Council III - June 30, 2015

Council III

June 30, 2015

San  Francisco, CA

7:45 am

All reports, memorials, and tributes are available on ALA Connect here:  http://connect.ala.org/council  

Memorials and tributes were recognized.

ALA Treasurer's Report - BARC and the Executive Board have all approved the 2016 budget.  ALA's programmatic priorities are the budget's guide.  The total budget is $50.7 million and is a 2% increase from the current year.  The budgetary ceiling is $67,087,027.  There will be increased attention and funding given to advocacy.  The Communications & Member Relations department will become the Advocacy and Member Relations.  The buget was approved.

The following Council members were elected to the Committee on Committees:
Gladys Smiley Bell, Maria Carpenter, Stephen Matthews, Rocco Staino.

The following Council members were elected to Planning and Budget Assembly:
Jennifer Alvino, Ben Allen Hunter, Patricia Wong, John DeSantis, and Eric Suess.

Committee on Legislation - A report was presented.  A manual for the committee is being created.  The Committee brought forth a new substitute resolution to replace the Resolution Against Mass Surveillance of the American People.  The new document is: Resolution on the Passage of the USA Freedom act and Reaffirming ALA's Commitment to Surveillance Law Reform.  Councilors spoke against the substitution and want to return to the original resolution.  The whereas phrases for both resolutions were combined.  The resolution was referred back to the Committee on Legislation and the Intellectual Freedom Committee.

The Intellectual Freedom Committee - A report was presented.  The 9th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual is now available.  The Committee presented interpretations to the Library Bill of Rights for Internet Filtering, Labeling Systems, and Rating Systems.  Council approved the interpretations.

Council approved the Resolution on Gun Violence, the Resolution to Endorse Statement from the Movement for Black Lives on Charleston Shooting, the Resolution on Improving Access to Spanish, Bilingual and Books in Various Languages for Children in Detention Centers.

Keith Michael Fiels reported the final total for conference attendance was  22,696.

Chapter Council Forum - June 29, 2015

Chapter Relations Committee - The Chapter Relations Office is for Chapters - we are encouraged to contact Chapter Relations with any questions.  Don Wood can offer support to Chapters.

There was a discussion about the Chapter Relations Committee.  The role of the board members is not clear, although members must be members of their own chapters.  It would be good if there was better communication between CRC and the Chapter Councilors.  CRC meetings are supposed to include the CRC membership and the Chapter Councilors.  Is CRC advisement to the Chapter Relations Office?  This needs to be clarified, because it isn't currently working in that direction.  Without these committees Chapters have been left out of ALA activities and planning.  It is important for Chapter Councilors and former Chapter Councilors to be on the ALA Executive Board.

What are the expectations of hosting an ALA President at a Chapter annual meeting?  Who pays and what kind of hospitality is expected.  ALA pays for the President's travel, and the Chapter pays for the housing.  ALA has underwritten a coffee service at the conference.  The ALA President, when they visit, do an ALA update session and usually a legislative information lunch.

Statewide Friends Organizations - There is a statewide organization in Georgia.  They are trying to merge several Friends groups.  Do other states have experience merging these kinds of organizations?    New York and Tennessee have two different organizations that are state-wide for Friends and Trustees.  They participate in library conference events and have their own sessions.

Tennessee has a board retreat and they revisioned a new structure and build from the ground-up.  Do any Chapters have new structures that are working well?  Wyoming did away with committees that haven't been very active.  The committees became "advisers" and ad hoc committees are put together if there was an issue.  The IFC committee is an example of this in Wyoming.

Tennessee talked about having a Chapter board retreat.  The association pays for part of the rooms and meals.  It is a 2-day meeting (each discussion occurring for 1/2 day).  It is 1 overnight.  Other states have similar retreats with in-coming and out-going officers.  Some states just have a 1/2 day retreat that is about planning.  North Carolina only has an annual conference every other year, so the time that would be used for a conference - every other year - is used for a board retreat.

Organizational Memberships - New Jersey is doing strategic planning.  They are looking at the organization structure and a membership structure.  Some Chapters are getting rid of organizational membership.  New York has an organizational package based on library size, it gives membership to a certain number of staff members.  Texas offers discount legal services, insurance rates, accepting purchase orders, grant/foundation services, and some other benefits are specific to things organizations are interested in.  I described NM's new structure for organizational memberships.  Associations talked about having all of the libraries join as organizations - and calling out organizations that do not join as organizational members.  Some organizations have recently stopped offering all organizational memberships.

