2022 Midwinter ALA Council Meetings...or should I say LibLearn Virtual Council Meetings?

Well, we're another year into our virtual conference experience and while this time ALA has rebranded the name, LibLearnX seemed like just another ALA Midwinter to me, except longer. With half the Council meetings took place before the actual conference, Council Forums (or Fora, which still sounds strange to say) during, and the last "official" Council meeting taking place almost immediately after the closing keynote, I was definitely missing the cocktails that come from an in-person experience. It would have softened the blow of knowing the last meeting was not the final conference meeting. After multiple extensions on multiple days, nearly all the new business had to be pushed back for a later date, which means another 3 hours of sitting on Zoom (praying it's just 3) hoping I can make it to my kids practice on time. Why, you ask? I'll sum it up with a simple three letter acronym that has now caused a trigger response of sighs and slumped shoulders...TAG.

Transforming ALA Governance (TAG)

TAG is a working group that has taken on the latest phase of this organizational restructuring quest the American Library Association started back in 2017. It's been a long time and a lot of work, no doubt about that. They have taken the work done from their predecessors, Forward Together, who created a plan based on surveys done by their predecessors SCOE (the Steering Committee on Organizational Effectiveness) to actually make the moves to create the change. The thing about it though was, it wanted to make ALL the moves in one sweeping resolution that created a lot of feelings on the Council floor (or Zoom room). I can only imagine what it would have been like if we had actually were together in San Antonio as originally planned.

*FYI, I started as ALA Councilor in Fall 2020, so have yet to experience Council meetings in person, but we're all hoping that ALA Annual still happens this June in DC. Especially ALA President Patty Wong, who was promised free drinks by multiple Councilors for the entire conference since she had to put up with this mess.

What were people so outspoken about? Well the main concerns were about reducing the numbers of those on Council and who had power over policy making decisions. TAG came up with multiple recommendations and within the same resolution to rename the ALA Executive Board to a Board of Directors (it was amended to keep Executive Board).

Below that resolution were multiple possibilities of new governance models, most of which reduced the total number of Councilors by a large amount. Keep in mind that currently there are 185 ALA Councilors, which are composed of state chapter councilors (like me), division councilors, round table councilors, and at-large councilors.

I admit, I personally got freaked out because it was first presented as "dissolving Council," but one thing that struck out to me was that even though I totally understand how some might think there's too many cooks in the kitchen, how does reducing the amount of Councilors meet the goal of more equitable representation of ALA membership? After reading the TAG Chair's report and listening to the presentation it became clear that I wasn't going to just no longer be a part of ALA Governance as the largest cuts would be at-large councilors. In the middle of this bomb that was dropped, I'm texting a friend who just started her term as an at-large councilor and she was fuming. She wasn't alone as the next major change that had a flood of hand raises pouring in was the proposal that the policy making body be transferred over to the Executive Board. Council would exist to advise, recommend, but not to vote on any proposed resolutions or motions. This was such a hot topic that lasted several days (and nights) and still has yet to be voted on, but speaking as a Kansas librarian, I want to make sure that we don't lose our voice or our ability to vote.

Since I started in 2020 I've voted on resolutions declaring broadband access an essential human right, the prioritization of library workers when the COVID-19 vaccine first came out, reaffirming ALA's commitment to free speech and during this conference voted on budget prioritization and a DEI Scorecard to help assess organizational effectiveness in the recruitment, hiring and retention of people of color. Last but not least, something that affects many of us that have both KLA and ALA memberships, a change to the membership model and the dues we feel every time we get that email reminder for renewal.

ALA Membership Types

Now I didn't know there were so many. I went from a student membership to receiving a free year to a regular membership (although a bit too early since I didn't realize that you could pay the student rate for a total of 5 years). This change was passed and will have an affect on dues, but the numbers for that have not been established. One major positive though is that the low salary threshold was raised from the original $30,000, so those librarians making less than $45,000 a year, you'll get a reduced rate. This change will be taking effect in FY23 (Fall 2022) with the overall membership model change to occur the following year.

Other Council moments when we weren't talking about TAG (and wishing we were anywhere else) …

• The ALA Allied Professionals Association (ALA-APA) are celebrating their 20th anniversary. A somewhat overlooked fact that all ALA members are automatically APA members, they are almost completely run by volunteers with no dedicated full-time employees. They have also developed a professional development course for non-MLS library workers. Anyone wishing to volunteer for their 5 committees can apply on their website.

• A new roundtable was established merging the Staff Organizations Round Table and the Support Staff Interests Round Table to become the Library Support Staff Round Table (LSSRT). They will begin in September 2022

• The Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee will now be a Round Table. Apparently they were doing so much that they were going beyond what committees typically do, so rather than stop they've decided to keep on growing. Congrats on the upgrade CSKBART (I know that's a long acronym but what are ya gonna do?).

• Two new ALA Executive Board members were appointed. Kathy Carroll, a public school librarian from South Carolina and Sara Dallas, a public library director from New York.

• There were approximately 2,183 attendees at LibLearnX, the professional development focused midwinter event. ALA is still assessing this conference to determine the possibility of having hybrid events in the future.

• As mentioned earlier, a motion was passed to accept a DEI Scorecard developed by the Committee on Diversity. This scorecard was designed by a subcommittee as a tool for ALA members and particularly library directors to help in the assessment of a library's DEI compliance. More information can be found here.

• ALA is in the process of creating an Accessibility Officer position.

• The Freedom to Read Foundation is planning a symposium entitled "Where Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice Meet: A Call to Action." The symposium will possibly take place in July after ALA Annual.

That's it for now. Be sure to check back soon as I post about the next ALA Council meeting, scheduled to take place in March to talk about all the stuff we didn't get to in January.