Hello, everyone,
Yesterday, I attended the fall Round Table Coordinating Assembly meeting, where Cindy Hohl announced a proposed change ALA is considering making to all Round Tables. Here is a summary of the meeting, provided by the current convener of the RTCA:
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- Round Tables annual elected positions be limited to only 2 positions (Chair-Elect/Coordinator-Elect/President-Elect and Treasurer). Councilors would also continue to be an elected position and appear on the ballot.
- Round Tables can continue to put Rules that require member votes on the ballot each year.
- Round Tables can appoint any volunteers needed to support the work of the Round Table (i.e., secretary, member at large, parliamentarian), much as we do for RT Committee chairs.
Some comments/concerns have already been brought up in reply to the meeting announcement including but not limited to:
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- Why limit to 2 elected positions and not 3?
- Why tout Round Tables as the best way to engage membership and then reduce the amount of elected positions.
- Some volunteer because their institutions will recognize and financially support their work as an elected position, which would go away under new rules.
- This change could bring about "cronyism" which would make it harder for members to join the leadership.
- How much money could this really save? Couldn't the election procedure be modified rather than just cutting elected positions to save money?
- Has there been a risk/benefit analysis done on this change or is it just an idea with no evidence to show it will would work?
- Are the changes only to benefit or match larger ALA units or will there be a benefit to Round Tables (financial or otherwise)?
We would still have our Meeples at Large and secretary, but they would be appointed rather than elected, which does impact how some positions support that kind of service. Some additional context is that Cindy Hohl said this change is a result of talking with staff liaisons about how to lighten their load and save ALA money; this purely a financial decision.
If you have any questions, please feel free to pose them here or in the Discord! I've added this conversation to our agenda for next week (which I'll be sending out by end of day). The executive board will be voting on the last Wednesday of August, so we've got some time to give Terri our feedback to present at that meeting.
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Amber Sewell (she/her/hers)
Teaching and Learning Librarian | University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Games & Gaming Round Table | Mage
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