Stephanie and Council, I reviewed Draft 2 and Draft 3 of the bylaws and copied and pasted the text into Google Docs for further comparison. From what I can see, the language in the Elections section about the composition of the board was identical in both versions:
"The Council Committee on Committees shall nominate annually from among the current members of the Council three (3) at-large members, two (2) division members, one (1) round table member, one (1) chapter member, one (1) American Association of School Librarians member, one (1) National Association of Librarians of Color (NALCo) member, and one (1) Rainbow Round Table member for election by the Council to serve three-year terms on the Executive Board. Additional nominations for the Executive Board may be made by councilors from the floor. Upon election to the Executive Board, members shall continue to serve as councilors for the duration of their terms."
Am I reading this wrong? (This is near the end of the draft, ca. page 19) Note also, Constitution and Bylaws isn't going out on a limb here; they are trying to represent the guidance that came from ALA Council.
My own thinking as a personal ALA member and longtime Councilor is that the more specific Council is about who gets elected to the Board, the less democratic the process is, particularly with a smaller Council to serve as the "farm team" for recruiting Board members. If a division member needed to be from the division's elected governance, that would further limit the pool. We could end up with a situation where the division councilor is the de facto board candidate and presumptive winner, which does not feel right at all.
Overall I am not a fan of the representative model. I would rather see the CoC nominate candidates they believe are most qualified to serve on the board of a very large national association, with all the responsibilities that come with such a position. I was willing to vote for the representative model once Rainbow got included (if we're handing out pork, don't overlook us gays), but I still don't like it. CoC can be tasked to focus on diversity as well as recruiting candidates from divisions that could be underrepresented. Thanks to the hard work of many folks, the Board has been much more diverse the past few years, and that is a very good thing. Personally, I would also like to see ANY member of ALA be able to petition to be a board candidate once Council has tapped its own candidates, but that's getting way out there with a direction Council has yet to warm to (after all, when you get to choose your own power structure, you usually don't weaken it).
I encourage all Councilors to carefully read the Bylaws draft, including the comments from the C&B committee.
Karen G. Schneider
ALA Councilor at Large