How are Chapter Councilors getting information out to Chapters during ALA?  The DC Councilor have "townhalls" and he invites all of the Councilors in the DC area to come to the townhalls.  Part of our job is to be a filter for ALA information, and selectively sending out information to the Chapter members.  It is ideal when Chapter presidents can come to ALA and information can be shared with at least one other person in the Chapter.  California shares Keith's report with the association and does a session at the annual conference.  The State Library in Iowa is doing a webinar for people who are attending ALA - what happened, and what was learned.  The Chapter Councilor is a speaker in that webinar.  LA creates a "readers digest" version of attending ALA for the newsletter.  Another Councilor collects comments from the listserv about things that are happening at other state conferences and she shares that information with the conference planning committee.

Joint State and ALA Student Memberships - Students get both memberships for a low price.  Iowa offers free memberships to the Iowa association.  Councilors talked about the importance of having students pay at least a small fee to get them to commit to the organization.

State and regional conferences - Is there conference fatigue? Are regional conferences competing with other conferences?  People going to the regional conferences don't usually go to national conferences - everyone agreed this is fairly true.  Some states just have conferences every-other year with heavy programming in the non-conference years.  Some associations see that conferences attract non-members to conferences - a large number of non-members.  Conference isn't just continuing education, it is an important time to network regionally.

The Ohio Chapter Councilor's blog: alaohchapcoun.wordpress.com

Council II - June 29, 2015

Council II

June 29, 2015

San  Francisco, CA

8:30am

All reports, memorials, and tributes are available on ALA Connect here:  http://connect.ala.org/council  

The Council had a moment of silence for Cynthia Hurd and the 8 people who were killed in South Carolina.

Retiring Councilors and Executive Board members were recognized.

The International Relations Committee presented its report.

The Committee on Organization presented its report.

The Freedom to Read Foundation presented its report.  The Foundation is involved in 3 different cases outlined in the report.

• Prison Legal News v. Kane
• Antigone Books v. Horne
• Arce v. Huppenthal

Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Office, Barbara Jones, will be retiring from ALA  this year.

Keith Michael Feils announced there are 22614 attendees at this conference.

Council I - June 28, 2015

Council I

June 28, 2015

San  Francisco, CA

8:30am

All reports, memorials, and tributes are available on ALA Connect here:  http://connect.ala.org/council  

ALA Awards Committee - A new award has been created, Ernest A. DiMattia Jr. Award for innovation and Service to the Community and Profession.   It will be given to one person annually.  The new award passed.

Adoption of the ALA Strategic Directions was presented by Barbara K. Stripling.  The plan will guide ALA for the next 3-5 years.  The plan is to remain flexible.  The document has been created with ALA Council and ALA Member input. The strategic plan passed.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee - An amendment to Article X. The change was made to clarify how ALA can affiliate with another organization.  This change to the bylaws will go on a ballot for the ALA membership to approve the change in Spring 2016.  The change was referred back to the committee to bring back to Council.  The amendment was referred.

Keith Michael Fiels - Presented a review of the actions of the Executive Board since the 2015 Midwinter meeting.  He also highlighted the implementations of actions from 2015 Midwinter.  Roberts Rules of Order change was approved by the membership and that changes is being implemented.

Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries - a resolution that encourages libraries and library organizations to think about operating with a lens to sustainability.  The resolution passed.

Resolution Denouncing the Systemic Racism that Motivated the South Carolina Shootings - Denouncing the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17 and working to understand racism in American culture and it s potential for violence.  There was lengthy discussion about addressing the specific event in South Carolina.  There is a belief that systemic racism should be generally addressed, not specifically addressed in the resolution.  The resolution was amended and passed.

Resolution on Libraries and Schools Affected by the Conflict in Gaza and Israel in 2014 - The resolution did not pass.

Resolution Against Mass Surveillance of the American People - There are aspects of the USA Freedom Act that allow mass surveillance of Americans.  The resolution was referred to Committee On Legislation/Intellectual Freedom Committee for review and representation.  These committees are either meeting at this moment or will meet later in the next 2 days.

Keith Michael Fiels reported 22363 attendes were registered at the end of the day yesterday.  This is higher than the conferences in Chicago and Las Vegas in the last 2 years.