Dear Members,
The long awaited preliminary recommendations from the Steering Committee on Organizational Effectiveness (SCOE) are here for your analysis, comments, and input! These focus on building upon the strengths of ALA to embrace our mission and core values, to create alignment within our association, and to bring value to our members. Ultimately, we are looking towards our future as an association together, for the future of libraries and the future of information access. We hope these recommendations look at ways our association can cultivate and support member and staff leadership, engagement, and trust, as the SCOE considered options based on the urgency from member input, data trends and financial realities. This is truly a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a more efficient organization for future members and to address issues that have been decades in the making. (For a history on the work of SCOE, please visit and join our ALA Connect community.)
The attached slide deck goes into the details of the preliminary recommendations and is what will be discussed at Annual in DC as well as virtually during our SCOE input webinar on July 8th at 11am.
Briefly, SCOE's preliminary recommendations include:
- Responding to the urgency of member input, data trends and financial realities for a thriving future.
- Redesigning the ALA Executive Board and Council for effective and efficient prioritization and broad member input.
- Modernizing ways that members engage in the work of the association and with each other in the library community.
- Channeling the function of Council through a new committee structure with less barriers where members will engage in the work of the Association through Committees, Task Forces and Advisory Communities that make direct recommendations to the Board and are accountable directly to the board.
- Members engaging with each other through Divisions, Roundtables and Interest Groups.
Per the timeline as outlined on slide 5, we will be taking input and feedback and integrating comments from members into the next phase of our recommendations, which we hope will be final recommendations, but may become a round two of recommendations depending on the feedback we receive over the next few months.
We invite you to our virtual and in person presentations and have multiple avenues for providing feedback:
- Virtually
- Input Webinar on July 8th at 1pm Central: Jim Meffert and SCOE Chair, Lessa Pelayo-Lozada will present on the preliminary recommendations and solicit feedback via the webinar chat box. Register here
- Reply to this thread in the SCOE ALA Connect community or the ALA Members community.
- Email lessalozada@gmail.com
- In Person at ALA Annual in Washington, D.C.
- All sessions will be held in Washington Convent Center, Room 103B
- Saturday, June 22, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
- Saturday, June 22, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
- Sunday, June 23, 12:00 pm - 1:30pm
- Sunday, June 23, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
- Monday, June 24, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Our committee has tried its best to integrate as much of the feedback as we could in to these preliminary recommendations thoughtfully and intentionally. We look forward to hearing your input over the next few months and please share this information as widely as possible.
Sincerely,
Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada
SCOE Chair
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Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada
ALA Executive Board Member
Chair, ALA Steering Committee on Organizational Effectiveness
Adult Services Assistant Manager, Palos Verdes Library District
she/her/hers
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