Michael Fosmire
fosmire@purdue.edu

The Annual Conference is inching its way closer and closer to our consciousnesses, as hard as that is to believe as I sit here with three inches of snow freshly fallen on the ground. Thinking about a nice, warm summer conference certainly helps keep me motivated through an especially cold winter here in Indiana. I just returned from the Winter Conference, where we discussed some governance issues that impact the Division and put the finishing touches on the schedule for Nashville.

As part of the Association Bylaws vote two years ago, the Divisions (and Chapters) will now be run by Governing Documents and Recommended Procedures, rather than Bylaws and the PAM Manual. At the Winter Meeting, the Board of Directors approved some model Governing Documents for the Divisions to use, which will take effect February 1 (see http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/governingdocs/ for details). We are encouraged to modify the documents as we see fit and then ratify the changes like any Bylaws change. For the interim period, our PAM Manual will serve as our Recommended Practices, but that, too, will need to be updated in light of the new Governing Documents.

The basic idea behind Governing Documents is that they should be minimally restrictive, to allow the organization the maximum amount of flexibility in doing new things and working in new ways. Thus, the model Governing Documents are brief, covering only the basic requirements of a Division to operate. The Recommended Practices are supposed to contain the details of how the Division actually works. Since Recommended Practices do not need to undergo votes (and vetting by the association Bylaws Committee) to be changed, shifting some of the organizing principles from Governing Documents to Recommended Practices will give a unit more flexibility to change things as the environment changes.

To that end, I am looking for some volunteers to work on revising the Governing Documents and Recommended Practices. Let me know if you have an interest in working on this endeavor. Hopefully, we will have something in place to vote on by the Annual Conference.

The final schedule for Nashville looks to be packed, as usual. Thanks to all the moderators for agreeing to work on these programs, and I'm sure they will be as impressive and informative as they always are. The schedule of PAM activities looks like this: Nashville PAM Program.