Sandra,
Thank you for the detailed account of today's meeting.
I will email Joan about the endowment fund.
Thank you again for your contributions.
Have a great weekend, too.
Alexandra
Alexandra Houzouri Humphreys
Associate Librarian
Arizona State University Library
Downtown Phoenix
411 N. Central Ave,
Phoenix, AZ 85004
UCENT, room L1-33, MC 1420
Original Message:
Sent: 10/9/2020 6:38:00 PM
From: Sandra Hirsh
Subject: RE: Forward Together Session 4 - Slide Deck and Round Table Membership Analysis for October 9th
Thank you to everyone who attended the session about the 1% Threshold for Roundtable Membership today! We had a very strong showing of IRRT members.
The Forward Together Working Group will share soon the transcript/recording of the meeting, but I wanted to highlight a few things:
- This was a very well-attended session overall. There were more than 110 people in attendance.
- In general, I don't think there was anyone who voiced support for setting a minimum size for roundtables that is one percent of ALA's membership. The most recent analysis showed that roundtables that had less than 567 members would be at risk. 12 roundtables (including IRRT) were "safe" but 8 roundtables were at risk.
- Most seemed to think that the 1% threshold was arbitrary, and didn't take into account the good work that smaller roundtables were contributing. It also was not clear to most what the rationale was for this criteria. In other words, what is broken that is trying to be fixed by this approach? It seems that it is due to financial reasons, but it was still not entirely clear how that was determined.
- I thought there were some good ideas floated at the meeting. One was to apply a rubric of some sort to measure/assess roundtables against instead. Ann Ewbank shared this from another association as an example:
Healthy and vital SIGS are those with Annual Meeting sessions that are research-based, content-driven, well attended, and inclusive of the entire membership. In addition, these SIGS are viable conduits of information nationally and internationally that engage members throughout the year by various means (e.g., updating websites, dissemination of e-newsletters, calls for proposals, research collaboration, announcements of specialized conferences, holding specialized mid-year meetings including webinars). These SIGs engage in membership recruitment, offer mentoring of graduate students and emergent scholars, and engage members in advancing and disseminating knowledge in their field.
The Healthy and Vital SIG Metric consists of:
· A target minimum membership count of 75
· Proposal submissions and acceptance rates from the Annual Meeting
· Initiatives for mentoring of graduate students and emerging scholars
· Membership recruitment initiatives
· Leadership capacity development
· Advancement of knowledge base and dissemination of educational research in the related field
- Another idea was to consider offering free roundtable members to students - since roundtables are often gateways to deeper ALA engagement.
- Joan Weeks made a comment at the meeting that suggested that IRRT endowment has been swept due to ALA's recent financial issues. I checked with Delin and she said this is not in fact the case. Someone should follow up with Joan Weeks to correct her misunderstanding - as Joan stated this misinformation publicly at the meeting.
Many others were in attendance at this meeting, including Richard and Alexandra and Delin, so please feel free to add to my comments!
Have a great weekend!
Sandy
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Sandra Hirsh
Associate Dean for Academics, College of Professional and Global Education
San Jose State University
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Original Message:
Sent: Oct 06, 2020 04:39 PM
From: Sandra Hirsh
Subject: Forward Together Session 4 - Slide Deck and Round Table Membership Analysis for October 9th
I am sending you information about Friday's Forward Together meeting with Council - the discussion will be focused on Round Tables.
Sandy
***
The following message is sent on behalf of Forward Together Co-Chairs Joslyn Bowling Dixon and Steven Yates
Dear Councilors,
In preparation for Friday's session, please review the slide deck linked here, and the Round Table Membership Analysis attached to this message. The upcoming session will focus on Round Tables.
Below is the Zoom information for the session taking place this Friday, October 9 from 3-5pm Central Time. Please note that this is a *new* zoom linked and you will need to register in advance. We had about 100 participants (Estimated 65 Current Councilors) last time and we hope to continue increasing that number each session. This is Council's process and time to be heard.
As a reminder the Forward Together Working Group has created an FAQ page on the microsite answering common questions regarding this process. We hope that you find it helpful. This page will be updated as needed.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://ala-events.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAvceusqz4pHdOBpI_GXej4a2GERHJS5kSU
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please send any feedback regarding the discussion to forwardtogether@ala.org
Thank you,
Joslyn & Steven
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Sandra Hirsh
Associate Dean for Academics, College of Professional and Global Education
San Jose State University
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