ACRL Chapters Council

All:

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Below are the two responses I received to the inquiry I sent out earlier. I have passed both responses along to the ACRL Board for its consideration. Thank you very much to the chapters that responded.

"For context, we have an appointed ACRL Chapters Council liaison (me). For our two representatives, the liaison and our current president serve. In practice, the president only attends meetings in the case when the liaison cannot. This practice is likely a legacy of having twice yearly in person meetings at Midwinter and Annual, but we agreed it still makes sense. There didn't seem to be a reason why both would need to attend regularly, but having the option to if something on the agenda made sense to have both.

"Mostly, our board favors keeping two for reasons of succession. If, for example, one of us were to move out of state, become too ill to work (or even die), there's still a contact person with ACRL who could facilitate identifying a replacement. It was also noted that because in our chapter the president leads the initiative on writing our annual report, receiving that communication directly from ACRL Chapters Council is quite helpful."

--Carrie Dunham-LaGree, ACRL Iowa Representative to Chapters Council

"We feel that one representative is sufficient."

--Mark Eddy, Academic Library Association of Ohio President

At its Tuesday, October 24, meeting, the ACRL Board will consider the information Chapters Council has provided and discuss the possibility of approving Chapters Council's request to change the eligibility to run for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Secretary. As you are aware, the current requirement is that a person be an officer in a state or regional chapter. If approved, the change would allow any member of ALA/ACRL and a state or regional chapter to run.

I will not be able to attend the October 24 meeting, due to a conflict with the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference. It is not required that a Chapters Council representative be present at the meeting, as Aleah Price will report on any action the Board decides to take. If anyone would be interested in attending the meeting on behalf of Chapters Council, however, please let me know.

Also, ACRL Past President Erin Ellis will review the Chapters Council "Year-End Report" and "Work Plan" I submitted back in August, and also posted to this space, when she returns to the office the first week of October. If she recommends any changes, I will post the updated version to this space.

Thank you very much, and, as always, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Eric Edwards

2023-24 ACRL Chapters Council Chair