ALA Council

 View Only
last person joined: 2 months ago 

  • 1.  [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 12:21 PM
    Good question!  
    --Karen
    -----------------------------------------------------
    Karen E. Downing, Ph.D., M.I.L.S.
    Education Librarian
    209 Hatcher Graduate Library
    University of Michigan
    Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1190
    001.734.615.8610
    Pronouns: she/her

    "Libraries are about truth, evidence and memory." --Elaine Westbrooks, 2019




    On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 1:17 PM Susan L. Jennings <Susan.Jennings@chattanoogastate.edu> wrote:
    Well... what about us meeting (maybe not for hours) electronically during MW?  Would that require a bylaws change?

    Susan



  • 2.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 12:40 PM

    Agreed. That is a good question!

    A quick glance at the bylaws says Membership meetings may be held virtually. (Article II - Meetings, Section 4)

    Article IV - Council, Section 1, B suggests that Annual meetings have a "time and place" but that a Midwinter meeting would be "one not less than three months before the next annual conference, at a time designated by the Executive Board."
    Does that suggest is could be a virtual place?

    Thank you in advance to the much smarter person that has time to explain it to me. (: You are appreciated. 
    Sam




    ------------------------------
    Sam C. Helmick
    Public Services Librarian
    Burlington Public Library
    210 Court Street
    Burlington, Iowa 52601
    www.burlington.lib.ia.us
    319-753-1647 ext. 114


    ALA Councilor, Iowa Chapter
    Iowa Governor's Commission of Libraries chair
    ILA Intellectual Freedom Committee chair
    ALA FTRF Bylaws and Organization chair
    ALA Policy Monitoring Committee
    RUSA Sophie Brody Book Award Committee
    GLBTRT Stonewall, Barbara Gittings Book Award Committee

    They/Them


    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 01:51 PM

    As I read it, the bylaws don't specify that there has to be a "place," only a time for the Midwinter meeting. However, the bylaws do state in Article IV, Section 1 (emphasis added):

    "The Council shall hold at least two meetings each year. Such meetings shall be held, one at the time and place of the annual conference of the Association and one not less than three months before the next annual conference, at a time designated by the Executive Board. The latter shall be called the midwinter meeting." 

    This indicates to me that the midwinter meeting is officially defined by the meeting of Council. I'm not entirely sure of the implications of that, but it's worth pointing out.

    A few other things from a constitution and bylaws perspective that could affect a move toward online meetings:

    • Bylaws Article XII. Section 1. designates Robert's Rules as the Association's Parliamentary Authority. Following these rules in an online meeting has the potential to introduce some complexities that a standard online meeting platform might not be well suited to. These challenges are discussed in the Final Report of the ALA Task Force to Explore Online Deliberation and Voting that was presented at Council II.
    • The taskforce report linked above also makes recommendations for changes to the bylaws to specifically enable votes to be taken online. The current language is very ambiguous in a number of sections. These changes will need to be voted on by Council at the 2020 annual meeting, and then be approved by membership on the spring 2021 ballot before they would take effect.
    • At the 2019 annual conference, Council approved a recommendation from the Constitution & Bylaws Committee to make changes to the bylaws (Article II. Section 5.) that (a) specifically allow for voting by electronic means to be used (currently most references are only to "mail"), and (b) changes the current Council requirement for a three-fourths supermajority to carry a "vote by mail" to the simple majority currently used in our in-person meetings. These changes will not take effect until/unless they are passed by a membership vote on the spring 2020 ballot.

    (As an editorial aside, this is an excellent example of how our current processes have been engineered to slow and prevent change.)



    ------------------------------
    Ben Hunter
    Chair, Constitution & Bylaws Committee
    Idaho Chapter Councilor

    Dean, University Libraries
    University of Idaho
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 02:27 PM
    Thank you for all the information Ben! That's helpful for helping everyone understand our limitations. 

    A few things I've been thinking about:

    Even if we cannot meet for governance purposes online (yet), there's a lot of opportunity to use an online space for education and conversation. I was really inspired when Lessa talked about ALA being a "12 month association." 
    How can we best take advantage of our online space here on Connect and potential Zoom/conference call type meetings? If we can't use them for governance, what can we use them for? How can we be a 12 month council?

    As I said at Council II, I think this is a great opportunity to build on the success that we have in many of our chapters with meeting online. I know that many Chapters hold governance or informational meetings online with great success. Is there a place where we could start to gather best practices? Another Connect thread perhaps?

