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.
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Micki Dietrich
Nebraska Chapter Councilor
Branch Manager
Omaha Public Library
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Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2020 02:50 PM
From: Ben Hunter
Subject: [alacoun] ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond
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.)
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Ben Hunter
Chair, Constitution & Bylaws Committee
Idaho Chapter Councilor
Dean, University Libraries
University of Idaho
Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2020 01:40 PM
From: Samantha Helmick
Subject: [alacoun] ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond
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
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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
Original Message:
Sent: Jan 29, 2020 01:20 PM
From: Karen Downing
Subject: [alacoun] ALA Financial Planning: 2020 and Beyond
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
Well... what about us meeting (maybe not for hours) electronically during MW? Would that require a bylaws change?
Susan