SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table)

Following. Is a copy of a letter I sent to the Executive Board yesterday regarding new limitations on  Round Table governance and elections. 

Dear ALA Executive Board members

I write to you today to support the SRRT motion asking the Executive Board to request ALA Council to postpone implementation of new rules for round table elections. I know every member of this Board is dedicated to ALA and deeply concerned about the fiscal crisis ALA faces - loss of members, conference revenues, and other drastically shrinking income sources. 

Certainly, decisive steps are needed to ensure the health and continuation of our association.  My concern is that limiting membership participation in elections is not only counterproductive, but extremely detrimental to the future of ALA and the development of membership. 

I have spent more than half a century working on behalf of libraries, library workers and our Association. I began my ALA career as a 20-something librarian in 1969, when I attended an organizing meeting for a new entity – the Social Responsibilities Round Table. The next year I found myself elected as SRRT Coordinator. Who knew I would end up as ALA's first woman Treasurer and later ALA President?  I have participated in the American Library Association in many ways over the years – president, treasurer, executive board member, councilor, round table chair, trustee, etc. Fiscal and other crises are not new to me. In 1984 when I was treasurer we were borrowing $1 million a year - and our auditor told us we were spending our building equity. We managed to resolve some of those crises, although not easily. And the crisis you face today is not an easy one. My concern is that this may be a time to cut back many things - but member participation is not one of them.  

My concern is - as we approach the ALA sesquicentennial - that current fiscal problems may mask the value - the necessity - of membership growth and involvement. That mask can lead to unnecessary reorganization and cuts, rather than repurposing and growth. The reality is that our nation's libraries and librarians are also in crisis. We need ALA - and ALA needs us - more than ever!

Limiting the election of round table governing bodies may seem like a small and inconsequential change - but it is a great mistake. Now is not the time to limit elections for ALA round tables - a vital path to encourage member participation. As issue-based and identity-based groups, round tables provide an important home for members that cross many professional intersections of our lives. They are often the home for newer and emerging issues within the association, raising important and unique concerns and focus on different types of library work, experiences of library workers, and experiences of library users. As opposed to the rest of the ALA membership decline, membership in round tables has grown. New round tables have been created from older ones, indicating their importance to the association and their value to members.

Scores of members started their ALA activism in SRRT and ended up as presidents, treasurers, executive board members, councilors, and even executive directors. SRRT is the most effective incubator of leaders in the history of ALA. (please see list below).

Issues which arose out of SRRT include the status of women in libraries, diversity, advocacy, minority concerns, freedom of information, access to government information, LBGTQ+ rights,, equity and much more. SRRT activism spurred the creation of ALA caucuses, affiliates, committees, and the creation of other round tables.

SRRT's non-hierarchical governance structure is built into the very purpose of SRRT: ACTION.

I was advised last week by the ALA Governance Office that no study of savings was actually calculated regarding the limitation on round table ballots. Another rationale for the round table election change was that few members vote. But this is not true in terms of the Social Responsibilities Round Table. SRRT elections attract a larger percentage of member voters than ALA general elections. The questions we ought to be asking are: how do we motivate more people to become ALA members, and how do we get more of them to vote more often?

Should this Council action stand, SRRT and most other round tables will again have to substantially rewrite their bylaws to conform with this recent Council directive. Rewriting SRRT's bylaws means diminishing SRRT's participatory structure, severely limiting membership participation.

This motion, according to ALA Council practice should have been submitted to the ALA Committee On Organization (COO) for studying recommendations - the usual process to assess such a structural change. Round table memberships should have been consulted.

How can this dilemma be resolved? The Executive Board is empowered to act for Council between meetings. The SRRT Action Council has requested that the Executive Board ask Council to defer implementation on Motion 4 of CD#55 from the ALA annual conference in June; that deferral should include a request that each round table assess the impact of these changes and submit their findings to COO for study and report to Council. 

My very best wishes

Patricia Glass Schuman

ALA Honorary Member

ALA Past President

ALA Past Treasurer

Barbara Ford 

Hardy Franklin
Mitch Freedman
Clara Jones
EJ Josey
Nancy Kranich
Regina Minudri

Eric Moon 
Molly Raphael

Pat Schuman
Carla Stoffle

Betty Turock
Patty Wong

ALA Staff
Peggy Barber
Margaret Meyers
Arthur Plotnick

Executive Directors
Leslie Berger
Keith Fiels?
Elizabeth Martinez 

Honorary Members
Sandy Berman
David Cohen
Barbara Gittings
Norman Horrocks
EJ Josey
Virginia Matthews
Sam Morrison
Major Owens

Anita Schiller 

Pat Schuman
Bob Stueart
Lucille Thomas

Betty Turock

SRRT Task Forces that Became Round Tables

EMIERT

GODORT
Intellectual Freedom RT
Rainbow RT Sustainability RT

** this list is from memory so I apologize to anyone I left out or inadvertently included