Mark;
ALA's codes of conduct have been clearly insufficient for years, which is why I supported the plan to update and unify them that was presented at this year's winter meetings. The call for volunteers to participate in that working group went out in March. At their meeting on Friday the executive board requested the working group present an update which I believe is expected at the fall EB meetings.
Some folks say 'council is ALA's policymaking body!' as if that makes it all-powerful, but it's really not. We don't execute policy. The executive board and the executive director do that - hence the names! If we make a policy, and then realize after the fact it didn't work the way we expected, our recourse is to change the policy. In this case, that process has already begun, and about time! So... you're welcome, I guess?
As for you being 'deeply troubled' that SRRT action council hasn't done anything yet: you are a member of action council! You have been for years! You bring demands to virtually every action council meeting! If you wanted action council to take any action, you could have asked for it on Saturday. The membership meeting was on June 17, so you had an entire week and a half to prepare. It's no secret that our meetings are always busy and that if you want something on the agenda you can't wait for us to finish the prepared agenda and hope we have time left for the coordinator to ask 'any new business?'
Despite your missed opportunity on Saturday, if you have a plan now that you want to see executed, you could present it to the rest of action council here on connect, or contact our incoming coordinator and ask when and how you can have action council consider it. So why derail this thread, where someone else is trying to get the ball rolling on writing a request for a code of conduct investigation, by pointing fingers? If you want something done, here's yet another chance to make that happen.
Enough is enough. We're all volunteers. Everyone is doing their best. Stop saying 'why isn't anyone doing anything??' and get to work. If you won't work on your own priorities, why would you expect anyone else to do it for you?
------------------------------
Tara Brady
Queens Public Library
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: Jun 28, 2026 07:48 PM
From: Mark Rosenzweig
Subject: Code of Conduct Violation Discussion
I remain deeply troubled that neither ALA Council nor the SRRT Action Council has seriously engaged the substance of what occurred during the Virtual Membership Meeting preceding the Annual Conference.
At the opening of Council in Chicago, a courageous library school student rose to object to rhetoric directed against the Palestinian people that she believed had no place in the deliberations of our Association. Her intervention deserved thoughtful consideration. Instead, the matter was effectively set aside.
Yesterday's SRRT Action Council Zoom meeting was another missed opportunity. Rather than confronting the substance of the issue-the collective vilification of Palestinians voiced during an official ALA meeting-SRRT failed to have the discussion that its own principles of social responsibility demand.
What concerns me most is not simply the silence of ALA Governance. Bureaucratic institutions often seek refuge in procedure. What concerns me is the silence of those within SRRT who have long claimed to stand with oppressed peoples and to challenge racism, colonialism, and dehumanization wherever they appear.
I was especially disappointed that our SRRT Councilor did not publicly raise this issue or defend the young member who challenged those remarks. The role of an SRRT Councilor is not merely to participate in governance but to bring SRRT's commitment to social justice into the Council chamber, especially when marginalized peoples are being collectively maligned.
This is not simply about meeting decorum. It is about political and moral consistency.
If our Association cannot acknowledge and challenge rhetoric that collectively disparages the Palestinian people in one of its own official meetings, then our repeated affirmations of equity, inclusion, diversity, and social responsibility begin to sound selective rather than universal.
The young library student demonstrated the moral courage that our leadership lacked. She understood that silence in the face of collective dehumanization is not neutrality-it is acquiescence.
SRRT, ALA Council, and ALA Governance all had opportunities to confront this issue directly. Thus far, they have chosen procedural silence over principled leadership.
That should concern every member of this Association.
------------------------------
Mark Rosenzweig
------------------------------