workers Day.  This campaign is supporting library workers advocating for status and salaries. #nlwd15

Treasurer's Report highlights

-Budget for 2014 was $120,320 - there was a decrease in revenue from 2013 to 2014

Council I

February 1, 2015

Chicago, IL

8:30am

Executive Board Report 

- The Midwinter meeting was discussed, but for now the "footprint" will remain the same.

The Council spent about 1.5 hours discussing strategic directions for ALA.  The Council broke up into small groups of 5-8 people and then reported out highlights of the small group discussion.

Some highlights include:

Advocacy:

-Need a national marketing campaign

-Change library stereotypes for public and people looking for a career

-ALA supporting grassroots effort for advocacy

-A need for a unified message across libraries and library group

-Tie every action in ALA to stratigic plan

Information Policy:

-Relevant to the every day member

-Successful lobbying at local, federal, and state levels

-All library professionals understand the significance of policies - and complicated issues are made clear

Professional Leadership Development:

-ALA and the library profession should represent diversity

-ALA not looking at professional development as a revenue-stream but as an investment

-Cost of professional development was mentioned many times

10,552 is current registration for this conference.