Benjamin Aldred, chair of the membership committee of GODORT and the Small Round Table Councilor-Elect reached out because he is looking to start a new initiative to help encourage existing round table members to join other round tables. As part of this, he reached out to leadership of the various round tables to see if we would solicit volunteers for a multi-round table buddy system initiative called "Join me at the table".
In this initiative, a volunteer who is a current member of round table X would agree to join round table Y in exchange for a volunteer member of round table Y joining round table X. The volunteers would communicate over email about what they like about their round table and would attend at least two events together (virtual or in person), one for each round table. This would be a good chance to bring people into different round tables that they might be interested in. GODORT is happy to do the matching of volunteers and love to have a chance for all of the round tables to participate.
Details
What is this program? It's a multi-round table buddy program that matches members of different round tables to help grow membership and build connections across round tables. The hope is to help reinvigorate the round tables of ALA by bringing in some new members, also to increase the bottom line of round tables with some additional members across the year.
The basic concept is simple. Round tables recruit volunteers from their membership to serve as ambassadors. Those volunteers are matched with volunteers from other round tables who join each other's round tables in a reciprocal fashion for a year. Volunteers attend virtual or in-person events for each round table and get to see what life is like in each round table.
The hope is that this will help the membership of round tables long term and potentially bring in new members who stick around as they find new friends around the organization.
GODORT has a welcome kit in materials that we will be sent to volunteers
Materials
Volunteer Form
GODORT Join Me at the Table Welcome Kit
If you are interested in checking out the variety of round tables at ALA but don't know where to start? Want to serve as an ambassador for the round tables you love? We'd like to invite you to volunteer for the Join Me at the Table Initiative, a new buddy program that matches people across round tables to help them get to know new round tables.
The program is simple, just fill out the volunteer form here and you will be matched with a member of a round table you are interested in. You will join that round table for a year and your buddy will join your round table. The two of you will exchange emails and attend two events (in person or virtual) during that year (one for each round table). At the end, you'll have a better sense of a different part of ALA, will have attended some interesting events and maybe even made a new friend.
The commitment is light.
- 1 year
- 15 dollars (round table membership fee for one year)
- 2 emails (one before, one after)
- 2 events (one for each round table
GODORT hopes you'll join to help explore the different communities that make up ALA's round tables and make new connections across the organization. First matches in June ahead of ALA Annual, so volunteer today.
We already have two members of RMRT interested, but if you would like to be considered for the program as well, please fill out the volunteer form located in this announcement.
For further information, please email Ben Aldred at baldred2@uic.edu.
Also, make sure to notify Naomi Angier at naomiangier@comcast.net if you are planning on volunteering so we know who from RMRT will be participating.
------------------------------
Lisa Kippur
Membership Chair
Retired Member Round Table
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------