    Lastly, one thing that Nebraska Library Association has done in the past - As we all know, working within Robert's Rules can be difficult. Recently in our board meetings, we have voted at the beginning of the meeting to suspend Robert's Rules and use an alternate decision making/voting process. Of course, at the end of the meeting we need to return to Robert's Rules to close out the meeting, but it has made the main portions of the meeting a little bit easier for us to deal with. I don't know if this kind of thing would necessarily make it easier for us to work, but it is an idea worth exploring. 




    ------------------------------
    Micki Dietrich
    Nebraska Chapter Councilor

    Branch Manager
    Omaha Public Library


    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 03:51 PM
    Thanks for all this discussion.  I wondered too about the implications of the work done by the Task Force to Explore Online Deliberation and Voting and now its move into the SCOE Phase II process.  That all seems a little slower than changes for Midwinter 2021 would necessitate (despite my overall desire to move online too).

    What about an idea like this, though:
    Could we move all the reporting (things that have no action items and including the Saturday Information session) into an online meeting before Midwinter?  And then reduce the footprint of Council into something like just one 4 hour meeting at Midwinter 2021 (or a 2 hour meeting and a 3 hour meeting) -- how much would we save if the Council chambers did not need to be setup all the way from Saturday-Tuesday?  What if there was just 1 or 2 days of needing a room that big with all the AV?

    Also, if Council wanted not to meet in person at Midwinter 2021 (or reduce the time), how -- procedurally -- would a decision like that get made?  I ask this having just come from the ALCTS Board discussion on this topic -- we discussed, we had a motion, we discussed the motion, we voted.  How would Council decide this? -- is that an Executive Board decision or would the full Council need to vote?

    thanks much,

    Erin Stalberg
    ALCTS Division Councilor   








  • 6.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 29, 2020 08:00 PM
    HI All,

    I just wanted to point out that we can change the bylaws so nothing is set in stone. Please refer to the ALA Constitution, Articles XI and XII: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/constitution/constitution#bylaws

    Further, Article IV, Section 1.b of the ALA Bylaws states other meetings of Council may be called by the President and upon request by 20 members: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/constitution/bylaws#council 

    So other meetings during the year are already possible.

    Thanks,

    Ana Elisa

    Ana Elisa de Campos Salles
    Past-Chair, Rainbow Round Table
    Member, ALA Committee on Committees
    Councilor-at-large, American Library Association
    My pronouns are she, her, hers

    2011 ALA Spectrum Scholar
    2013 ALA Emerging Leader






  • 7.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 30, 2020 07:16 AM
    I like Erin's idea of moving non-action reporting to the online environment. 

    We have already floated several ideas that could reduce the footprint/cost of ALA Council and possibly improve our effectiveness as well. Keep them coming, colleagues!  

    Also, here is a response from Lisa Hinchliffe, who cannot post to the council list:

    Bylaws states that: "The Council shall hold at least two meetings each year. Such meetings shall be held, one at the time and place of the annual conference of the Association and one not less than three months before the next annual conference, at a time designated by the Executive Board. The latter shall be called the midwinter meeting." http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/constitution/bylaws#council  

    It is interesting to note that if Council meets at the NJE (new January event) it will still have to call its own meeting there the midwinter meeting!

    But, I'd also point out that the second meeting is stipulated re its parameters of its timing but not specifics and does not have stipulations that it must be held at any particular event. So, Council could also meet, for example, early March in Chicago, regardless of where the NJE is held or if it is held at all. Only the Annual Meeting of Council is stipulated to be held at a particular event - the Annual Conference.

    --Karen
    -----------------------------------------------------
    Karen E. Downing, Ph.D., M.I.L.S.
    Education Librarian
    209 Hatcher Graduate Library
    University of Michigan
    Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1190
    001.734.615.8610
    Pronouns: she/her

    "Libraries are about truth, evidence and memory." --Elaine Westbrooks, 2019







  • 8.  RE: [alacoun] ​​ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond

    Posted Jan 30, 2020 12:41 PM
    I would like to point out along with the Constitution and By-Laws we also have the  Manuals Section A: Organization and Operational Policies
    The is a whole chapter on Meetings and Conferences we should review and change.

    Who is the body that should track the recommendations and bring forward the resolutions for the changes?

    Jennifer Boettcher
    Councilor at Large