Here is a sample letter below from 2021. I used to update this message with the latest SRRT info and programs for each batch of new members and dropped members. When I stepped down as chair of the Membership Committee, the new chair developed a much shorter message. I am still in favor of a longer message.
Hello,
Thanks so very much for joining the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) during this scary period. We trust that you are staying safe. We'd like to share with you the many opportunities for you to get involved with SRRT, as we work to establish progressive priorities for the American Library Association and profession as a whole, and strive to make ALA more democratic. We work towards these ends largely through SRRT's governing body, its Action Council, and issue-driven task forces. SRRT is ALA's largest round table, with 1983 members as of December 2020.
One aspect of our work is bringing important speakers to ALA. SRRT has consistently brought great speakers to conferences over the years. Last year's June ALA Annual Conference was entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we presented a great "Afternoon of Social Justice." The three panels were on "Native American Treaty Rights in the Time of COVID-19;" "Democracy in the Time of COVID-19;" and "Herstory through Activism: Women, Libraries, and Activism." The recordings are available on the ALA YouTube channel.
SRRT's 50th Anniversary Celebration featuring well-known author Phyllis Bennis was a great success at the 2019 Annual ALA Conference in Washington, DC. Phyllis Bennis' talk was on "War Dangers Rising: Trump Foreign Policy & Lack Thereof." We had an enjoyable, educational, and motivating night. For the 2019 Annual Conference, the SRRT International Responsibilities Round Table brought well-known journalist, author, and scholar, Stephen Kinzer, who spoke on "Subverting Other Peoples' Elections: History and Resources." We also had a packed panel on Libraries and Hate Speech. And SRRT sponsored a talk by Mosab Abu Toha on January 25th at the 2020 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. He is the founder and director of the Edward Said Public Library in Gaza, and his talk is titled "Between Despair and Hope."
SRRT, the Sustainability Round Table, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), and the American Indian Library Association (AILA) brought Bill McKibben to the 2017 ALA annual meeting in Chicago. The 500 person room was packed, and Bill gave a rousing and very informative talk. McKibben is the founder of 350.org, and one of our most dynamic activist environmentalists. Other speakers have included Daniel Ellsberg (2011) and more recently Glenn Greenwald (2015, by Skype) and Cornell West (2015).
As a follow-up to McKibben's talk, we are succeeding in increasing the socially responsible investments in the ALA Endowment Fund and eliminating fossil fuel stocks. In cooperation with the ALA Sustainability Round Table, we sent a compelling research report showing the practicality of divesting of fossil fuel investments in November 2018 to the ALA Endowment Trustees. We think we can take a large measure of credit for the dramatic increase to 52% of the Fund now invested in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) designated investments, and the dramatic decrease invested in energy (mostly fossil fuels), now less than 2% of the Endowment Fund! We are continuing our efforts in directly addressing the Endowment Trustees, the ALA Treasurer, the new ALA Executive Director, and the ALA Executive Board. We have motivated a voluntary carbon offset fee, which was included in registeration for the past three ALA conferences and meetings. And we are advocating an embedded general carbon offset fee in future conference registrations. We are pleased that the ALA Council established a new Committee on Sustainability at the January 2021 ALA Midwinter Meeting (on Zoom).
The wonderful Martin Luther King Jr. Sunrise Celebration is held at every Midwinter Meeting in January. It is coordinated by SRRT's Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Task Force in coordination with many other ALA bodies and affiliates. This year's theme was "The Other America." We honored the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) by incorporating elements of the speech he gave as the 23-year-old leader of the Student Non- violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). That speech was before Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This year's keynote speaker was V.P. Franklin, author of The Young Crusaders: The Untold Story of the Children and Teenagers Who Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
The current task forces are:
• Feminist Task Force. FTF is one of SRRT's largest and most active groups, concerned with a broad, evolving set of feminist issues. It publishes the Women in Libraries newsletter.
• Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force. HHPTF fosters greater awareness of the dimensions, causes, and ways to end hunger, homelessness and poverty. It works closely with the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services (ODLOS) and the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Task Force. Check out its blog.
• International Responsibilities Task Force. IRTF advocates socially responsible positions on issues of international library concern. Its website hosts alternative resources on international issues and U.S. foreign policy. For the past few years, it has been working closely with the Sustainability Round Table on divestment of fossil fuels from the ALA Endowment Fund.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Task Force. MLKTF supports and advances the observance of the MLK Jr. holiday as an American celebration, and hosts an annual Sunrise Celebration at ALA Midwinter Meetings. Some think it is the best program at ALA meetings. The task force works in close coordination with the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS), the ALA ethnic caucuses, the HHPTF, the Rainbow Round Table (formerly Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table), and the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA). MLKTF promotes programs that highlight the values espoused by Martin Luther King, Jr., including fairness, justice, equality and compassion.
Task forces develop ALA Annual Conference programming, and craft resolutions for submission to the ALA Council to try to influence Association policy. If you don't see a task force on your area of interest, it only takes a small motivated group to establish a new one. The SRRT Action Council will facilitate that process. Please see the new SRRT website for more information on the task forces and all SRRT matters, http://www.ala.org/rt/srrt. You may know that several SRRT task forces have developed into ALA round tables. These include the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT), Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT), Rainbow Round Table (RRT), and arguably the new Sustainability Round Table, which was preceded by a very active SRRT Task Force on the Environment.
SRRT keeps its members up to date on its activities through the SRRTAC-L discussion list, the SRRTMEM-L announcement list, and the SRRT Newsletter. The newsletter and its archives are online. We hope you will consider actively working with us to make a difference in ALA and the profession. We hope to see you at the All Task Force Meeting and/or Action Council meetings at the Midwinter or Annual conferences. If you would like more information, please contact anyone on the SRRT Membership Committee.
In these times of crisis, we need to grow SRRT more than ever to be a stronger voice for progressive change within our profession.
SRRT Membership Committee
Gary Colmenar, Mark Hudson, Al Kagan (Chair), Tom Twiss