President's Note

Patricia Cia, President, SLA Western Canada Chapter

Our thoughts and hopes for peace go to all the victims of the terrorist activities and their families. Special librarians worked for many of the businesses affected during these events and our thoughts also go to them and the New York Chapter who lost three of their members. SLA International has set up a September 11 Disaster Help & Information Exchange site for more information on individual members. During the upcoming Fall Board Meeting, the SLA International Board members will be voting on setting up a September 11th Memorial Fund.

Since September 11, 2001 we have all encountered new challenges in how we personally handle the stress of a changing society and a changing economic climate. I hope you can look at SLA and particularly the Western Canada Chapter as a place to develop new skills and also as a support network.

Operational Plan 2001-2001

In helping guide us through the upcoming year the Chapter has developed our annual operational plan. This plan builds upon our Strategic Plan and especially the Checklist in which we identify intitiatives and our strengths and weaknesses. I have outlined below some of the specific goals we would like to address this year:

1. Strong, diversified, active, satisfied membership

Membership Survey

Conduct full membership survey to find out what our current and potential members want from their Chapter. Because of the scope and work involved, the survey will be conducted in the late spring so that the results can be relevant for next year's planning cycle.

This does not preclude informal surveys by Board members who need immediate direction in planning this year's activities.

Fostering New Members

Our research during the past year has identified that we too are affected by the "greying of the profession" and one of our challenges is to make young people aware of the possibilities available in our exciting profession.

Coral Payne, our Public Relations Chair, is already investigating ways to reach out to high schools. The Chapter would also like to encourage students to join our association and will be making scholarships (one-year student memberships to SLA WCC) available. The WCC Board has passed that motion and is creating a scholarship committee handle the details.

2. Infrastructure

Behind the scenes

We have started documenting procedures and taking advantage of our web site to streamline the processes involved in running a Chapter and providing services to our members. Continuing to keep this documentation current will ultimately free their time for providing quality services and help prevent future boards from having to "reinvent the wheel."

Communicating Chapter Business

I think it important for members to be aware of the work we do on your behalf and also to provide forums for your feedback and direction. We will continue to use the Discussion List and the web site as our primary means of communication, but will also investigate alternate means.

The Officers and Chairs will also contribute more to Wired West highlighting what they are doing for you. For example, in this issue, Barbara Holder summarizes the Virtually Programming Initiative, Tracy Carmichael discusses a new way to Mentor Students, and Gordon Coleman reviews the revised Employment Resources page.

Bylaws

We will also be revisiting our Chapter Bylaws. Some minor changes were made in 1999 but it is time for an in-depth review. We hope to have the revisions available for voting by the May 2002 Annual General Meeting.

3. Professional Development Experiences

The regional directors continue to provide their enthusiastic programming and we would like to see more sharing of the events through reports, event summaries or making the sessions available in other cities as well. This continues to be a challenge for us and the virtual programming initiative is one way we hope to make this possible.

The membership survey, ad hoc requests for feedback, and unsolicited programming suggestions are all ways that you can tell us what you need and want.

4. Leader in Community

Getting the Word Out

Making the business community and other areas of the information management communities aware of our value and services is always a challenge. We hope to continue exploring partnerships with other organizations.

We will again call on our Public Relations Chair and you to get the word out through articles in the mainstream press.

Vendor Sponsorships

We will re-establish sponsorship opportunities with vendors. We will be revising the "pre-packaged" concepts and welcome ideas on identifying new ways of developing our connections and regaining the support of our suppliers.

5. Partnership with SLA International

SLA International is an important resource for us and we will continue to maintain close links to them including acting as a communications conduit among the chapter, individual members and the association.

We will encourage dialog, participation in association-level events such as the ISLD contest, virtual initiatives, and making members aware of other resources available to them.

In Summary

Our goals for this year may be ambitious and as in most volunteer organizations, some initiatives may take longer to complete or may be revised as other issues become more important. The floor is always open for suggestion, comments, and guidance. I look forward to hearing from you and have put all my contact information below ...

- Patricia

Patricia Cia
Teck Cominco Limited
#600 - 200 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3L9
Phone: 604-640-5277
Fax: 604-640-5375
e-mail: patricia.cia@teckcominco.com
WCC Discussion List: sla-cwcn@lists.sla.org