| From
HQ |
| By Gayle
Kiss, President-Elect, Toronto Chapter |
The idea for this column
came to me during Leadership Day at the 2002 Annual Conference in Los Angeles
this past June. I was pleased to attend this day as the new President-Elect,
and I met many other dedicated volunteers from other chapters and they all knew
about the Toronto chapter! We frequently win awards for our students and our
website and other chapters are taking notice. I felt proud to be representing
the chapter.
This day also reconnected me to issues of the larger
Association. I realized that I tend to view things on a local level because
that is where I work and spend my time. And that keeps me busy enough! Who has
time to keep up with the local, divisional and international parts of the
association? If you had time, how would you do it? I felt this column would
help.
Right now, there are 4 issues in the Association.
- The open position of Executive
Director. The search went underway after the annual conference.
- Branding/Renaming the Association.
The website states: The question to ponder, why are we doing this now? The
answer is simple: In response to the significant concerns raised by the members
of this association and others in the profession. Our brand is tied directly to
how others perceive us, how we are valued, and how we are utilized. This
extrapolates to the individual as well as the association. We seek to narrow
the gap between what is and what should be.
- Revising the by-laws. Go to
http://www.sla.org/Documents/BylawsCompChart.htm
to read more. Basically, the Association is proposing several small changes to
allow greater flexibility and simplification. Some proposed changes allow for
different definitions of members and reduce the face-to-face time of meetings
to allow for meetings via teleconferencing and other technologies. October 1 is
the deadline for members to vote and depending on the results of the vote, the
changes will take effect November 1. While the changes seem small, they are
important.
- Declining membership. As the
membership ages, more and more professionals will be retiring and the
membership will drop. The Board has tasked themselves:
- To create a membership
definition that includes those who make strategic use of information.
- To identify additional target
audiences for membership applicable to the membership definition.
- Define skill sets that
encompass the membership definition.
- Define services and a marketing
plan to reach the target audiences.
In addition to these issues, the
association is also working on Distance Learning programs, scholarships and how
the recent Anti-Terrorism legislation in the US can affect librarianship.
We’ll read more about these in the next issue. |