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
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